Was I wrong?

[Calaber]

The post about a derelict car being reported and the comments from some forum members regarding communication between neighbours got me thinking about a little incident between my neighbour and myself today.

I am currently renovating a box trailer. Plenty of rust, so lots of cutting, welding and hammering. This has been going on for about five days, on an off.

Today, I had been welding some new frame metal in with an electric welder. I had been hammering off the slag and grinding back the welds for neatness. Probably been at it for about two hours, when the neighbour comes into the garage. At the time, it was about 1pm. He was angry and complained that he was currently on night shift and couldn't sleep because of the noise I was making. I asked him how I was to know he was working at night, as I seldom saw him at any time during the day. I said that it was a mid-week day and the middle of the day and I was trying to do the work at the time when most people would be at work, or could not legally object to the noise.

The argument ensued for about five minutes and nothing was resolved. He wanted me to stop and I told him that I couldn't as the job is only half finished, the trailer is completely dismantled and I had to complete it. He also complained that I had been making noise for weeks in the back yard. True, because I am having a swimming pool installed and have been digging out the yard and cutting pavers for some days. But not for the past two weeks or more as the paving is finished.

So, was I wrong to not accede to his wishes? I have nearly completed all the noisy work and will try to minimise the noise whenever I work on the thing, but trailers are big hollow steel vessels and working on them is noisy, so some noise will piss him off, no matter what.

My house is a typical suburban home, brick veneer, and the work is being carried out in the garage, which is at the front of the house. His bedroom is on the opposite side of his house from my garage, probably about 30 metres away.

What would you guys do?

[wildss]

id have told him to suck my balls he went and got a night shift job so its his bad luck.

[TrEnNaVY]

**** him if its during the day then u r doin the right thing mate

[gopher]

if i was him i'd start making heaps of noise in the middle of the night before or after my shift.

i think for the sake of peace you may have to come up with some sort of compromise with him

[Ozzie]

yeah i think ur neighbours just a ****!

Tell him to put up with the noise for a few weeks or move.

[jules]

try to come to an agreement - maybe only make noise during certain daylight hours if it works for you. you gotta remember that neighbours can also make life hard for you and it may be you who needs a favour or consideration at some point.

but that aside, he can't really force you to stay quiet during the day.

[kingrat502]

i reckon you were doing nothing wrong,i had the same problem when flush my ski boat out,had big run in with neighbours,so now we give them heaps,burnouts,loud music,we go out of our way to make there life misrable,,

[danja]

You can understand where the neighbour is coming from, I hate it when I'm trying to sleep in on the weekend and someone starts cutting their lawn at 7am.

All that said though, no Calaber, you did the right thing. 1pm is about the most reasonable time to make noise, as you say most people are at work, and if you can't do it at 1 in the afternoon, when CAN you?

You can't always please everyone, if the guy can't handle noise during the day maybe night shifts aren't for him? Better yet, buy a pair of earplugs

[mulligan-can]

Your well and truly within your rights to tell him to build a bridge.

So, no, you did not do the wrong thing but you also didn't do the right thing which would have been to organise a compromise of some description. Life is a bit of give and take and plenty of shades of gray after all.

That being said, I would have told him to go jump and thrown him a coupla pair of disposable ear plugs. (they work wonders and you can easily sleep with them in)

[BANKS]

Get him to give you times that you can make noise and don’t abide by them.

Buy a black board and a metal rake...

Get the kids a trampoline and 5L of red cordial...

You can see where this is going lol

But seriously when is a good time, what are his expectations of you?

Actually, tell him he can borrow the trailer if he leaves you alone while you build it lol

[nicko]

this guy is a clown. If you work nightshift your going to HAVE to put up with people living their lives during the DAY!!! What a douche.

[Ado]

Thats right,you cant please everybody.Its not like you do it all the time by the sounds of it.

[Ado]

Oh and i forgot to add,dont let ANYBODY go onto your property and tell you what to do.

[Calaber]

Y'know, it's funny - my wife's first reaction was "F*** him" because he has lived next door for about seven years and has always had two silky terriers, which spend the day barking their friggin' heads off the minute they see you, even if you are in your own back yard. We have never complained to him about them, but they have given us the shits from day one.

Until today, I have gotten along pretty well with him, wifey thinks he's a creep. There have been some very sensible comments so far, and I think I already knew that there were better solutions than the one we couldn't arrive at today.

As I said, I'll try to minimize the noise, but I'm stuffed if I'm going to work to suit his sleeping hours

[TVR-190]

ya im having a similar problem with my dad neighbour, he keeps accusing us of making too much noise during the day and threatened to break my dads legs if he wasnt quieter, the other night he was pounding on the wall at 3am with a hammer... we think hes got roid rage, big fatass bloke whos an ex bouncer. Some people are just ****s that need to have their heads kicked in

[trentvy]

if your talking legally your well within your rights. but for the sake of neighbourhood peace ......who am I kidding id of told him to get some earmuffs and go back to sleep or stick it up his ass

[alexp36]

Did he say how long he's on night shifts, and what days? Sometimes it's only for 2 or 3 days at a time, depending on the shift pattern.
It may be that you can accommodate him without too much trouble, and then he'll owe you one.

Even if he's a prick - a prick you're currently getting along with is probably better to have as a neighbor than a prick that currently hates you...

[faroogoo]

He should look at it this way-The quicker the jobs done the quicker the noise stops.

[Burger]

At what point did the world change and it was the responsibility of the majority to constantly go out of their way to suit the minorities. It really gives me the f**k** s***s. I have been a shift worker with regular overtime for the last 18 years and I would NEVER ask the rest of the world to stop to suit my sleeping habits. I would do something to make it ok for me. Selfish wingers!

[axemurderer101]

Get him to give you times that you can make noise and don’t abide by them.

Buy a black board and a metal rake...

Get the kids a trampoline and 5L of red cordial...

You can see where this is going lol

But seriously when is a good time, what are his expectations of you?

dont get ur kids a trampoline get them a drum set lol, its more funny cause its really loud and they will obviously suck at playing drums

[ephect]

you've done nothing wrong, and totally agreed with burger!

hes had a barking dog for years and u work on a trailer and pool area and he bitchs?? some ppl really need to think about shit. but at the end of the day, he is your neighbour, compromise with him, tell him to shut his dogs up and u'll stop working on the trailer while he sleeps! until such time, turn up the music while u work so you can hear it when cleaning the slag

[Tom_1569]

Straight out tell him to **** off.

I've worked nights, and never once did I expect my neighbours to jump for me, though they do run a daycare in there backyard so sleeping in past 7am is impossible, which sucked when I geto home between 5 and 6, but thats my fault not theres, so I dealt with it, or slept at my sisters house when I need to.
BUT then the neighbour got a job doing nights, and one morning (sunday)at 5am I here someone smashing a brickwall, im like wtf. I go over there, met another neighbour on the way over who was also going to complain. His excuse was, he worked nights and he got home from work and started their renovations.... renovations using a jack hammer smashing concrete at 5am on a Sunday, he refused to stop. So I thought thats ok, so that afternoon i fire up the air compressor (the big boy), have the shed stereo pumpin and decided to tune my car lol, cops showed up caus they had a complaint lmao. Next weekend he was throwing the smashed concrete into a skip bin at 4am or some shit, the most rude inconsiderate wanker ive ever met. I work days and i work nights, no matter what i dont expect people to change for me.

Some people are just stupid and think the world revolves around them, just make sure hes aware it doesnt.

[VS Omega]

When are you supposed to do your work? While he's working (to the disgust of your other neighboors)? 1:00PM is damned reasonable, if it's OK for the council and everyone then it should be for you too.

[Philthy]

On this subject, does anyone know the times it is legal to make loud noises? We have a house going up across the road, and they start at about 7.30 every morning, which doesn't really bother me because I usually leave the house about then anyway, but this weekend they started that early on saturday and sunday, doing what sounded like 2 fat guys wrestling on sheets of corrugated iron.

[TVR-190]

On this subject, does anyone know the times it is legal to make loud noises? We have a house going up across the road, and they start at about 7.30 every morning, which doesn't really bother me because I usually leave the house about then anyway, but this weekend they started that early on saturday and sunday, doing what sounded like 2 fat guys wrestling on sheets of corrugated iron.

check with your council but i believe its 9 on sat/ sun, maybe later on sunday