Was I wrong?

[Calaber]

I might just add a bit more colour to thie background here. My wife and I are in our mid 50's and the neighbour is older than me. I'm not sure what work he does but I would have thought he was able to retire. Working night shifts at that age doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

I'm retired and like to do a lot of work myself, so it means that any noisy activities at my place will involve me in some way. I realise that cutting dozens of cement pavers makes a racket, and that went on for some hours over about a month - probably four days during that time. But that sort of noise was only during the middle of the day too and it's the sort of noise that will occur in any neighbourhood where renovations or construction is taking place.

To be fair, the neighbour does not indulge in any activities that generate noise, except keep stupid dogs, but so do we. Ours howls at sirens, but is otherwise pretty quiet. He also has guests for dinner and his dining often takes place on his rear deck, not far from our bedroom, and the parties can go for some hours late into the night, but we accept that as part of neighbourhood life.,

I made a fair bit of progress on the trailer this week and have nearly completed all the cutting and welding. What little remains can be knocked over in a couple of hours. He will then have to put up with the sanding back and the compressor running while I repaint it.

I'll make peace with him when I see him - I sure don't want a neighbour like my parents had when I was very young. She was Irish and totally bonkers - hated my old man as soon as she foiund out he was English.

 

[excalibur]

when i used to work nightshift i never heard any noise when i got home to sleep i was that bloody tired mothing would wake me up. My wife used to paranoid when my daughter was a baby and would cry a lot she thought would wake me it didnt. Obviously this guys a very lite sleeper and should probably wear ear plugs when sleeping during the day.

 

[Stressball]

My wife and I are in our mid 50's and the neighbour is older than me. I'm not sure what work he does but I would have thought he was able to retire. Working night shifts at that age doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

All up to the individual i guess. My dad is turning 60 this year, and he still does shift work, occasionally does the odd overnight job too. Doesn't bother him much, but that being said, there's not a whole lot of noise around here even during the day

 

[STEALTHY™]

Tell him to get ****ed!
Your working within the law.


Its HIS problem if he can't sleep during the day and chooses to work nights. I have no problems, and have to put up with kids out the front and a dog that barks if theres .01db of noise!

 

[VS Omega]

A suggestion for your neighboor if you speak with them again. Each day is split into 3 major time blocks; 12:00AM-8:00AM, 8:00AM-4:00PM, 4:00PM-12:00PM (or similar). They need to work in one block, sleep in one and be awake in the other. I would think it would be more logical work the morning hours (12:00AM-8:00AM), be awake in the afternoon (8:00AM-4:00PM) and sleep in the evening block (4:00PM-12:00AM) because there would be less noise in the evening, and shops (and everything, really) is open during the afternoon hours

 

[MasterOfReality]

He does have a point regarding courtesy, but as someone said, you can counter with his barking dogs.

You are within your legal rights to make noise during the day. Him working the nightshift is not your problem. I had the same issue with noisy neighbours when I was on nightshift and I solved it with a good pair of earplugs. In fact, I sleep with earplugs in every night because I am a really light sleeper.

If he complains again, suggest earplugs. Its the most common sense solution and i'm surprised he actually got worked up enough to come over and complain. It's not worth the stress.

When I was renovating with my dad, we dropped letters in the neighbours letterboxes letting them know there was going to be a lot of noise and if they had any issue just to let us know.

 

[STEALTHY™]

Did anyone come back to you to let you know it was a problem?


Don't know how you can sleep with ear plugs, i hate wearing them when working, let alone when sleeping. Although i'm a heavy sleeper. 2 minutes after my hed hits the pillow, i'm gone and the only thing that wakes me up is my car starting, or the roller door going:whistling

 

[MasterOfReality]

Did anyone come back to you to let you know it was a problem?


Don't know how you can sleep with ear plugs, i hate wearing them when working, let alone when sleeping. Although i'm a heavy sleeper. 2 minutes after my hed hits the pillow, i'm gone and the only thing that wakes me up is my car starting, or the roller door going:whistling

No nobody did but couple of them passed comment thanking us for letting them know. And this was when we were renovating an apartment and using a jackhammer to rip out the bathroom heheh. We knew one of the blokes upstairs was a night shift worker so we thought it was prudent to let people know so we could organise it to be less of a disruption.

I hated wearing earplugs to sleep at first, but you get used to them after a while. The only problem for me is I have tinnitus from noise exposure when I was underground so it sort of amplifies it hehe.

 

[commsirac]

But you should be able to make all the noise in the shed you want during the legal hours.

Not sure on the regs on any of this, but Im sure councils have regs about the extent of noise which you can do in your own shed, especially if it transpires that you are running your business from there.....testing jet engines(a bit extreme), but hopefully people realise where Im coming from.

It doesnt sound like Calaber is running a business from home?, and that it is the neighbour that has to face realities.

 

[Calaber]

Not sure on the regs on any of this, but Im sure councils have regs about the extent of noise which you can do in your own shed, especially if it transpires that you are running your business from there.....testing jet engines(a bit extreme), but hopefully people realise where Im coming from.

It doesnt sound like Calaber is running a business from home?, and that it is the neighbour that has to face realities.

No, not running a business, just overhauling an old and rusty box trailer for my son's lawn maintenance business. You're right about the amount of noise that can be made and I accept that bashing the bejeesus out of rusty trailers is a noisy affair, but I doubt that council would tell me to knock it off at that particular time of the day and week.

There have been quite a few posts here from people who are shift workers and their attitude has been extremely realistic. Unfortunately, my neighbour seems to think that because he wants to sleep, I'm supposed to know about it and keep the noise down. Hell, I don't even know what he does for a crust (and don't care, either) but if it involves shift work, that's his problem, not mine.

As it is, the time that I can do this sort of work is restricted a bit because we care for our two year old grand-daughter two to three days per week and making a lot of noise on those days is out of the question, so it's not as if the noise is endless.

Fortunately, the really noisy part of this job is close to an end.

But.....the swimming pool will be completed next week and I then have to start building the deck around it. So, here we go again - prolonged hammering for a few more days. This will really piss him off.