To be fed up of renovations on a nearby house

When I was working from home in London, we had building work next door from March to October one year. Angle grinders going day and night, Jack hammers, complete gutting of ground floor. I had to negotiate an hours silence between 1pm and 2pm, in order for me to make work phone calls. The builders fell out with everyone in the street. They were cutting something, resting on another neighbours car bonnet - he ran out of his house and gave them what for. Another neighbour who started work at 5am 6 days a week, complained when they worked past 9pm.

(and) it's not about renovations being cheaper than moving - it's all about how local extended families invest their money, always in property (and all off the books, I suspect).

Around here (NE London/Essex) when a house is sold - nobody moves in. The builders and skips arrive, there's months of noise, swearing, litter, dust and disruption - then eventually it's occupied. No, it's not a young couple (they can't afford these houses) it's let to house sharers as a 'party house' or a large, extended family move in. Of course, there's never enough parking space for them

And here it is today

Here is my brave honeysuckle last year.

I did rage to the project manager Theoddbird . I even called the police when kids were climbing on the scaffolding, which was in my garden. Almost all my plants died under there during that year so I asked for some compensation. I got the £300 I had asked for (itemised to include compost and a gardener's time)
It is only now that the building work is finished that the architect mentioned my trees. I must say I thought it funny/ strange.
I feel fairly helpless. I am on my own. The building in question is a public building and £££k have been spent on it of grant and public money. I was invited to the grand opening in November (facemasks worn and a cup of lukewarm tea - none of your wine and chocolate Duchess)

Apologies. You could be my neighbour. We started renovating our house January 2021 with a 6 month time line. We are still going. Mainly due to builder disappearing for weeks on end at times leaving us living in a building site. It has been a nightmare. I am now having to instruct separate trades just to be completed. I felt so bad about the disruption we have caused I went to all surrounding neighbours at Christmas with wine and chocolate to apologise and let them know what was happening. We are nearly done with the external stuff. Mainly carpentry Inside and decorating now. To their credit our neighbours were understanding. Mainly elderly. House had been empty for 7 yrs when we bought it. We knew we needed to extend but location was perfect. Sorry.

Our new neighbours moved in a year ago. They had "downsized" from a six bedroomed house to the four bedroom next door to us. They immediately put in for planning permission to build an side extension for a utility room. Garden has been landscaped, front drive paved over and now they are having the garage roof replaced. Add to that, he is a DIY obsessive and is always drilling, banging. power sawing and any other job which causes noise and disturbance at all hours. I have forgotten what peace and quiet is. They are both in their 80s!!!!

Any building work will eventually come to an end. I do wonder why you are raging on here rather than talking to the person who is having the work done. Surely, any problems should be sorted with them.

Lots of work going on everywhere at the moment. Probably because it’s cheaper to renovate than move. Also you get something in return for your outlay whereas buying a new property incurs lots of costs that don’t give you tangible benefits. The biggest being stamp duty. That’s almost certainly why people buy smaller houses and extend them.

We had this at the start of the first lockdown and it lasted 2 years. Then another neighbour decided on renovations and we had it for another year. At least they waited until the first one was completed it would have been pandemonium otherwise as we live in a 4 house cul de sac.

You have my total sympathy.

Man next door to my last house put up scaffolding in my garden to do work to extend his house ( apparently I had no rights to stop him) and had that scaffolding there for over a year.

The poles prevented my elder daughter from opening any of her windows and the workers had to tramp round my house and into my garden to work.

It was hell on earth. As others have said here, noise, language and lumps of concrete dropped in my garden etc. Hell.

I hope for your sake it ends soon and you can have your peace of mind back.

That is so dreadful SunnySusie I hope it stopped after that and your neighbour moved on?

I enjoyed reading this thread because we had the neighbour building project from hell for about five years and its nice to know we were not the only ones, although commiserations to anybody with this issue. Our neighbour was 'in the trade' and all the work was done for 'mate's rates'. What this meant in practice was the mates turned up either before going to work on their main project (i.e. crack of dawn) or afterwards, or at the weekend, or on bank holidays. Every single time we had friends or family round the racket was continous and our garden was out of action. Utterly infuriating. I went round to complain once in about year four when they started digging up the concrete drive at 6am on Easter Sunday. I explained that we had picked our daughter up from Heathrow at midnight and didnt get to bed until 2am and our whole house was shaking to its foundations so please could they wait until 8am to continue the work. I got a tirade of foul mouthed abuse and an extra helping of noise for the final year of the project!

That sounds unbelievably dreadful and genuin6should not be allowed.

If people can't consume impact they're having on their neighbours then legislation and limits need to kick in.
No doubt these same people will start moaning about the 'nanny state' without realising for a minute that they're the reason everything has to be spelled out via regulations.

Try having renovations next door to your semi detached house for nineteen years. There was not a wall or a piece of mortar that had not been drilled into. The laugh of it all was- once he thought he had completed the job, his wife would change her mind & insist he pulled it all down and start again??? thank goodness they’ve recently moved to another “ project “. Eventually the DIY will be the death of him we think -as he isn’t in tiptop condition for almost 60 years of age. Don’t even get me started on lighting an impromptu bonfire or bbq without notifying any neighbours about their laundry on line.

Daisend I have agreed to the trees being cut as long as it's at their expense. I hope they will replace them with smaller ones. Nothing has happened yet.
I have been thinking of downsizing myself for several years but after reading these horror stories, I am losing the will.
So many things to consider.
Inconsiderate neighbours would be high on the list.
Also although my house is too big, it has the ideal location.
Any suggestions?

Had the same when our new neighbours moved in. They had scaffolding on our property didn’t keep it clean debris everywhere. Constant noise workmen noisy at all hours dust constantly coming over into our garden. Drove me potty and not even a bunch of flowers/bottle of wine as a thank you. Selfish gits basically.

We've just had our roof replaced. Neither of our neighbours have objected to a temporary piece of scaffolding on their land. I'm amazed that people would expect to get paid! I wouldn't in the same situation! We will of course take round a bottle of wine and a thank you card to each of them.

Our house was a very small bungalow until the previous owner, a developer, turned it into a contemporary house. I expect someone has been deprived of a little bungalow near the sea but there are so many in the nearest town (no PT in the village) it's unbelievable. God's waiting room. If our neighbours were disturbed in the process, they haven't said anything to us, and there were no objections to the plans.

Grammaretto
Are you going to have your trees cut down to accommodate your neighbours plans ?.Ask what its worth

There are two issues here - one, that the housing crisis means that people are forced to buy smaller houses than they need and then extend, and then gentrification of an area that boosts prices sky high because a regular semi has been overhauled so dramatically that it’s worth a huge amount over the original price.

123kitty

My home, for over 30 years, has had a large extension added, as I needed the extra space. Are many Gnetters suggesting once we buy a house we should move elsewhere if we need to make improvements or alterations?

Where did anyone suggest that?

coastalgran

Lots of restorations are done up and down the country and they cause disturbances, as do new builds. Some people just love to moan about it and about the changes that occur from this sort of work e.g. replacing fireplaces, coving, old cast radiators. railings etc for more modern interiors. Give it another twenty years and the next owners will rip it all out again and put back the old stuff. Make the workmen a cake , some tea, sandwiches and you'll get peace and quietish work.

Cake? Tea? Sandwiches? Oh no no no!! Our builders brought their own lunch and beverages and used the public conveniences in the village. Although I did make a cake for the young apprentices 18th birthday during the build. He was a nice lad and often the first one to arrive every day.

Lots of restorations are done up and down the country and they cause disturbances, as do new builds. Some people just love to moan about it and about the changes that occur from this sort of work e.g. replacing fireplaces, coving, old cast radiators. railings etc for more modern interiors. Give it another twenty years and the next owners will rip it all out again and put back the old stuff. Make the workmen a cake , some tea, sandwiches and you'll get peace and quietish work.