Advice for coping with next-door construction?

GladGradDad
Tue, 17 Jul 2012 18:22:24 +0000

I don’t get the idea of bringing the workers on someone else’s property refreshments. Although it’s a convenient way to dispose of cookies I don’t think it’ll buy you anything. They already have their own refreshment anyway - possibly including drinking beer for a couple of hours afterwards. Most of the workers will only be there a short time and on and off anyway since usually there are different people who do the excavation, plumbing, foundation, framing, electrical, more plumbing, drywall, siding, roofing, etc. so trying to buy them off with some refreshments wouldn’t buy their loyalty for long anyways. Some of the workers will only be there for a day or few days before they’re done and off to another job elsewhere so they may not pay much attention to you assuming they even speak English.

While you should talk to the owner to take care of issues or if that doesn’t work then maybe the foreman, if I saw someone doing something that affected me I wouldn’t hesitate to head over there to stop it immediately. It’s best to deal with the owner and let them take care of it but if the drywall or tile people are tossing their buckets of plaster/grout onto your property you need to stop it immediately. Ditto with them parking on your lawn or blocking you driveway or plopping something down in your petunias.

Another suggestion - if they have a compressor running all day long annoying you, you might want to talk with them to see if there’s a better placement for it rather than next to your house.

It sounds as if you already know the official city rules for construction so that’s good.

Be prepared to take pictures/video of infractions - parking, messes, noise, etc. so you have some tangible evidence of the issue. If the owner is off-site, as I assume the owner will be, then it might help illustrate the problems if they’re chronic.

Some contractors are respectful and intelligent but others… aren’t.

On the bright side - maybe the new home will make your property value go up.