‘No problem!’: Gracious neighbor tries to be considerate of construction noise but continually gets harangued by the nitpicky couple next door, ends up sticking to his contractor's original contract to start work every day at 6 AM

Author image for Jesse Kessenheimer
Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Mar 21, 2025 7:00 AM EDT

There's nothing quite like getting woken up every morning by the sound of an errant jackhammer, which is why the guy doing his remodel in this next story tried to be gracious with his neighbors. However, despite the fact that he was bending over backwards to accommodate them, they were continually dissatisfied. Welp, looks like we gotta revert to the original contract then!

When my husband and I first bought our condo, it was a dump—I mean a real dumpy, old, gross place that needed to be gutted from floor to ceiling. Knowing we had a long road of DIY remodeling ahead of us, I made gift baskets for all of our adjacent neighbors, begging them to text or call me if they ever had a problem with our noise. Unluckily for our downstairs neighbor, he worked a night shift, enduring his precious hours of sleep underneath our construction noise for over a month. Even the nightshift neighbor was understanding a cool about our noise—we kept to the working hours and made sure not to be disruptive. I realize now that we were very lucky. 

Because when you're living next door to people who are completely unreasonable, you can't approach them with reason—you've got to approach them with technicalities. 

Advertisement

  • Most construction crews don't care about the noise they're making. Accustomed to the racket of their own profession, it likely doesn't even occur to them that their eardrum-splitting tools are tearing apart the peace of the entire neighborhood. So when this homeowner tried to be considerate of his neighbors, he hoped that his lenient construction crew would oblige. And with everyone working in synchronicity together, all the neighbors had to do was meet them halfway… Except apparently ALL hours are quiet hours to them.

  • "No problem!"

    Cheezburger Image 10482060544
    via DeanHammel

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • Recently had some construction work done. Contractor insisted on starting "At the crack of dawn". Around here, that's about 06:00. Out of respect for my neighbors -- some of whom may
    via Illuminatus-Prime
  • have still been asleep -- and the goodness of my heart, I asked the contractor if the work could start no sooner than 08:00. "No problem", he said.
    via Illuminatus-Prime
  • A few days later, some neighbors complained that the work was interrupting their kids' afternoon naps. They also said that if this continued, they would sick the cops on me.
    via Illuminatus-Prime
  • "No problem", I said. I told the contractor that he could go back to starting and ending the work at the original times, which were 2 hours earlier, out of consideration for the kids' nap time.
    via Illuminatus-Prime
  • "No problem", he said. The next day, the same neighbors were at my door complaining that the work had woken them up.
    via Illuminatus-Prime
  • Before they could get really revved up about it, I told them that a legally-binding contract was in effect, that all the permits and plans had been approved and notarized, and that my lawyers were standing by to handle any further harassment.
    via Illuminatus-Prime
  • "Uh... er... no problem", they said. Construction completed ahead of schedule. Threw a party to celebrate. Those neighbors weren't invited. No problem.
    via Illuminatus-Prime
  • TechnOght Short, sweet, complete, with a theme tying it together. Very nicely done.
    via TechnOght
  • uck_you_thats Where I'm from, you can make construction noise in a residential area between 8am and 6pm. Making a complaint during that time gets no response from the authorities.
    via uck_you_thats
  • Koolest_Kat Tradie here. We had an hot call to a newly constructed condo complex, emergency exit lights power had failed, in a brick, plaster and mortar hallway. No way to be quiet
    via Koolest_Kat
  • once the area of failure determined, around 9am we started our demo, by 9:30 a weary new owner emerged along with the building concierge with two toddlers
    via Koolest_Kat
  • AND a colicky baby gently pleading to just stop. Baby had been up all night, toddlers were in melt down mode and Mom just looked destroyed.
    via Koolest_Kat
  • What we didn't know was the in house maintenance had, for three days (and nights), been trying to work it out. Hammers, vacuums, ladders and a lot of loud noises. Mom was at her wits end......
    via Koolest_Kat
  • And that my friends is when my boss showed up (her being called off another project to find out why the Shop was receiving near death threats for said Mom) to me in full PPE gear, sitting
    via Koolest_Kat
  • in a rocking chair, (shoved out into the hallway), cuddling an 6 month old baby with two toddlers snacking out of my lunch box.....while the rest of our
    via Koolest_Kat
  • crew was completing the repair and patch work. She took a picture (I have called to see if she still has it!) of the totally ridiculous situation I found myself in.
    via Koolest_Kat
  • Two diaper changes and a couple of bottles later, Mom had had a nap, re-emerging from her condo, work was done and I had 5 hours of baby time.....
    via Koolest_Kat

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

reddit stories neighbors neighborhood drama drama neighborhood construction next door noise reddit thread stories Reddit
Scroll Down For The Next Article