Don't you hate it when the neighbors wake you up with a jackhammer at 6am?
 

Only this time I was the culprit. :(

We're having some landscape work done in our back yard which includes the removal of an 8x8 concrete pad that used to support a hot tub. The landscape company had rented a jackhammer and compressor yesterday for another job and wanted to take out the pad before the equipment had to be returned at 8am this morning.

After being jarred out of bed at 6, I asked the foreman to please wait until at least 7 out of respect for my neighbors. At that point they'd only been running for about a minute. I tried to be polite, but I could tell the foreman was annoyed. Oh well. Once they started back up a 7 it only took 10 minutes, making me wonder why they didn't work it in to yesterday's schedule.

Since it gets so hot here in the summer, the city noise ordinance actually allows for construction work to begin at 6am after May 1st. The foreman was quick to quote this ordinance, but my feeling is just because it's legal doesn't make it right. Thoughts?

I think you were absolutely correct. They should have gotten it done yesterday.

contractors are universal..TIME = $$.

i had a tree cutting service with very good chainsaws, and that monster chipper shredder going this weekend. my neighbor had the work done. eff it. it got me motivated to jog in the AM...nice.

Well, 6AM on a workday is OK. Nothing before 8AM on a Saturday or 9AM on a Sunday,

Is it? I can mow the lawn at 630 or 7am tomorrow? =)

I think I would have done the same thing. Just common courtesy in my book. But, I live around a bunch of retired people that worked their whole life so that they could sleep in when they retired.

When you live next door to Charlie you understand these things.

We lived in a Cul De Sac, Charlies bedroom was in the front of the house so it was impossible to park in front of mine or pull into the drive without shining lights into his bedroom. After hearing him ***** about it too often we resorted to killing the lights and motor half way down the block and would "coast" into our spot.

We shared a strip of grass between our driveways, maybe a foot wide at the bottom to 5 ft at the top. When Charlie cut the grass he cut it the strip right down the middle. Me, I just cut the whole thing, had to go down and up any way. Always struck me as harder to cut it right on the property line.

My buddy Tim used to keep his race car at my house. One day he and my brother got back late from Englishtown, maybe 9 pm. They wrestled the trailer up the driveway and into place by hand to avoid disturbing Charlie. Bout 4 in the morning we start hearing what sounded like shotgun blasts. Then I hear Charlies Norwegian wife, "Chawlie, Chawlie!!!!, What the fuch are you doing?!!!!" "I'm just letting them know what car doors sound like when you are trying to sleep!!'

Good old Charlie had sat up fuming for like 6-7 hours just so he could go outside and slam his car doors to make a point.

Then there are Matt and Melissa, they lived two doors down, Sue and Mike the next door neighbors who lived between us and them had a birthday party for Sue. Matt and Melissa attended, left at around 9 pm. 10 pm the cops show up, neighbor is complaining about the noise. It was Matt and Melissa that called the cops.

People Suck.

I'll take you as a neighbor any day.

These are the times when I like my CC&R's

hey man its arizona. when it gets HOT like it has for the last trillion years, peoples get up early to beat the heat. and around 2pm its siesta time.


now i dont know about you, but wouldnt you want to get up early for your standard op duties and enjoy the last of the nice mornings before the microwave gets turned up to max?


remember us natives have a pretty savvy predictor of the days temps. if its 100 degrees by 8am..........................YOUR GONNA FRY that day!


and in the next few days you should start hearing the cicadids making noise, signaling the advent of summer temps.


now would you want to run a jackhammer at 3PM?


i am not covering for contractors .............I HATE THEM w/a passion!


its just the way it is here.


if your gonna be pouring mud(concrete) during the summer, plan on 330am start times because mud sets up so fast here. even faster if its colored mud.


and think of it this way. rattlesnakes are still sleeping at 330-4am cuz its cool out. at night is when their active.


our traditional 1st 100 degree day is usually may 1.


come 1st week of june you will see the saguaros start dropping fruit.



a native.......... wise in the ways of summer.

6am? No.
You should see my wife swing an axe at a compressor hose.

What are neighbors?

:) Yeah, I'm glad my wife was out of town. She had back to back trips this week and would have been pretty unhappy with a 6am jackhammer wake up call on the day she had to fly out after getting home past midnight.

A heads of what they were doing would have been nice. Most places allow work to start at 7AM.

I think a heads up would have gone a long way. But working for 10 min at 6am and then leaving might have pissed me off too.

Put it in your contract next time if you want to restrict the hours.

By giving a heads up, it would have allowed the OP to say, WHOA!, no work until 7am.

Will NEVER live in a place that has a HOA or CC&R's again in my life. Absolutely worthless.

Agree with Lee on this. Keeping good neighbors is worth it. The contractor may not be happy about it but then when the job is done he goes home to a house far, far away. Bet he does not fire up the jackhammer at home at 6 am.

Joe A

I make it a point to never be the first person on the block to crank up equipment, and generally keep my garage doors closed when hammering on the cars or grinding.

So an 0600 jackhammer wakeup would have had me moaning for a week.