Construction Noise: Scourge of Seattle Residential Life

If you live in a city or suburb pretty much anywhere, but especially in a hot real estate market, chances are you’ve been the victim of the noise scourge known as home construction. And if you haven’t been its victim, then you’ve probably done construction on your own home. This post is intended as a common sense guide to what both parties can do in situations where noise interferes with good neighborly relations.

In my Seattle neighborhood, the real estate market is sizzlingly hot. Every street has a home that’s been torn down (usually to be replaced by a monstrously large home selling for well over $1-million), or a home that been torn down to the studs to be rebuilt, or a home that’s being expanded. Each of these projects is a recipe for noise disaster. Powersaws, power washers and/or sand-blasters prepping for paint jobs, generators for power tools, workers blasting the local power rock station on boom boxes. If you’ve got little babies at home trying to nap twice a day, this can be a recipe for disaster. And if you add on to this the construction workers who park in every available space on your block leaving you to forage for a space for your own car somewhere in the general vicinity of your home; or the movers who come inches away from beheading your prize lilies with their van–well, you get the picture.

(credit: Intro2Arch.arch.hku.hk

And if you’re a homeowner who’s plannng, or in the middle of a construction project, you may feel: “yes, the noise is great, but it’s inevitable. So what can I do about it?” The realistic answer is you may not be able to do much about some of the noise. It does indeed come with the territory. And most neighbors can understand that. But there is much that a homeowner can do to control the noise level and to work with the individual needs of neighbors while still getting the job done.

Just a few examples, why can’t your contractor tell his workers not to park in areas where neighbors have specifically asked them not to park? Why does a contractor forget to turn off his generator leaving it running all night in the bedroom ten feet from your own bedroom where you’re desperately trying to sleep? And why does he do this repeatedly? Why does a tarpaulin need to whip in a 40 mile an hour winter storm wind so loudly that your wife can’t sleep all night long? Why do the construction workers need to blast power rock on outside boom boxes only 10 feet from your kitchen window? The answer is, none of this NEEDS to happen. A good contractor and a decent homeowner can monitor such situations and prevent them from happening–that is, if they care. Some do and some don’t. And there are all too many that don’t.

If you are a property owner renovating your home, I have some friendly unsolicited advice. Aside from everything mentioned above, there are additional things you can do to mitigate the “damage” you’re inflicting on your neighbors. Before you begin construction, visit your neighbors with your contractor. Explain what you’re planning to do and what parts of the project are liable to cause the most noise. Ask your neighbor if there’s anything you can do to consider their needs. Make sure your neighbors have your phone number and your contractor’s too (especially his or her cell for those emergency calls). But don’t stop there. When you’re expecting to do especially nasty noisy work, inform your neighbors again. Tell them what hours you plan the work to happen. This gives your neighbors a chance to plan to be out of their own houses if they wish. Most of all, it informs them in advance of what you’re doing. There’s nothing worse than waking up one morning to the sound of jackhammers you didn’t know were going to jar you out of your nice dream.

Seattle is such a lovely city in which to live and raise children. But if you’re faced with a noise nuisance lasting 4-6 months life becomes miserable. And if you’ve ever gone head to head with an obstreporous neighbor whose noise is making your life a living hell, you know just how bad things can get. Sometimes all it takes is a neighbor expressing concern for the stress he’s causing you and your family. How much does it take to ask your neighbor if there’s anything you can do to make things a little easier? Yet how few people do this.

Both noise victims and those doing construction should know the rules of what you can and can’t do in terms of producing noise. For example, in Seattle the permissible hours for construction are:

* 7 am-10 pm, Monday-Friday
* 9 am-10 pm, weekends and holidays

The maximum noise level allowed in a Seattle residential area is 55 decibels (though the noise source is usually monitored 50 feet from its point of origin which will not present a true picture of noise nuisance that originates 10 feet from your house). Just for comparison’s sake, the sound of a garbage truck is 100 decibels.

And finally outdoor radios blasting away at a construction project are ILLEGAL. If your neighbor or your neighbor’s contractor can’t or won’t do anything about them, then call David George, the City of Seattle’s noise abatement coordinator:

e mail: david.george at seattle.gov
phone: (206) 684-7843

You may also file a noise complaint.

I learned much of this information from a very informative phone conversation I had with him recently. He told me that he’s happy to talk to the suffering public (and homeowners planning construction) and willing to visit construction sites where there may be noise violations. He is empowered to red-tag a construction project by closing it down for a day if there are violations and he’s done so. And if he has to come a second time he brings the police with him and in the case of noisy boom boxes, they’re confiscated. He also told me the Seattle is one of only four U.S. cities which have full-time noise abatement officers.