Woodworking and Neighbors?

[David Stone]

I’ve been without a shop for about two years due to various (good) reasons. We’re about to move to a house in the suburbs with a two-car garage. I have some fantasy that I can pull my tools out of storage and start working some wood again. Especially some stuff for the new house.  But i’ll be in a suburban neighborhood, with houses pretty close by. Most are on half acre lots. 

I think if I start running lots of board feet over a jointer or through the planer, I may really pee off my new neighbors. 

I’m curious if others have had problems with neighbors. Or am I over-concerned?
Or maybe there’s some ideas for sound insulation?

[Gary G™]

The suburbs aren’t a tennis match or a golf game.

I think so long as you work between 8 or 9 am and 7 or 8 pm, anyone who complains should pound sand!
Those are generous boundaries for typical suburban activities such as home construction, re-roofing, cutting grass, weed wacking, and leaf blowing, etc.
However, if you buy into an HOA and their rules don’t allow this—well, you got what you asked for.

[jteneyck]

My neighbor across the street doesn't seem to think I should mind his choice of music that he blares from his car and garage.  Nor one of my other neighbors who thinks I should enjoy the smoke from his bonfires.  I'd much prefer you as a neighbor.  Don't worry about it.  

John

[toolmiser]

I wish I had a woodworker or more in my neighborhood. My shop is in my basement, but I've done larger projects in the garage (kitchen cabinets). I've never had any complaints. I heard neighbors with circulars saws burning thru wood before, come to think of it I've loaned a saw to a neighbor once. My parents used to get very upset (70's) with someone near our house that would start up a "dragstir" and work on it on a Sunday afternoon during nap time (their's).

Will this be with the door open all the time? I think closing it during sensitive times would be appreciated. People are a bunch of whiners these days.

[KC]

We were on a half acre lot in Texas, but the neighbor's driveway and mine were a handful of feet apart, with the side-load garages facing each other.  I wouldn't do anyting with a shop vac, router, or compressor before 9:00am unless I knew they were up and about already.  And nothiing later than 'dark'.

[KyleD]

I can tell you do not live in the north. 
Dark here in North Dakota can vary from after 11 pm this time of year to before 5 pm in the doldrums of winter.

[R Clark]

We were on a half acre lot in Texas, but the neighbor's driveway and mine were a handful of feet apart, with the side-load garages facing each other.  I wouldn't do anyting with a shop vac, router, or compressor before 9:00am unless I knew they were up and about already.  And nothiing later than 'dark'.

That's essentially how we lived when we were in the 'burbs.  I found that the more you chatted the neighbors up and helped out every now and then, the more likely to have allowance for some noise during daylight hours.

[museumguy]

As others have said, other neighbors don't care so you should be fine. A little bit of woodworking noise is no big deal.

[TDKPE]

Having lived in the ‘burbs my whole life, though a bit less congested when I was a kid, I’ve never had anyone complain.  I did have someone sort of complain when I was doing a lot of welding in my parents’ garage, but that faced woods and it was more of a comment than anything.  

If you’re going to make a lot of loud, annoying noises like miter saws and routers and such, close the overhead door until you’re done if you think it will bother people.  But I’ve never had a complaint from neighbors, even on my little 1/4 acre lot in NJ.

It probably helps that I’d run the snowblower on the sidewalk and some neighbors’ driveways sometimes, and do other favors.  

[JohnnyEgo]

I live at the junction between the new and old parts of my suburban subdivision. New units were built on 5th acre lots. Most of the older units are 1/4 acre, with a few 1/2 acre lots distributed. My house was built to align with the house behind ours, which sits on a half acre lot, with 5 of the 1/5 acre houses built along the side. So I have some really, really close neighbors on one side of my house. Fortunately, my garage is on the far side, and there is probably 30-40 feet of separation between me and that neighbor.

Anyways, the noise ordinances kick in between 8:00 PM and 8:00 AM, so that is what I could get away with. However, my guiding maxim in life is 'be not a jerk whenever possible', so I don't start using loud machinery before 10:00 AM on the weekends. And I usually close my insulated garage door by 7:00 PM in the summer, which cuts the noise down to next to nothing. In the winter, I can work later because the garage stays down, but usually by 9:00 PM, I figure I should cut even that out.

My neighbors to the workshop are a very nice older couple with grown children, and they find my child adorable, so I think they would let me play the tuba on my front porch as long as I send him their way a couple of times a year with a hand-build art and craft. My neighbor across the street is a professional finish carpenter, but he loves my Hammer A3-41 and comes over all the time to mill stock, so he isn't an issue. My close neighbor on my back fence line just had a baby. I've let them know several times that I know how hard it is to get a kid to sleep, so if I need to step away from the saw for a little while, just send my wife a text or knock on the door. So far, they seem cool. I suspect it helps that I always shovel their half of the fenceline sidewalk when I do my own.

So it's not at all bad to do woodwork in suburbia. Just don't be a jerk about it.