#30
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?

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#31
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.
Gary

Please don’t quote the trolls.
Liberty, Freedom and Individual Responsibility
Say what you'll do and do what you say.
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#32
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
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#33
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.
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#34
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'.
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#35
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.
Proud maker of large quantities of sawdust......oh, and the occasional project!
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#36
(08-01-2021, 05:48 AM)KC Wrote: 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.
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#37
As others have said, other neighbors don't care so you should be fine. A little bit of woodworking noise is no big deal.
I no longer build museums but don't want to change my name. My new job is a lot less stressful. Life is much better.

Garry
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#38
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.  
Yes
Tom

“This place smells like that odd combination of flop sweat, hopelessness, aaaand feet"
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#39
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.
Math is tough. Let's go shopping!
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Woodworking and Neighbors?


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