My plan to go to jail real soon

[j]

Okay, while the revenge part of the thread was fun, let's go over what you should really do. Talk to the contractor, the owner of the company. Probably this will be someone other than the main guy on the jobsite. Tell him you and your wife find the job disruptive in the morning and would appreciate if they could do quieter work until 8 or so. If he tells you to shove it, call your local builders association (here it's the MBA, Master Builders Association). Find out if he is a member and file a complaint. Call BBB and file a complaint there. Then call the local building department and tell them he is doing noisy work outside of regular hours and every other complaint you can think of. See if you can get other neighbors in on this as well - you can't be the only one tired of it by now. A few complaints should get them moving for you.

Ideally, first you should talk to your neighbor and/or the silent partner and request that they do all this. Chances are, since the job has gone on this long they are tired of dealing with it and don't care what it takes to get the job done, no matter who gets pissed off in the process, because they are paying mortgage payments on a useless property for every month that goes by that it's not finished.

If all this fails, then it may be time to retaliate. My roommate and I formed a company (unlicensed as of yet) called the NW Nuisance Agency for just such an occasion. We are available to come play a really bad, really loud rock show (think The Locust, but with zero talent) outside your contractor's home at 7:00am, or perhaps jackhammer something in the bed of a truck outside his house; we do amateur chainsaw sculpture, etc. PM me if interested.

 

[faustian bargain]

Originally Posted by odoreater

... Starting work at 7 am is pretty standard in the construction business. If they're putting in 12 hour days, are they supposed to come in at your neighbor's place at 9 and then go home at 9 pm just so that you're not inconvenienced? Personally, I don't think starting work at 7 am is all that unreasonable, and it seems neither does the rest of your town, which is reflected in the ordinance that sets the time that construction is permitted.

Maybe it's two-faced, but people realize that allowing construction without too many restraints ultimately increases the value of all the properties in town, which is money in people's pockets, which people like. On the other hand, allowing you to sleep for another half-hour or hour doesn't really do anyone much good other than you. So, given the choice between the two, I can see why people have voted to allow dusk to dawn construction.

indeed, it seems the majority of contractors i've come across have this same type of chip on their shoulder. not the ones who have good reputations, mind you...just the ones who feel they have to prove how hard-working and macho they are by waking the neighborhood up at 7.

also, plenty of residential areas do not allow construction work to commence until 8am. and it has to stop at 5 or 6pm. commercial / industrial zones, hey knock yourself out. in effect there are separate construction industries for the various building types, so there is no one set industry standard of practice. the good residential contractors know that they are dealing with real people, not a facilities division, so their client relations reflect that.

as an architect, once i have a project with a bad contractor, that guy doesn't get any more RFPs from me.

 

[odoreater]

Originally Posted by lawyerdad

As I read rdawson's post, all he's really looking for is a modicum of courtesy and professionalism. The contractor could have responded to the request/complaint about the early morning noise by saying, "I'm sorry, we didn't mean to disturb you. Because of the schedule we're on, we really do have to start that early. But maybe we can do some of the noisier stuff a bit later in the morning. And of course we'll stop throwing our trash in your yard." I suspect that if that had happened, we wouldn't even be hearing about this. Instead, they chose to be jerks and be rude to his wife.

I understand some of the points you're making, but I think we're not working with a full set of facts. We don't know what the contractors said to his wife or what his wife said to the contractors, we just know that she started crying. For some reason, everyone is just assuming that they were rude and that any rudeness on their part was not justified.

Also, I'm not saying that contractors should be rude and shouldn't care about inconveniencing people, but, when you're around this business all the time you realize that someone is always complaining and if you were going to go out of your way to make sure that nobody is ever inconvenienced than nothing would ever get done. The nature of the business is that it is noisy, dirty, and schedules are often tight. Contractors have pressure from all sides to get things done and sometimes people stand to lose a lot of money if things aren't done when they're supposed to be done and how they're supposed to be done. When you have all of these pressures to get a job done, the concerns of a neighbor's wife who isn't getting enough sleep because you are starting work at 7 am pretty much goes to the bottom of the list.

Am I saying that you should be rude or inconsiderate? No. But, a lot of times people just don't "get it" and when someone gets up in your grill screaming at you about how you're ruining their life by running your table saw at 7 am, a simple "sorry, we didn't mean to disturb you, but we really do have to start this early" is not enough. I'm not speaking theoretically here, I'm speaking from real world experience doing construction work.

I don't know, I kind of get the feeling that we aren't getting the full story here.

Originally Posted by faustian bargain

as an architect, once i have a project with a bad contractor, that guy doesn't get any more RFPs from me

Just out of curiosity, have their been situations where contractors have told you about some of the complaints that they get from homeowners or neighbors where you agree with the contractor that the homeowners or neighbors are being unreasonable or just don't understand the nature of the job?

Also, are you saying that all contractors who work at 7 am have a chip on their shoulder and are trying to prove how macho they are and that starting a job at 7 am makes someone a bad contractor with a bad reputation that's not worth recommending? You must be a really good architect if you can pick and choose who you are going to work with based on those types of criteria.

 

[Oddly Familiar]

Burn it. I will assist if required. The tricky part will be getting away clean. I would reccomend calling the police to inform them of the fire, thus eliminating you as a suspect. You could also go in late one night and rearrange some wires so that it would seem the working crew messed them up and caused a fire. OR you could put a water hose (from someone elses house of course) through one of the windows and let it flood. Ah, sweet revenge.

 

[faustian bargain]

Originally Posted by odoreater

Just out of curiosity, have their been situations where contractors have told you about some of the complaints that they get from homeowners or neighbors where you agree with the contractor that the homeowners or neighbors are being unreasonable or just don't understand the nature of the job?

yes, there are plenty of instances where the layman just doesn't get it. just as there are plenty of instances where the contractor just doesn't get it. the architect always gets it, of course.

Originally Posted by odoreater

Also, are you saying that all contractors who work at 7 am have a chip on their shoulder and are trying to prove how macho they are and that starting a job at 7 am makes someone a bad contractor with a bad reputation that's not worth recommending? You must be a really good architect if you can pick and choose who you are going to work with based on those types of criteria.

no, i didn't say that, but then again i wouldn't expect a contractor-type to look closely at my details, of his own free will.

...i guess i'm an okay architect, but it's no big feat to manage to avoid giving repeat business to the assholes of the world. if you want to keep a good reputation, making the neighbor's wife cry (no matter the 'full story') isn't a great step in that direction. Anyway, in this specific case it seems there are enough other circumstantial instances of egregious behavior to render a reasonably full portrait of the builder's character.

 

[faustian bargain]

Originally Posted by Oddly Familiar

... I would reccomend calling the police to inform them of the fire, thus eliminating you as a suspect. ...

anybody who watches Law and Order or CSI knows that the caller is going to get arrested in the surprise twist ending.

 

[rdawson808]

Originally Posted by odoreater

I don't know, I kind of get the feeling that we aren't getting the full story here.



Here's the full story:

7am table saw starts. 7:15 my wife goes over and asks then to put off working until 7:30 or 8, as a good neighbor would. They tell her no, city ordinance says they can start at sun-up. She returns, cries out of sheer frustration of (i) them being so rude (yes, they weren't even civil to her); and (ii) "they" i.e. contractors having been next door for more than a year. So I went next door and made the same request. I received the same response. Boss is generally a dick to me so I let him know that he made my wife cry in order to shame him. He clearly didn't give a rat's ass.

Next day I happen to talk with another contractor working on the house. He says we must be pretty sick of them being there--I share story from day before. He informs me that he was instructed from the start to not start work in the morning until 8am.

We have been good neighbors. When the masons needed to use our spigot out back to build the foundation we said no problem. We understand that that have to get the job done. But when it's 8pm and they're still working, we ask them to stop so we can have a quiet evening at home. When it's 7am on a Saturday and someone is delivering dry-wall that that are dropping on the floor of the room right behind our bed--we shouldn't have to put up with that.

There's the whole ******* story. You and others like you clearly don't get the difference between what you can do and what you ought to do.

Now, to add to it, someone broke into our house this weekend. After talking with the site manager next door, it turns out it might have been very early Friday morning just after we left for the weekend. I find that curious.

Odoreater, I would ask that you not imply that either I am lying or that my wife lied to me. I have given the whole story. As much as you think it is a case of sanctimonious neighbor expecting too much, I think it's a case of a contractor with a chip on his shoulder making (wholy wrong) assumptions about wealth based on the neighborhood.

bob

 

[globetrotter]

oder eater,

I have a very simiilar story - a contractor, doing renovations to an apartment that was directly above mine, starting at 7 am every day, making horrific noise, and not being willing to stop or wait. when we talked to them, they were rude, including making my wife cry.


I am guessing that there are a lot of storied like this. I cna understand the work issue, but if you are in a job that makes people cry to much, then it is time to look for another field, or it can warp your soul.

 

[Quirk]

Wait... "wife"? Bob, did you get married already? Or are you just getting used to calling her that?

 

[rdawson808]

Originally Posted by Quirk

Wait... "wife"? Bob, did you get married already? Or are you just getting used to calling her that?

No, not actually married yet, but she's my wife in my mind and it is easier to type than fiancee (funny enough I actually screwed that up the first time I tried just now).


b

 

[odoreater]

Originally Posted by rdawson808

Odoreater, I would ask that you not imply that either I am lying or that my wife lied to me. I have given the whole story. As much as you think it is a case of sanctimonious neighbor expecting too much, I think it's a case of a contractor with a chip on his shoulder making (wholy wrong) assumptions about wealth based on the neighborhood.

bob

Bob, I wasn't saying that either you or your wife are lying. I was only saying that maybe we don't know the full story. If the contractors were rude enough to make someone cry it's one thing, but someone crying out of sheer frustration or sensitivity is another. There are people who will start to cry even if someone says, "I'm sorry miss, but we can't start any later than 7 am." I'm not saying your wife is one of those people, but we didn't know if she is or she isn't.

Originally Posted by globetrotter

I am guessing that there are a lot of storied like this. I cna understand the work issue, but if you are in a job that makes people cry to much, then it is time to look for another field, or it can warp your soul.

Haha, I'm not a contractor, but I am in a field that probably makes people cry a lot of the time.

I've worked construction in the past and my father and brother are involved in construction.

 

[Quirk]

Originally Posted by rdawson808

...she's my wife in my mind...

b

Awwww, I bet reading that would make her cry in the good way.


Errr... Chuck Norris!
[gratuitous reference to reeestablish the thread's manliness factor]