How far does angle grinder noise travel?

[Nomad]

A hedge helps keep the sound down for your neighbors. A thick but low boundary hedge might be a thought?

Design the layout so you have no opening windows on the side facing their place ?

A lot depends how well you get on with the neighbours. A mate used to do occasional woodwork (mainly sanding) on his driveway, a very unhappy chap 6 doors away complained about the noise to the council. The nearer neighbors were all ok with the noise and enjoyed having a chat when mate was working. The folk opposite also had no issues. Mate now has a large expensive wood workshop in his back garden and feels very isolated when he's working.

 

[finyuk2005]

When I lived in Suffolk there was a shipyard and they had a pneumatic chisel which a bloke used to cut weld seams off big things.

They actually had a planning consent from the council to use it 1 hour a day at midday, Monday to Friday. You could hear it all round town.

Some good advice coming, op

I used one for several minutes cleaning tractor steps when i worked at MLM in Orphir....
I learned lots of new insults that day

 

[8ob]

A noise annoys

This is where being a good neighbour comes into play, always worth popping in to tell them that you are a noisy bugger and that if its getting on their nerves you will stop.

Bob

 

[tom2207]

a crying baby , or a barking dog are bad

the loudest noise of them all is when

err indoors says nothing ,,,, that travels right through the house

but never seems to make it as far as the pub.

 

[RWD3M]

a crying baby , or a barking dog are bad

the loudest noise of them all is when

err indoors says nothing ,,,, that travels right through the hose

but never seems to make it as far as the pub.

Oh how true!!!

 

[addjunkie]

My shed is clad in 32 down to 20 feather edge board. Osb/Onduline roof. Its about 15 m from our house. Inside grinding steel with doors shut my Mrs can hear it in the house, but its no worse than a car passing. Next door 350 yards using a grinder in his open fronted barn we hear outside, but just a background noise inside no worse than a heating pump.
Communication with your neighbours is key. Where I used to live in the burbs, one of our neighbours worked nights, so asked him to let us know if his shift patterns changed. But basically if curtains were closed in the day time Id not use grinders etc.

We hear barking dogs across the valley about 1/2 a mile of open air

 

[James1979]

Communication with your neighbours is key. Where I used to live in the burbs, one of our neighbours worked nights, so asked him to let us know if his shift patterns changed. But basically if curtains were closed in the day time Id not use grinders etc.

That sums it up really. My nearest neighbour is a policeman, or was till recently, and I knew his shifts. Sometimes I am quiet all day but can work late into the night if he’s at work. Swings and roundabouts.

His son being one of my bigger customers smooths things a bit I think!

When eyebrows get raised, it’s always coincidentally a rush job for his boy

 

[pedrobedro]

We hear donkey braying sometimes and the nearest ones are about a mile away as the crow flies. Some days it sounds like they are just over the garden wall.

 

[Shox Dr]

You might know this already, but Rockwool make a specific insulation for sound attenuation. It is a different product to standard heat insulation. Normal mineral wool does not absorb sound too well.

See:

Rockwool Sound Insulation Slab 1200 x 400 x 100mm Covers 2.88m²

Buy Rockwool Sound Insulation Slab 1200 x 400 x 100mm Covers 2.88m² at trade exclusive prices. Shop online with Click & Collect and next day delivery available.

www.selcobw.com

We used that one job, when it first came to market, about 25yrs ago. To us it looked the same. In fact it came in the same yellow plastic bags, just with another blue cover over that. It didnt seem to make any difference

 

[tom2207]

Buy the neighbours some noise cancelling headphones

we triple glazed two houses front windows , as a good will gesture ,, but they were the only two residential properties in the street ,,, the rest were offices , otherwise we would have ended up the whole street . It was cheaper to do two houses windows that one full glass side of a 1200 capacity venue ,,,, but be careful if you do one you end up doing them all . [ I know it was a joke but just showing how fast a thing can spread]

 

[redlig]

As I said, less ambient noise. By 9pm, most sensible people have put their cars away, stopped cutting the lawn, factories are closed. Those that are still making any noise become more noticeable.

A bit like where I am. Providing wind conditions are right (regardless of daytime or night, I'll hear the big guns (AS90's and the like) going off on Salisbury plain at night, never during the day. Mick, @redlig you probably get the same?

It sounds like WW3 sometimes especially if the wind is from the south. During the day as well as at night. The most annoying/ interesting noise we get is the Attack and Chinook choppers passing over at what appears like 2/300 feet trying to hide from the squaddies on the plain.

 

[redlig]

You can hear neighbours screaming more easily through a timber wall than a brick wall especially their nocturnal activities.

Bert

I got so p****d of with that sort of noise at my last place I recorded it and went round and asked them if they recognised the "noise". They moved shortly afterwards.

 

[Morrisman]

I got so p****d of with that sort of noise at my last place I recorded it and went round and asked them if they recognised the "noise". They moved shortly afterwards.

I eventually moved house due to the psycho beach from hell moving in next door. She was the epitome of the ultimate CHAV. I tried to be nice, spoke to her and her dish rag wimpy fella a couple of times, but they were beyond logic and commons sense, we all know the type.

So I sold the place, and moved to a little bungalow in a village where old folk go to die. Or so my daughter put it.....

I wasn't overly keen on our old place, but it had parking for four cars, a big single garage up front, and a 5x6 workshop I'd built myself out back.

 

[Cato]

It sounds like WW3 sometimes especially if the wind is from the south. During the day as well as at night. The most annoying/ interesting noise we get is the Attack and Chinook choppers passing over at what appears like 2/300 feet trying to hide from the squaddies on the plain.

I'm sure I don't need to tell you, but Wiltshire has some rolling hills that cause weird effects with sound and wind. My Uncle used to live in Bishop's Cannings where you could hear the guns quite clearly and very frequently. In his later years up until he passed away he lived in Urchfont where you could barely and rarely hear them even though it's not that far away. I presume it was something to do with the topography, but an ex secretary of state for NI lived over the hill from Urchfont at the time so maybe when he was in residence the artillery persons just shouted "BANG!" instead of firing?

 

[Erie Fred]

And most importantly the day and time. ie Sunday morning.

Even the type of "Noise"....Someone playing music (even using a good Hi-Fi)
if it's not your type of music, or all the time 24/7, can all be construed as "Noise".
"He plays Bach all day long, and I only like rock".

It's very subjective.

 

[redlig]

I eventually moved house due to the psycho beach from hell moving in next door. She was the epitome of the ultimate CHAV. I tried to be nice, spoke to her and her dish rag wimpy fella a couple of times, but they were beyond logic and commons sense, we all know the type.

So I sold the place, and moved to a little bungalow in a village where old folk go to die. Or so my daughter put it.....

I wasn't overly keen on our old place, but it had parking for four cars, a big single garage up front, and a 5x6 workshop I'd built myself out back.

Or as we call a local Estate for retired folk." Gods waiting room".

 

[bricol]

I suggest you speak to them first, explain your situation and try it out, with them so to speak. Offer to insulate if you need to but explain it's a costly option that you'd rather put off by a year.

I might do that after I've made the noise, but certainly not before. Do it before, and you put them on high alert for anything . . . if it was my mum next door to you, phone would be on speed dial for an instant call to council when she heard you plug the grinder in . . . she's also got a sound meter ready to record readings to present to the environmental health person . . .

Ask after a few instances - and either they won't have heard it, will have heard it and not been bothered, or have heard it and are ready to let rip . . .

I've asked mine - one never heard a thing, the other hears it, knows I'm a nice neighbour who doesn't complain about barking dogs, screaming kids, diesel truck starting for early hours milk-round etc . . . but she will mention if she sees me if her other half is sleeping in due to an all-nighter lambing or something and would appreciate a bit of peace and quiet . . . although he always says he never heard a thing

 

[Morrisman]

I might do that after I've made the noise, but certainly not before. Do it before, and you put them on high alert for anything . . . if it was my mum next door to you, phone would be on speed dial for an instant call to council when she heard you plug the grinder in . . . she's also got a sound meter ready to record readings to present to the environmental health person . . .

Ask after a few instances - and either they won't have heard it, will have heard it and not been bothered, or have heard it and are ready to let rip . . .

I've asked mine - one never heard a thing, the other hears it, knows I'm a nice neighbour who doesn't complain about barking dogs, screaming kids, diesel truck starting for early hours milk-round etc . . . but she will mention if she sees me if her other half is sleeping in due to an all-nighter lambing or something and would appreciate a bit of peace and quiet . . . although he always says he never heard a thing

Mate of mine complained to the council about the immediate neighbours noise, semi detached place.
The council gave him a noise recording device to keep a record of the cacophony that was coming through the walls.

But they also told the neighbour that they were being recorded.

Which sort of defeats the whole purpose.

 

[RWD3M]

It sounds like WW3 sometimes especially if the wind is from the south. During the day as well as at night. The most annoying/ interesting noise we get is the Attack and Chinook choppers passing over at what appears like 2/300 feet trying to hide from the squaddies on the plain.

Of course you are a mile or two closer than I am

 

[Nomad]

Communication is key. I often do demolition while I'm renovating a place and normally chat to the nearest neighbours beforehand - it's often possible to have a good few hours every day when they're at work / school / shops / pub, time it right and they won't be home to hear it the racket.


On a bigger scale, wind direction makes a huge difference. I can see a local motorway less than a mile away from my bedroom window. If the wind is towards there I hear nothing, if it's blowing towards the house I can hear every car that goes past (gentle background noise, but noticable as it's totally silent otherwise).