Noise Complaint!!

P. McKinley

P. McKinley

Joined
Jan 27, 2008
Messages
2,010
Last night I was visited by the brother of the elderly lady who lives across the street. He was very polite in explaining the his sister is "sick and tired of the constant pounding noise" coming from my forge and would I kindly stop and find another location to do this. Otherwise his sister would be forced to call the police with a report of excessive noise. This is the same woman who's house I have been shoveling out after every snowstorm for the past 5 years, and to whom I always wave "Hi" and smile at when I see her..... which is about three time per day.

Now, I don't live in a tightly packed neighborhood. This lady's house is maybe 300 yrds from the forge. My closest neighbor's house is about 200 yards away. I have a 1/2 acre back yard w/ a 16x10 wooden shed in the center that I use to house my forge and anvil. But, I do understand that pounding hot steel on an anvil can be a noisy activity, so I make an effort to do this during mid-day hours and never after 6pm. I purchased and began using my anvil just less than a year ago and I may get out to the forge about once a week for 3-5 hrs at a time and pound out 2-3 blades in that period. I haven't been in the shed for 8 days.

I don't need tips on how to "off" this lady, or even how to tell her to go "F--- off".... just not my style. However, I would like some tips on how to subdue the pounding/ringing noise from my anvil. Insulating the shed is really not an option as its rather old and rickety and would need considerable work to make insulation possible.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Peter

Here's my set-up:
This backyard shed is where I keep my forge:


Anvil:
 
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I wonder if a bicycle inner tube could be wrapped around your anvil to reduce the ringing.
 
I would not tell her off or anything like that. I would contact your local police and ask what is the ordinance about noise. For me I am allowed to be as loud as I want up till 10 pm and no earlier than 7 am. Maybe make a bird feeder hanger or something smithed and give it to her. My neighbors all come by and watch when I am banging on metal and I give them little things sometimes and they don't care anymore. If you stay within the timeframes of the noise ordinance there really isn't much she can say or do. Now I realize it does sound like you are trying to be accommodating and that is admirable. When I was younger and playing in bands, we went around and picked up all the discarded mattresses we could find and just braced them up to the walls. And trust me we did this in a shack not nearly as nice as yours and it reduced the noise and it was free (ugly but free). Good luck.
Dan
 
Is she bothered or her brother . Since you're not a stranger go and talk to her it might not be such a problem.
Install a press or rolling mill they're much more quiet !
 
Try any of the various tecniques to silence your anvils ring nmagnets, chain etc. Another option is find a Fisher anvil. My 300# Fisher just makes a thwack when forging. Zero ring. They were referred to as "neighborhood" anvils.
 
I use ear plugs so I can hardly hear the ringing, just buy her a nice set of ear plugs and you are good to go LOL. You can use a leather belt and hang a weight over the horn and it will dampen the noise some. or get a power hammer and you can do the same work in half the time. It can be a tough thing I would definitely check the local ordinances good luck.....steve
 
DanCo -
....discarded mattresses .....braced them up to the walls...
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Yeahhhh.... somehow I don't think that's such a great idea in a wooden shed containing a propane forge. :o
 
As a musician ive run into this more times than i can count. The basic problem is this: no matter what you do it still wont be enough, once they get themselves all worked up and complain the noise,in their mind, has gone from gee thats annoying, ill close my windows to THE NOISE IS A JACKHAMMER 5 FEET FROM MY HEAD!!!!!!!!!. Sadly you are in a lose-lose situation because even if you dont have a noise ordinance problem either an officer will come out, or your neighbor(our at the very least her brother) will hate you or probably both.

Check your local noise ordinance and stick to whatever they say is legal, there is a fne line between being neighborly and getting controlled by your neighbors.

If you do want to at least try to deaden the noise get some sheet foam with some long washered nals and nail it to the outside or inside of the shed, it'll be ugly but it wont be terribly expensive. Other than that there is always carpet, you just want to have sound absorbent surfaces near your anvil.
 
DanCo said:
I would not tell her off or anything like that. I would contact your local police and ask what is the ordinance about noise. For me I am allowed to be as loud as I want up till 10 pm and no earlier than 7 am. Maybe make a bird feeder hanger or something smithed and give it to her. My neighbors all come by and watch when I am banging on metal and I give them little things sometimes and they don't care anymore. If you stay within the timeframes of the noise ordinance there really isn't much she can say or do. Now I realize it does sound like you are trying to be accommodating and that is admirable. When I was younger and playing in bands, we went around and picked up all the discarded mattresses we could find and just braced them up to the walls. And trust me we did this in a shack not nearly as nice as yours and it reduced the noise and it was free (ugly but free). Good luck.
Dan
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The law is the same here. I understand about not wanting to intentionally piss off neighbors but they need to understand you have a few rights too. Sounds like you are already mindful with the times you do it. Shoot if someone was building a house nearby she would probably deal with more noise from construction then you make. They might just be asking a bit too much tho. I would look into anything that may dampen the noise some to try for a easy solution.
 
DanCo said:
I would not tell her off or anything like that. I would contact your local police and ask what is the ordinance about noise. For me I am allowed to be as loud as I want up till 10 pm and no earlier than 7 am.
Click to expand...

I think that's a good point, but I would not TALK to the police, go to the bylaw office and get a written copy and read the rules for yourself.

It won't matter if it's the lady or her relative if a complaint is filed, but I would speak to her directly and ask what part bothers her.

Since you know it will be a problem, I would start a written log of the dates and times you forge.
That way you can counter "constantly" with "once a week for 4 hours between 2 and 6 pm."

I would do all the things listed like, wrapping chain and magnets around the waist,
belts and weight on the horn, lead or adhesive between the anvil and stump.
It will help your ears too.


Does your open door face her house directly?
It may be channelling the sound directly at the house.

Plant some trees, or build up an earth berm between your shed and her house for the long term,
and close the doors or setup some barriers for the short term that both reflect and absorb sound.


Not only do you want to reduce the sound, but also prevent them from seeing when you are out working.
Now that they are sensitive to it, the sound level is not as important - they will likely complain if they see you are out, no matter how loud it actually is.


AND

Once the noise bylaw officer is there, you can bet he will also look at fire regulations
 
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Count - Unfortunately, the shed door does face her house. I'm forced to keep the doors and a window in the back open when I forge as that's my ventilation source. The idea of a barrier between the shed and her house seems a bit "overkill" to me. Yes, it'd likely solve the problem, but I would hope there's a less labor-intensive solution.

I think I'll try the weighted belt trick and maybe some acoustic tile on the inside.
 
I have a chain wrapped around my anvil and bolted to the anvil base/tree stump. It works well and there is no ring at all.
 
When I was a kid, our garaged faced a golf course. My dad would be in the garage on weekends making all kinds of noise. We'd be playing football or baseball or whatever ball was in season on the golf course 150 yards from the garage, and you could hear almost every word he said. Your issue reminds me of that.

It is always better to confront neighbors in a nice, polite way, while standing your ground. Our informal company motto is: we will bend over backwards for anyone, and forwards for no one. I think that applies here.
 
The key killing the ring is to stop the harmonics of anvil. I coated the non use areas of my anvil with rubberized roofing tar. Then the bottom half got a layer of spray foam. Took my rig down from 156db to 95db. I was having a similar issue with a pissy neighbor calling the police over and over. It amazed me how drastic the reduction was. Another one to try is egg carton looking foam (acoustic foam) like you see in recording studios. It will soak up the high end treble tones that piere and.irritate.people. Just some thoughts. p.
 
I agree with doing something to reduce the nosie of the anvil, but I think talking to her will be the best thing to start with. Sounds like you are trying to keep reasonable work times, but maybe it's right during her afternoon nap. You could park your truck or an RV in front of the open door when you are working and this will help block some of the noise headed towards her house.
 
I wonder if you could get one of those moveable cubical walls that are covered in material. Add some of that blue foam insulating board and place it between you and the door. Office supply stores (small ones) many times have used ones that could be very cheap. being portable you could use it when needed. If you have the room maybe 2 of them staggered. The downward slope to their house directs the sound to them, any barrier would help.
 
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