Noise Complaint!!

Wether or not you are within your rights according to law, it is still a neighborly courtesy to see what you can do to reduce the sound (anvil dampening, soundproofing the walls, etc. And once the work is done, give the lady or son a tour or even offer them a small blacksmith trinket like a keychain or something.

Letting them know that you are trying to be a courteous neighbor when it comes to the racket can only lead to good things.

And by the way, those sound dampeners can do wonders for YOUR hearing, too. I've lost a great deal of my hearing due to an unhealthy obsession with the electric guitar. ;)
 
Rick Marchand said:
So the FIRST contact you have with your nieghbor on this issue is her brother telling you the next time they hear it, they are calling the police?!!!!
Click to expand...

Yup.

My wife and I have been talking this over, and I spoke to my other - closer - neighbor for a bit this evening. We all now think this is more the response of the brother than that of my lady neighbor. He's been at her house several times while I've been forging ....as he was yesterday while I was in the shed, not forging but doing some cleaning and changing propane tanks.

Apparently, this 60something yr old man is something of a gruff old codger who, my lifetime town resident neighbor explains, "can go f--- himself". Apparently he has a rather special relationship with rum. My neighbor is sure that Mini(yes, that's her name) has no problem with my forging and that Joe(the brother) is just over-reacting in his own way.

I'm going to go over and talk with Mini tomorrow and straighten this out. And, I'm going to see if I can reduce/suppress my forging volume level a bit.

Even though it seems I have no real issue here, I'm left with the thought that whatever noise I did/do create... caused this. And, its made me even more aware of how some people react to this as a nuisance. This guy, nutto as he may be, was just trying to protect his sister. I can understand that.

There have been some great ideas posted in this thread. Thanks all for your thoughts. I'm about to build a new shop and this will be a great resource.

Egg cartons, rare earth magnets... and rubber mallets. Brilliant!:thumbup:
 
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Always looking for a win-win seems like a good idea to me.

Best of luck!
 
Chain and magnets will help a lot..Id say your on the right track, try and talk it out first..I always try to be a nice guy at least one time..With the second intrusion on my privacy the hillbilly in me starts to come out..
 
Take her a box of Godiva Chocolates, and him a bottle of Bacardi....then you will be best friends with both of them :)

Seriously, you are handling this the best way. Whenever possible, avoiding a fight is always better than winning one.
 
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I like the idea that you want to be considerate and deal with the noise issue.
I also like Stacy's advice. Another peace offering alternative would be to make something for them.
That way they can appreciate what is making the noise. Might change things from someone complaining about you to someone bragging about you.

If it turns into a fight, even when you win, you lose.
 
Best to talk to Mimi. She will probably tell her brother to STFU for you.

I personally don't like everyone knowing my business from the view from the street. That said, if it was me, I would put up a set of trellis, and plant some large leef vining ivy, and maybe some climbing roses. It will make the wife happy to get some of the roses, and be a visual distraction/camoflage for your workspace, and help dampen the noise.

Alternativly, get 5 or 6, 50 gal buckets of CLUMPING giant bamboo, and plant in a checkerboard pattern in front of your shop. It will definatly deaden the sound, looks nice and gives you bamboo to harvest for handles and such.
 
The trellis would work just as well as a wall and you would have the benefit of a nice view on one side and some place to hang items off on the other :-)
 
There is another option for the cause of the complaint and it may not be because of noise you are making. It could be an undiagnosed medical issue that your neigbour is experiencing. From what you say you work intermittently at the forge. And the complaint is about constant pounding.

Maybe your neighbour suffers from tinnitus and doesn't realise it, and you are getting blamed!

I once dealt with 2 old lady neighbours who were the best of friends for many years until one of them developed tinnitus due to high blood pressure. Before she was diagnosed she was convinced the neighbour was making a racket at all hours of the day or night. The feud nearly killed them with the stress, their respective families came to blows. The friendship they had was completely destroyed.
Some people experience a sound that beats in time with the pulse (pulsatile tinnitus, or vascular tinnitus).
Tinnitus is something we are concerned about as knifemakers due to potential nerve damage from excessive noise, but noise ain't the only cause.....
I hope you can resolve this.

Kevin
 
I agree with many here. Do some sound dampening, do the wall thing in front of the door, and I'd go and talk to just her about it.
I've always started similar conversations with " we've sure gotten along for a long time and I don't want to have conflict with my neighbors so how can we make this work."
SHe also may have a special time of the week/day that she may make a special phone call to friends/ people over for tea/ etc. You may have annoyed her ONCE and her brother is being a bit overprotective.
You sounds like a reasonable fellow and I hope it works out.
 
Agree with count on a row of bushes or shrubbery in addition to other stuff. Trellis and bamboo advice is great, too... cheap and easy. Would be nice if discussion with the neighbor resulted in commonly understood times when pounding can be expected..... it's just easier to tolerate disagreeable things when those things are expected. if there is some sort of agreement maybe you'd be able to enjoy yourself more, too, but maybe that's just me. Just saying, if I knew a neighbor was ticked off at something I was doing I would find that distracting at least.

FWIW, in my neighborhood it is very hard to mobilize the law against noise makers. You have to do something like document a pattern of off-hours noise for weeks, and have 2-3 neighbors do the same. But I'm more urban than you are so the law is set up to prevent abuse of complaint procedures.
 
I haven't read all of the replies, but I do have a couple thoughts. Sorry if they have been duplicated elsewhere.

1) I have neighbours that complain about EVERYTHING from my dog barking when someone comes to my door. (She IS loud, but she barks about 5 times whenever someone comes to the door. This equates to your dog is "constantly barking.") So I feel your pain.

2) Have you considered planting a couple of hedging tree's in line with your shed and her house? You could probably make it look nice. Tree's are wonderful noise diffusers, and you can generally get 6 ft planter ceders for $15-$40.

3) I find that any time I have a noisy outdoor activity, I can minimize complaints by inviting the neighbours to join OR bringing them a small token of your appreciation once and a while. I bribe my neighbours with a lb of coffee once and a while, it keeps things civil!

Best of luck!
 
I have only had 1 noise complaint since I started making knives. I had a neighbor tell me he was working nights and the grinding was keeping him up. I said I was sorry and if I had known he was working nights I would have waited to start grinding. I then asked him what hours he would like me to refrain from making noise because I use to work nights and understood where he was coming from. He told me he worked night shift every three weeks and tried to sleep from 10am-4:30pm Monday to Friday, then he asked what I was grinding, and I told him I was making knives. I never got a complaint again:confused::p I think it was because I stopped grinding during his sleep times, not because making knives bothered him.
 
Man, all this makes me remember why I prefer to live as far out of the city limits and away from others as I can! I feel for ya buddy, hope all turns out okay for both parties!
 
Another good way to stop an anvil ringing is to sit the anvil on a drum full of sand instead of a stump or block of wood. It is just as solid as concrete but absorbes almost all of the vibration. I use a 25 litre oil drum full of bricky sand and tack weld a plate to the bottom of the anvil and just sit it on the sand. It also makes it easy to move the whole thing by taking half the sand out, move it then fill it back up. Makes it easy to get it the right height and level and it doesn't cost much either.
 
The original post says she is 300yds. away. To me that's pretty good ways. No way your hammering would bother me at that distance. Huh?
 
Love the thread, love your knives, I remember you way back when you made canoe paddles for fun.
I have much the same situation but nobody has complained YET. My anvil rigs like mad very loud and always interested in damping thread. I was thinking of the anvil in the sand thing, catches the sparks and would be solid. Maybe the sand and something like the foam or adhesive would be good. Course you would have a hard time getting the stuff off the anvil, maybe sand and chains. And yes I notice a real ring from the horn. So all good ideas, good luck. With a reduced sound you are better off anyways. Cheers Ron.
 
Hi

i have a 125lbs PW anvil that rings like a crystal glass.... was told by Alan L to put a layer of silicone caulking between the wood stump and then sit the anvil ontop... let it dry... then i put a chain around the waist of the anvil like a dog collar... then used some of those turn buckles with the hook, and hook onto it and use those to tighten it to the stump ..... oh and on the stump i put a bit of chain with a lag bolt for the otherside of the turnbuckle......errrrr, clear as mud right ...

long story short... the silicone is the absolute best thing i've used to stop the sound....

my stump is not really a stump.... its 4 ... 4"x4" that are lag bolted together... and sunk 2.5 feet into the ground

good luck with neighbour... there is sometimes no pleasing people, but you have to try............
 
Greg, kind of like this?

IMG_0206.jpg


The chain, the magnet, and the bed of silicone the anvil is sitting in really help dampen things down. I still need hearing protection, but the noise is a dull metallic clank vs. a high pitched ring as it was before.

I'm curious how this situation turned out in the end. I'm moving my shop into a third car garage (detached from the main house) in a residential neighborhood soon. The shop is finished out with standard code-built walls. I'm not terribly worried about the grinders' noise, but the anvil concerns me for when I finally get time to forge. I'll for sure have to make sure to forge during the day.

--nathan
 
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