Hi! I’ve got frustrated with a fixture installation over a harsh concrete ceiling, lost track of time and got a neighbour knocking to my doors (luckily not the police I guess) at 8pm on Saturday =/
I agree from a moral standpoint it is not a nice move on my end and also in general it’s extremely rare for me to be doing this kind of work so hopefully I won’t sin again =)
I wonder, from a legal standpoint though, quiet hours are 6am to 10pm Mon / Sat excluding a break 12pm / 1pm, but I guess there should be an exception for noisy works (like drilling) or/and Satursdays? What should I legally limit myself to? As it’s still left unfinished…
One transgression is unlikely to have the neighbours speed dialling the police but drilling after 10 at night is usually going to prompt some sort of a reaction. For me it would firstly trigger an eye-roll then if it went on much more than 15-20 mins I’d deffo be heading up there with a “WTF???” set of questions.
If you do stray in to the later hours, might be a good idea to give a courtesy call to the neighbours, explain that it’s taking a bit longer and tell them you’re planning to finish by [insert reasonable timeframe].
Had you been at it most of the evening, too? Perhaps the neighbour’s complaint was cumulative, too?
Montag bis Samstag (werktags): Ruhezeit von 12 bis 13 Uhr und ab 20 Uhr
Montag bis Samstag (werktags): Nachtruhe ab 22 bis 6 oder 7 Uhr
Sonntage und öffentliche Feiertage: ganztägige Ruhezeit
Monday to Saturday (weekdays): Quiet time from 12 noon to 1 p.m. and from 8 p.m.
Monday to Saturday (weekdays): Quiet time from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. or 7 a.m.
Sundays and public holidays: all-day rest period
The quiet time on weekday evenings and night refers to either noise that’s unpleasant for the neighbours while they are still awake or noise that’s too loud when sleeping.
I only do diy during normal working hours. I might do a bit on a Saturday if it’s for a very short period or talk to my neighbours. You might find that the house rules clarify this.
Sorry, I correct my original message, it was 8pm at night on Saturday =)
I am not doing it often, it’s the 3rd (the last…) time and I’ve been installing them with breaks of a few months (I personally also hate doing this that’s why).
It was literally 4 holes, but taking hours to drill, I am surely not skilled in this.
Thanks! I see, so there’s a concept of quiet time and night quiet. Then even legally I was incorrect. Oops! Ie. I read it as between 20h00 and 22h00 I need to be quiet and after 22h00 super quiet =)
Yeah, that’s about it. But don’t beat yourself up over it. If you feel bad about it or you’re worried that you might have upset the neighbours, you could just attach a note to your building’s main entrance and apologise and explain that you didn’t quite understand the rules.
I have put up a notice giving advance warning in the past if i had to carry out noisy work on a Saturday, but i stopped between 12:00 and 14:00 and finished at 17:00, to show willing. I haven’t had any complaints. Hope that helps.
Any recommendations? I have a Makita HP457DWE10 and I am really regretting I did not pay someone to do it. On the other hand I wanted to learn it (installing light fixtures the first time).
Something like this should do the job. Not necessarily a recommendation (I just searched amazon for cheapest Bosch hammer drill), maybe you can find something cheaper or in CH. But I’ve got something similar and had to use it many a time in concrete.
Also make sure you’re not hitting the rebar in the concrete…
Thanks, I’ll check it out =) Honestly, when moving out I’ll try to give away light fixtures for free so I don’t need to bother with them again. But if I am ever to do it again, I’ll buy this kind of tool…
2.0 J impact energy for effective hammer drilling in concrete (up to 21 mm diameter)
I don’t remember these specifications, but once upon a time I had to drill a few holes so I bought some Bosh drill. One hole took like 15 min and required another 15-30 min work break due to overheating. My neighbors also got annoyed so one of them came to look at my equipment, then talked me over to rent a professional drill for just 1h. I don’t remember the model, it was Makita. That one could drill a hole in like 15 sec, literally as if I was drilling in a wood not a reinforced concrete.
To clarify, there are still many “hammer” drills with a purely mechanical, rotational, action, which rely on the user’s strength and weight for penetration. These are not what you want, and even if you can fit an SDS drill bit they will not do the job,
A proper SDS drill uses a piston action to generate a lot more penetrating force, so make sure if you’re buying one that it says SDS (or ideally, and normally these days, SDS Plus) on the tool itself.
I guess that was the kind I bought… I didn’t do much research, moreover I thought I don’t have to spend much for drilling just ~20 holes, but the funny thing is that the cheap drill was also killing the drills. I was trying to push-through at first, only to take out a glowing almost melted drill out of the hole. That was when I learned to go slowly, give it some break
