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Neighbors with noise conpliant


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I live in the uk, I am a beginner blacksmith with a back garden forge and I do make a bit of noise on accident most of my neighbors don't mind the noise but one neighbor has been threatening to report me for noise complaint. What can I do to make my forge and anvil quieter. 

 

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You might try playing some very loud and annoying music, ... to cover up the sound of your hammer.

Here in America we'd say, "give em' something to cry about".

I think the British axiom might be "hanged for a sheep as for a lamb".

 

 

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What time are you usually forging at?

How long are you doing it per day?

How many days a week are you doing it?

 

If its between 11am and 7pm, one or two hours at a time, three days or less a week... let them complain. It's unlikely to be classified as a statutory nuisance and your local council wont do anything about it... not the most neighbourly action, so advisable you try to silence your anvil, and have a civil conversation about it with them, possibly even give them a gift you've made, be apologetic, etc... if that fails, see previous sentence.

If you're doing it stupidly early, or stupidly late (e.g. when children or the elderly are likely asleep), four to eight hours at a time, and every single day... there's a chance you can be served an abatement notice and end up in court if you persist.

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The various methods of securing ones anvil and changing or damping the ring certainly help as dose hammer control and not striking cold steel. high density walls help as well but your probably not in a position to build brick walls around your garden. 

Certainly a civil conversation and the old bit of hardware is just the neighborly way of going about things, but as we all stretch the rules a bit it also is usually possible to dig up a bit of dirt on your neighbor and return the favor. It has proven effective with overbearing home owners associations. 

It is also likely he/she has alienated your other neighbors aswell, so garner their good will as 3 peaple in court saying that you make very little noise and are no bother generally is to your advantage.

 

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Hi Alex, whereabouts in the UK are you? Complaints about noise are taken very differently by each local  authority, and are subjective as to the degree of annoyance concerned. Decibel counts are not the criteria that are used.

What noise is generated by your forge/hearth, and why? Anvils can be quietened, but by and large if you are forging hot metal as opposed to colder, that will reduce noise.

If you are in the Westcountry, you can have forge time at Westpoint on members days which may help your situation.

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I have a serious problem with only one of my neighbours too, which is complaining about me. This resulted till now in a official letter of the local government (he told them that I make some huge illegal steel constructions in my backyard) and also one visit of the village sheriff to convince himself from my humble activities. (always start at 10.00 and stop at least 21.00 in the WE). The policemen was impressed and told me I was doing nothing wrong or illegal.

It’s the same neighbour watch my garage was on fire (piece of welding slack chops into plastic container)  from the street. Hi tuck no action even my wife and daughter stayed in the same house.

Insulate the whole place before and take noise measurements (</=72 dBA which is the sound of normal conversation)  Since I erected a second noise wall the situation escalated because hi have now insight of my property anymore.

I forge 5 years in a field smithy (next to the new shop) without any complaints. In my case and in my particular village, the situation getting worse, after his own wife embarrassed him in front of all the other neighbours to tell him he was a lazy couch potato and I was always busy.

In my opinion you can do everything possible, but if only one evil neighbour you didn’t grant your hobby it is hopeless.

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Im not doing it for long really its around 2 1/2 hours a day for only around 4 days a week. I have dampened my anvils ring as much as i can but theyre still annoyed but also my forge blower is quite loud aswell. Im in the west midlands

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Welcome to IFI.

We won't remember where you are located after leaving this thread. That is the reason we recommend this thread when starting out.

https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/53873-read-this-first/

Don't know how friendly you are with the complaining neighbor but have you invited him/her to hammer on some hot steel? You never know could be a convert in the making.

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I thought the blower may be a problem, it's one of the of the reasons I forge with charcoal and use a box bellows at home. I also have my makeshift anvil mounted in wooden stumps so it's very quiet. When asked my neighbours responded that they heard nothing, seems I make less noise than normal gardening activities or the kids at play. So it is possible to be reasonably quiet and try to work only social hours. I even manage to make my own charcoal without any of the neighbours noticing!

 

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I hammer and grind on the backyard of my apartment, as long I respect the legal hours there´s nothing the neighbors can do. I do not use the forge nor the anvil more than twice every week, for a few hours, until I move to new home with decent privacy.

2  1/2 hours on the anvil is not much but imagine every day you got home from work and some artist is ringing the church bell for hours, a person can get psychotic. 

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The best way I have found to make an anvil quiet is to bed it down in 3 inches of sand. That is by placing the anvil in a box and then adding 3 inches of sand to cover the feet and part of the base of the anvil. Deeper sand can be better, you will have to try your anvil and see. The ring is a vibration much like a tuning fork and you want to dampen the vibration. 

A fence between you and the neighbor will help. You can then hand heavy cloth, shipping pads, carpet, etc on the fence to absorb the noise. Another method is to use plywood at an angle and reflect the noise skyward. 

An small electric blower, or hand operated bellows makes very little noise. You can enclosed your current blower in an insulated sound proof box to cut down on the noise.

There are apps for cell phones that will measure decibels of sound. Take readings before and after each attempt to lessen the sound and record your progress.  You may wish to measure other noises in the neighborhood for reference, such as lawn mowers, construction noise (circle saws etc), the fellow working on the car engine and revving it up, traffic noise, etc.

Main thing is to try to be respectful, of the times, the duration of your work, and try to dampen the noise you produce.

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I'm lucky - I don't have neighbours. No-one can hear me hammering at home and the chooks don't mind.

And the work forge noise is what attracts the visitors!

I like Hans' comment about the couch potato husband. :)

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Fisher and Vulcan are both brands of Quiet anvils we have over here, they make a sort of "thwap" sound instead of TING!.  Getting a quiet blower is not that difficult and I've even built a double lunged bellows before that was great to use (used treated canvas for the "leathers" and plywood for the boards so it was cheap too.)

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12 hours ago, Alex w said:

Im not doing it for long really its around 2 1/2 hours a day for only around 4 days a week

Time of the day would be a big factor... 6am? 10pm?

Personally I try to keep to about two hours a day, and aim to be finished by 7pm so i'm not disturbing anyone.

 

Sounds like your neighbour is just one of those people who will make a fuss and cause tension no matter what. If you've tried being polite with them, just ignore it and let them make their complaint.

Your local council will be in touch if it's an actual problem.
If they get in touch at all, the first letter is usually some advise about the Environmental Protection Act, and what's considered a statutory nuisance, and that's is just to keep them covered.
If they want to take it further, they would need to come out for an inspection, possibly install a recording device so they can monitor the situation, before they can decide if it's a real problem and needs taken further.

Confrontational neighbours are no fun, so try and be understanding as best you can, but otherwise go ahead and enjoy your anvil time.

More info about the regulations can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/noise-nuisances-how-councils-deal-with-complaints
At a glance, I can't see anything about what you've described that would cause issue.

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3 hours ago, JustAnotherViking said:

Sounds like your neighbour is just one of those people who will make a fuss and cause tension no matter what. If you've tried being polite with them, just ignore it and let them make their complaint.

We don't actually know that, we haven't even established how close to the neighbor the forge is.  And while he may think he's being quiet, to a person trying to read, watch the telly or just relax after work, the noise might make that impossible to do.  As for the smoke, just the fumes of burning coal can be an unpleasant odor.  A person eating supper (Tea) might find smelling coal fumes a less then pleasant experience.  Add to that, some people are physically unable to tolerate the fumes of burning coal.   So while the OP might be doing everything he can to be a good neighbor while still having a go at blacksmithing, his living space might make that impossible.

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