“Our son (18M) was pressure washing our driveway this weekend from 3:30-5:30 pm (dusk) this past Sunday. We had 2 neighbors from the same house come out when he was almost finished and ask him to turn it off ‘right now’. The first woman came out and said that her father had just died this past week and her mother wanted to sit on her porch in silence. My son explained that he had about 10 mins worth of work to do and that he would turn it off.
About 3 mins later, another woman came out (from the same house) and said we need to turn it off because her grandmother is sleeping. He again explained that he was almost finished. This has happened before when we were pressure washing at 12 pm on a Saturday. An older man asked us to turn it off because he and his friends were having an impromptu concert in his backyard.
For context, we live in an upscale neighborhood where the houses are close together. So I understand the noise concern. But when are we supposed to pressure wash? We don’t do it during weekdays because people work from home and also because that’s not an ideal time for us.”
Another User Comments:
“NTJ!
Your neighbors sound entitled for demanding silence at 5 pm on a Sunday, it’s your property and that is a perfectly reasonable time to be doing it. If you were doing it in the middle of the night or at the crack of dawn, it would be a different story but as far as I can see, your son did nothing wrong.
It also sounds like the first woman was trying to guilt trip your son into turning it off by mentioning the death of her father as if that was his fault.” User
Another User Comments:
“No jerks here. Depends on local bylaws. In the UK, some councils forbid DIY except between 8 am-6 pm on weekdays, Saturday 8 am-1 pm, and Sunday not at all. But I am not sure pressure-washing would fit into that though.
The women were not wrong to ask though. They had suffered a bereavement and expected emotions running high and desperate for some peace and rest. Your son didn’t need to stop but might have been caring too.
As to the concert, well again fine to ask but not get upset if the answer is no.” Timely_Egg_6827
Another User Comments:
“NTJ
My favorite is the people who were already being loud where neighbors would hear their concert but didn’t want to be disturbed by other loud noises.
Listen, no one wants to hear hours of construction or power washing, just like no one wants to hear hours of lawn mowing. But people have to do those things and you don’t get to be free of all noise any time living in around people. If you are being considerate and not doing this for two hours every weekend, and you are doing it during daylight hours, then you are doing nothing wrong.
It is totally fine for someone to ask you to stop in certain circumstances- my neighbors once asked us to turn down the music of a BBQ because they were hosting a post-funeral get-together, and you better believe we turned it off because they were polite and we understood why they would ask for quiet at an abnormal time. So your neighbor asking for quiet because she wanted to sit outside after the death of her husband and you said you would finish up in 10 minutes, feels like a reasonable request and reasonable solution (she can wait 10 minutes) and it has to be a once in a while request, not every time.” mfruitfly
