County Noise Ordinances?

[ultrarunner]

I'm in rural Washington on 17 acres and most neighbors have much more land.

Always very good relations with all my neighbors except my closest have not met since 2005... others say he is kind of a recluse and doesn't socialize and his homestead almost looks let go like no one maintains it...

I'm on s tight schedule and was using a rented Honda pressure washer and a car comes down my road so I shut down the Honda.

He says the noise is driving him out of his house and it's Sunday 8 pm... I would be done by 9 and he says we have noise Ordinances...

I say I'm sorry it's bothering you and ask him what time he leaves for work in the morning... no answer.

I say since 2005 we are neighbors...

The original washer I reserved was returned broken so this one is for Sunday only.

Noise ordinance says quiet hours start at 10 pm daily... the morning work begin hours vary.

Part of me after double checking the ordinance says I should just finish and keep to schedule... the other part does not want to make waves when U live 800 miles away...

Sad for a first interaction and more so now in that all 3 of my wonderful neighbors passed away in the last 12 months...

How would you handle the situation?

 

[mikester]

Around my area Sundays still mean something and we have more restrictive hours on allowable noise. Noise from farming operations has exemptions.

Follow your local noise ordinances and be a friendly neighbor.

 

[workinonit]

How far away from you is the guy?

 

[RjCorazza]

I follow our noise ordinances and then some for the most part. In my area Sunday and holidays have no different requirements... A certain decibel limitation from 10pm to 7am, and another for daytime.
I keep a copy of the ordinance on my phone when cutting the 18 semi rural properties I manage just in case, but no one has ever complained.
I cut between 8am and 5 pm weekdays, and during daytime hours landscaping and snowplowing equipment is exempt from the (daytime) decibel spec when the equipment is "operated and maintained in accordance with manufacturer specifications".
I do plow snow beginning much earlier than 7am so people can get to work, which I think is reasonable. No complaints over the years for that either, but my contact specifies that a neighbor complaint will result in their driveway not getting plowed until after 7am.

 

[K5lwq]

I am surprised that there is a noise ordinance with 17 plus acre parcels. I am also surprised he could even hear a Honda engine running.

Wonder if it was the noise that bothered him or the violation(in his mind) that was his problem. Either way I am thankful none of my neighbors would ever complain about such a thing!

 

[sea2summit]

I'm in rural Washington on 17 acres and most neighbors have much more land.

Always very good relations with all my neighbors except my closest have not met since 2005... others say he is kind of a recluse and doesn't socialize and his homestead almost looks let go like no one maintains it...

I'm on s tight schedule and was using a rented Honda pressure washer and a car comes down my road so I shut down the Honda.

He says the noise is driving him out of his house and it's Sunday 8 pm... I would be done by 9 and he says we have noise Ordinances...

I say I'm sorry it's bothering you and ask him what time he leaves for work in the morning... no answer.

I say since 2005 we are neighbors...

The original washer I reserved was returned broken so this one is for Sunday only.

Noise ordinance says quiet hours start at 10 pm daily... the morning work begin hours vary.

Part of me after double checking the ordinance says I should just finish and keep to schedule... the other part does not want to make waves when U live 800 miles away...

Sad for a first interaction and more so now in that all 3 of my wonderful neighbors passed away in the last 12 months...

How would you handle the situation?

So you live there or you live 800 miles away? Might be that he never hears noise there so a machine running is a drastic change. But a pressure washer during the day…that’s a bit touchy. If you haven’t bet on 18 years in the area that also makes it harder to make a recommendation.

 

[workinonit]

Yea, I can't even imagine someone coming down my 1/3 mile driveway to tell me my Honda engine pressure washer was driving them crazy. They would get laughed at. We have no noise ordinances

 

[Hay Dude]

I think the neighbor is a whiner looking for problems where there aren’t.

 

[mrmikey]

Any necessary noise I make on a Sunday is after 9am and before 8-9pm, if you got a problem with that take a flying leap at a rolling donut. Necessary noise doesn't bother me in the least, mowers, trimmers, saws, tractors etc. if you're making noise with them you're doing it because you have to not because you're relaxing.
What really p's me off is neighbors', I've got one, that insist that we all like his music blasting any time day or night, I swear he must be deaf. To top it off, he's either burning the crap from his truck tires going up the road or tearing up the road on his 4 wheeler.

 

[Thomas]

He has shown his personality so I just follow the rules if any.

 

[D&D]

Around my area Sundays still mean something and we have more restrictive hours on allowable noise. Noise from farming operations has exemptions.

Follow your local noise ordinances and be a friendly neighbor.

Being a friendly neighbor is a two way street. I doub the neighbor has a meter to check sound level at the property line. The neighbor was just offended and wanted things their way.

 

[riptides]

We have noise ordnances for our area. None of my neighbors are farm lots so they fall into those rules. None of them follow it, or are aware. I have complained to some about their violations, they continue to violate accordingly. I usually get the smart remarks back.

It's pretty loud when you can hear stuff in your house with the windows closed, and you are 1/4 mile away. Sound carries...don't discount that.

We have lawn mower man at 6AM, ATV guy all day, dog barker all day, every day, and our favorites are the party bands over 1/2 a mile away in different directions on weekends from noon until 2AM.

Right now someone is yelling at the dog barker. LOL. (Not me). Dog barker is an animal that something is just not right. I can tell when one neighbor is in their back yard. The dog goes nuts on the fence line.

If it is annoying me, I cannot imagine what their next door neighbors go through. And yeah, their immediate neighbors do not get along with the violators at all.

I try and be polite, if someone is complaining, I try and help them out. Cordial.

 

[mrmikey]

Sound carries...don't discount that.

You're not lying. Every year on the long weekend in September they have a rave for the four days and nights, it's about 4-5km's as the crow flies. I can hear the 'thump-thump-thump' of the 'music', drives me batty. I end up using earbuds so I can sleep.

 

[Dftodd]

I follow our noise ordinances and then some for the most part. In my area Sunday and holidays have no different requirements... A certain decibel limitation from 10pm to 7am, and another for daytime.
I keep a copy of the ordinance on my phone when cutting the 18 semi rural properties I manage just in case, but no one has ever complained.
I cut between 8am and 5 pm weekdays, and during daytime hours landscaping and snowplowing equipment is exempt from the (daytime) decibel spec when the equipment is "operated and maintained in accordance with manufacturer specifications".
I do plow snow beginning much earlier than 7am so people can get to work, which I think is reasonable. No complaints over the years for that either, but my contact specifies that a neighbor complaint will result in their driveway not getting plowed until after 7am.

Heck.... when we plowed snow, we started at 3am. Our customers wanted their driveways cleared, sanded and salted so they could leave for work in the morning.

Never had a noise complaint. If we did, all we would have needed to do was let the rest of our customers know about the complaint.

It was a small town, so our customers would have settled it with the complainer without us even having to say anything

 

[Dftodd]

We have noise ordnances for our area. None of my neighbors are farm lots so they fall into those rules. None of them follow it, or are aware. I have complained to some about their violations, they continue to violate accordingly. I usually get the smart remarks back.

It's pretty loud when you can hear stuff in your house with the windows closed, and you are 1/4 mile away. Sound carries...don't discount that.

We have lawn mower man at 6AM, ATV guy all day, dog barker all day, every day, and our favorites are the party bands over 1/2 a mile away in different directions on weekends from noon until 2AM.

Right now someone is yelling at the dog barker. LOL. (Not me). Dog barker is an animal that something is just not right. I can tell when one neighbor is in their back yard. The dog goes nuts on the fence line.

If it is annoying me, I cannot imagine what their next door neighbors go through. And yeah, their immediate neighbors do not get along with the violators at all.

I try and be polite, if someone is complaining, I try and help them out. Cordial.

I never complained when my neighbor next door would mow his lawn either early morning or at dusk in the height of summer.

You tend to make concessions when it's gonna be 100 plus degrees with high humidity.

 

[mikester]

Being a friendly neighbor is a two way street. I doub the neighbor has a meter to check sound level at the property line. The neighbor was just offended and wanted things their way.

For us the noise ordinances say 9am to 9pm Sundays. At 8pm you are in your right to finish your work assuming your equipment is operating with a proper (read OEM) muffler system.

If you are in the habit of idling your muffler-less Harley Davidson and revving it at 8pm Sunday nights then you can be fined for nuisance noise.

We have a farming neighbour about 500m away who installed an anti-frost motorized windmill this spring. I wasn't too please getting woken up at midnight when his windmill turned on last week when the temps hit 6oC. When his windmill is pointing in certain directions I'm getting 60dB of whap-whap-whap-whap in the house as if a helicopter was landing on my driveway.

WTF there's no frost at 6oC and I'm not clear on what's getting protected at this stage of Fall. I'm SOL though because he's "farming".

 

[oosik]

Yes - around here Sundays mean something also. Gotta get any work I want done before it gets too hot. I live on 80 acres. If my pressure washer was too loud - turn on my tractor to mask the sound.

I've used dynamite to loosen large pine stumps. Even though neighbors are miles away - I'm pretty sure they heard the blast. Just another sound that goes with country living.

I would imagine that there are county or perhaps, even, state noise ordinances. If I create a noise so loud it could be heard in Spokane( 25 miles as the crow flies) - hopefully somebody would come and have a look/see. Maybe just to gather up the pieces.

Hmmmm - folks with just too damn much time on their hands.

 

[Torvy]

How country are you? There are folks that live in the county on 1-5 acres right next to a bunch of other folks. They are fixin' to get on each other's nerves.

Smallest places near me are 15 acres. Only 1 or 2 can be seen from the road. I hear more cows, roosters and crows than anything else at the moment. It is Texas and it gets hot and humid here in the Piney Woods. Most of my work will be from sun up until about 10am or when I get tired.

Around here, there is an unspoken courtesy. Don't make unnecessary noise just because you can. Don't beach about someone else's noise just because you can. If someone were having a party, we'd know about it.

The city was a whole other kettle of fish. Rules that don't get followed and police that don't enforce them anyway. The city's own garbage collection would happen (for dumpsters) between 3 and 5am. Noisy as $$%^ for us lighter sleepers. Violated their own ordinance. A pox on all of them. Glad to be back in a rural area.

 

[2manyrocks]

Hard to say how to respond because none of us know first hand what person you really have on your hands. Sounds like you aren't sure, yourself. Maybe bending a little to try to stay on good terms isn't such a bad idea for now until it becomes clearer how to handle things.

 

[riptides]

How country are you? ...

2 to 5 acre lots zoned residential on one side. About 600 feet away. That's where most of the neighbors who violate the zoning noise ordnance laws are. Rural, farms, surrounded by encroaching suburb types.

One neighbor in back about 1/2 a mile away, with his "factory" mufflers hits over 80db in my house when he rides. He rides right on the property line too. Even though he has 20 acres. I talked with him a few times, he knows it's loud. His next door neighbor threated to call the cops on him. Nice guy, but he just does not get it. I have said what I can say...not bothering him about it anymore...