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I have a lovely neighbor. He has a lovely Japanese piece of poo poo car that has a stupid big muffler on it that literally shakes my house when he starts the car. He enjoys doing things such as going to work at 6am and waking not just everyone in my house, but all nearby neighbors, as well. Personally, I have spoken to him numerous times. I have gone so far as offering to pay to have the dealership put the stock exhaust back onto his car. He told me no. As a last resort, my neighbors and I have all started calling the police. Problem is, at 6am, nobody wants to call the police. They want to go back to bed. He has gotten numerous tickets for it and stopped driving the car for several months at a time. However, now that the weather is nice, he's driving it again (even though it's really lovely, he thinks it should only be driven in the summer). Anyway, calling the police is ineffective and has not stopped him from waking everyone in the vicinity. I am done with it and need to try something else. My city has a law where no fence can exceed 8 feet 6 inches. However, I can build a fence on my own up to 7 feet with no permit. The extra 18" will require a city inspector and a permit. So, I am to the point where I want to buy a bunch of lumber, and construct a wall at the edge of my property, closest to his driveway. See the picture for layout. Essentially, the property line extends to less than 10 feet away from his driveway. I want to put a 7 foot tall fence right at the edge of my property (allowable, I checked with the city). I will use as solid of wood as I can find and perhaps plant some tall shrubs on my side of the fence to help create more sound dampening. My question is: will this be effective at all? Will the sound be appreciably quieter at all? http://imgur.com/trqttmI Before anyone asks: there is absolutely no convincing him to not drive the car or to put a reasonable muffler on it. I have spoken with him numerous times and we openly hate each other. I will not vandalize his car, if for no other reason than fear of retribution. I can afford the fence materials and am completely willing to spend however much to help quiet the noise of his car. Calling the police is not at all effective and, frankly, feels wasteful of their resources. There is no "just go back to sleep" when he wakes up my young kids (under 5 years old). Once they're up, they're up. He does this predominantly on weekdays and intermittently on weekends. My city does have noise regulations and he is 100% violating them at the hours he drives to work - enforcing these is incredibly tough as it requires a police officer to be parked near his house at the moment he leaves. He has another vehicle which is normally quiet and does not wake anyone no matter how loud he revs it (it's a Scion with stock exhaust). He makes the decision to drive the lovely Honda because ??? TheDeviousOne fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Apr 22, 2016 |
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Apr 22, 2016 03:41
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I very much doubt the proposed fence will lower the volume appreciably.
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Apr 22, 2016 03:55
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grellgraxer posted:I very much doubt the proposed fence will lower the volume appreciably. yeah, I'm not letting some lovely 7 foot fence stop me
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Apr 22, 2016 04:33
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 username post combo
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Apr 22, 2016 04:47
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TheDeviousOne posted:My city does have noise regulations and he is 100% violating them at the hours he drives to work - enforcing these is incredibly tough as it requires a police officer to be parked near his house at the moment he leaves. Look up the law. If the guy isn't violating the law, go back to bed and be annoyed. If he is, be a pain in the rear end until the city gets after him. A 7' wooden fence will do basically nothing.
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Apr 22, 2016 04:56
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Apr 22, 2016 05:07
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The sound barriers they put beside highways near houses are taller than a 2 storey building and made of solid concrete slabs, that's gotta be your basis for this not a wood fence.
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Apr 22, 2016 05:10
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If you build a miniature Berlin Wall of concrete slabs, go the extra distance and get all 8.5 feet, it may be ugly enough to get him to move. Otherwise a decibel meter, a camera, and a notebook logging the time and dates of all his violations would be much cheaper I think.
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Apr 22, 2016 05:22
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Scudworth posted:The sound barriers they put beside highways near houses are taller than a 2 storey building and made of solid concrete slabs, that's gotta be your basis for this not a wood fence.
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Apr 22, 2016 06:33
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Got an HOA? Get them involved.
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Apr 22, 2016 17:30
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INTJ Mastermind posted:Otherwise a decibel meter, a camera, and a notebook logging the time and dates of all his violations would be much cheaper I think. This. Cops are lazy as poo poo and they will try to make it sound like it's a big hassle to do things that they are obligated to do. If he's actually breaking the noise laws he has nothing to hide behind. (Every noise restriction I've ever been familiar with would not allow for starting your thundering lovely car every day in the AM.) If he does it with any regularity it'll be easy to catch him. Be a big loving pain in the rear end to all the authorities - definitely bring up that it's loving up your kids' sleep schedules because people in power tend to want to side with angry parents and away from single dudes with ratty cars. Definitely don't worry about taking away police resources from other things. Who else's job is it to respond to these calls? edit: And yes, the fence will do nothing. I think vandalizing his car and dealing with whatever bitch-rear end retaliation he has in mind would be less wasteful and have more of an effect. Frankly, at that point, you might as well bust his windows open and make it look like a robbery. Cobweb Heart fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Apr 22, 2016 |
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Apr 22, 2016 19:28
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Cobweb Heart posted:This. Cops are lazy as poo poo and they will try to make it sound like it's a big hassle to do things that they are obligated to do. If he's actually breaking the noise laws he has nothing to hide behind. (Every noise restriction I've ever been familiar with would not allow for starting your thundering lovely car every day in the AM.) If he does it with any regularity it'll be easy to catch him. Be a big loving pain in the rear end to all the authorities - definitely bring up that it's loving up your kids' sleep schedules because people in power tend to want to side with angry parents and away from single dudes with ratty cars. Seeding for the legal advice thread.
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Apr 22, 2016 20:09
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Cobweb Heart posted:This. Cops are lazy as poo poo and they will try to make it sound like it's a big hassle to do things that they are obligated to do. If he's actually breaking the noise laws he has nothing to hide behind. (Every noise restriction I've ever been familiar with would not allow for starting your thundering lovely car every day in the AM.) If he does it with any regularity it'll be easy to catch him. Be a big loving pain in the rear end to all the authorities - definitely bring up that it's loving up your kids' sleep schedules because people in power tend to want to side with angry parents and away from single dudes with ratty cars. Well this thread as convinced me that a fence wouldn't be an effective way to get results. I am going to stay away from vandalism. I have no idea what this guy would do if someone were to damage his precious car. He'd immediately suspect me, even though 4-5 other neighbors all equally hate him. Looks like I'm back to calling the police again. Another option: do tall shrubs block this type of noise? Like a bunch of 10 foot arborvitaes planted as close together as possible? Everything I've ever read about sound says it takes mass to absorb the sound waves. My reasoning with the solid wood fence was that it would a) absorb some of the sound and b) block a lot of the soundwaves that would otherwise be headed directly toward my bedroom. Again, I will start calling the police and will ask my neighbors to as well. But, if that doesn't pan out, I want to have another option (aside from vandalism).
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Apr 23, 2016 02:23
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Have you looked at the types of walls/fences they build next to freeways? Some are designed to break up noise like the ones with peaks built on the sides. Or look at windows that are designed to reduce airplane noise. Also, a lot of riced out cars are not street legal. Check your local motor laws about his muffler (or lack of). Then report him to the DMV.
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Apr 23, 2016 03:14
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poo poo. Double post.
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Apr 23, 2016 03:14
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TheDeviousOne posted:Looks like I'm back to calling the police again.
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Apr 23, 2016 05:35
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Insulating your house with rockwool and going for triple pane windows might be effective. Maybe a earthen wall (might take up most of your garden though). Calling the police and or annoying the gently caress out of him is definitely going to be cheaper.
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Apr 23, 2016 10:47
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How old is this guy? I cannot imagine a non mentally handicapped adult acting like this
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Apr 23, 2016 17:12
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Professor Shark posted:How old is this guy? I cannot imagine a non mentally handicapped adult acting like this Most like socially and economically handicapped. Had a neighbor who was section 8 and his family all had the same kind of "gently caress you" attitude to the rest of the neighborhood. Would set pro-sized fireworks off on the street even though there's tons of trees and kindle-like brush around. They used to have a band night that lasted way past the 10:30pm city sound cut-off. They royally butchered "Kashmir" on a regular basis which was kinda like hearing Robert Plant getting raped. Thankfully they moved out (or were kicked out) and we have a super chill single guy living there now. This of course was after half a decade of noise complaints filed by everyone in the neighborhood.
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Apr 23, 2016 18:28
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TheDeviousOne posted:Another option: do tall shrubs block this type of noise? Like a bunch of 10 foot arborvitaes planted as close together as possible? Everything I've ever read about sound says it takes mass to absorb the sound waves. My reasoning with the solid wood fence was that it would a) absorb some of the sound and b) block a lot of the soundwaves that would otherwise be headed directly toward my bedroom. No barrier you could reasonably construct will limit the noise sufficiently.
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Apr 23, 2016 19:17
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TheDeviousOne posted:I have a lovely neighbor. He has a lovely Japanese piece of poo poo car that has a stupid big muffler on it that literally shakes my house when he starts the car. He enjoys doing things such as going to work at 6am and waking not just everyone in my house, but all nearby neighbors, as well. Japanese cars - known for being pieces of poo poo.
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Apr 24, 2016 09:00
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Put a potato in his Japanese car tailpipe every morning until he gets the message. Unless you build a ten foot tall concrete wall between his home and yours, you're not really going to cut down on noise.
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Apr 24, 2016 09:26
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Use the Tony Soprano method to neighbors
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Apr 24, 2016 22:26
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What race's automobiles do you prefer?
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Apr 25, 2016 00:49
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Baronjutter posted:What race's automobiles do you prefer? Collectivist militaristic countries make much better cars. *climbs in vw*
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Apr 25, 2016 07:35
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LOL I was joking, definitely don't vandalize his car. Don't construct anything. Don't spend any money or change anything. Repeatedly call the police on him and try to get your neighbors to do it too regardless of whether they just want to go back to bed and ignore it and let him do whatever he wants. I think you already get that this is what you have to do. My understanding is that eventually the cops will get so tired of multiple people on a street bugging them about one issue that they'll go and do something to make the calls stop. If they seriously say "gently caress every single one of you, we don't like busting assholes in riced-out cars, we like sitting here taking your calls  " you'll know that you've been sucked into some sort of awful upside-down political cartoon universe and we can no longer help you.
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Apr 25, 2016 08:02
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I want to know how loud this really is. 6am is not early. It has got to be quieter than a Harley. Good windows go a long way but that is about all you can do.
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Apr 25, 2016 16:42
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im in a similar situation op my neighbour drives to work everyday on his m198 howitzer and nothing will stop him
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Apr 25, 2016 17:10
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spwrozek posted:I want to know how loud this really is. 6am is not early. It has got to be quieter than a Harley. When do you wake up for 6am to not be early, common city noise laws don't even allow construction before 7-something. It's too early.
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Apr 25, 2016 17:29
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There is a condo backing my bedroom window, my window overlooks their ramp down to the underground parking. Every morning and a few times a day in the afternoon (I think he comes home and then picks up his girlfriend or something every day) he comes and goes. The problem is that he drives a huge raised jeep with an engine that sounds like a semi truck, and the underground parking and ramp focus the sound right onto our window. He also loves to sit and idle in the basement while randomly revving the engine for a good 5-10 min every morning. I don't know if he's just driving a bro'd out American piece of poo poo that needs that long to warm up or what the hell he's doing sitting there revving for so long. Despite all the power it seems to have a hard time making it up the ramp and he has to rev the poo poo out of his stupid jeep just to make it out. Sometimes he doesn't and needs to stop to change gears or give it another go half way up, then he gets mad and just blasts out and down the street. Also his building is all old fussy retired people because it's a condo so I'm sure they must love him. Sometimes there's just no way to deal with the loud annoying people in the world. You just hope they move away or something bad happens to them. Although in your case your rear end in a top hat is actually most likely breaking noise bylaws. My guy is just rumbly and annoying.
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Apr 25, 2016 17:36
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Why not just vandalise his car at his destination?
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Apr 26, 2016 09:38
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Get your neighbours to chip in and buy the cheapest, loudest vehicle you can afford and then set up a roster system so that everyone takes turns at getting up at 5am or whatever time constitutes too-drat-early for the ricer dude and just flog the hell out of that engine for an hour each morning until he gets the message or just moves away.
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Apr 26, 2016 13:40
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spwrozek posted:Good windows go a long way but that is about all you can do. NihilismNow posted:Insulating your house with rockwool and going for triple pane windows might be effective. Double drywall also helps considerably. If you really want to step things up, go plaster and lath.
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Apr 26, 2016 16:14
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Do you own any kind of smart phone? Just take some video of the rear end in a top hat. Three or four days worth of that and go to the PD. If they won't help, go be a pain in the rear end to the city council. Cops really don't like it when the rest of the government comes knocking to tell them to do their loving jobs.
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Apr 26, 2016 16:54
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Don't spend money on this guy. Call it in when it happens and leave it at that. Eventually he'll get worn down whether by paying citations or being yelled at by people.
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Apr 26, 2016 18:27
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Don't do anything stupid and petty. The moment you do the authorities won't look at you as victims of a noisy rear end in a top hat, but a bunch of equally stupid neighbours having a dumb squabble they don't want to deal with.
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Apr 26, 2016 18:31
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If he's getting numerous tickets, I'd say calling the police is plenty effective. Keep on it, eventually he'll wind up with a cop who's sick enough of his poo poo to hook him for an equipment violation. Also what baronjutter said, you wanna stay lily-white here.
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Apr 26, 2016 19:39
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So what would actually happen if a brick was thrown through his window and with no one owning up to it, there was no one tied to the lack of evidence?
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Apr 28, 2016 00:15
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Teach the neighborhood kids a new game called: "Stand outside that guy's house and scream"
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Apr 28, 2016 00:20
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Why are you willing to spend enough to build a fence and line it with 7' tall bushes, but not buy an audiometer and just record it with your phone? I found this on Amazon in like 15 seconds and it looks like it meets your needs.
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Apr 30, 2016 00:04
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