9 May 2016

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As construction activity gathers pace in Christchurch people are being urged to be considerate of their neighbours when planning major building work.

Christchurch City Council fields a number of complaints each month from residents disturbed by the noise from neighbouring construction sites.

Council Environmental Compliance Team Leader Nigel Grant said it was inevitable during a rebuild as large as the one underway in Christchurch residents would have to put up with some construction noise, but there were rules that should be followed.

From Monday to Saturday there should be no noisy construction activity on site before 6:30am.

On Sundays and public holidays noise on site should also be kept to a minimum, meaning no use of power tools or any other noisy machinery.

Mr Grant said people having repairs or construction work done should be respectful of neighbours and where possible give them prior notification of the planned work.

Radio noise or the noise of workers yelling or shouting on a construction site was not regulated by Construction Noise Standards but should be minimised in the interest of maintaining friendly relations with the neighbours.

Mr Grant said if people had an issue with the level of noise coming from a site they should, in the first instance, approach the builder or contractor. If noise from site continued to be a problem, they could lodge a noise complaint with the Council.

If the Council investigated and found the site was exceeding permitted noise levels, notice could be served to abate the excessive noise.