AndyRV7

AndyRV7

Well Known Member
Can any generalizations be made about the level and times of the noise you might make during a build? I am looking at a property to rent (in a gated community). It has a two car garage, and seems to fit a build, but I am wondering how much I am going to be bothering the neighbors. The houses are pretty close together (maybe 30 feet).

Is riveting the loudest part of the project? And how much time in relative terms does that skill take?

For what it is worth, the house is in Leesburg Florida, right near the airport. Anyone else building in that area? I am also wondering if that is a first-flight-friendly airport. I have a little more research to do before committing to anything. Like do they even have hangars available. But regardless of these answers, I am going to have to rent a similar house someplace, so the noise questions remain valid.

Thanks for the advice!

Andy
 
Drilling is fairly benign...

...riveting makes quite a racket, especially for neighbors that only want a quiet "life" and environment.

That said, nothing compares to the racket and shouting that you will utter if (when) you drill into your knee or crack a canopy...
 
noelf said:
...riveting makes quite a racket, especially for neighbors that only want a quiet "life" and environment.

That said, nothing compares to the racket and shouting that you will utter if (when) you drill into your knee or crack a canopy...
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I was thinking the same thing.

Get a belt driven compressor and close the door when riveting and you will be fine.
 
An insulated garage door should help significantly. You might offend some neighbors without it.

Also, make sure you can aircondition your garage if you're going to have to have the door closed in the summer!
 
The rivet gun is the worst...

.....when I am going at it in the garage, the wife can hear it in the house, but she says it isn't disturbing at all. One night while banging away on the c-frame dimpling something, she was coming back from a walk and said she could hear that racket 1/2 mile away.:eek: The DRDT-2 solved that one. I also had a sheriff pull up to the driveway and check me out one afternoon, I guess he was looking for whoever was firing those automatic weapons...:D
 
I was concerned about this as well, and I asked my next-door neighbor one day (after an extended riveting session) if the noise was bothering them. They said "What noise?" Our houses are about 30 feet apart as well. My neighbor on the other side is the crew chief for the B29 based here at the Midland CAF, and he'll come over for a beer once in a while when he hears me riveting, he says "It sounds like home."

Don Jones said:
I also had a sheriff pull up to the driveway and check me out one afternoon, I guess he was looking for whoever was firing those automatic weapons...:D
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I had the local police pull into my driveway one day while I was spraying AKZO, somebody smelled it and thought I was cooking meth and called it in.
 
Guess I am lucky there...

airguy said:
I was concerned about this as well, and I asked my next-door neighbor one day (after an extended riveting session) if the noise was bothering them. They said "What noise?" Our houses are about 30 feet apart as well. My neighbor on the other side is the crew chief for the B29 based here at the Midland CAF, and he'll come over for a beer once in a while when he hears me riveting, he says "It sounds like home."



I had the local police pull into my driveway one day while I was spraying AKZO, somebody smelled it and thought I was cooking meth and called it in.
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My house is parked in the middle of 5 acres so I doubt they could smell anything from that distance. The noise on the other hand;)
 
I built my airplane in a 2 car garage with an outside wall 20' from a neighbor's outside wall. I asked time and time again if the noise bothered them. They said as long as my garage door was closed, they couldn't hear any noise inside their house. They also said that if they were outside, they could hear a little noise, but nothing objectionable.

I found the key to building an airplane in a very close spaced neighborhood was to make sure all of the neighbors were aware that I was building an airplane and occasionally they might hear a little noise or catch a funny smell (primer, for instance). I made it very clear to them that if what I was doing ever bothered them, please let me know. And I followed up on that by touching base with them from time to time. I never had a complaint and I think it was in part due to being proactive.

Also, if a neighbor was having a BBQ or the kids were outside playing, I made sure to prime or paint at some other time.
 
I've been building my airplane in the attached garage in my condo. My experience has been that the compressor can be heard from outside, and the rivet gun can be heard around the block. Do what you can to mitigate the noise: get a "quiet" oil-lubricated compressor, insulate your garage door and close gaps as much as practical, minimize the use of pneumatic tools when you have a choice (rivet squeezer vs. rivet gun, drill press vs. pneumatic drill), and limit yourself to doing the necessary noisy stuff in the middle of the day. But most important, as others have said, foster a good relationship with your neighbors so that they will willingly put up with it ;)
 
Thanks for all the useful opinions. I think I know what I am up against now. I had my second tailwheel lesson today too, so that is helping demystify whether I can build the 7 I want. Thanks again.
 
I live in a neighborhood where the houses are 20 feet apart; I open the garage door when the weather is good. When the riveting starts it is like a general call to all the kids and there dads. Most Saturdays I have all the young help that I can stand. Over the past years that I have been building there has not been one complaint about the noise. I just have to watch the kids, but they are learning to be careful around the garage. The Dads now think that I can do most anything and come over for advice and help on their projects. Good neighborhood relations are all that is needed.
 
BobPerk said:
I live in a neighborhood where the houses are 20 feet apart; I open the garage door when the weather is good. When the riveting starts it is like a general call to all the kids and there dads. Most Saturdays I have all the young help that I can stand. Over the past years that I have been building there has not been one complaint about the noise. I just have to watch the kids, but they are learning to be careful around the garage. The Dads now think that I can do most anything and come over for advice and help on their projects. Good neighborhood relations are all that is needed.
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That's a pleasant picture I hadn't imagined. That was the way it was when I was a kid. Friends with every family on the street.
 
Being a late comer is a disadvantage

I built my RV-6A in the 2-car garage in zero line community of Laguna Hills California for ~7 years before I moved to the Chino Airport. The neighbors could hear the sound of the compressor and the rivet gun but they never complained. I was one of the original buyers in the neighborhood and that gives a little psycological status. I didn't ask I just went to North Plains, Oregon rented a truck, drove the kit home and started to work. I kept the garage door closed and only used the compressor when I had to. Riveting is the noisiest operation and there is a lot of it. I worked in Pasadena and with the daily 4 hour commute I could only work at night. I stopped all noisy operations at 9pm. It got done OK. If you are starting out in an established community that has never experienced this you may have to be more sensitive.

Bob Axsom
 
Meet with the nearby folks

Air conditioning? Definitely. The only reason we completed the build in 18 months was because the environment was conducive to working despite the outside heat. Second, even though you may have a 5hp compressor to handle the heavy duty jobs such as painting, a small compressor that's attached to and fills the 60 gallon tank on your larger compressor will handle 90% of the daily needs.

The little compressor is quiet but with 60lbs of stored air, we rarely needed the 5hp (noisy one) to kick in.

Neighbors? Tell them you're building an airplane and 9 out of 10 will respond: "AN RC MODEL?" Once they learn you actually plan to fly something coming out of your garage, they'll stay far away.

Until you fly it a few times.
 
BobPerk said:
................The Dads now think that I can do most anything and come over for advice and help on their projects.
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So do the moms and kids. Let's see, I've fixed toys, changed batteries that someone couldn't get the cover off of since it had an "odd" screw head, riveted a repair on a plastic skirt of a pickup truck, riveted a license plate on a trailer, fixed a frigerator drawer that had cracked, given advice on how to fix things, gotten a lawn mower to run that couldn't be started, fixed a chain saw, given cold drinks to kids and beer to the dads.

To tell the truth, it was a neighbor strengthening experience. I suspect it would have been the opposite had I been a drummer in band.

However, most of the time a head popped in the door with a Hey...Whatcha working on today......need any help???

It's still amazing to hear the kids go......WOOOOWWWWW, COOOOOOLLL
 
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