Meet the neighbors: How's it going for woodcutters?

[StihlyinEly]

Hey all:

A question posed in a different thread led me to ask this more general question here.

For all you woodburners, do any of your neighbors get upset with the racket of chainsaws and splitters? Mostly I guess this question is aimed at city dwellers, as the issue isn't generally too bad out in the country, where people are spread farther apart (except for some tight developments in rural areas).

We're lucky in Ely. The town has a long history of burning wood for heat, going all the way back to its founding and continuing through today. A neighbor on one side burns wood for heat, and so do the four neighbors in a row across the street from me. So April tends to be a festival of chainsaws, and there's really no one around who would complain.

Personally, I don't cut before 9 a.m. or after 8 p.m. to make sure I don't wake or keep anyone up unnecessarily.

I know that other folks have had problems with neighbors who have problems with the noise, so I thought I'd ask and see what experiences y'all have had.

 

[gtsawyer]

No complaints yet, but I think I entertain them with the firewood fetish.

We'll see if they're still smiling when they get back from vacation and find their backyard tree cut, blocked, split and stacked on my pile. j/k

On a related note, I'm looking for an electric saw to be a better neighbor.

 

[gwiley]

Since the sound of my saws, skid steer and other equipment are often punctuated by the neighbors firearms/target practice I don't expect any complaints. But then I live in a place where you can't see the neighbors due to distance/woods.

 

[CWME]

Hey all:

Personally, I don't cut before 9 a.m. or after 8 p.m. to make sure I don't wake or keep anyone up unnecessarily.

I do the same thing as you.

I am getting ready for my first full year of burning for our new house so I have been cutting wood for quite a while now. I am almost done with what I think will be enough wood for 2 years(10 cords). The Lady behind me stopped and asked if I was almost done for the year last week. So I am starting to get on the nerves I think. But hey, I have been cutting and splitting while everyone else has been inside watching TV. I will be done when they are outside and enjoying the weather.
My Town has a noise ordinance so she could shut me down if she wanted to. A call to the local PD and they issue me a warning. If I don't stop they can either arest me or fine me, can't remember which. The warning is good for 24 hours at a time. But we haven't got to that point yet.

 

[StihlyinEly]

I do the same thing as you.

I am getting ready for my first full year of burning for our new house so I have been cutting wood for quite a while now. I am almost done with what I think will be enough wood for 2 years(10 cords). The Lady behind me stopped and asked if I was almost done for the year last week. So I am starting to get on the nerves I think. But hey, I have been cutting and splitting while everyone else has been inside watching TV. I will be done when they are outside and enjoying the weather.
My Town has a noise ordinance so she could shut me down if she wanted to. A call to the local PD and they issue me a warning. If I don't stop they can either arest me or fine me, can't remember which. The warning is good for 24 hours at a time. But we haven't got to that point yet.

Do you get wood delivered as logs that you have to cut in your yard, or are you getting your stuff yourself out in the woods? I do both, and when cutting in the woods I tend to also buck to final length before loading. I just do it that way because it's convenient and leaves the mess in the woods instead of my yard, but doing that would remove your noise issue.

Since you've cut two years' worth of wood in one season, basically twice as much woodcutting as you'll be doing per year in future, maybe it won't be much of a problem from here on out.

 

[wigglesworth]

If you look closely, past the recent storm brush pile, way past the grain bins and across the field....yep...that's my neigbor to the north.

to the west..

south...

and finally east...

GOD I LOVE THE COUNTRY.....

In all seriousness though, if I can usually hear my neighbors saw's running when I shut mine off.

 

[Muffler Bearing]

If you look closely, past the recent storm brush pile, way past the grain bins and across the field....yep...that's my neigbor to the north.

to the west..

south...

and finally east...

GOD I LOVE THE COUNTRY.....

In all seriousness though, if I can usually hear my neighbors saw's running when I shut mine off.

You Own That Much Land In Japan?
You Must Be Rich As :censored: :monkey:

 

[Circle B MN]

My neighbors are a fair distance away, but I make it a point still not to saw before 9 or after 7 around the house.

 

[makomakoman]

I do the same thing as you.

My Town has a noise ordinance so she could shut me down if she wanted to. A call to the local PD and they issue me a warning. If I don't stop they can either arest me or fine me, can't remember which. The warning is good for 24 hours at a time. But we haven't got to that point yet.

Really? I doubt that can be a factor as that would ban all outdoor equipment, like leaf blowers, etc..

I had 8+ cord of tree length dumped in my front yard last Oct. No easy access to the back for a pulp truck. My immediate neighbor used to get a kick out of me on top of the pile cutting like a madman.

I don't cut early am or at night either.

 

[Woodcutteranon]

My neighbors are cows. If they start complaining I'll eat them.

 

[avalancher]

I only have one neighbor who has constantly complained about the racket around here, but since he has also complained about smelly cows,braying donkeys, honking geese, loose dogs,fast drivers, etc etc on top of wood splitters and chainsaws the sheriffs department just make an appearance as they are required to, wave from their cop cars and continue on their way.We have no visible neighbors,but even from a distance he has been a pain.Other than that, even my closest neighbors couldnt care less what I do around here short of any nuclear weapons testing.

 

[indiansprings]

I'm lucky, no close neighbors, all rural farm land. Most of our neighbors are wood customers. Around here most guys are up and running at 7 am, not unusual to hear a tractor going down the road. We can hear saws running in the distance in the fall and winter. There's not much firewood cutting going on here this time of year. Everyone's finishing planting, starting to cut hay and busy doing other things. I think the cops would just laugh if someone called in a noise complaint where I live, unless it was late at night.

 

[skmag357]

I do live in an area where my neighbors are close...25 feet on both sides. So far, no one has said anything but I am sure they talk. I don't cut a ton of wood but I will be cutting up a half cord tonight. I will probably run my splitter tomorrow night so I can get it stacked up before the weekend. I try and stop around 830 at night and get started at 9 am. Everyone thinks I am going green by installing my stove...I look at it more as free heat :greenchainsaw:

 

[jerryw66]

I live in a very rural area, neighbors are about a mile away, only 3 of em, all of us have young children in grade school. It's very common, when I fire up a saw, to have some company, the guys around me love 2 stroke engines. They all have snowmobiles, dirt bikes, quads of every type, but only I have also got big saws! My northern neighbor is seriously considering a 7900 dolmar, but knows he'll never really use it. I let them run the mac 125 or 2171 jred, they really grin when the chips are flying. I couldn't imagine living around neighbors that didn't get along. I guess I'm really lucky.

 

[StihlyinEly]

I live in a very rural area, neighbors are about a mile away, only 3 of em, all of us have young children in grade school. It's very common, when I fire up a saw, to have some company, the guys around me love 2 stroke engines. They all have snowmobiles, dirt bikes, quads of every type, but only I have also got big saws! My northern neighbor is seriously considering a 7900 dolmar, but knows he'll never really use it. I let them run the mac 125 or 2171 jred, they really grin when the chips are flying. I couldn't imagine living around neighbors that didn't get along. I guess I'm really lucky.

I've spent a lot of time living in the country in farm and ranch country. I'm not trying to start a city/country fight, but I've had far better luck with farm/ranch neighbors than city folk. I think it's something about everyone being packed in to so tightly together in cities that gets people fixated on details about their lives/properties. It just ain't natural to be laid in alongside each other like sardines.

 

[3fordasho]

I try and buck everything to stove length before I bring it home. That said I've run the chainsaws at home with no complaints. One neighbor did complain to another neighbor about the amount of wood I was collecting and stacking... never said anything directly to me. Straight grained rounds are splitt with the Fiskars, hydralic splitter for everything else - no complaints. I do have a neighbor with a hella loud leaf blower and he takes the brunt of the complaints

 

[gwiley]

I've spent a lot of time living in the country in farm and ranch country. I'm not trying to start a city/country fight, but I've had far better luck with farm/ranch neighbors than city folk. I think it's something about everyone being packed in to so tightly together in cities that gets people fixated on details about their lives/properties. It just ain't natural to be laid in alongside each other like sardines.

Well said. We spent more than a decade living our married lives in suburban settings. When we discovered county living 8 years ago we would rather die than move back to the suburbs. Seriously. It is that big a deal. Every time I visit friends homes or report to work I get that "boy am I glad I don't live like this" feeling.

If someone reading this thinks - "What's the big deal?" you have not made the transition. It takes a year or two to shift your lifestyle to not expect everything to be within 5 minutes of home. Everything we need is 30 minutes or more away - it requires changing the way you live, shop, etc. But once you make the mind-shift you will never, ever be able to revert.

Every time someone at work gripes about their HOA or sits in awe listening to my stories about shooting, running heavy equipment, blowing stuff up, monster bonfires or peeing in my yard they always say "it must be nice".

It is nice. I don't want to start country/city living war - I am just saying that I suspect that if you don't know what I am talking about then you are missing out on a HUGE piece of life.

 

[howellhandmade]

My neighbors are close, but so far they're OK with it. My stacks are in the back, pretty much out of sight, and I buck the logs to 16" on site and split by hand so there's not much noise. I've run saws a lot when trees in my yard were taken down, but there were going to be saws running for that anyway and most of the trees were removed more for my neighbors' benefit than for mine. I'd be more concerned with complaints about smoke -- I can always stop running a saw if it bothers somebody. But on that count, too, with me burning very well seasoned wood in an EPA stove, so far the neighbors haven't had a problem that I've heard about.

Jack

 

[jerryw66]

I had an uncle recently pass away. He lived alone on a mountain side in northern Idaho for over 40 years, some winters he wouldn't go to town for months at a time. I have never known a more satisfied man.

 

[CWME]

Really? I doubt that can be a factor as that would ban all outdoor equipment, like leaf blowers, etc..

If someone views the noise as offensive they can file a report. Chainsaws, leaf blowers, music, shooting, backyard BBQ etc. If the noise is offensive to the individual you have to stop. The cops are pretty good about it normally and take their time getting to you once they know you.

I went through this when I lived at my Mother's house which is in the same town. Old bat across the street would call on me for farting if she could hear it.

I try to cut away from the house but we dropped a bunch of trees for our new house. I had to cut that here and I still have to split everything here.

But so far so good with this set of people around me. The lady next door burns wood and the lady that stopped to talk to me has a fire pit. Worst case I swallow the pride and stack wood or cut wood or give them wood to keep the peace.