Do you have a friend whose place you can use during the day while s/he is at work?

Unfortunately you didn't mention the country your're living in.
I'm from Germany and here it's common to join a associations for tenants if you're renting a flat. They give you legal advices and clarify things for you when you have troubles with the lessor. If I were you I would have called an association like this to talk about the situation and get professional tips. In your situation might be very good to know if you're a tenant and if yes: did you rent your flat only for living or also for working? I think the scope of action depends a lot on that.

I might speak to the neighbor and ask him/her to introduce you to the contractor managing the project. If you explain the situation perhaps they can keep you informed? At least give you the rough schedule? Things like painting aren't noisy, so fortunately it won't all be loud. I doubt you are recording all day, either, so perhaps you can find a way to work around it if you know what the hours are going to be or when they are taking lunch. Good luck, hopefully you can work something out!

£ = British

That was pretty rude of your neighbor to not even give you a friendly warning!

work at night?

If you need to use another space, does it actually need to be a studio? Perhaps you could go to a friend's place, a friend's office building, or use a free meeting or study room at a library. If you can't find anything for free, might it be cheaper to rent something at a hotel, whether a guest room or a meeting room?

Good luck... I can slightly relate, as I used to have to do professional-sounding podcasts and webcasts from my home, and was always on edge about noise from neighbors either being too loud or setting off my own pets.

Since you're the one working in an abnormal place (ie not at an office/place more appropriate for the type of work you do) i'd say it's on you to figure this out. Do you not know a single person who would let you work from their house for the month? What if you offered some cooking or cleaning thrown in instead of shelling out $$?

I do think it's kind of lame they didn't give an initial head's up, though. Could you make friends with the contractor and have him contact you?

I would handle it by working at night. It may be inconvenient but it won't last forever.

most builders will not work before a certain hour and after a certain hour....can you do your

work very early in the morning or at night?

introduce yourself to the builder and contractor because they may help you understand

their work schedule for the project.....good luck

I SO relate. Our neighbors will be demolishing their building to rebuild shortly. We have a vacation rental on our ground floor which will be impacted for many months. We're hoping to set up loud noise parameters with our neighbors. We'll need to reduce our vacation rental rates for the inconvenience which will end up cutting our gross in half, I think. Ultimately, I think it is best to make sure that your neighbors truly know how this is impacting your livelihood. Perhaps they will speed up the process and make amenities in that regard once they are informed. One can hope! Good luck to us both.

ouch I would be stressed out. Talk to your neighbor would be the first thing I would do , hopefully they will work with you.

That is a tough situation, but I don't think you should expect the builder to be able to tell you what noise levels to expect. "We'll be particularly noisy on Thursday..." - not going to happen. If you asked me that, I would tell you to expect loud noises all the time.

No one is ever going to speed up a project to satisfy a neighbor's need for quiet time. I would try the suggestions to find a quiet spot at a friend's house. Good luck!

I would agree witha lot of things people have already said. I'm going to assume that you either own a condo or are renting a condo (not just renting in an apartment building witha ll rentals since the new owner is renovating). Given my assumption I would also consider talking to the condoboard.

There are usually rules and regulation in the condo bylaws set in place for renovations. I know in my condo building loud work can only be done M-F from 8am to 6pm and saturday from 8am-6pm (but only on saturday if they have permission from the condoboard).

I would suggest confirming the days and times they are allowed to be loud and request that the condoboard reminds the new owner of those dates and time and that loud work can only be done during that time frame. Usually violations of these rules can mean the board can fine the new owner. You could also request the board doesn't give permission for noisy work on saturdays.

From there just knock on the door and talk to the contractor about the situation and if they could give you an outline on the schedule. You may not have been able to get info from the new owner but the contractor should have a general idea of what they're doing.

For a month or a portion of the month you might have to switch your schedule so that you work from 6 or 7pm to early in the morning. It'll suck but at least you wont be forking out all that money. Or try to find a friend's house you can drag your equipment to. Again it will suck because I'm assuming you have computer and audio gear but it's better than forking out the extra cash.

I would try the condoboard first and have them clarify the hours the contractor is allowed to work and have them deal with some of the issue.

I would bet you have a special setup with a mic that works for your voice and a special area to do the work so I understand what you are facing. I would probably recommend working at night if at all possible. Inconvenient, yes, but saves money and keeps your clients happy. Have a backup if a client needs a change done in two hours. I would bet going to any old house wouldn't work. Good Luck!

'No one is ever going to speed up a project to satisfy a neighbor's need for quiet time. I would try the suggestions to find a quiet spot at a friend's house. Good luck!'

I disagree. I've had many gracious neighbors go the distance to be neighborly and I try to do likewise. I don't expect a neighbor to work exactly to my schedule, but I do think that a compromise can often be reached.

Oooh gosh, you so have my sympathy. I'm dealing with construction across the street from me, and my family has also been plagued by longterm construction projects by their neighbors as well. At least the construction near you will only be for a month. Before my stepmom joined our family she lived next to a delusional egomaniac who did construction from 7AM to 9PM (which unbelievably, is legal in that part of LA), and her sister had an even more unfortunate neighbor. His construction lasted for 2.5 years, and he kept stadium lights on all night long and had an armed guard sleeping on the site. It was utterly insane. She couldn't sell her condo because nobody wanted to live next to that insanity, so she was stuck.

Anyway, on to your problem. Try to shift your sleep / work hours. Soundproof your room as much as possible, and wear earplugs so you can hopefully sleep longer into the day. If you are able to wake up later, you'll hopefully will have the stamina to work at night after the construction has finished. It sucks, I know. :(

No suggestions on the noise other than what others have suggested. I do suggest hanging your artwork with earthquake proof picture hangers like these:

http://www.amazon.com/OOK-50938-Kidsafe-Tremor-Hanging/dp/B002YLT9LE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1363213483&sr=8-2&keywords=earthquake+proof+picture+hangers

They might bang around but won't fall and break. I use them for everything on my walls here in the PNW where we actually have to worry about earthquakes.

I agree with those who said to shift your work hours. It's only a month and as long as they're working within what ever the local guidelines about working hours, permits etc there's not much you can do about it.

You can't expect no one in your building to do construction because you work from home.

Can you look in to renting a studio space for any jobs that have to be done during this time or speak directly to the contractors?

I feel your pain as I've been in that exact scenario and I too do voice over and marketing work from home. I talked to my neighbor and she shared what the project time line was but there really is no way to anticipate "noisy" days. What I ended up doing was switching my schedule to start my recordings after their work day ended. Most construction crews end at 3pm so it wasn't like I was working late into the night. I just used the day to work on paperwork or mixing with noise canceling headsets and sometimes just packed a lunch and checked out the city. It ended up being hardly painful at all and I gained a new friend with the neighbor and construction project manager. Because most condos or tenant building severely restrains the hours they can work, it made far more sense for me to be flexible and allow them to stay on schedule and finish faster than waste everyone's time fighting about it.

Yeah, I just had to deal with this yesterday, and I asked a friend if I could borrow her house for a few hours. Tougher when it comes to recording, though. If there's nothing you can do about the noise (and if they are within the local noise by-laws, there really isn't), you will have to work at a different time or work somewhere else. Do you have any musician friends who work other jobs during the day? One of them might have a useful space you could borrow. Other than that, yeah, studio time is pricey. :( Maybe your neighbour would be willing to split the cost with you, since he can't determine the working times?

Shift your work hours. The more you let them do their work unhindered the faster it will get done. It's an unfortunate temporary situation but you'll just have to tough it out.

As someone that also works from home, I sort of have to laugh at the "can't you work at night" comments. There's a limit to that. Sure, you can change your schedule and work into the night, but if the construction is very loud then when is it that you are supposed to SLEEP?

Also, working from home generally means less interaction with people who live near you. Think about it--most people make friends from co-workers or in school, etc. It is entirely plausible that the OP doesn't know anyone well enough to crash at their place for recording. When faced with losing that much money, I'm sure the OP would have taken that into consideration first thing!

Definitely make yourself known to the contractor, OP. That is incredibly rude of your new neighbor to not even TRY to let you know the schedule or get you in touch with someone who would.

Do you have a local library? A music school nearby? Libraries sometimes have enclosed study carrels and/or listening rooms. They are often quiet enough to record in. A local business with an unused conference room might rent it to you. I have encountered this problem before and luckily I live within driving distance of a large university. It was in between class sessions so I was able to talk my way into using a university study carrel to get a recording done.

Follow up comment - try your best to soundproof your space on a reasonable budget so that if you shift your hours, you can more peacefully sleep later into the day so you can work at night. Hang up heavy, lined curtains; put machines that generate white noise like fans, humidifiers, a MarPac in your sleeping area; and get some quality ear plugs. All of this could be put to use again in the future if you ever encounter more construction or other noise. If you have more than one bedroom, sleep in the one farthest away from the construction. Obviously, all the white noise would interfere with your work, but if you did all this it should help you to sleep later into the day. Sleep till 10 or 11. Have breakfast, go out for fresh air and socializing, and come back later in the afternoon and start working when they're winding down. You could work from 6 to 1, then settle down and sleep. Another tip - sleep on your side and put a pillow over the ear facing up. That's what I do, even though it's bizarre and mildly uncomfortable. I'm a college student living directly across the street from a MASSIVE constructive project that has gone on since October, and I've employed a lot of these measures so I can sleep past 7 when they start and keep my sanity.

Midtown crossing has the worst construction noise ever! I have lost an hour of sleep a day for the last month. Please Help! I put an offer on a house just to get some sleep.

I am an actress in Los Angeles and do voice over work from home as well from time to time. People, you can't just do these recordings "anywhere." People pay us for FLAWLESS quality files that just won't cut it if you did it in a non-sound insilated area. I had this problem in my old building with someone who had a loud dog who literally barked all the time. Even though I worked for animal control at the time and KNEW the rules about dogs barking, etc. My fight with the neighbor/landlord was LOST because apparently as a renter you are NOT allowed techinically to "work" out of your unit so therefore my requests for also just wanting to know "hey, when is your quiet time" was denied, laughed at, and I eventually moved. Plus people don't seem to understand that what we do IS "real work." But yet they just want all of those radio commercials to magically appaear somehow. The chances at that commercial being from someone's home studio is most likely now a days.