What time can home builders by law start work at weekends in the UK?

Builders across the UK are having to abide by guideline times to carry out noisy work on building sites to avoid disturbing people – particularly at the weekend

Builders across the UK tend to start work as early as possible to ensure they can get enough done during the day, especially in the winter months when it gets dark earlier.

But when the sun rises earlier in spring and summer, it can seem like the construction site across from your house has been a hive of noisy activity since dawn.

Sometimes it’s not the professional builders, but the neighbor next door who pulls out the drill and hammer as soon as he wakes up.

In an ideal world, builders would start later so it wouldn’t bother or wake anyone up – especially if it’s on a weekend – but builders have a job to do and they need to start as soon as possible.

A law aims to ensure builders only work at certain times of the day to minimize the impact on those around them.

This means they cannot legally work outside of their allotted hours as these restrictions apply across the UK.

When in the week can construction workers start work?

The Pollution Control Act 1974 was introduced to give local authorities the power to maintain and control noise from builders. This includes building and construction sites.

The times when builders start work can vary across the country, as councils are free to set their own hours of work under legislation.

However, regular working hours for the curious can begin at 8:00 a.m. at the earliest and end at 6:00 p.m. between Monday and Friday.

8:00 am start time is based on noisy works. However, construction workers can be on site earlier to prepare something or do quiet work as long as it doesn’t disturb people.

When can construction workers start work on weekends?

Typically, construction workers can start noisy work on a Saturday from 8am to 1pm, making for a shorter day but keeping the same start time as the weekday.

However, this can also vary from municipality to municipality – some may give a slightly later start or end time for noisy work to be carried out.

Loud work is prohibited on Sundays and public holidays.

There are no specific guidelines or rules for these days, but the majority of councils agree and abide by them for their area.

The local council can give builders a warning for anyone not following the rules to avoid prosecution.

However, if builders do not follow noisy work guidelines and laws, they can be prosecuted and fined indefinitely, even under a local government order.

Further fines could be added for each day they failed to follow the applicable rules.

If you are being woken up before 8am or are concerned about working hours in your area, it is best to check with your local council for specific noisy work hours.