Urge..to..KILL....RISING!!

The BBQ Pit
1

There’s a hair salon next to our storefront, they’re our next-door “neighbors” (little mini-mall stripmall thing) that’s undergoing renovations, yesterday they gutted it to the walls (blocking our storefront with their moving VANS (yes, vans, plural) ) and put up a plywood wall

today, from 9:00 AM onward, they have some ASSHOLES in there JACKHAMMERING the floor to bits, yes, JACKHAMMERING, right next door, with only an uninsulated particle board wall between us

IT’S SO LOUD IN HERE THAT WE HAVE TO STAND FACE TO FACE AND SHOUT JUST TO HEAR EACH OTHER SPEAK!

when i arrived in the morning, the entire inventory was covered by a fine layer of concrete dust, and the air was 50% concrete particulates, we had to go next door and ask them to move their gasoline generator that was parked in one of our parking spots, AND TO PUT IN AN EXHAUST FAN BECAUSE WE DON’T LIKE BREATHING CONCRETE DUST, (SORRY, THEY’RE HAMMERING AGAIN…)

GRAAAAHHHHHHH!!! MACTECH SMASH JACKHAMMER!!

couldn’t they have (Dear Og, they’ve started AGAIN!!!) DONE THIS IN THE EVENING, AFTER ALL THE OTHER BUSINESSES HAVE CLOSED??, WOULDN’T THAT make sense…

i’m not the only one complaining either, all the other businesses, the Quiznos, the Chinese resturant, Pizza Hut, heck even the scumbag PAYDAY LOAN CRIMINALS (SORRY, THEY’RE AT IT AGAIN…) ARE SICK OF IT, I SAY WE GET ALL THE store employees together and get a lynch mob going, i’d imagine the sodding jackhammer won’t work as well rammed through their skull…

to make matters worse, the stupid hair salon employees complain whenever we demo the iPod Hifi by cranking the volume, well, screw them, they’ve just lost all rights to that argument, we’re not the ones making SO MUCH NOISE THAT WE CAN’T CONDUCT BUSINESS, HECK WE CAN’T EVEN TALK ON THE PHONE WHEN THEY’RE hammering (not that that’s a BAD THING, MIND YOU!!!)

Screw you, Hair Excitement, pissing off your next door neighbors is not a good business decision, especially when you’re one of the landmarks we use to help customers find our store (“we’re in the Bowlorama plaza, right between the Quiznos and Hair Excitement”), not anymore, the landmark will now be Quiznos and the Kim Lai Chinese resturant…

2

Heh. I thought you wrote Hair Excrement.

3

Have you tried contacting either the property management department of leasing department of the company that owns the center? I work for a commercial real estate company and we are building out a couple of our shopping centers. We let the tenants know that their contractors are NOT to do concrete work during regular business hours.

4

MMMMMM, Quiznos.

5

It’s quiet now…too quiet…

…that only means they could start back up again at any time…

however, i did think of a great passive-agressive way to stop any further jackhammering tomorrow…

go to the hardware store and get a couple big, thick eyebolts, and a shrouded industrial padlock…

wait till the workers leave, drive the eyebolts into the plywood wall, then hook the lock through the eyebolts, voila, they’re locked out of the place and we get peace and quiet…

6

There doesn’t just happen to be a bank just down the street, does there? If so, you might want to start angling now for a cut.

7

…AND THEY’VE FUCKING STARTED AGAIN!!!

<MacTech seriously contemplates bringing his good freind Mr. Mossberg to work with him tomorrow**>

**not really, but it’s fun to fantasize about Mr Mossberg having a few “words” with the generator and jackhammer
Hmm, rent an Arc welder and weld the jackhammer shut?

8

Weld it to someone. Think creatively.

9

Dear OG, NOW THERE ARE TWO OF THEM!!! AND THEY’RE GOING TO BE DOING THIS CRAP ALL WEEK. I NEED THERMITE, NOW!!!

EVEN WORSE, THE LANDLORD KNOWS THIS IS GOING ON AND DOESN’T CARE!!

10

Time to inform the landlord that you will be looking for a new location once your lease is up. That is a totally unacceptable way to do business. Actually, I’d say it’s more the landlord’s fault then it is the hair salons.

11

Friend of mine strongly recommends not waiting until then and finding a good lawyer to go after the landlord with a nice big stick. Key words to use: “Withholding”, “rent”, and “class action” on grounds that, as you say, it’s impossible to do business with all that going on, not to mention the demonstrable health hazards (concrete dust, anyone? Not to mention progressive hearing damage from listening to that racket) and the loss of revenue.

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers, nor do we play lawyers on TV. Go find a real lawyer in your jurisdiction. :smiley:

12

I’d call the Building Inspector. The dust alone should be enough to shut them down, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are strict noise regulations as well. Something that loud is probably injurious to your hearing.

13

Don’t forget “Constructive Eviction”.

14

Well, they apparently were jackhammering all Saturday, took a break Sunday, and were back at it this morning, and are still at it…

i’m fucking SICK of it, the contractors actually came in this afternoon and gave us some weak platitudes and apologies, and said they’ll try to finish up tonight (that’s what they said late Friday afternoon as well)

this constant, unending hammering has got me so frakking stressed, that i’m starting to come down with a case of Shell Shock (PTSD), i mean, it sounds and feels like we’re under constant machine-gun fire…

oh, and it gets better, apparently the reason it’s taking so long to break up the floor is that the contractors were expecting 4" of concrete slab flooring to bust up, turns out there’s 8", and apparently, they’re going to rest the scrap concrete against our wall tonight, they reccomended that we “reinforce that wall, as the concrete might break through, also, you might take the merchandise off that wall, as it could get knocked off”

sorry, guys, but it’s YOUR JOB to deal with the scrap concrete, and that job does not involve potentially wrecking our displays, or giving our employees PTSD, why don’t you jackhammer in the EVENING, AFTER EVERYONE ELSE IS FUCKING CLOSED!!!

I’ve gone so far as to go to wally-world and pick up a pack of those squishy foam earplugs to at least partially block out their constant hammering

FUCKING DIE, jackhammers!

15

As a few others suggested, I’d document the work (pics, vid, whatever) and go play hardball with the building owner. Also take it down to the building inspector.

Hit them in the wallet where it hurts

16

Check your lease for terms like “peaceable enjoyment” or similar.* It means that you have the right to expect to have reasonable use of your space and that the building owner and management are required to provide you with an environment free of undue impediments to your “enjoyment” of your leased space. If the clause exists (it’s fairly standard), then they are in breach of the lease agreement and you can jerk a knot in their tails over it.

*[sub]Not a lawyer, not legal advice, probably completely wrong on all counts and you’d be an idiot to take advice from an anonymous message board from a guy named for a vegetable.[/sub]

17

Dude, call a lawyer already. While I know next to nothing about the law, it seems to me that if you cannot conduct business, then you have a very solid basis to do something. You probably won’t even have to go to court, just having a lawyer say a few of those choice phrases posted above will probably get the landlord to change his tune.

18

Call your Health Department and ask them to send out a health agent with a noise meter. There should be noise level ordinances in your town and if the health agent finds the jackhammering exceeds the acceptable limits, s/he will order it stopped.

19

Are you just here to bitch or are you going to try and do something about it? Expecting neighboring businesses to function amidst rubble and hellaciously loud noise is UNACCEPTABLE! Call your property manager!

20

the building owner has been contacted, and safe to saqy, he’s as pissed off as we are, especially considering the jackhammering next door (thank OG it’s over!) has caused three large cracks in our wall, from floor to ceiling