Construction along Glebe View

Hi,

I live off Glebe View, very close to the construction sites and have noticed that construction of new houses along that road seems to start earlier and earlier these days. While I can appreciate it starting around 7 a.m. (and this includes the weekends) and ends around 7 p.m., is it really necessary to start at 6 a.m. or earlier? This seems to be a bit excessive. Does anyone know the times the builders are supposed to build?

This isn't the first early morning I've been woken up to by construction noise, and I'd just appreciate if anyone could provide me with guidelines? I've already called the project manager at Van Metre to no avail.

Thanks,

Lisa

 

My neighbor is moving up there, and they've changed the date on them a few times. My guess is they're trying to get them done as quickly as possible, so working during all sunlight hours.

 

I'll also mention that when we first moved in, we were one of the early houses, and yes, we were woken up around 6 am by the construction noise. The good part about it at that time was that I needed to be up by 6:30 anyway ... the bad part was that it also happened on Saturday.



Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

I thought that there was a noise ordinance in effect that forced the builders to not start up any equipment until 7am. I could be wrong though. Goes for all loud noises not just from builders.

 

Lost - correct. Start time is 7 AM.

 

This brings back memories! When we moved in, both adjoining lots and the one across the street were vacant, and I remember the following summer when they'd change the industrial dumpster at 5:30 a.m.: "brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmBANG!!! bang. (bang)
What a way to start the day.

Barbara Munsey, from South Riding.

 

Just for future reference, I did contact Mark Holliday, the Van Metre project manager, who replied to my inquiry as follows:

Work is not suppose to begin before 7 AM and we try to stop by 8PM. The County ordinance is from 7 AM to 11PM I think. I will speak with the construction department about the time for the work that is going on. If this continues, you can call the sheriff's department and have them cited for this.

Please let me know if you have any other questions and thank you for your time a patience with this.

So, while I did not want to involve the police in this, I guess I may have to if the builders are telling me to do so. As I said, I can understand work starting at 7 am (even on Saturdays), it just seems like 6 am is just a tad too early to hear that neverending construction noise.

 

I checked on this a while ago (also living on Glebe View) and when I checked the county's noise ordinances (very difficult to find too), the times listed there were 6 am to 11 pm. I never bothered following up with Van Metre about it assuming that they were allowed to start at 6 am.

I just wish Van Metre would get back to me about the damage caused to my house by the blasting across the street.

 

Both Van Metre and Loudon County Sherrif's office told me the noise ordinance is from 7 am to 11 pm. Just out of curiosity, what kind of damage did your house sustain? The blast certainly rocks my house, so I've been really worried about this as well.

In case you don't have this information, the project manager at Van Metre in charge of this construction project is Mark L. Holliday and he can be reached at mholliday@vanmetrehomes.com or at 703-723-3800, ext 869. They sent us a letter a while ago in the beginning of construction. Hope this helps, if you didn't already have this info.

Good luck!!

 

It wasn't the actual blasting that caused our trouble but when they were doing something with another heavy piece of equipment to level the lost before pouring the concrete foundation. There was constant vibration throughtout a couple of days in a row of construction.

What that meant was that in our master bathroom, one of the mirrors over the sink vibrated all day long, pulling the drywall anchors out of the wall. The mirror could come down at any moment. We also had the light fixture above the mirror literally fall off the wall (which I fixed myself).

There could be other damage in the house that I haven't noticed or recognized. As an experiment, I haven't dusted an entertainment center in our living room since before the construction. You can literally see the tracks in the dust where the vases and other knick-knacks have "danced" their way across the shelves.

Van Metre did send a representative out to document the damage. We were told that a report would be written up and someone would get back to us. This was a few weeks ago and it took a month after initially reporting the problem for anyone to call us.

 

I today, noticed 3 cracked windows in my house. I live right next to the building site on Glebe View. How do I contact Van Metre?

 

To contact Van Metre:

Director in charge at Van Metre of this construction project is
Mark L. Holliday and he can be reached at mholliday@vanmetrehomes.com or at 703-723-3800, ext 869. They sent us a letter a while ago in the beginning of construction.

A while ago, an independent representative came out and surveyed our house before construction started to make sure we don't file any false damage reports. We never got a copy of that. Did anyone else?

Lisa

 

Sounds like you dust the way the Munsters do! [:0]

 

This morning at 6:20 am, Loudoun Valley Roofing was out hammering away across the street from us.

Per instructions, my husband did call the sherriff's office. They said they would send someone out to speak with the supervisor but we never saw anyone come by.

I also e-mailed Mark Holliday because he obviously needs to do more than simply "talk" to his contractors.

I realize it is hot but honestly, I really don't care. If they aren't supposed to start work before 7 am, then they shouldn't be starting work before that time period. If it was raining and they had to reschedule the work, they would. Same thing should go for excessive heat.

I'm not totally unfeeling as I've had outdoor jobs in the summer time which were absolutely miserable. Yes, I cam cracky. My husband had a 3 am install which automatically meant a lack of sleep on our part and when he was able to go to bed at 5:45 only to be reawakened half an hour later, that's unacceptable.

 

You moved into a construction zone. What do you think your other neighbors went through while your house was being built?
If your husband went to sleep at 5:45 then 7 am noise wouldn't have sounded any sweeter- you probably have to try some white noise.
I use a loud air purifier for the baby and it works great. We are close to construction too.

 

??
She did not move into a construction zone, the construction zone came 5 years after our homes were constructed.
Maybe she just expects them to obey the same noise restrictions that we residents are subject to.

 

I did not move into a construction zone (as noted in the post above mine). Even if I had, I do not expect construction taking place outside of the hours of 7 am - 11pm which are the hours allowed for such activities by the county.

Had our house been constructed outside of those time periods, I hope our neighbors would have called the sherrif's office on our contractors too!

Construction isn't pleasant and I'm not complaining about the noise during allowable hours, nor the lunch wagon where the people running it are hanging out in the middle of the road, nor the mysterious "no parking" signs that appeared one day telling me I could not park in front of my own home that just as mysteriously disappeared the next day, nor the people turning their trucks around in my driveway nor my daughter and I having breathing difficulties caused by the extra pollen and dust from the blasting this spring nor the difficulty in backing out onto the street because of idiots who speed on Glebe View while illegally passing trucks on the right simply because they feel the construction trucks are going too slow. My complaint is that Van Metre has stated what hours during which construction may take place and their contractors are disregarding those instructions.

As for my husband and lack of sleep, he knew he'd be tired after a 3 am install and he went to bed early last night because of that. He expected to get a little over an hour of sleep afterward instead of 35 minutes. There's no point in even attempting to get a little sleep if that's the case.

Either the laws and ordinances mean something or they don't. I thought they applied to everyone. I guess not.

 

They should definitely stay within the aloowable hours- I am totally with you on that. Hope you can resolve it! If not, try an air purifier.

 

As was mentioned previously. If the contractors are not staying within the hours of 7 am and 11 pm, you are perfectly within your rights to call the sheriff's dept at their non-emergency number of 703-777-1021.

IMHO ... until all of Broadlands is built out, the entire area is a construction zone !! Wait until they start building the 1 acre lots in the area between Glebe View and Rt 659!

Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

1 acre lots! wow - those should be nice, starting at $1m?? There goes the property taxes again

A concern with the construction is that nails and other sharp debris will make their way on to Glebe View creating the potential for flat tires. Is there a street sweeper that goes around the neighborhood regularly?