What hours can building work be done?

Noise from construction is regulated separately from planning and building approval. States set the framework through environment protection legislation, and councils add conditions on individual approvals, which means the hours on a large site can differ from the general rule.

The usual pattern

• Weekdays from around seven in the morning to early evening.
• Saturdays with a later start and an earlier finish.
• No work on Sundays and public holidays, or only work that generates no audible noise off site.
• Tighter restrictions for particularly noisy activities such as rock breaking and piling, sometimes limited to specific hours within the permitted window.

If work is happening outside the hours

1. 1Check the approval. Larger projects display a sign with the permit number and often the approved hours, and conditions can be looked up with the council.
2. 2Raise it with the site supervisor first. On most jobs this resolves it, because the builder does not want a complaint on record either.
3. 3Complain to the council, which enforces approval conditions.
4. 4Complain to the state environment protection authority for persistent or serious noise.
5. 5Keep a dated log of times and activities, since enforcement runs on a pattern rather than on a single instance.

Emergency and urgent repair work is generally exempt, which is why a burst main can be dug up at two in the morning without anyone breaching anything.