May I drill, saw, renovate or make building noise on a Sunday or in the evening?

What is not allowed, what is required?

• In Flanders and Wallonia there are no regional hours for renovation work at home. The hours are in your municipality's police regulation (politiereglement / règlement général de police).
• In many municipalities the rule is in the lawn-mowing article: motor-driven garden, DIY and building tools are banned on Sundays, public holidays and at night. Example: in Grimbergen, completely on Sundays and holidays, and between 22:00 and 07:00 on other days (art. 237).
• The hours differ from one municipality to another. Example: in Namur, within 100 metres of homes, chainsaws, lawnmowers and noisy motorised machines are banned on weekdays between 22:00 and 07:00; on Sundays they are allowed only between 10:00 and 12:00 (art. 189).
• Some municipalities have a separate rule for tools such as saws that starts earlier than the night-time quiet. Example: in Boom and Hemiksem, banned from 20:00 to 07:00 on working days and from 20:00 to 09:00 on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays (art. 2.7.4).
• In Brussels, building-site work is banned on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays; on other days it is allowed only between 07:00 and 19:00 (RRU Title III art. 4). Pile driving, rubble crushing and jackhammers are allowed between 07:00 and 16:00.
• In Brussels, work you do yourself on your own home or garden is not covered by that building-site rule, as long as the disturbance does not go beyond the normal nuisance between neighbours. But on Sundays, public holidays and from Monday to Saturday between 17:00 and 09:00, you must respect the regional noise limits (decree of 21.11.2002, art. 2).
• Most rules cover tools used outdoors. For work indoors, such as drilling, the general noise rule applies: do not disturb your neighbours needlessly. Some municipalities, such as Ghent, have no specific hours.
• Tell your neighbours before noisy work and group it in the daytime on weekdays. In Brussels, if the project owner (maître d'ouvrage) wants work to be done at other hours, they apply to the mayor by registered letter at least 10 working days before the work starts.

Penalty and indirect consequences

Why does this rule exist?

The noise of drilling, sawing and breaking travels easily through walls. In Belgium, houses are often joined together. Rules on hours protect everyone's rest, especially on Sundays and at night.