Loud building works at home

[Vicky2021]

Hi all,

I have been having a home extension and have kept my guinea pigs in my front bedroom throughout.

I’m concerned as this week an external wall will be broken through downstairs which is pure concrete, this will be VERY loud for 1-2 hours. I will cover their cages and block under the bedroom door with a towel but I am feeling anxious about it.

The stairway is being blocked off to prevent dust travelling so I can’t be upstairs with them or I risk dust getting up where they are.

The neighbour last year was hammer drilling (adjoining terrace) for weeks into my walls and although they did panic at times, they seemed pretty unphased after a while which I was surprised at.

Anything else I should be doing? Are guinea pigs quite resilient?

 

[Bradshaw Piggies]

I think you are doing everything right. Piggies do show ability to adapt to and cope with noise. Whenever we have done any work on the house, mine haven't been bothered.

I find they react to sudden noises, rather than constant loud noise. For example, if I drop something in their room, they all zoom off to their safe spots! Yet if we were using a drill in the house, they don't bother!

It;s good you are putting measures in place to protect them from any concrete dust. Be sure to protect yourselves too, concrete dust can be dangerous.
Is there a window in their room, that you can leave slightly open for air flow whilst they are barricaded in their room?

Just check on your piggies every now and then to make sure they are ok. I'm sure they will cope just fine

 

[Piggies&buns]

Do you have outside space? If the weather is nice and your piggies are used to time with grass, perhaps they could go out in a run while the noisiest work is being done?

 

[Vicky2021]

I think you are doing everything right. Piggies do show ability to adapt to and cope with noise. Whenever we have done any work on the house, mine haven't been bothered.

I find they react to sudden noises, rather than constant loud noise. For example, if I drop something in their room, they all zoom off to their safe spots! Yet if we were using a drill in the house, they don't bother!

It;s good you are putting measures in place to protect them from any concrete dust. Be sure to protect yourselves too, concrete dust can be dangerous.
Is there a window in their room, that you can leave slightly open for air flow whilst they are barricaded in their room?

Just check on your piggies every now and then to make sure they are ok. I'm sure they will cope just fine

Great thank you!
That’s a good point re sudden noise, mine run if I sneeze but are in their tray eating hay unphased when the drill is going downstairs .

I was going to open the window but I’m a bit concerned as it seems to be fly season round here and I’m worried about them getting fly strike. I bought them a small fan I could leave on?

I’ll have to leave the house until the dust settles so fortunately I won’t be around the dust, but the builders are doing two layers of dust protection on the stairs (one at bottom and top) as they’re aware my guinea pigs are my pride and joy ! So that’s nice of them.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi

Run a radio on a music station in the room to provide some extra white noise. If they have experienced building noise before and have come through it, then they will be a bit less bothered about it in my own experience with my neighbour extending their semi for 5 months and then us needing to extend our lounge further between their new extension and our own older kitchen extension to get some light back into the room.

 

[Vicky2021]

Do you have outside space? If the weather is nice and your piggies are used to time with grass, perhaps they could go out in a run while the noisiest work is being done?

I do but I have 4 Guinea pigs (both sets live separately) and one run annoyingly! I’ll be out of the house for a good few hours. 2 of my females absolutely hate being in the run, it’s so strange.
I bought them recently and they spent 3 years in a tiny cage so I upgraded them big time, and I use their old small cage to put them in whilst I clean them out and they tend to get very excited to go back to their old one, popcorning but won’t come out in the run etc kind of sad really! They’re quite chilled, maybe that’s why

 

[Vicky2021]

Hi

Run a radio on a music station in the room to provide some extra white noise. If they have experienced building noise before and have come through it, then they will be a bit less bothered about it in my own experience with my neighbour extending their semi for 5 months and then us needing to extend our lounge further between their new extension and our own older kitchen extension to get some light back into the room.

Good idea! Ok I’ll do that, thank you

 

[Bradshaw Piggies]

Great thank you!
That’s a good point re sudden noise, mine run if I sneeze but are in their tray eating hay unphased when the drill is going downstairs .

I was going to open the window but I’m a bit concerned as it seems to be fly season round here and I’m worried about them getting fly strike. I bought them a small fan I could leave on?

I’ll have to leave the house until the dust settles so fortunately I won’t be around the dust, but the builders are doing two layers of dust protection on the stairs (one at bottom and top) as they’re aware my guinea pigs are my pride and joy ! So that’s nice of them.

They tend to only get fly strike if they are kept in poor hygiene. So a few hours of fresh air shouldn't cause too much harm (unless you are literally swarmed by flies). I only open my window slightly as mine are in open cages and i don't want birds/predators getting in.

It sounds like you have everything in place that you need