Half of Brits say mowing the lawn before 9am is unacceptable

Has your Sunday morning lie-in been ruined by the intrusive drone of a neighbour’s lawnmower? Then you are not alone.

Seven out of ten people say they have been annoyed by the whirr of blades as they try to sleep – raising the question of how early is too early to power up the mower on a weekend morning.

A new survey found that over half of British people – 51 per cent – said the hum of motors before 9am is unacceptable and could lead to terse words with neighbours.

More surprisingly almost one in five, 19 per cent, thought it entirely acceptable to start cutting the lawn or strimming the hedges at 8am.

Some 22 per cent said 10am was an acceptable time, with three per cent objecting to mowing before 11am and one per cent before midday.

The poll of 1,000 people showed that Britain is equally divided over what time the lawnmower should be back in the shed on a summer’s evening. 

A total of 38 per cent said 8pm at the latest; 22 per cent gave a cut-off point of 7pm; and 11 per cent said they don’t want to hear the mower after 6pm. But an easy-going six per cent said using the machine until 10pm was acceptable.

Speaking to The Mail on Sunday, TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh said: ‘I really don’t want to appear holier than thou, but I make it a point never to use noisy machinery on a Sunday. There should be one day in a week where we are guaranteed peace and quiet in our gardens.

‘If my neighbours don’t share my sentiments, then I would be grateful if they refrained from starting up their mower until 9am and if they could let me enjoy my sundowner in peace at 6pm, then we will agree to a truce.’

His former Ground Force colleague Tommy Walsh said the best time to cut the lawn is mid-morning. He said: ‘Tea first – that provides the energy, the diesel – then do the lawn after that at about 9.30am.’

Mr Walsh added that mowers should be off by ‘about 4pm’, by which time ‘you should be sitting down having a nice cold beer surveying the garden from the patio’.

The poll by DIY store Toolstation also found overgrown gardens, bonfires and noisy DIY activity can also cause tension between neighbours.