Albemarle County, VA Noise Ordinances: Construction Hours (2026)
Construction hours in Albemarle County, VA, sometimes called construction noise rules or contractor work-hour ordinances, set when contractors can run power tools, hammers, and heavy equipment.
Key Facts
- Quiet hours
- 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., every day
- Audibility trigger
- 100 feet past property line or inside a dwelling
- Daytime status
- Construction sound is exempt outside quiet hours
- Public projects
- Off-site/outside written project limits still barred at night
- Enforcing agency
- Chief of Police under § 7-101
- Penalty
- Class 4 misdemeanor, harsher than other noise offenses
Summary
In Albemarle County outside Charlottesville and Scottsville, construction, demolition and maintenance sound is barred between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. under County Code § 7-105(E) whenever it carries 100 feet past the property line or into a neighboring dwelling. A nighttime violation is punished more heavily than most other noise offenses.
E.Construction, demolition, or maintenance activities. Either of the following:1.Sound produced by construction, demolition, or maintenance activities between the hours of 10:00 p.m. any day and 7:00 a.m. the following day, and the sound is audible: (i) from a distance of 100 feet or more from the property line of the parcel on which the activities are located; or (ii) from inside a dwelling unit or hotel room. ... A violation of this article by any person is punishable as a class 3 misdemeanor, provided that a violation of County Code § 7-105(E) by any person is punishable as a class 4 misdemeanor.
Full Breakdown
the following day if that sound is audible either 100 feet or more from the property line of the parcel where the work is happening, or from inside a neighboring dwelling unit or hotel room. Outside that overnight window, ordinary construction sound is exempt from the noise article altogether: § 7-106(D)(1) excludes construction, demolition and maintenance sound from the prohibitions except for the nighttime restriction in § 7-105(E). cutoff to a government contractor or subcontractor working on a public facility, public use or public improvement, but only for sound produced off-site or outside the written project limits the governmental entity has established; on-site public-project work stays exempt under § 7-106(D)(2).
The rule sits in Chapter 7's general noise article, not the zoning ordinance, and applies uniformly across Albemarle County's rural areas and residential districts outside Charlottesville and the Town of Scottsville, wherever the county's own noise standards, rather than Chapter 18's zoning noise rules, govern the property. The Chief of Police administers and enforces the article under § 7-101.
Violations & Fines
Most noise-article violations are Class 3 misdemeanors, but § 7-108 singles out § 7-105(E) for a harsher Class 4 misdemeanor. As with other noise complaints, § 7-107 requires the complaining neighbor to obtain a summons from a magistrate unless a police officer personally observes the nighttime construction noise.
Frequently Asked Questions
What time can construction start in Albemarle County?
Does the nighttime rule apply to government road or utility work?
Is nighttime construction noise treated the same as other noise violations?
Who do I call about late-night construction noise?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Albemarle County
How Albemarle County compares: Cities with the Strictest Construction Hours·Compare Albemarle County to another location·View the Virginia noise ordinances overview
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