Boundary wall rules?

hughm

Hi all,

have just finished a sun room extension on the rear of our house. The new wallis built about 2.5" inside our side of the boundary wall with our neighbour. After much battling I got the builders to keep our gutter within our half of the boundary wall. At one stage it was about 2" inside our neighbours garden.

QUESTION:
Can we do stuff with our half of the boundary wall?

Our builders have filled in the gap between the boundary wall and our new wall with cement along the top and side [but leaving a cavity between the two walls]and have placed flashing on it. However they also build up about 2" on our half of the boundary wall to create a gully. IS THIS OKAY.....???? Please see pics.

Our neighbour doesn't like the look of it.

Personally i don't care as he has an ugly ugly ugly extension that we have to look at.. but i do care if our builder has done something that we are not entitled to do.

Need advice in a hurry please. Builders finishing up on Monday. Need to get my right straight before then.

Thanks

whassupp2

Thats doesn't look neat at all.
If the new wall is damp proofed i dont see a need for that.
I could be wrong.

hughm

Hi there, I agree that it is not very pretty. Tidying it up is my second concern. My first is, Is it allowed?

Can they insisit that we remove it even though it is entirely on our half of the boundary wall?

muffler

What happened to the top of the boundary wall initially? It looks a bit rough

hughm

first our builder placed flashing over the full width of the boundary wall and down 3" on the inside of my neighbours wall.

I told them to get rid of it and instead they built up some awful cr*p with a gully eyc. I told then to get rid of everthing that they had put on my neighbours half of the wall and they removed all that rubbish. The top of the wall is a bit rougher then it was before they began unfortunately. It does look worse in the pictures as it is all dusty etc. It is a 50 year old wall after all. I washed it off and will take more pics in morning.

My original questions still remains though, Can we do this on our half of the boundary wall or do we need our neighbours permission to use our half of the wall.

muffler

I dont see why you cant carry out any form of repair or decorative work to your own half of the wall unless there is something contained in the deeds about this although it is unlikely.

Could you not put up half a wall coping on top of the old wall or even cast one. it would help with the appearance

davidoco

It looks like you are inviting dampness to invade your wall. Water drops will hit the lead and bounce back up at the wall. This is why you you can't put anything within 6" of the level of your dpc.

What I have seen happening with the sort of extension you have built is that the neighbour agrees that you remove the boundary wall and replace it with the external wall of your building. You would then plaster that wall on his side.

The builder has made a reasonable attempt at a "gully" but I'd love to see it with rain falling. What's going to happen is that your neighbour is going to see loads of water spashing on to his side and start giving out as it's "your water" is a weird sort of way that coming into his garden. If the external wall of the building was the boundary wall it wouldn't be noticed.

My suggestion, if you can get neighbour to agree, is to build up the boundary wall so that it is flush all the way up. The white gutter would then sit on top of the wall on your side with the lead on that for good measure they way you decribed here "our builder placed flashing over the full width of the boundary wall and down 3" on the inside of my neighbours wall"

hughm

Thanks for the input.

Can I take it that we are within our rights to have build that gully on our half of the top of the boundary wall?

Our main concern is that we may not have been allowed to touch the top of the bondary wall at all, even on our half of it.

ircoha

I dont see why u cant work on your own half of the wall, for example u often see shared gate piers being half painted, or even half plastered.

How do u and neighbour get on, I preseume he gave access to you builders to work from his side?

Also what is he saying about what is there now?

I dont really see that much of a problem with splashing because with driving rain most will run down the wall, vertical falling rain will to a large degree be blocked by the white gutter.

I cant share the opinin that you build up the wall as the foundations will in all probability not taake the load.

To make it less ugly, with your neighours consent remove the little concrete kerb and replace it with either a half or full solid block- [u can get 4" by 4" by 18" solid concrete blocks], sitting on top of the lead flashing- you may need to continue this down past the extension for neatness. Soap bars: see http://www.roadstone.ie/products/Blocks/Standard.htm

Re rising damp I concur with the comment re the possibility of damp on the wall above the lead flashing so I would in about 12 months once the plaster etc has "settled", get a good quality waterproof paint and put it on.

In addition what happens the water that runs off the lead into your garden?

hughm

You've no idea what a great help you've been this morning.
We get on O.K with the neighbour, they are just a little fussy, (i.e dont like our hedge in the front garden either)
Thanks for your advice, we will def. paint that wall in a years time, and look into the idea of removing the kerb and replacing it with the block, will talk to neighbour and builder tomorrow.
Thanks again.
p.s have uploaded pictures taken this morn. I had hosed it down last night, and dont think it looks as bad!
As for the water it will run into the corner of a new deck, I think we will be putting a plant pot in that corner!

Sonnenblumen

Flashing poorly finished, actually no need, he could have simply extended the rain water pipe to run down along top of boundary wall and drain into a gulley/soak way near decking. Alternatively he could put in a sloping sand/cement rendering from your new wall to boundary. Would be very concerned at the weatherproofing at house end where new wall and existing boundary wall meet. This looks like a classic rising damp problem for the future. Better get the builder to put a flashing on to prevent water lodging and seeping into wall.

What was he thinking about with this finish??

Asa general rule it is rarely a good idea to build on boundary (even with neighbour's approval).ver

ircoha

no problem, the wall looks like a 4" wall but if wider just get a wider block.

looking at the new picture the better idea would be perhaps to build up the rest of the wall level with the existing kerb and then put on the block- the reason being that disturbing the lead at this point may be counterproductive.

The builder can always cut a full size 4" soild such that he can put a full block on the wall before the kerb and a part block on the bit with the kerb so that it will all be the same level.

Make sure that no water can lodge on top of the pier in the corner

Looking at the shadow created by the neighbours extension, the wall will be protected to some degree.
The upturn on the flashing looks to be neat enough now but dont be surprised if it cracks a little once you get changes in temp as the lead will expand and contract a bit. Having said that once the block goes on it will be less exposed and will move very little, in fact the more I think about it the block or soap bar is a good solution for that reason.

I would try and catch the water from the lead if at all possible as it may ten to dribble down the wall and you may get a green algae staining thereon.

You can get a neat hopper head and downpipe such as from http://www.marleyplumbinganddrainage.com/r_product_detail.asp?product_category=rain_HopperHeads

to match the existing white and run a bit of lead UNDER the edge of the existing lead into the hopper- this is a belt and braces/rolls royce solution but as the builder is on site he should do this for u at no extra cost

ircoha

Sonnenblumen wrote:

Flashing poorly finished, actually no need, he could have simply extended the rain water pipe to run down along top of boundary wall and drain into a gulley/soak way near decking. Alternatively he could put in a sloping sand/cement rendering from your new wall to boundary. Would be very concerned at the weatherproofing at house end where new wall and existing boundary wall meet. This looks like a classic rising damp problem for the future. Better get the builder to put a flashing on to prevent water lodging and seeping into wall.

What was he thinking about with this finish??

Asa general rule it is rarely a good idea to build on boundary (even with neighbour's approval).ver

I concur with Sonnenblumen re the risk of rising damp. The ideal scenario would have been not to fill in between the 2 walls as the boundary wall may not have a DPC in it and therefore will be a permanent source of moisture going forward.

The ideal solution, unless the builder put in a vertical dpc between the boundary wall and the extension wall is to take down the boundary wall, re-create the 2.5" gap and rebuild the boundary wall with an air gap and finish as previously discussed.

hughm

Thanks for all the input. I do appreciate it.

1st I don't believe that they filled the 2.5" gap between the new wall and the boundary wal except at the top just under the flashing. I suggested this to my builder instead of the ugly flashing they originally installed and he laughed at me and said that they couldn't do that. Therefore i am confident that there is a cavity between the two walls. If i said earlier that they filled it, i didn't mean all the way down, just the top of it.

2nd The higher part of the boundary wall doesn't look like water can gather in it. see below

it should travel the top gulley and drop top the lower level gulley.

I do agree that we need to cater for the water that will come from that gulley down the side of our wall on to our deck



Do you still think we NEED to do something with this boundary wall? I would love to leave well enough alone assuming that it is well enough

Mellor

I think you may have original done more damage than good here.
If the 2 or 3 inch gap was just left between the walls, then water would run down the wall, and would rest at the bottom below the DPC level. The exposed area of this wall is low enough so the amount of water is not too bad.
Now any collected water will rest much higher up above the DPC level.

Would of been better to slope the ground level from about 3 inches to zero between the boundary and extension. Obviously would of have to have been done when a single course was laid.

rooferPete

Hi,

Not good news, your builder was correct when he carried the lead over the boundry wall allowing any water to run off your wall and clear the building.

The front should not be closed up completely because any moisture that enters the cavity is now trapped between the boundry wall and the new extension wall.

At least I would fit a vent at the top and bottom of the space between the walls, a little communication between yourself and the neighbour might mean you can add 150mm to the lead and carry it over the boundry wall.

To help your builder because he may not have the skills on site to join sheet lead, he can cut the over hanging lead back and use it as a cover flashing for the lead over the capping of the wall, it would also help with allowing the lead to move naturally (expansion / contraction).

It is not unusual to fit a narrow sheet of ply between the new wall and the boundry wall to maintain a neat slope for the flashing detail to rest on.

.

hughm

thanks rooferpete, we will talk to neighbour and builder about this, this morning.