Can you remove indoor walls?

Drella118

I live in semi detached house. I am convinced my neighbours are removing the panelling on their side of the wall dividing our 2 houses, possibly to make their main room bigger. There are no cracks visible in my walls or ceilings that would indicate that they are doing anything that is affecting the structure of either house or affecting any supporting wall.

But this means that there is much less soundproofing between the houses, and I can hear anything that they do much more clearly. I can only assume that they can hear me much more clearly as well.

What I want to know is:
1) Are they entitled to make any modifications that they want to their side of the wall so long as it doesn't affect the structure?

2) Are there any more serious problems that could affect me by their removing the dry panelling on their side of the wall?

3) If I got my wall plastered properly, would it improve the soundproofing between the houses?

I don't have a great relationship with these neightbours so it is not feasible to ask can I come in and have a look at what they are doing.

Thanks for any advice

Removing stud partitioning from a party wall will not gain much space - it's unlikely that this work is being done to enlarge the room in that way, more likely two rooms are being knocked into one and the work has resulted in a section of board being removed from the party wall. This would be replaced to make good.

1, yes they can change their internal layout.
2, There will be an increased risk of a fire crossing between the two sides as they may have interfered with the fire-break.
3, it would help!

You really need to ask what is going on! they could be improving the sound-proofing themselves or some other work may still be ongoing, the increase in sound transfer may only be temporary.

Mellor

Deleted User wrote: »

Removing stud partitioning from a party wall will not gain much space - it's unlikely that this work is being done to enlarge the room in that way, more likely two rooms are being knocked into one and the work has resulted in a section of board being removed from the party wall. This would be replaced to make good.

1, yes they can change their internal layout.
2, There will be an increased risk of a fire crossing between the two sides as they may have interfered with the fire-break.
3, it would help!

You really need to ask what is going on! they could be improving the sound-proofing themselves or some other work may still be ongoing, the increase in sound transfer may only be temporary.

Depending on the construction of the OPs house, the work may or may not have an effect.

TBH, we can't really comment until we know the structure of the house.

CJhaughey

If you want to check if they have removed the slabbing on their side just drill a hole in the wall, if they have removed it you should be able to see straight through! assumiing they have removed the insulation as well.

The OP doesn't get on with his neighbours... they'll think he's spying.

AutoCAD

Hi Drella

As Mellor says, its hard to know without knowing wall make-up.

If its a traditional 9" Conc Block on flat, and its
drylined, and its the 'drylining/paneling' thats being
removed, then it might not be too bad.

However if its a Timber Frame house and the party
wall is made up of 2 individual wall panels, one for
each house, and you neighbour is removing
(a) the plasterboard and then (b) the wall panel
then yes there is a major problem with that.

If you can investigate as CJ Haughey has suggested,
(and it would be within your rights to drill a wee hole
in your own plasterboard to inspect the wall) and you
find that 'their' wall is missing then your have
(a) sound proofing issues, (b) fire proofing issues to start
with, and possibly (c) structural issues, depending on the
floor span above (front to back / side to side):eek:.

Can you just ask your neighbour straight out as to what
they have done?

Detail attached fyi - picture painting 1000 words and all

A

Drella118

Thanks for replies. OK, please forgive my ignorance but I don't really know even the basics of house construction. I do have the surveyors report from when I bought the house but it is a bit short on detail on the construction of internal walls. The only detail I can find says "load bearing masonary walls, concrete ground floor, wood framed/boarded upper walls". Obviously there is more than this in the report but none of seems relevant to the internal wall construction. Is this any help?

There is a small hole drilled in my wall that I can put my finger through, looks like plaster is behind it. CJ Haughey, do you mean drilling through this layer behind the surface of the wall?

I think the extra noise is probably due to a new home cinema system or something like that. The only problematic noise is music or TV, I can't hear conversation, footsteps, crockery rattling or general ambient noise. I know they have knocked out internal walls on their side which would probably mean more noise travelling throughout the house. I have asked them to keep the noise down and so far they have turned it down at night but not during the day/evening. Neighbour is difficult to talk to but said that nothing had been done to the party wall.

Anything else I could or should do? I've looked into soundproofing, but can anyone give me a ballpark estimate on how much this would cost per room? (medium size 3-bed semi)

CJhaughey

If the party wall is a wooden stud wall, then if you can see through the plasterboard and through the slab on the other side, chances are that the neighbour has not removed any slabbing on his side but possibly the wall has no insulation of any kind to reduce the sound coming through the wall.
The solution is in your hands, you could remove the slabbing from your side and fit rockwool and high density soundmatting to the wall on your side and then double slab the wall and replaster.
This is a lot of work though and may not suit with mess etc.
I would not recommend drilling through the wall on their side as it may cause problems with the neighbour if a hole appears in their side of the wall!