Author: tappytaptap (Page 4 of 5)

An existing beam is found to be the wrong size… The end result? At some point the lounge ceiling will have to come down in order to place a bigger one. Awaiting structural engineers instruction. Not a lot else happened.

So after yesterday’s initial noise and a seriously impressive push to rip out/gut the pre-existing rooms in the loft space I returned home to find a hole the roof.

The builders have created a portal through the roof into which they have cleared the demolition rubble out and into the skip on the drive.

For two men it’s quite remarkable how much they have achieved and more so how clear they have kept it. One thing I’ve been particularly aware of is how well organised they have kept the tear-down materials, even the carpet they ripped up was cut into large squares in order to minimise excess space taken up in the skip, you can tell these guys have been doing this a while.

So, back to neighbours, following receipt of planning permission our adjoining neighbours became nervous when I tended the party wall act notification to them, if you’ve never heard of this before, basically the party wall act creates a means to declare that work will be carried out on the wall that connects both properties (we’re semi detached but if you’re mid-terrace you’ll have two party walls)

It’s there for the benefit of the wall itself and seeing as you are as reliant on it to keep your roof up as your neighbours are there is a need for due diligence to ensure the wall doesn’t suffer structurally as a result of your works.
Now, with party wall agreements the receiver (neighbour) can
1. accept/allow the works to go ahead,
2. Object and request that your surveyor represents both them and you in ensuring a plan is drawn up to record the condition of the wall before and after, or
3. Request that a third party surveyor (of their choosing but at your cost) do the same as on option 2, but with added complications of, say, 2 months delay and perhaps £3,000 of extra cost.
Ours went for option 3.
It’s important that I mention now that they rescinded that position shortly afterward and consented to our works.
This was partly because they know our builder, partly because they were happy to listen to me and my reasoning and partly because we said we’d rather put £3,000 into a secure account for use as insurance in the event that anything happened to damage the wall there would be funds to fix (as opposed to spending it on services that would simply photograph the wall and wrote pages and pages on it.
As it happens they were happy to accept that our builder would guarantee his work for 10 years and this left is not having to tie up a chunk of cash that we had planned to spend on carpets and decorating!
All it took was a knock at the door and a sit down conversation to ensure that they know we have best intentions at heart and no desire to screw them or ourselves over. If there’s one thing I could advise anyone going down this path to do its keep in contact with your neighbours, even if you not on regular every day talking terms, speak to them, be open and honest.