Leaderboard

Get down on your hands and knees, and get the hoover hose, scratch away at the insulation and hoover at the same time, don’t use anything to damage the pipes. put conduit around the pipes and make sure you have 20 mm deep clearance below finished floor level. then use a high build floor leveling compound, pour it in and crack open a bottle as you admire your masterpiece.

What’s happened to GDs Sad stories Seems to be following programs like the workshop Bring back building the dream

Some will already know, but a quirk of my build is I am trying to avoid introducing anything that will off gas lots of formaldehyde (or other things too). I'm less concerned about off gassing paint which lots of people worry about. The reason for that is that the layer is very thin and we aren't living in the house yet, so it should hopefully have finished by time we are in. That's not to say that it's not a point of discussion with 'the client' on occasion though. I have spent a lot of time looking at Plywood and thought I would dump some of my learnings here for anyone who may be interested. There may be inaccuracies, so feel free to correct. Glue: Remember that the wood itself contains formaldehyde, so the main variable is the glue. The two most commonly used glues are Urea Formaldehyde (UF) and Phenol Formaldehyde (PF). PF is stronger and emits less, but is more expensive. Europe (& UK): This is according to the standard EN 13986, the lower class of which is E1 (0.124mg/m3) which has higher emissions than many other standards. There is an informal E0 classification (?? mg/m3) and Germany have adopted an E0.5 or E05 limit (0.08mg/m3). Ikea have apparently used an E0.5 type standard for a while. It's all about to change with the adoption of a new standard, EU 2023/1464 which introduces a tighter limit (0.062mg/m3 for "furniture and wood-based articles"). That new standard will be effective from Aug 2026, but some companies are already stating compliance. It's worth noting that Finland also have their own standard, M1, with a limit of 0.010mg/m3, so 12.4 times tighter than E1. USA: California has the CARB Phase 2 (CARB P2 or CARB2) limit of 0.05ppm for hardwood plywood. I'm not sure how they work it out, but I've seen articles that say Europe's E1 is equivalent to 0.10ppm so is twice CARB2. CARB2 is adopted nationwide, but the office standard is EPA TSCA Title VI limit which is the same 0.05ppm limit. Japan: They have a 4-star scale, the strictest of which is F**** (or F4) with a limit of 0.005mg/m2h. Despite using a different measure from the rest, I believe this to be the strictest standard. China: As per Europe's EN 13986, but adding E0 (limit 0.050mg/m3) and ENF (limit 0.025mg/m3). Effectively being in Europe means we are currently only governed by EN 13986 and so most products only state that they are E1 and, quite reasonably, that's all most suppliers understand. There is a chance of finding M1 compliance stated which is one of the tightest limits globally. Some manufacturer's (e.g. Riga) clearly set out the various standards that they meet in a more global context. For example here is an extract from Riga birch ply: Some example products I have found: Birch: Riga Ply (meets F4), Wisa may be good but documentation not so clear Radiata Pine: AraucoPly (meets F4) Poplar: Panguaneta (meets F4) Marine: I have yet to find a marine ply (i.e. meeting BS 1088) which meets any formaldehyde class other than EN 13986 E1. I would like to though so if anyone has found one please add it here Other notes: NAF - no added formaldehyde which means only that which comes from the wood. OSB3 easily available as NAF (e.g. SterlingOSB Zero OSB3 widely carried by merchants) Glass wool insulation - Knauf' standard "Ecose Technology" uses a formaldehyde free blowing agent MDF - Medite Clear is an NAF MDF, but no moisture resistant version as far as I know The other chemical often considered is pentachlorophenol (PCP)

Welcome to the forum, look forward to seeing the photos as you progress 👍🏻

Sanded. Picking up finish tomorrow. Long weekend of priming, staining, and topcoating coming up. Nervous as heck!

Binder is correct, thanks. This link says "Products using ECOSE Technology are formaldehyde-free."

Airtighess tape need not be too dear. You don't need the preformed corners, just a sharp knife and some practice it's not to hard to seal them up satisfactorily. Regarding sealants, something that remains permanently flexible is the aim of the game. The sausages are typically cheaper than the tubes too. Most generic acoustic sealants should be ok too but I've never used them personally.

Thanks for that, v interesting.

watching my flooring people do my LVT they have been very particular about a few things firstly after doing the self levelling coat it was then ground flat with a thing that looked like a floor polisher with a vacum attached then nothing more was done until the mositure content in floor was down to 3.5% they were very particlar about this as they insist that this is the main reason for delamination of LVT they could have used a different system which would have added anothe £900 to the job to allow the floor to be laid anything up to 5%

Unless she can turn back time she’s flogging a dead horse. It’s not an unusual occurrence for contractors to forget to inform BC - ask her if you can do a trial hole. She’s hardly going to make you take the foundations out to look at the ground.

That’s the plan. I have told him to contact the bco tomorrow and mention what the plan is to expose the hole measurements. The groundworkers think I’m making this up as I said I’m getting another groundworkers to get the holes redug. They said, i know my concrete.

Ours is just about the same, we have tiles and poured self levelling compound to level with the tiles.

Your first example looks like it's to protect anyone, esp children, coming from that path against running/riding straight into what is probably a road where the picture is taken from. I've plenty of sympathy for the issue of accessibility but please don't cut down something that's intended to prevent a serious accident.

Thanks for the responses. Please forgive me a substantive reply. It's a huge issue everywhere. My numbers say that there are perhaps 200k-400k of such illegal barriers across the country. Technically it's every field style on a public footpath, but that is mentioned normally as a rhetorical distraction ("do you want a wheelchair path up Striding Edge?", and the rubber hits the road far more around eg Rail Trails, or Greenways, which are advertised as "accessible", yet exclude some lawful users. These or similar also exist, weirdly, keeping disabled and elderly people out of large numbers of Green Flag parks, making the core published message "these are for everyone" into a self-satisfied lie. So "bend it out of the way" or "go round it" may work in one place, but it won't fix the core problem, which is legal, cultural and political. Guidelines are clear (LTN 1/20 and Inclusive Mobility) that the acceptable option is a 1.5m air gap, with 5-10m flat approaches and usually a sealed surface. It will require a national policy that these are not acceptable and they must all be removed. In the meantime all kinds of things are removed, but one by one won't clear them all out. Every Council I have ever asked do not even have records of what they have installed, plus many are installed freelance. Councils are quite happy to discriminate against disabled / elderly / parents etc, do nothing, and rely on bullying / intimidation rather than meet their most basic legal responsibilities, it being difficult to hold them to account under Equality Law or Highway Law, and normal complaints processes taking 10s of hours, perhaps 2 years and delivering nothing. I have a friend who is a wheelchair user, who cannot walk more than a few steps around the house, who was prevented from taking a particular route because of a chicane barrier on a gennel. The Council's legal department wrote her a letter saying they would require her to turn up at the barrier, and physically prove she was incapable of lifting her mobility aid over the top. The attitude is mind-boggling. Writing the letter would cost less than removing the barrier. Underlying causes are around false folk beliefs in the local populations that these achieve something wrt ASB, which often came originally from police advice when estates were built 20, 30 or 40 years ago. I have several here which are pre-1970. That's another issue - this is not aimed at you personally, of course. People who don't know decide that they will impose *their* opinions and *their* assumptions on the disabled or elderly person, without knowing what their needs are, and not respecting their rights or the law. It's the standard pavement parking excuse, or for blocking a pedestrian drop kerb. "It looks like a wheelchair would fit" or "I could walk through there or "I'll only be five minutes" or "but I need to" or "can't you wait" or "go in the road" or "I had to", without knowing about wheelchairs or tricycles or that a Guide Dog walks next to a blind person, not in front. Then when their precious car gets scratched because they parked it on the pavement because they are lazy, selfish or stupid, they resort to abuse or threats of violence. I had that when someone had blocked the entire pedestrian entrance at my local hospital (he forced all the wheelchair users to do 200m on the main drive carriageway with 6000 vehicles per day), rather than park in a free space 20m further away, The only bit missing was the threat of violence. Removing the bit at the side is addressing a symptom, not the problem, imo. The full width of a PROW is required to be useable, and if we leave it there with a bypass that panders to the idea that it can be tolerated. As an interim, maybe, but that is a sticky plaster. All of those are being done, and there are various places where some groups do things by agreement. The real heroes in this are Sustrans, who go by the book and are removing about 400 per annum from the National Cycling / Walking Network. I'll leave it there 🙃.Thanks for reading. F

Defo lose timber any time you can. Build up with tile adhesive and cement board vs batten and plywood is my recommendation, and live a long happy (leak free) life. 👍

Wow, @Ferdinand - that's so funny. I had no idea. I mean, sure I know it's steep (the rock climbing is at the top!) but not world-record steep! @Bozza - really appreciate your thoughts. It will be so helpful to hear about any issues (we already learned there is a sewage pipe under the site 🙃) and love the idea of carefully and gently asking for risks so that we can mitigate them. We already had a good one on craned deliveries during school drop off and pick up time.

while i dont condone criminal damage, a battery reciprocator with a new long metal bit would cut that flush as the blades are supper bendy. Just sayin.

Without consent from the Council you risk prosecution for criminal damage. The top photo looks like a wheelchair could get through. With the bottom one it may be better to just remove the timber rail from the left side.

I’ve never bought the argument of “it’s my land, my house and sod the neighbours”. I think you’re doing the right thing. Architecture is an art form and as such everyone has a subjective view. The best way to get the neighbours on side in that respect is to try to make the design as sympathetic as possible eg nod to local architecture, materials, roof lines etc - like you say sensitive to the area. It doesn’t surprise me when someone has problems trying to build a German box amongst village cottages. try to avoid the question “do you like it”. Maybes “do you think we’re trying to be sympathetic in terms of size, material etc” or “do you like the fact we’re using local stone” etc. The second issue to flush out and potential technical issues eg road access, drainage etc. things that could scupper your plans. Locals may highlight legitimate things you weren’t aware of that could scupper planning approval. Building up a relationship with your neighbours in a new small community is vital. When speaking to individuals ask them “how does this build impact on you personally”. That gives them an opportunity to speak up any hidden concerns and allows you effectively assess that risk and implement mitigation measures. eg next door neighbour tells you they are a night shift worker and worried about noise disturbance. Though that wouldn’t impact on PP that person could object on more substantive factors as a means to an end. Lastly having a good relationship can have advantages. My new neighbours helped me out with diggers, and disposal of many tonnage of spoil. One neighbour was happy to chop down an unwanted tree and take the firewood. You are right about the perceptions of certain communities being suspicious about incomers. It’s not about accent so much or where you’re coming from it’s more about they just don’t want loud obnoxious arrogant d#cks coming into their community and spoiling it. There are substantial differences between living in big cities and the rural communities, in terms of relationship with neighbours.

And any disabled groups near you, challenge quoting the law (or just sneak round with a high viz on 🤣)

Only with the correct disk. Make sure it is a metal cutting one, a stone one will just make a lot of noise. It is illegal to damage others properly, and I doubt that any council would give permission for this to happen. Letter to local MP and get the local TV involved. They are desperate for local news, they even filmed us at work recently.

Thanks @Ferdinand - it's in Bamford, so the Hope Silver Band idea is super. We're on The Green, and it's directly in front of the Well Dressing, so people will definitely know it - it's very prominent (another planning challenge!) The site has extant Planning Permission which is the 'fallback option' so we've tried to have a principle of always improving on that design (which isn't hard - it's horrible!) but in terms of daylighting to the neighbours etc. You're right on the 'promise' - I have tried really hard not to! Will feed back after Friday!

A 4inch angle grinder(at an angle) will cut it off within 10mm, then grinding disk to remove till flush. i sm not sure the above drill attachment will have the grunt, angle grinders spin far faster and are made for cutting hard stuff.

It can cut it off at below ground level if you want. Can always take a sanding disk with you to grind it flush.

I keep saying that for every law we have that makes something illegal, we have another law that makes it compulsory. Just bend it out the way.

Not always suitable. Some designers don't know about it or they don't know the advantages. Little piling companies only do what they do. One of the unsung advantages is the absence of the filthy mess made when soil is removed by driven or auger piles.

I know people who have occasionally removed particularly awkward ones for their regular walks / rides by just turning up in Hi Viz with a pipe cutter and a wheelbarrow, and there is activism on this all over - but plenty of Councils that still install them and Councillors that still defend them, despite the law. One of the excuses used for putting one on the Thames Path in Greenwich last year was "everybody does it so they must be legal". In and around my town I have something like 400 of these, some going back to 1970, everywhere. So ultimately it's about changing the culture of councils who spend money on these things. I'm hopeful since the new Gov will care about equality and law, and seem thoughtful around transport.

Side note, I've always thought these should be fitted outside McDonald's, would save the NHS a fortune.

And cost the tax payers a few thousand £ 🙄 (go for it).

Battery angle grinder with a cutting disc (metal) and grinding disk to make flush with the ground.

What is your kWh/m2.year figure? What is the embodied energy and CO2 for the products you used, and how do they compare to mineral wool? I don't know where you live, but it is too sparsely populated down here to be economically viable. At 160pp/km2, it is about a third of Buckinghamshire. A quick look at Google Earth shows that Bucks is very green. They are a student, everything they learnt last week is forgotten now. I wish I was a student again, better than lecturing.

That's what we did. 52 columns, took a day from start to finish. Since that process is quicker and cheaper, and there's far less vibration, it begs the question - why not ?

We have two steel spine staircase, designed on the mighty Sketchup and fabricated by the local metal fabricator. The main staircase is relatively easy going and then there is a smaller, steeper one up to the accessible loft storage space.

Nah, I ran an my services in the void underneath the insulation. Put a hatch at each end of the room incase I need to pull something through in the future, but I'm not planning on that.

@Nickfromwales might have a contact? For walls it needs to be 60kg/M3. So approx £135/m3 plus install inc VAT.

This is true.. but to completey change the installation method, pile construction (cased, end and friction bearing assumptions, flight auger etc) and drastically the driven depth when close to a boundary raises questions.

What a good post and example of approaching things pragmatically. For all. Retaining walls like this often don't have an indefinite life span. A bit of tecky stuff. From time to time the wall gets frosted and this causes the soil behind the wall to swell up a bit right at the top where it can apply a good overturning force, mind you it needs to be a hard prolonged frost. This pushes the wall sideways as the ice crystals grow for example. Then you have settlement of the retained soil and surcharge loading, can be just the wieght of a big tree locally, trees can be heavy! Now you may have heavy rain and this excess water causes the soil to weaken behind the wall so it shoves the wall sideways and then you can add a bit of water pressure. Any trees or big shrubs can push the wall sideways as the roots grow. If you have a timber fence attached to the top or down the side of the wall then the wind loading can push the wall. Now in goetechnical terms (we have many) it's easier for the soil to move than to shove it back into place. We call this active (the soil moving) and passive soil pressure.. shoving the soil back into place. It can often take roughly 2 -3 times the effort to shove the soil back to where it was. Now once the wall moves a bit then cracks tend to develop in the retained soil. These can get filled with muck.. in other words the wall often never can recover it's position... it a slow progessive failure. Odd that there is no mention in the deeds. Anyway. If I was you I would try and figure out what has caused the cracks in the wall. Do what you can to mitigate this if it is on your side. Then have a chat with the neighbours and say.. I've done everything I can on my side to stop it geting worse. Let's see how it goes. Any good will on your side will stand you in good stead later.

Hi Jodie. That's a start posting part of a drawing.. but unfortunately it does not tell all. The piles do appear quite close to the boundary and your house is say 3.0m away from the piles roughly. Ideally I (and probably a lot of the folk on BH that know about this stuff) would like to see all the drawings and info that you have available, even up to and including the BC drawings submitted. If you do post try and edit out anything that identifies you or the site address. See later! The small screen shot raises more questions. Were the steel encased piles to be bored or driven initially? How far apart are the piles? Is it your house that is shown to the left.. and is your house on piles say.. do you know what kind of founds your house has.. you probably do. It will take a bit of effort to get to the bottom of this. Much will depend on how determined you are. In a lot of claims situations, say relating to new builds the developer / builder gives you the run around first. Then the insurer that handles the warranty does the same. This way they cut the claims down by more than half I think just by attrition. Also they know that most home owners don't have say an SE in the family who will work probono so they get canned as can't afford to fight winable claims or take the risk. One fly in their ointment here is Build Hub. Now in my experience once you get over the attrition hurdle the opposition start to take things seriously and will look at the evidence on the table, not too seriously at first as they have a lot of tricks up their sleeves. There are a number of strategies but one approach is to understand: 1/ First how your house was build and the ground under. How it has moved about as it's aged.... often houses settle a bit. You may have family photos with the house in the background.. easy to date and they tend to record any trees you may have for example in the garden... for anothe rday but trees are important and need to bee considered / ruled out. 2/ Look at what founds should have been built next door. Understand what the design intent was behind that. 3/ Look at what they have done in so far as you know..could be correspondance / what you have seen and experienced and so on. 4/ Work out what risks may be applicable to your house as a consequence of what they have done next door. Has the risk increased by them changing the design. 5/ If they have gone deep then they may have loaded your soil basically without permission.. which has the potential to induce further settlement of your house. I'll stop there but firstly don't panic, try and sleep well. Often an outcome could be that if you get them partly over a barrel and start running up the costs and professional fees on their side (which is a tactic I use. I work for myself so it's a bit David and Goliath.. but there are often ways to get results) a negotiation takes place. With a fair wind (if you can detemine you have been compromised) then they may offer you an indemnity policy, cover your professional fees and send you an Xmas hamper. Mind you if they have loaded your ground or caused it to swell / behave in a different way and badly breached the principles of the PWA then you could make hay and give them a very rough ride! In that case a bit more than an Xmas hamper will be required. Keep on good terms if you can with the folk next door as they may have little clue that the builder, surveyor any SE may have got them into hot water. If that is the case then they will often be as equally concerned as you are. The builder has probably charged them more! You may find them to be an ally rather than an adversory. It could be that if you win they win also? Just to finish. I use my own name but in your case please don't identify youself or your site as it could compromise any case you may have. @ Jodie keep your head up!

It depends on personal preference. It is fairly widely acknowledged that using more than 100mm may be risky from the point of view of potential interstitial condensation. Some authorities and merchants suggest a maximum of 60mm (see, for example, 'A Bristolian's guide to solid wall insulation) while some suggest as little as 40mm. I always try to 'prove' (ideally by way of the WUFI dynamic condensation risk assessment model) that 100mm (which would give you a not-quite-compliant U value of 0.35ish) is 'safe'. Note that the target U value is 0.3W/m2K but for older houses you should be able to argue this OK with the BCO on the basis that the house was designed to allow evaporation and absorption of water (can't remember the exact wording in the Regs). I just try to get as close to the target U value as possible without inviting interstitial condensation risk. Most probably know this already but just in case not: Note that that requirement to apply for and comply with Bldg Regs may apply even when you are doing only one room. The Regs refer to Renovation (adding or replacing a layer) of a Thermal Element. If, viewed from the inside, you are doing more than 50% of a thermal element you are within the remit of the Regs and must pay and comply. Imagine you are doing the living room of an inner terraced house. There is only one external wall and you are likely to do 100% of that wall. You must therefore seek BC approval. When you are doing one room, at a time always prepare the 'edges' for connection to the next room. In the case of the living room you would strip back the ceiling, apply a parge coat up to the floor above, prime and tape the joist ends, and continue the insulation up to the floor above. In x years time when you get round to thhe bedroom you can lift a floorboard, reveal the insulation from downstairs and connect tightly to it.

The Warm Batten method I was referring to was with PIR board (one I no longer use). It allows you to get excellent air-tightness and vapour control, and a service void (somewhere to run your cables at least, and possibly even plumbing, though I would not do the latter). I have never used, and personally would not use, the warm batten method with wood fibre, since it implies plasterboard over. Yes, if you have WF board only there is a bit of an issue with services. I happen to think that surface-mounted pattresses and trunking are fine, but it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Answering the one immediately above: If you add the words 'on each board' after 'adhesive foam or dri-wall adhesive' it explains that you have to do this for every single (PIR)board or part-board. (That's where the reference to 2.8m2 (8ft x 4ft) came in. More later!

Thanks jaymd. I had a quick look at floorplanner but decided as I'd already got potential floorplans in roomsketcher that I could just lay over the topographic plot outline and tweak, to bite the bullet and pay for a month of roomsketcher.

Couple of things to look at Heat DHW in a set window or two only. I found leaving to sort it self out used bucket loads of electricity. Target temperature anything above about 50 degs target temperature the heat pump doesn't always hit target temp, so the immersion is switched on. The heat pump learns this then does it every time. Depending on house DHW usage one 1.5hr heating slot is ok, or if not enough a 1.5 and 1.0 hrs slots. Do a risk assessment do you need legionella cycles? If not needed, switch the immersion control off in the Daikin controller.

I say embrace the cycling, rapid on off as not good, but cycling on a controlled manner is generally good. There is a lot of miss information out there, that heat should not cycle, they do and will when heat demand is below min output, and even if the condition doesn't suit the refrigeration side they will manage by cycling. Mine rarely gets down to 4kW output on a 6kW ASHP. I am back to WC mode but in essence doing exactly the same as you comment you referred to but just leave to do it's own thing over a longer period. Couple of givens, at temp where you just start to heat the house almost every heat pump is way over sized, they cycle to manage heat delivered. The lower the flow temp the more difficult the heat pump finds it to control and run for extended periods. I fiddled with the compressor start stop hysterisis to get a 10 to 15 min run in mild conditions. That was a figure I found some useful heat was being added to the house, any less than that the house temp slowly dropped. Some will implement a control strategy where at higher OAT they use the controller thermostat combined with WC. I would drop your flow temp a couple of degrees and monitor. For reference this is mine at 9.5 Deg OAT. About 12 to 15 mins on and 30 mins off. Max flow temp was 29, min power output 5kW.

Hi Adam. Can you post a few photos as that would help a lot. In the attic.. so we can see how the roof is constructed, the external elevations all round and how the house sits in the garden, the garden size and where the boundaries are. Maybe you kept the selling agents floor plan when you bought the house? At the moment it's so open ended that its hard to make meaningful comment that might help you. You should have a title plan.. the deeds.. sanitize that so you can't be identified and post it. That is a helpful comment. For attic conversions the design fees tend to be heafty. It may seem like a small job but some of the attic conversions I do require a huge amount of my Architectural, SE design and detailing time . I wear two hats.. I'm an SE primarily but also do the Architectural design side of things. In terms of Architectural and SE design fees these can amount to 15 -25% of the project value to get all the design work and detailing done and the LA / BC approvals. On a good day you may get this down to 10- 12% if what you are doing is simple. That said, a good experienced designer can save you a pile of cash. One week of labour for a good joiner (chippie) comes in at £1.0 to 1.2K a week! so please bear that in mind. Also a good design will have access to Contractors that they work with on a regular basis that they can trust not to rip you off. Now it may be that you want to go back and see if it is more economic to extend at ground floor level.. this gives you raw extra square footage that will also increase the value of the house.. often more than an attic conversion on a pro rata basis.. remember you often need a stair so you take a step back before you can go forward.

I got a quote for our dormer conversion this year. 7m x 10m bungalow with full length dormer. Quote was for 2 beds and 2 bathrooms ready for occupancy, £125,000. Just for a bare shell ready for me to insulate, second fixings, plumbing etc I was quoted over £60,000

You only need planning permission if installing a dormer in the front facing roof, dormers on the rear are permitted development (tho the council may tell you you need planning permit ion!!,!). Veluxs on the front do not need planning permission. You WILL need building regs whatever you do. I would suggest you get multiple quotes from loft conversion companies with personal recommendations not reviews which companies can write themselves. If companies cannot give you previous customers details to get your own feedback avoid them.

Check if this is Permitted Development or needs Planning Permission. You may already have done that.

I did not complete the sum! My dodgy maths above suggest that if you do not drop the joists into the room below you'd need at least 2200- 2300 height from the existing joists to wherever the ceiling would want to be. That would give you a very 'pointy' room with little or no flat ceiling, so it would 'feel' better if there was more flat ceiling, which of course means more overall height required.

A few general comments on posts all worth a good read and consideration. Mine are: 1/ Do your best to take the heat out of things. 2/ Allow access for your neighbours representative to take all round photographs. State that you want to avoid any escalation of call it a "misunderstanding / communication breakdown" rather than a dispute. Don't use the word dispute or other verbage that suggests a big barny.. use words like you want to "alleviate" their concerns (excuse my spelling / grammer !) I'm not being soft here.. just say this ended up in court.. any aggressive language you use at this early stage could come back to bite you. 3/ Don't ask for their representatives credentials at this stage as it will just get their back up. If for example they breach the data protection act for example then there will trouble for them later. Just go with the flow for now credential wise. I do a bit of dispute work from time to time.. at the end of the day its that facts of the matter that you can prove by calculation and reference to design codes and other literature for example. Await their report.. if its a load of bollocks then plenty time to rip it to death later. Sometimes you need to give folk enough rope to hang themselves on! 4/ Be amenable and agree a time for a visit from the neighbours representative. But state that you also want access to their property on the same day for you to take photographs and a short video. In other words watch what their rep does and replicate on their side.. the video is important as your camera may be a bit "wobbly" and may wander a bit.. record your information and sent it to your neighbour's rep and an independant person on the same day. This is arguably fair. But most importantly is the technical approach to resolving a problem like this.. you want photographic evidence from both sides of the wall on the same day, with the same weather conditions and so on. 5/ Do NOT share any photographs / drawings / local authority permissions etc relating to any construction work you have carried out at this stage. 6/ Ask their representative when they think thier report will be avialable. That's all for now best of luck from my end.