Spinny

2 pipes (their private drain pipes) flow from the right and merge on the neighbour's side to flow into one pipe which therefore becomes a lateral public drain at the boundary/adjacent to fence. The lateral drain then travels 2m or so across my property into a public manhole on my property (not in photo). Yes we are on the left of the fence in that pic. If you enlarge the photo and look closely you will see that the clay Y pipe has visible cracks in it. They have already put some plastic pipes in to try to fix other clay pipes with holes and cracks. It is still leaking. Yes by replacing their private pipes with plastic (or plastic sections) they can fix it. But clearly there is still then a single clay pipe which spans the boundary to flow into the manhole on our side. Given the problems with the clay pipes on their side, I would think the clay pipe spanning the boundary is quite likely to fail (or indeed might already have cracks). Or their join onto that clay pipe could fail or break the lateral pipe. Now would seem to be the ideal time to replace that pipe before they start building steps and a raised platform over it. Given the pipe spans the boundary it should presumably be the water company's responsibility to do that. If I were the neighbour I would want to get that done too rather than have the water company turn up one day to break out the work they are doing so they can to fix a leak.

Thoughts on the drains now please. The neighbours drains are leaking again as you can see. Look closely and you will see cracks in the clay pipe. I think plan is now for him to replace with plastic. I am concerned that then leaves the pipe across the boundary still as clay (boundary is near the fence). Doesn't seem a great place for a future leak at that final clay pipe joint, where it already looks as though the collar may have been repaired with concrete or something. The pipes carry all his foul water and almost all his rainwater including that from the new extension. Do you think the water company will come and take this opportunity to dig the lateral pipe across the boundary out and replace with plastic to avoid future problems ? I am ok with the water company digging on my side because it is old concrete that will need to come up anyway. Now seems a better time for preventative maintenance, rather than waiting for any hidden foul leak to arise ? There might be a question about where to stop of course. Lateral pipe goes to public chamber on my land fed by my drains too. Chamber is brick and pipe inputs and outputs clay - presumably been there since 1935. Thoughts ? What would you do ?

Builder plans a 32mm coping and is building 40mm from the boundary. What are the chances of building a 7m by 4m wall without deviating by 8mm on the front face ?

And the acceptable tolerance from plumb on a 4m high wall which is 7m long ? (I am seeing something suggesting +/-10mm over 2.5m height, and +/-10mm over a 5m length ?) Would seem to suggest it would not be hard to be out by 15mm over such a wall ?

Concrete blocks are 95mm actual width, faced blocks are 100mm actual width. So how do you position the 100mm faced block wall onto the 95mm footing ?

And how damaging is concrete dust please ? If it is going to be cut by the builder seems likely to generate copious clouds of dust which will settle on our doors, windows, cladding, render, single ply roof, car etc ?

What sort of poor workmanship ? (I guess a lot of people like me would just assume a concrete pour is hard to get wrong.) Any idea of the cost of concrete cutting ? Did they use a specialist contractor or just hire in the cutting machines ?

You believe they did Vit D trials by testing the blood of dead people ? https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/11/22/6818

Online photos seem to show the cutting wheel mounted at the side, so I imagined you could just walk it along the top of the foundation to cut on one side by walking in the appropriate direction. Top of the foundation is flat and level.

Pegs were put in by measuring down from a laser level line I believe.They had to keep the concrete below the drainage pipes, otherwise I think they would have poured higher.

Builder is saying it is because kerbing at edge collapsed in on the day of the pour and had to be removed. Says trench is therefore angled out to the top of the concrete. Also says stones in the side of the trench broke out when digging out the edges. Therefore when he is back on Tuesday he plans to mark the boundary line down the top of the concrete with a string line and angle grinder, and then cut down and breakaway the angled edge with the expectation this will fix the problem. I appreciate trenching is not a millimetre activity, and shuttering would presumably have meant digging out on my side. However he could have raised this with me when it happened of course and chose not to. I suggested a walk behind concrete cutter but he was not interested (My guess because that would cost money). Pic of trench just before pour. Wondering whether I should be seeking some restitution in the form of an addition to the PW Award stating owner of my property has the right to join any future boundary foundation into the one he is putting in ? Not quite sure how such an agreemnt would have to be formalised - PWA, Deeds, letter, covenant etc ? Also wondering whether a structural engineer and/or BC need to be brought in to make a formal statement about the structural integrity of the cut back foundation ? Any more input very welcome from all the good peoples on this forum.

Grateful for any further views or advice on this. Clearly I cannot remove any concrete and have no means to do so, and it has now been going off for 16 hours. I am waiting to hear back from the builder, who has previously said he doesn't work on site on friday's.

Hmm...

A walk behind concrete saw ?

No. They did it, and yes a good job done, content with it. It is only possible because I don't have roofline fascia's on yet and of course it will now prevent that, or even measuring up, for many weeks. They have had to screw into my edge timber.

Builders have gone for the day, and won't return until monday now. Annoyed because I went out this afternoon to find the trench wider and the kerbing removed in that section in the photo. I am told some of the trench side collapsed today and so they decided to remove the section of kerbing - presumably to avoid the risk of it falling into their concrete pour. At that point the concrete lorry arrived. I made the point that they were now putting concrete onto my land, was told they could cut it back later and to please move back away from the trench/work area. Then they filled the trench. Annoyed because clearly they could have knocked on the door and told me about the trench problem earlier in the day but must have deliberately chosen not to. I have already written to the neighbour (currently away) stating they may not build on or over my land. They are making a 40mm setback only for an alu capping on top of the wall. Yes they have access to my land to do the work under a party wall award.

saveasteading - cor blimey, I just consider it a healthy scepticism/realism developed over 60 years. TBH people on a forum don't generally have a commercial interest to push. I value experienced input but reserve the freedom to politely discuss or disagree with anyone. Ever had a misdiagnosis from a medical professional ? I have but it doesn't mean I disbelieve anything and everything a medic tells me. People are only human even experts, even moi. I sincerely thank you and appreciate your input.

A couple of queries regarding foundations and drains - see pics. What is best practice and what is acceptable practice for fixing broken clay drain pipes ? (What would building control expect ?) Pipe in pic one has a hole, and part of the collar on another piece of pipe has broken off. Pic shows current repair (which may perhaps be temporary) I now have concrete on my land, can this be cut back/removed, and if so when is the best time to do it ?

When we talk about science today, unfortunately we are talking about a world which has drastically changed over the past 50 years and become almost unrecognisable. Science is now dominated by business and academic career interests. China floods academic journals with junk papers and now many written by AI engines. For an academic science career today you need to publish many papers and get cited by colleagues, it has become a sick game. Millions of people have PhDs. Professors have their names on many papers but barely read them. Peer review has become corrupted and politicised. Science is as riddled with cronyism as any other discipline. Findings and theories ''authorities'' don't like and which challenge commercial interests are blocked. Journal editors favour papers that suit their commercial interests. Large double blind medical trials are expensive and are almost exclusively only those funded by commercial interests i.e. Big Pharma. It really isn't what you think it is. Science is associated with truth. Hard science and engineering has revolutionised our world. So anyone that can claim their product, drug, treatment, theory, or vested interests is backed by 'science' knows they will make money. Enormous incentives to cheat a little here and there, to bin the negative results and only publish the positive ones. Selling medicines to the well is great business. You can charge ten or a hundred times the production costs for a patented drug. Off patent drugs are your commercial enemy. If everyone realised taking vitamin D hugely reduced your covid risk the market for vaccines and patented drugs for covid would collapse. Big Pharma carefully targets medics and others that control prescribing, they spend vast sums lobbying politicians. Jonathan Van-Tam now works as a senior medical consultant to Moderna. Many find a revolving door between officialdom and big pharma. There is a reason that happens. It is not good.

Sorry but this is tautological nonsense worthy of Orwell's 1984. What you refer to as a 'conspiracy theory' is factually either true or false. If it is shown to be true, it is no longer what you refer to as a conspiracy theory. Whether it is true or false is not determined by what is in the minds of those who trust the official line - it is determined by actual factual reality. Do I need to remind you officials said 'If you take the vaccine you won't get covid' FALSE, 'The vaccine is 95% effective' FALSE, 'Face masks don't work' TRUE, 'Face masks do work' FALSE, 'Two face masks work' FALSE, 'The covid IFR is 3%' FALSE, 'The vaccine is safe' FALSE, 'The vaccine is withdrawn because it is unsafe' TRUE,'infection acquired immunity doesn't provide protection' FALSE, 'stand 2 metres apart to stay safe' FALSE, .......

Simpson strong-tie do a lot of ties and brackets. I found the MTS30 useful and capable of being covered by plaster. Services of a structural engineer useful for loadings though. https://www.strongtie.co.uk/en-UK/products/medium-twist-strap-mts

That is not an argument, it is meaningless. It was the ''accepted'' truth that the sun went around the earth. Obvious and undeniable, everyone sees it happen with their own eyes. Supported by state and church, overwhelmingly believed. That doesn't make truth. You don't find the truth by taking a vote. I haven't claimed any conspiracy, just that there are opportunists, vested interests, and dedicated followers of fashion out there. Tulip bulb anyone ?

I should probably not comment given the heated certainty that too many seem to blindly possess on things like anthropogenic climate change and covid. There is nothing wrong with doubt, doubt is good, science IS doubt. Often the obvious is false, and reality stranger than any fiction. Beware adopting simple certainties in a complex world. People used to think it obvious that the sun goes around the earth, that no bacteria could survive in stomach acid, did rain dances to the gods, and burned witches. There is zero evolutionary difference between those people and ourselves. But I will say that too many confuse their own personal perspective and experience of things like covid with the wider population significance. There are of order 5000 NHS intensive care beds serving a population of order 60,000,000 - so that is of order 1 intensive care bed for every 12,000 people. The number of people in intensive care is completely insignificant on a population basis and even if it doubled or trebled or quadrupled in a pandemic it would still be insignificant on a population basis. Now if you work in an intensive care unit and the demand doubled you would think the sky is falling in - can't cope - no beds - people dying right , left, and centre - stressed out - panicked. And plenty of journo's would be happy to relay your message of the falling sky to the masses. But it would still absolutely be insignificant on a population basis. Likewise if you work in care homes there are 450,000 beds in England - still less than 1 in 100 people - and on average they normally die within 2 years anyway. If you feed them midazolam as soon as they get unwell, they die faster. So it is entirely consistent for some people to think covid was the sky falling in, while in a very true sense it was insignificant on a population basis. I attended a covid funeral by videolink and was very upset and sad for the loss, and the inhuman way the widow was made to sit alone isolated from comforters. At the same time I don't have a problem with simultaneously recognising that it actually was insignificant and minor at a population level. Whether we like it or not, or admit it or not, human lives have a price - yes even our own glorious and virtuous life. The NHS routinely rations care and drugs based upon QALY (Quality Adjusted Life Years). During covid the UK and much of the rest of the world was whipped into a mass hysteria of delusion and panic where it suddenly became ok to spend unlimited sums 100 times higher than the NHS would ever normally do - to save a life. It was and remains a time of utter, utter, madness. Actual science was ignored, psychological operations took place to broadcast fear into every household. The UK spent £500 Billion to negligible population effect, and engaged in hugely counter productive actions, denying people jobs, education, health treatment, social contact, exercise etc etc. Now we are still paying the price for the folly - remember that when your taxes go up again in November. Remember the higher school absence, the ongoing epidemic of mental health social security claims, the kids with lives scarred forever, those dead from untreated cancers, the bankrupt businesses, the huge inflation, the high interest rates. It was folly.

Tricky. They are supposed to be building on the edge of the foundation. Have machine dug a deep trench certainly 1m deep and 600 wide along the line and also hand dug out clay etc. from above. Inevitably the side is not completely straight and true. Excavation on my side is undesirable, there is only a 900mm gap and my own drainage runs down it. They have been hacking at the sides a bit. 20% of their brick inspection chamber hanging above the trench and clay pipe collar chipped off (plan to repair with cement ?) Gas have told them they can't come for 8 weeks to relocate the gas pipe & meter but apparently they can dig around it. Have self certified for lateral drain which is just over 0.5m from front of extension (but they are building a platform and steps forward and over) - considered £300 for a build over agreement as unwanted cost. Not entirely reassuring.

Neighbour is building a side extension to boundary, so should the foundation trench be shuttered on the boundary side before the concrete pour ?