Spinny

@CalvinHobbes @NailBiter @Mattg4321 Any update or news on this topic since a year ago ? Anyone installed any electric blinds ? I am just trying to define details for installing electric blinds myself. The electrician has run 1.5mm twin and earth to the window reveals, but am still unsure whether anything else is required. I see some blind motors are smart home capable (with zigbee for example), so that seems the best control option. So presumably you don't need any additional cable to a wall switch because you can just turn the motor on/off/reverse wirelessly. Anyone done electric blinds over bifold doors ?

Fit seems quite variable, places where it looks OK ish other places where it really doesn't. Some spreader plates bent out of shape, some insulation not well fitted with gaps, and large void under the spreader plates (what proDave says). You may be heating the flow of cold air through the subfloor void more than the floor above. If you google between joist underfloor heating images then there are several such systems which have insulation bonded directly to the spreader plates or shaped to fit them exactly which would help to avoid a cold void under the plate sucking out heat. Unfortunately I think it is a job that requires patience and precision to properly separate the cold sub floor air from the warm above floor air. I think I was lucky to have a carpenter fitting my u/floor insulation. There are also multiple systems on the market, some better designed than others. All too often builders go for what is cheap and immediately available and incentives their interests rather than what is best, especially if the spec is just generic 'between joist'.

Thanks Nick, looks like good stuff although not on the high street it seems. But how do you use it for ceilings though when the can has to be inverted ?

Think it would be good to measure the actual temperatures so you have some definite facts to work from. What temperature is the water flow in the underfloor heating pipes ? What temperature do the spreader plates reach ? What temperature do the floor boards reach ? e.g. Search for 'Infrared Thermometer Gun' on Amazon. Is the underfloor insulation fitted nice and tight and how thick is it ? For a 5m by 4m room, then 50w/sqm is only 1kw. Underfloor heating is best in well insulated houses as you need heat input to meet or exceed losses. In general you are aiming to get the whole space up to temperature and then keep it there, rather than traditional rads at 60C where it can potentially reheat the space within an hour or two. A temperature gun (or thermal camera) would also allow you to look for cold spots.

We already have regulations that say you can't vent your boiler onto a neighbouring property. I cannot see any difference. The problem is that the rule of law today is no longer accessible to ordinary people. The cost is prohibitive and means the law might as well not exist. Only the very rich can afford to go to court. Putting it under building regs would mean it could be enforced and stop it happening at a stroke. The only people wanting to object would be those intent on breaking the law and getting away with it. As somebody once said 'there is no justice, only power'. Never has this been more true in the UK.

I am not sure it is wise for you to ignore the party wall act. It is all a bit late if you wait until he builds out over your land. I'd have thought a court might decide that as you didn't object and didn't invoke the law i.e. the PWA at an earlier stage then it would be disproportionate to expect the neighbour to completely demolish a finished extension. I can't see any reason not to talk to him asap, whatever stage he has reached. I think the current state of affairs with the PWA is daft. There should be a building regulation that says you cannot build over a neighbours land. We have building regs about vents and things, so why not about banning overhanging eaves. Building regs are then subject to council enforcement action. Council planning departments should also be liable for massive compensation payments and penalties if they approve illegal extensions.

Underfloor heating doesn't heat the floor to a high temperature. A lot of floor coverings won't take more than around 26deg Celsius. The general idea is that the warm floor is enough to give some space heating of 50-100watts per sqm. So you are not going to feel it getting 'hot' like a radiator. Do you have a between the joist system using spreader plates under the floor boards ? Hopefully well insulated between the joists under the pipes ? We have a pipe in board system from Omnie where the u/floor heating pipes are sandwiched into the floor board. The lower board is 22mm chipboard routed to take half the pipe, then a top board of 12mm routed to take the upper half of the pipe. The top board is also lined with metal foil to conduct the heat out from the pipe. So that type of system will likely give more output than between the joist with floor boards. Obviously this does raise the floor slightly because 22 + 12 = 34mm which is 19mm higher than a 15mm floor board. Using a heat gun would allow you to measure the temperature of the floor in different places, and compare the temperature when it is on vs the temperature when it is off.

Looking to prepare the junction between walls and ceiling structure ready for plaster boarding. How should I be finishing this area adjacent to the steel ? The silver PIR insulation across the end of the steel is the top of the cavity insulation in the wall. I am thinking somehow I need to seal it so that warm air in the ceiling doesn't contact any cold air squeezing through the top of the PIR where it meets the plywood deck. Thinking I should somehow put some more insulation around the steel and the top of the inner leaf it sits on ? (Have rockwool but that wouldn't be vapour/air tight)

Time to get a smart one so you can dim them from your armchair ?

Some stuff here that might be helpful... https://www.pavingexpert.com/drain01 https://www.pavingexpert.com/threshold01

@dave1967 I think it is normally suggested to call round, ask them if they are aware that they need to follow the Party Wall Act, and provide them with a copy of the .gov.uk guide or a link to the version on the web. Say you are concerned to make sure everything is properly agreed first as required by the act as it is a legal requirement and otherwise it could impact both properties for the future. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-resolving-disputes-in-relation-to-party-walls/the-party-wall-etc-act-1996-explanatory-booklet If you were unaware of the act before then you could say you saw it mentioned in an article, and after looking into it, the person building needs to comply with the process in the act to get formal agreement in place before work starts, and it is separate to planning permission and building regs. If you think he is not tech literate to read it on the internet then I guess you could print a copy for him, or find a video link that explains it that he can watch. I guess stay friendly and avoid any provocative statements about possible objections or problems or changing plans. Has he shared any plans with you ? Is it under permitted rights without planning permission ?

I can't see anyone owning our property ever wanting to build to the boundary anyway. It would create a terraced house and devalue it. The planning authority have clearly become incompetent and have created a huge problem because if people are allowed to build to the boundary they create a race condition. The first neighbour can do it, the second cannot.

I don't think it is that uncommon to have a shared driveway. I might guess there would be some legal precedence about whether the right to access implies an obligation to pay towards damage rectification or maintenance. But another +1 to Galileo because there may be questions beyond this building of a horse training ring (which should itself be a one off (or a hundred off) because to me there is the implication that this horse training/riding facility will be there to be used, so might imply regular traffic with people pulling up with horse boxes, or in 4X4's to drop kids off for horse riding lessons, or watch the weekly gymkhana ? Installing locking gates and/or bollards might be one way of giving you control and forcing proper requests for access. Emergency services could have access to a key or a key box. If you had a suitable access control method then it might also be used to provide a full record of access by your neighbour to demonstrate reasonableness or not. The emergency services access seems a little odd as I would have thought the emergency services means ambulance or fire brigade and I would expect respecting property rights to be the last consideration of either service in a true emergency anyway - is their 'main drive' definitely too small for an ambulance ? Also emergency access implies you cannot ever park on the drive as an emergency can occur any any time. Perhaps consider when the permissive access was established, by whom, and why it would have been done originally.

Isn't it a bit late to be taking the Christmas tree down ? or Never do Irish dancing on a scaffold. or Hey, jimmy, you sure your stress calculations say this scaffold is fine for a 15 stone man ? But more seriously how would that ever pass health and safety requirements. I thought builders were supposed to make and record a safety inspection of scaffold every week.

I guess the only back draft protection I am aware of are the backdraft flaps that open one way only. However these seem like they would obstruct the outward flow from the extractor even when open. Probably not an issue for low volume bathroom/utility extractors, but presumably not so desirable when trying to rapidly suck out cooking steam and smells ? I have never had a proper extractor before so am a bit clueless.

Any suggestions on the best type of external kitchen extractor vent to install for an integrated through the wall 150mm extractor ? Needs to be installed on a cavity block wall which will have external cladding and is south facing. Should I have a backdraft shutter or will this just compromise the extractor performance ? Will the cladding get stained over time by the outflow ? Will water condense and create water marks/drip marks on the cladding ? Thinking about this...Bullnose vent ?

Agree. You can't insure a risk that you know to have already materialised anyway, so it is too late for insurance.

@G and J Please can I ask where this statement comes from ? Is there a statement somewhere of this or a document containing it ? Is this a declared policy of your local authority, or national ?

Was the DPC inspected by building control because one of your photos raises questions in my mind, but others may know better.

Seems odd if it is still damp now when we have had almost no rain for weeks and weeks. I would take that plasterboard off and that will confirm the damp patches correspond to the dabs. Also give you the chance to see how damp the wall itself is and to try to confirm the damp in the wall is coming from above. I see there is a lead flashing cut into the wall above externally, so once you have the board off you could also put the hose pipe onto that and check it is watertight and to help see if damp is wicking down the wall structure itself. I guess in extremis it might need some kind of damp proof course/membrane in the wall itself to stop water wicking down it, but imagine storm dry would help because the stone looks like it might be a bit porous. Whenever you have the external leaf of a wall running from outside to inside like that then you also have a thermal bridge. When it is cold outside that piece of wall will also get cold on the inside, so if you don't insulate it on the inside, it becomes a prime position for condensation where warm air in the house hits the cold interior stone. Depends a bit how much you heat that part of the house in winter I guess. But if/when you finally re-cover the wall it should be insulated. I would think you would want to know conclusively that you have fixed the damp problem before covering over the wall again, so leaving it uncovered over next winter and checking before reboarding might be a good idea. I wouldn't like to think of long term damp going on behind the wall finish for years without you knowing about it. In that sense the dot & dab has done you a favour and shown the problem hopefully before any mold, rot or other stuff starts growing.

Are they doing other building work too. I remember now before we started our building work there was a requirement for an asbestos survey that had to be met to ensure everyone that might work on site would be safe. I guess you could ask your neighbour whether they had an asbestos survey prior to the works taking place. You might also expect roofers to be up with it on anything that might be asbestos - they are most at risk.

Depends how paranoid you want to be perhaps. Council waste centres will normally take small quantities of some asbestos waste - you should check on their website. Normally they will ask for it to be double bagged and handed in correctly not chucked into a dumbster skip. You could wear gloves and a mask to collect it up and double bag it, or I guess ask your neighbour to do it - though they might deny it as being asbestos. We had an old cowling once that had some asbestos in the cement and treated it like this, The general idea is not to do anything that will break it up, scratch it, abrade it etc. You could decide to send it for testing before you do anything - this might lead in different directions if it is positive, impacting yourselves and your neighbours, depending on the outcome. But is obviously the strict correct catch all approach. (We once had part of an internal artex ceiling that had had a small collapse tested and it was positive. Resulted in removal of the ceiling by a specialist company using negative pressure tenting, and men in NBC suits and taking away of almost all the furniture, carpet, TV you name it. The reality was that the artex only had a tiny percentage of asbestos well bound within it, but it still fell in an asbestos related coating classification that required the full monty for removal.) Asbestos has been a major problem destroying lives but those impacted generally worked with occupational exposure over years. I remember using asbestos mats with school bunsen burners. But I wouldn't trivialise it and I know people can get very anxious and laws apply.

@farang How did this turn out ?

I suppose the ideal is that you just ask your neighbour if you could pop around to have a chat with him as you have a couple of queries re the garage and the pergola. When might be a convenient time ? Then you can explain your concerns about drainage and the wall, and about the fascia. Both aspects affect him too, because if the wall was damaged then someone would have to come round and repair it from his side, and worst case if it gave way someone might get hurt. And he wouldn't want to be looking at a rotting fascia any more than you would want one on your garage. If you are friendly and reasonable then I would hope he would be too. It might help if you have something to offer - like saying you could repaint the fascia soonish so it is out of the way or something, or offering to buy or pay something towards the drain. Also maybe ask someone with building knowledge first whether you should be concerned about the drainage - you might be getting concerned about nothing. Does the garage have a DPC, and is there any gutter on that side ? I can't see it is unreasonable for someone to build a patio and pergola in their own garden. That said I think if people can see there might be significant neighbour issues like a raised patio overlooking the neighbour, or blocking sunlight from the neighbours prized roses, or installing an outdoor music system, or drilling into a neighbour or party wall, you would hope they would let you know first. I think there are some rules about heights of garden buildings and things.

Looks like a case of your parents possibly hoping to make a killing by buying land that can't be built on and then gaining rights to build on it. Quite possibly providing a nice 1000% gain on the land purchase. I guess lot's of people try to make a buck that way, and it isn't illegal. However what is the local impact ? Were there any objections to the planning application ? Might there be local residents completely unaware of the planning permission and that once they hear chainsaws going and see a building going up overlooking and devaluing their properties, church yard, village green etc will be launching legal action against you, either using the covenant, or right-to-light, or other means ? Whatever the legal position (you provide no covenant wording), perhaps you want to give some consideration to what is ethical, moral, and reasonable to your fellow man alongside this. Just because you can do something in life doesn't mean you should do it. Might not be so great to live surrounded by unhappy neighbours. None of this may apply but you don't say.