Gus Potter

Beam and block floors have a time and a place. Sometimes I design them but always look at the whole job in the round.. maybe B&B is not just the best, sometimes it is totally the right way to go.. but you make savings that can allow you to add insulation elsewhere. Some advantages: 1/ They don't rot like timber. 2/ They can help tie masonry walls together.. which saves money elsewhere and that saving can be used to better insulate the beam and block. 2/ They have mass which changes the dynamic response cf say timber joists.. if they B&B don't span too far they feel really solid.. too long a span and get it wrong as an designer they could make you feel "sea sick" particularly if the builder does not follow the installation guidelines. Long span and shallow depth B & B beams can develop a low frequency response which can be a bit.. odd... saying that for a low frequency response you would need to have say a very long corridor, it ain't going to happen walking round the bed to kiss your beloved. It takes a lot of effort to make a B & B floor bounce. By recognising and understanding how the solum ventilation works and designing / controlling it. Yes a few days a year it may reduce the floor temperature but often in the UK when we have low temperatures we have no wind.. heat loss is driven by temperature difference and air flow. Also sometimes it's good to get a bit of cold air into the underbuilding... it kills the rot like a good frost! It's daft to rule out B & B until you know all the facts. The best thing to do is to take a pragmatic appraoch.. think about where you live, the climate all year round, the temperature, where the wind and sun come from, think, sleep on it and try to understand what applies to your job. Now that all sounds a bit philosophical but that is the starting point for good design.. and you never rule things in or out until you have got these basics understood.. well you can but you may well regret it.

What a brilliant, well articulated post.. thanks.. I learnt a lot from that, thanks.

Welcome to BH. You'll learn loads here.. save a bit of cash. maybe lots and get to correspond with good pragmatic folk. To get the best out of BH you need to give a bit back and share your knowledge!

Yes a welcome from me too! Me too.. a 60's house in East Kilbride... for longer than I thought... a while ago.

ICF hidden benefits? Here's a thing.. sometimes rather than comparing each individual element try if you can to look at the design in the round. It's hard to do but just have a look at the house you want to build and trust your intuition.. never be afraid to ask questions at the early esign stage as you are doing. Take a two story house with big open plan spaces on the ground floor and lots of glass... especially looking out to the back garden. When the wind blows it wants to push the house sideways.. we call this lateral stability. If you build a brick / block house then you end up often on the rear elevation with lots of glass with not much length of masonry wall between the glazing panels. You have a series of piers that want to not "topple over" sideways in the plane of the wall.. part of the problem lies in that masonry can't take tension forces that well. When you push a masonry pier sideways you get compression at one side.. and often undesirable tension at the other which can "burst the ball" SE design wise unless you have a lot of load above. If you start to push the amount of glass and fix some of that to the masonry piers you invite the problem where the masonry has to carry the wind pressure /suction loads from the glass.. it can go horribly wrong here as an SE and you then need say to say.. we wind posts etc... you go from hero to zero! In summary masonry is good at carrying vertical loads but not so good when you need to rely on a small length of wall to resist the sideways wind force or suction / pressure loads from glazing. It can / does work well when you have a good length of masonry wall though. Traditionally when faced with this problem we introduce a steel goal post which works to resist the sideways forces, take some of the vertical load and the pressure suction from the glass. We do this lots when folk knock the back out of an existing house. But there is a cost attached.. you need to fix the steel goal post to the rest of the structure and you need often to do some work to the underbuilding.. it gets messy and expensive. Now ICF has hidden advantages that can potentially save loads of cash. Imagine you have a wall with two large glass panels.. 5.0 - 6.0m of glass and 700 - 900 mm of wall each end, 700 -900 mm between the galss panels and say 500 - 700 mm over the top of the glazing.. this 500 - 700 mm could extend up into the second floor (you need to sequence the pour if you do this). The concrete core is just say 150mm thick. You do your ICF wall but around the openings you add a bit of extra reinforcement. Here what you do is to create a concrete portal frame (goal post) all hidden in the wall and in the concrete you are going to pour anyway.. the goal post all for a few extra rebars.. Another gem is that you can sometimes get the extra rebar that form the goal posts hidden in the concrete to resist the pressure / suction loads from the glass. Hope this helps. If you fancy post some drawings and I'm sure we will all chip in with further thoughts.

Good question here @Conor Lot's of good info from other members. Make no mistake here folks if the mill start forging stamps or anyone they are in deep trouble if caught.. and they will be. With a bit of experience you can tell the difference between C16 and C24 pretty quicky The same price is probably more due to price point and stocking levels. C24 is denser.. has more cellulose and less air. I can see how folk may think they are buying the same thing just with a different stamp. For a while you had to pay more for S355 steel than S275.. but the same steel meet the requirement for strength and ductility in both grades.. so the same material could often be dual certified but with the different stamps.. S355 commanding a premium... cynisism developed! But there is definitly a difference between C16 and C24 that you can pick up on as a lay person. Sometimes its not that simple as the connections stop working. If you take a Simpson Strong Tie connection the declared capacity is often based on C24.. reduce that to C16 and the connection can then fail at the nails. Please be careful here.. especially if it has any form of cantilever.. If you want what about posting a few drawings and you'll maybe get some targeted advice?

Building near protected trees can be quite a challenge which is fascinating if you are an Arborist or say an SE.. less exciting if you are the one footing the bill and on a budget. Building near trees on BH crops up a lot and loads of folk on BH have made some great comments / given good advice. One common problem is that of soil shrinkage when the trees suck the water out the ground, another when you cut them down and the soil starts to recover and swells up. This recovering process can take a few years at times in certain clays soils. But the reality is that sometimes the tree protection orders (TPO's) can significantly impact the design and if you don't play by the rules you could face a big fine and get your job stopped. Ok lets look on the bright side.. who doesn't like some good looking trees round about? That said with a bit of careful thought it can work.. it doesn't always need to be a show stopper. If you are the SE you need to first embrace the challenge. Here are some things that require consideration and how you progress a design. The starting point is to look at the tree. What kind is it or do you have more than one also maybe of different species? Roughly some trees have a tap root that goes down deep.. can be right into fractured rock below. This root collects deep water and provides structural stability. Closer to the surface it has thicker lateral roots that follow the nutrient source in the soil. These also provide structural stability to the tree as they get a grip of a wider lump of soil that acts partly as ballast. Thin (fine to very fine) roots grow from these roots and do the grunt of the collecting nutrients and water in the soil. Some trees don't have a tap root though. The first thing you have to look at is that if you run machinery over the ground you compact it and that can cause a lot of damage to the fine root system.. the soil compaction stops the fine roots from regrowing and this could kill the tree... not right away but you can weaken the tree and it is thus more exposed to disease. Next is that if you put a building over part of the root zone you can reduce air infiltration into the ground, exclude water.. as you have taken it away in the gutters and the worms will move off or die. The above often results in the authorities drawing a big circle around the tree and saying.. no heavy machinery.. no building.. no cutting strip founds or drain / service tracks pretty much no nothing in this circle., oh and you need to put a fence round the root protection zone to show compliance. However, sometimes if you spend some time investigating the tree and species you can understand how and where the roots grow for that type of tree. Next is to look carefully at the ground. Tree roots don't grow in a perfect circle around the tree.. they follow the water and nutrients. Once they know they are stable their aim is to propagate so why spend time and energy growing unwanted structural roots. This can be a key.. if you know more about the soil type, the nutrient bearing layers, where the roots are growing and where they need to grow in the future you are on the right track. It may be that with a bit of time and effort you can show that the area of ground the tree needs to maintain health is away from where you want to build! .. and presto .. your project is much more back on track. In reality what happens is you try and change the shape of the protection circle if you can and do a bit of clever SE / geotechnical design to reach a compromise that suits all.. even the tree.. if only they could talk? If you want post more info. Don't despair!

@Gow, thanks for the praise, much appreciated. A company I have done a bit of work with are old skoool cabinet makes / joiners and do high end stuff... well. One of the guys spent 5 years doing his joinery apprenticeship then another I think 3-5 years training as a cabinet maker, at that time they then needed to do two extra years after that as what was called a "journeyman" before full recognition. Worth having a look at what they can offer and if not in your neighbourhood / or suits you then hopefully you can find someone along these lines. Call Niall and if they can't help then they may know someone who can / give you some pointers, depends on where you are located. https://www.joinery-glasgow.com/ Good luck with the project and hope your luck changes.

They don't .. there is no such thing as a silly question.. the silly folk at the dafties; that are too up themselves to ask or at the other end folk that worry about looking "stupid" by asking a laymans question.

My post overlapped with yours. Hopefully others from BH can catch my drift and use it to their advantage. Have not looked back on your other posts but things like steps and garden levels should not be a big issue.. unless you are in a conservation area. Just leave them (the steps) be and see if you get a come back.. gut feeling probably not. If you are really worried then post more stuff or PM a few folk on BH. My preferance is to just post on BH, not PM as then you get the best group advise.

That is good advice. Plenty other folk on BH to PM too. Peter, one of the Mods is a serious expert for example on the English planning system.. there are many others to.. Peter love your stuff but you have equals on BH, not me though as I have more of an SE type bent. The funny thing is that balance.. what do you post on BH to get the best advice vs privacy. I'm sure there are a few planners lurking on BH, a lot will be just folk like the rest of us.. keen to build their own house and learning all about how you do it. I have had folk (not many) that are in the BC/ Planning world come to me and say.. would you do my calcs Gus.. and give me some info on local builders and what I need to do to make it work. They are just like a lot of us that are in the trade..ish. We know how parts of the building world work but not all. I think that the really anal planners are probaby not going to be on BH. You would have to be very unlucky if they just looked up your post. This thing about posting and worrying that the planners may be monitoring.. if you have a good case then they will read it and think... hey I'm on the wrong side of the argument here.. the applicant is on BH and getting advice from folk that will probably run rings round me.. maybe not a hill to die on in my day job as a planner? If you can make the case on BH then maybe your application will fly? If you can pass the test that the pro's on BH set you.. then the formal planning should be a scoooosh? Yes I know that folk worry about social media but BH is a serious forum.. If your argument flies here with all the experience that BH folk have then it evens the odds / maybe tips the odds in your favour when dealing with planning and BC? If you look at BH and the time it has been running.. it is a vast knowledge base.. the councils IT systems and referencing system just can't cope with it. A good few councils subscribe to the IHS data base.. but that costs plenty.. BH is wide ranging and has a huge base.. folk just starting out just say doing up a first flat to seasoned self builders and pro's that make a living in the construction industry. In terms of BH.. it is still a non commercial site.. they day it stops being that.. I'll leave. I dabbled a bit with the Farming Forum.. but it was not for me. The great thing is that I still believe that the experience you get on BH is as close to the real world as you can probably find these days. Oh @CalvinHobbes sorry.. have gone a bit of a rant.

Have not looked back at all your posts Calvin.. But here is a trump card that can flummox the planners.. That is HSE and safety. Clearing the site.. well to do that you need safe access to build. If you start to dig out tree stumps.. could compromise safe entry for plant and machinery.. or you may want to not demolish all of an existing house.. say bungalow gobbling as you may want to use part of the old founds structure to provide temporary bracing. Talk to your SE.. we have ways and means of showing how in the interests of HSE that the safest way is not to "totally" clear the site" as the existing "cottages" may be part of the whole design stategy and the most environmental approach. Some planners / BC think they have god like powers.. but hit them on the low carbon etc (often their weak spots) and make it clear to them that you expect a reasoned response.. they back off. Part of the reason is that you play their game against them and say here is our evidence.. back up your argument and we know it is not in the regs so lets have a proper technical discussion.. they often back off. In other words.. you can leave stuff above the ground if you can show that it is either part of; the temporary works, essential for HSE or part of the recycling waste treatment train .. the environmental stuff really causes them problems in pratical terms. You basically say.. if you want to be diffcult we too can rack up your office hours... that is the tactic the big developers use.. they know where to target the councils and know where they are weak on resourse.. no friends in the desert. To keep yourself covered just write to them and say.. we will comply with our planning consent.. but we also need to comply with the HSE regs so if we don't hear from you other wise we are carting on.

Can you post a photo of the whole wall so we can see what is above and what kind of loads may be acting on the opening? I ask as there is a "funny joint" to the right side on the brickwork. Don't be shy as you'll get loads of good advice from @George and some form me too and others.

@PXR5 Pity that you have this issue.. but you have started a great thread. The responses you have had are really informative (for me also), BH folk chipping with invaluable experience and advice. For me to all who have chipped in .. a big thank you, learnt loads and given me food for thought too. I can't think of anything I can meaningfully contribute to the legal side / just general great advice and input and so on. Other than this. This made me think.. what sort of things could other BH members do if faced with a similar situation and what might be a first small step you could take without aggrevating the situation. One might be.. how do you get something that is a bit of initial formaility to let your neighbours know that you are actively considering your own and importantly their circumstances... if you can show that you have been reasonable and proactive then if later it goes legal this will give weight to your side of the argument. The objective (test of reasonable) is to say... hey I can forsee a possible problem and I want to protect avoid risk (= cost) to us both. Now with things like retaining walls that are bulging.. they tend to slowly destabalise until some, usually environmental event, tips the balance and causes what can be a sudden and dangerous collapse. That could be wind / heavy rainfall / loss of tree root / vegitation stability. A non environmental event would be where someone say piles bulk bags of gravel on the high side of the retained ground or drives a digger up close to the fence. We would often call that a surcharge load. For all if you are designing a basement / retiaining wall we often allow for 10kN/ sq m surcharge loading (1 tonne per sq metre on the finished level of the ground). @PXR5 You could start out with your own survey.. as time is on your side you could probably do this without say an SE / Geotechnical Engineer. First thing to do is take some good record photographs from ground level. These should be panoramic and detailed. Detailed would include parts of the wall where bricks are obviously displaced, where the mortar is clearly falling out of the joints or where roots are growing out the mortar. The key here is to be able to reference the panoramic photos to the detailed ones. The way to do this is imagine you posted the lot on BH.. ask yourself.. would we be able just from the photos to see where the displaced bricks are in relation to the panoramic photos. You tell a story using the photos and present a cogent argument. Ideally you may know someone who has a drone. It does not have to be high tech. Fly it up to the boundary line and take plan photos. It's a good time of year (winter when I write this) as you can see what trees are deciduous and what are say Leylandi.. the evergreen trees and shrubs. This is really helpful. The canopy size of the evergreens is easier to determine when the deciduous trees are not in leaf. Next try and get you hands on a surveyors staff. They have cleary marked graduations that can turn out well in photos unlike a measuring tape, it also looks the part.. a proper staff. Fly the drone down a bit and photograph horizontally.. square on at mid height of the staff. Fly up and take photos level (or as close as you can) with the top of the staff. With a bit of maths if pushed this can give you an approximation of the tree height working from ground level. Objective is to establish roughly the height of the vegitation / trees. You can do this from ground level but you could you have perspective to take into account. If you can't get a drone then you can do this from ground level but it is a bit more complex. On the drone.. do not put any photos in any communication that are taken beyond your boundary.. or you may be subject to a "peeping tom allegation" but you may not want to delete any that have been taken accidentally.. the key here is to mindful of the data protection act. Next as time is on you side to some extent wait until spring then repeat. This all sounds a bit complicated.. but what you are doing is to establish the vegitation profile. In the spring once the leaves develop you can start to identify what kind of trees / vegitation is planted on the neighbours side and you have a record of it. In summary we are trying to record; vegitation height / canopy spread and species. From that we can predict the future growth and how the root growth may impact on the wall. That is what we need to know as SE's say. The above is a long winded way of what the NHBC provide in their design guidance or maybe I have expained how the NHBC guidance can be applied in real life? Next we ask.. how much and how fast are the neighbours trees / vegitation likely to grow? Now that is important as if you want to build a house say we need that information to design the house founds. We also need to know if your neighbours decide to cut down a big tree next to the boundary especially if you house found is only a metre from the boundary. When designing your house found I want to know if trees have been cut down near the boundary on your neighbours side. Turning back to the retaining wall. What we are trying to do is to get a handle on what impact your neighbours planting may have on the retaining wall looking forward. It could be that the trees / shrubs are old and about to die.. thus the movement you see may reduce / stop.. or they could be in their strong junevenile stage and have strong root growth... like teenage kids.. growing every where and trying to take over. Once we have identified canopy size / vegitation type and age then we have some info. We also need to know a bit about the type of soil / water table and so on.. but if I start on that I'll be writing all night. In the round though this is important as the problem may not in fact get significantly worse! which could be good news. Identifying what could happen should drive your strategy to some extent and how you couch your findings / approach your neighbours. Next we need to look at the existing retaining wall construction. Ok the photos should pick up the root growth / weathering of the mortar and so on but we need to look at how much it is off the plumb / possibly unstable. Get a string line and run it say 200 mm tight off the bottom line of the wall from end to end of the boundary wall corners. Do the same at the top. Don't do it on a windy day. At each end plumb the top and bottom line so they are vertically in alignment. DON'T use a spirit level.. use a plumb bob and photograph how you set it up. Take the time to get this spot on. You could use a lazer.. but again this can be easily challenged in terms of accuracy. If you use a spirit level then the first thing folk will say.. is your spirit level accurate.. saying.. I bought it new from B & Q won't cut the mustard in court! Go old schoool use the plumb bob all photographed. Make sure the photos show exactly how you have set up the top and bottom lines. Now you have a top and bottom datum to work to. Next get a straight edge and measure back to the face of the wall and the fence posts etc. Do this say at 3.0 m centres.. allows you to average things.. then take local measurements (odd centres) where the wall is clearly bulging but ALSO where the wall looks ok.. you must be impartial here. Now you draw / calculate a profile of the wall and can identify the real problem areas and compare with part of the wall that may be ok. You may well find that the problem areas coincide with cetrain trees? Now the above will take a bit of time and effort. But if I was acting for you I would want to gather the same info as any another Surveyor / technical bod would say.. The difference between you and I when acting in a professional capacity is folk can argue that my word (SE type hat on) carries more weight that yours cf you with long standing service / good personal reputation in the local the community. To easily resolve this you'll need a "helper" to help you take all these measurements. So long as you work together you can both put your hand on your hearts (the witness) and say.. we did not fudge the results as we relied on first principles.. like a string line and a plumb bob and took photos = someone like me.. Gus. Just don't pick a helper that has a conviction for fraud.. I'm sure you don't associate with the like.. just having a laugh. In summary you may ask.. but I'm not an SE /other professional bod.. so what.. if you think about it.. you can do a lot on your own.. looking / thinking, measuring in a recognised way and recording what you find. Next do a small report.. could be a couple of pages with an appendix with loads of photos. You may know someone that can make it look " more official in terms of presentation" Report.. Keep it factual and really simple. Avoid elaboration in any way as you can dig a hole for yourself if you get carried away. Stick to your comfort zone, the skills you have and avoid stepping into say SE / Geotech areas.. photograph and report what you observe ..don't try and interpret your findings. Report starts with an objective. Objective is to understand how much the wall is bulging and how straight it is.. you don't have to go all SE and say.. too much leaning over /unsafe blah blah.. you are just establishing the profile of the wall. Do not turn the report into what is acalled an interpretive report.. this is where you start to draw conclusions from what you have found / measured. That the report has been prepared based on the fact that you are intending to construct a dwelling within say one metre of the boundary. You are concerned that in doing so you may have to cut the "structural roots" of their trees.. ( pretty sure you are within your rights here just like if I had put the found of my extension on your land.. over to the experts on English law here). Also that as this is intended to be a dwelling house their wall must not pose a safety risk to the dwelling and use of. Next you say.. we have established the tree / shrub height, canopy and species based on observations from our side of the boundary. Lastly you write a bit of conclusion which from what you are saying is: 1/ The wall appears to have deteriorated and this could be as a result of not least a lack of maintenance by you (based on your stated claim of ownership) coupled with the apparent detrimetal impact of ongoing growth of the vegitation and trees on your side of the boundary. You are not interpreting here.. you are saying .. it looks like these are things that could be an issue. 2/ My initial findings based on limited information I have gathered is that the vegitation / trees ect on your side of the boundary will likely result in the wall for which you are responsible deteriorating further... It may be that you find that the trees etc are old and dying.. so that could become a mute point. Think carefully and identify if their trees etc are really a big problem. 3/ Lets say you find that the trees are vigorous.. growing like fury. First point is that you now have a record so you say.. here is the record.. it's your wall / trees etc not mine. But in the interest of public safety this is a potential issue for the "owner of the wall". Leave it at that as they will quickly twig that there could be some liability racking up on their account. 4/ Say that these are your provisional findings. Arrange as you see fit and put that in a "report". Next do a covering letter which says something like.. as well as being really nice to them..as you really want them to come to the table and be good neighbours and you want that kind of relationship also. Here is what I have found / measured. I want to get on and want to identify and resolve any potential issues. Here is my report. Unless I hear from you in 4 ( about 21 working days) weeks then the measurements and photographs must stand for record purposes. Here what you are doing is affording them the opportunity to engage with you. If they challenge your findings it will probaby cost them a bit as they will probably need to involve a professional.. unless they too are on BH say!. If they don't respond then you can say.. well I take it you have accepted my measurements. It may be that if you put together a good looking evidence based report coupled with a pleasant covering letter they will see the light. I don't think you can lose as the report you produce is evidence based and asks questions. Part of the intent is to sow doubt in their mind and makes them think.. hey this could be a bit costly for us if we keep being "difficult neighbours" .. it gets them thinking.. our structural tree roots should not really be on other folks land.. if our trees fall on someone else.. the Police / HSE could be at our door? The factual report is one part.. the way you finesse the covering letter is probably the key. The above is one appoach to getting difficult neighbours to "see the light" .. what you are doing is measuring/ photographing and giving them the opportunity to respond in a like for like manner.. which probably means they have to stick their hand in their pocket also. You basically say put up or shut up.

Had to edit as my soft side kicked in.

Your post over lapped! You posted when I was writing! Steady on here.. Sounds to me like time for cool heads. Don't let that get to you.. surprisingly folk will sit for many hours/ days and write objections.. some are complete bonkers.. but it is a public service so some folk just like letting off steam. What matters to the planners. is relevant comment. I have Clients that have had some horrible things posted on the planning portal.. objections. then they get planning and the neighbours realise that they.. they (the new folk) are a good bunch.. and wish they had not written that stuff on the public record! Calm down and take step back. From reading your posts you seem to have some means so you don't qualify in my book as say a young person just starting out buying their first home . Me too have had brushes with the police so if you want a bit of help then as an old Electiricial (who was a Church Elder) that I worked with used to say. Gus.. the truth will set you free! @PXR5 I think you are not playing this off a straight batt Over to you!

Ok I get it, country boy myself, go beating / lamping and so on.. get your point. Play the it country way! Go canny, post some photos and lets see how bad the wall is and then you can get heavy with a few technical observations.. probably scare them off. The objective is to put the ball into their court and let them realise that to defend they will have to stump up some cash. Also you need to finesse.. you have chosen to live in the country for a different life.. don't come and try to change it to suit your ideal. In the country we shoot deer / foxes, have hounds and do vermin control. We eat deer..called venison. Waitrose sell the same but in a nice plastic packet... but most have been shot by folk like myself. Yes even farmed deer are head shot folks, they don't get put in a trailer like sheep and carted off to the slaughter house.. a horrific journey? But if you have ever been near a sluaghter house..it's not for the faint hearted.. the animals can smell fear. What do you want to do build development wise? Don't panic.. and stay away from the legal stuff for now.. you'll get lot's of help here BH. If you give a bit of info you can probably turn this around.. and let the new folk "see the light" and the benefits of living in the country. I think if you can hit them with the risk / cost element they may embrace the fact that country folk are not daft? I do wonder if this will get by the mods? Can I talk about how you design a house in the country and how that fits with the life in the country and where our food comes from. Mods.. if this sounds a bit blood thirsty for you.. what about this.. I kept free range chickens / ducks and had a few pheasant pens.. but they mostly the hens (chi9ckens) laid their eggs under hedges.. next thing a hedgehog comes along and scoffs up their nearly hatched eggs, the hens went nuts.. but for me the hog was a delight.. You see @PXR5 yes push back hard against the incomers wanting to make the environment like a city. If we don't the country and our way of life will be be lost to our kids. For those that live in cities.. if they all become one you will have nowhere to go for tranquility and that woke stuff called "diversity"

I laid it on a bit thick in my last post so please don't take it as being nasty. Yes post some pics.. and will be happy to chip in.. more friendly the next time!

This is also a bit for all on BH. I'll assume that you are going to build a home for yourself rather than just looking at this as a commercial opportunity? If so (commercial) then you should be sticking your hand in your pocket for professional advice and not be tooling about on BH for free advice as folk on BH also think about their neighbours. I do a bit of claims work I but don't just act for developers / builders I also act to defend home owners against development in an SE capacity. I hope you get my drift? Here is a thing. As an SE I do a bit of claims against say the NHBC.. by the time I get called up folk are often at their wits end, suffered a lot and have spent loads of cash, often unnecessarily. Positive note: Let's assume you are building your forever home.. you want to get on with your neighbours, some can become great friends, keep an eye out on your property when you are away.. gives your kids a neighbour to go to in an emergency or you too when you get older and need a hand out. That has a value. Holding that train of thought.. you want to get on with your neighbours... really you do in the long run. I'm stating the obvious but your neighbours may feel they were there first.. have ownership of the view / privacy and been able to plant up their garden the way we they wanted. This is human nature.. imagine yourself in their shoes? If you can't then you need to learn more about negotiation. I'm not suggesting you go all soft.. but to negotiate well you have to put yourself in your "enemies" shoes and if you want a forever home you need to compromise to get good neighbours and what you want without a big legal barny and the risk that comes with it. Lastly never under estimate your neighbours, some may have friends / have relatives who may be with KC's, Lawyers QS's, Architechts, SE's and CE's the list goes on.. and if they feel you are bullying they will jump to their defense and often work pro bono.. I do and can tell you I can quickly rack up the stakes for you just as an SE.. to the point where you will often wish you had never gone down the legal route. Imagine your neighbour came on BH looking for advice? How would that play out? To make a start on resolving something like this, your post suggests you are already frustrated? Go back to the start. Ask: 1/ Is the wall dangerous.. is it a high wall? say greater than 1.0m in height. Could it hurt someone. Lets say the boundary wall is 1.2m - 2.0 high. As a rule of thumb if the top of the wall is more than 1/3 over the centre of gravity then that is a good starting basis as an SE for making the case that the wall is not safe. Say the wall is in old money 1 foot / 12 inches thick. The middle third is 12/3 = 4 inches. Thus if the wall is leaning out more than 2" (50mm) at the top then you question the stability. Next is the condition of the mortar.. if it has deteriorated then that has to be considered. If roots have penetrated the wall.. again this leads to instability. 2/ What do I want to build? How close to the disputed wall do I want to go? Best thing to do is to mull this over at your end. Post a few photos and your ideas / plans. The good news is that you probably have more options than you realise, often with a bit of tact things can be resolved. I totally get that you feel you may want to go legal.. but you'll just suffer grief. The first thing you need to do is fully understand the problem. Why is the wall bulging and what are the consequences. Safety is paramount and that is where your best argument lies. Unless the wall is unsafe your neighbours are probably doing nothing wrong! It may well fall to you to prove it is unsafe. Also if you build something next to the wall that compromises it further then the responsibility lies with you.. be careful what you wish for!

Here a few thoughts, please excuse the spelling / grammer as "off duty". @ProDave Enjoyed reading your input, great points and observations you make. I'll try and add a bit where I can maybe fill in some gaps for you. But first there are a couple of pedantic thoughts do you really have a 1990's TF.. lets clear that up first. The 140 block flags up.. normally it would be 100mm thick for a UK TF. Forgive me if I sound a bit odd / pedantic .. it's just that there seems some discrepancy in the description of the thickness of the blockwork. I know you have probably copied what you can from the old drawings.. but what flags up and this is why I'm asking is the cavity thickness 25mm. As a minimum it should be 50mm for TF. The EPC also seems to suggest that you may not have a real TF? @Space Race In Scotland we have the home report system. There are good and bad bits about this.. I could write at length.. for another day. But basically they are so heavily caveated that they don't provide the info you need to make a reasonably informed offer., a big hole is a real consideration of how onerous the maintenance requirements may be for example. Tenement flats are worse so be glad you have the info you have. But you also need to cut the surveyor a bit of slack. Anyway.. I may be wrong but have been "pedantic" as best to ask the daft questions now rather than suffer later. Ok my thoughts are.. do you really have a TF of do you have a more traditional type of construction.. solid walls strapped on the inside. It is not unkown.. folk used to take a solid wall construction, mitigate for vapour / condensation and strap and line. If you are say in the NE of Scotland.. there were a lot of folk who had grown up in solid granite houses.. they wanted something just as robust but a bit warmer.. hence a cavity and an insulated TFnon load bearing lining. Say that is what you are looking at.. then make another visit and look carefully for cracks / sloping floors etc.. post here what you find. In the round though if you do have some form of solid wall construction (the blockwork does the structural heavy lifting and resisting the big winds you get in the NE of Scotland) then it is not a bad thing. If you do have a TF then the good news is that it is probably very drafty (less chance of rot setting in) maybe has 75 -100 mm of glass wool between the studs. The studs could be 89mm x 38mm .. that is a Canadian lumber size, they may be 95 x45.. UK metric graded size or they may have just used ungraded 100 x 50 as this can work too. I can speculate but.. little point at this stage. In the round though if it is a solid wall construction it probably makes it easier to upgrade to a modern standard. Post more if you can and we'll all chip in. Ok you are thinking about offering on this house. What are the risks? If it has stood since the early 1990's then the skeleton is probaby robust enough? If you are a Build Hubber and going to gut the place then actually the solid wall may turn out to be a bonus once you get to air tighness, insulation detailin and running the services you want. Best thing to do is post a few photos / more of your thoughts, provide a bit more info and we will all keep chipping in.

What a great thread. @SteamyTea you have encouraged me to bush up on my maths in this area. Thank you.

Good for the sole to help out. My thoughts are: That extension is quite long 6.0m and will pick up a bit of wind on the long sides thus you need to stop it moving sideways in the plane of the main rear elevation of the existing house. You starting point here is to ask.. can we transfer all the sideways wind load to the existing building and how do we do that.. and is the existing building able to take the extra sideways loads. It looks like a terraced house. One commonly accepted principle is that if you live in a terrace your house has to take it's "share" of the load. In other words you can't shed load onto your neighbours.. because if everyone starts doing it you can destabalise the whole terrace of houses. The back door introduces a significant break in the load path, that is an anomoly particularly as it is next to a pier which will probably be carrying quite a lot of load from the main roof.. it will protest if you try and use it to hold an extension still. My initilal thoughts looking at the geometry is that you'll need a goal post (steel portal frame) along the front elevation of the extension. If it only extended some 3.5m from the house then you may get away with that masonry return on one side. I would recommend that you speak to an SE.

Good spot that crack. Have been following this thread but don't know enough about council tax rules etc in the rest of the UK.. Scotland's are hard enough! Can't say much about the crack just from the photos.. other than yes there is some movement but it does not look like you can put your finger in it.. if you could then you would be thinking major movement.. temporary structural stability issues.. particularly if there are other cracks / things dropping elsewhere. For me I would want to see the whole building in person before making any meaningful comment.

This is a good view. Some are "slow", some are just young and learning what is a very big subject.. need to speak to their boss.

I think this could develop into a "hot topic"..which will have an impact on BH members.. how much I don't know but there will be some form of cost attached. BC in Scotland are having a big drive.. lots of CPD and seminars. I think this may get picked up on in the rest of the UK if not already. I'm certainly not against this as we need to make our housing / building stock safe. Getting PI cover for fire is let's say.. not easy and it takes a lot of time to understand what cover is being offered by the brokers. While I would like to give lots of particular detail I won't as it is commercially sensitive from my pont of view. I'm in a bit of an odd position in that I often do the SE stuff plus the Architectural side of things. Often (not all the time though) the SE say's.. fire protection is for the Architect on smaller domestic jobs, even larger projects. The SE says.. I need one hour here, two hours there and so on and leave it up to the Architect to detail it out and thus it falls on their cover. But the way I see things at the moment in terms of risk is (my view may change) this. The designer's risk can be split into two broad categories: 1/ You botch the fire design in terms of your design, the building goes on fire.. occupants get killed / injured, the building collapses and kills members of say the Fire / Rescue services or the building starts to come apart at the seams and sets fire to surrounding buildings. The above is what we have been designing for traditionally... but Grenfell changed all of that in that the system of checks and balances fell to bits.. if one person had made a stand.. and been heard / action taken then maybe Grenfell could have been avoided. Now due in part to the Grenfell enquiry light is now being shone into the darker corners.. the way manufacture's have been presenting their test data, the way designers have been interpreting the data and the commercial pressures that are brought upon the local authorities to bow down / approve and not question the "big commercial" interests. I know of one BC officer who a specialist in fire design.. but the funding is not there to allow them to challenge the big builders and so on. This type of herd behavoir leads to bad design.. unsafe design. 2/ A good few of the manufacture's have withdrawn data and design guidance. Why you ask.. what is the reason for this? My broker explained to me.. the problem Gus is that now there does not even need to be a fire. A Client can come back to in a couple of years and say.. remember that building you designed.. well we are worried about it and are going to raise an action against you.. that leaves the designer facing big defense costs.. you are trying to defend against a hypothetical scenario.. now that could be hard and expensive if the manufacture's have pulled their data not least. I have figured out an approach that I think is a reasonable balance of risk, everyone will have their own approach. Part of my strategy is to communicate with the Client, other designers and discuss how we are going to design something safe. Have the hard conversation at the concept design stage about who is doing the fire design.. this is like being a Principle designer (PD).. someone needs to coordiante the design and make sure all the different elements are safe when put together in a system. If you do this then while some may sue few will win (hopefully none) as you have acted responsibly and designed well with an understanding of the materials you are using and where you put them and how you interface them.