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As much as I used to like watching soaps like Eastenders, my neighbours seem to watch it all day everyday at such a high volume that I can hear it clearly in my own house. We are therefore putting up sound insulation. We were going to build a wall and attach it with genie clips (which are a type of resilient bar sold by soundstop.co.uk) to the existing party wall. The make up of the wall was going to be a combination of SBx (which is a dense honeycomb type board where the honeycomb is filled with sand) and soundproof plasterboard. My builder has pointed out that however good the genie clips might be, it would be even better to have no connection to the party wall whatsoever and have a freestanding stud wall made of metal C studs running between the floor and the ceiling, with a 10mm air gap between the existing party wall and the new wall, keeping that gap empty as opposed to filling it with mineral wool. Is he right? If so, is 10mm enough, or would i get an improvement by making the gap 15mm or 20mm? We are using resilient bars and soundproof plasterboard for our ceiling so not too worried about the ceiling acting as a bridge. As for the floor, we have dropped the FFL by about 38cm and laid an insulated slab underneath, so there is a lot of material for sound to travel through before it could bridge into our house via our floor.

Hi all, I’m seeking some advice for an infill site that sits at the end of a row of terrace houses. It’s quite a narrow site so I’m looking to maximize floor area. One variable that I’m unsure about is the wall construction against the existing gable end party wall. The gable end sits astride the boundary (boundary is down the center line) and there is an existing lean to garage. In the new build, would I need to build a stand-alone structural wall on foundations, with a cavity between that and the existing wall? Or would it be possible to attach to the existing wall and line it? Any advice would be very helpful. thanks in advance.

Hello all. We're based in West Yorksire and had hoped to start our kitchen extension building sideways from our small detached house. The planned build goes to within 0.8 metres of the party wall of our neighbours house which runs along one side of our driveway. We weren't informed of the party wall act by our Architect despite voicing concerns about how close we were building to the wall. We only found out when the builder delivered some preliminary materials and the neighbour came out creating a fuss, despite seeming OK when we had mentioned it to her earlier. Her relative is a Quantity Surveyor and he sent us a very abrupt letter outlining Party Wall act and also stated we couldn't build within 1.5m of the wall due to a paragraph in the house deeds stating "access to inspect the wall to be allowed from time to time". They claim this is the minimum space they would require to erect scaffolding to enforce their right of access. We know he is well heeled and they have previous history of seeing legal disputes to the end. Our only other option would be to build backwards but the space would be extremely cramped, problematic and probably not really worthwhile. We already have a Conservatory and the cost to demolish and rebuild there would be way out of our price range. A few years ago the same neighbour built a conservatoy, the last three feet or so are alongside the wall of our standalone brick garage that runs along the boundary between the two gardens at the back of the house. I'm not sure if the garage would constitute a party wall but they certainly didn't send us a notification under the PWA 96. This is very stressful and we're not really sure what to do. We've even read the builder could try to recoup the entire estimated cost of the build if we cancel, we've so far paid him a fairly significant deposit. From what we've seen he does seem like a decent guy but we're fearing the worst now. Thanks for any wise words.

Hi Everyone, I am planning to build a rear extension and trying to get information about party wall. I really confused about a party wall arrangement with my neighbours and unable to figure out that I really need agreement with my neighbours. Please someone help to find it out. I live in a semidetached property. We have shared wall on east side neighbour and west side semi detach (only shed wall shared). We have fences that defines the boundaries - My east side neighbour already extended the property. They have bigger plot and extension is in the middle of their properties. East side neighbour extension wall is approximately 2.5 to 3 meter away from our gardens fences. - West side neighbour only shares shed wall. I wanted to demolish the shed because it half inside the proposed extension. Do I need part wall agreement with any of my neighbour? Please look at the attached image if I am unable to explain or for better understanding. Thanks in advance.