Boundary wall repair dispute advice needed

[HappyDays80]

Hi there

Would be grateful for some advice. I share a boundary wall with my neighbour which acts as a partition between the public pavement and our properties. We both live in a detached house with this wall spanning across as the front border. There are 3 pillars and 2 walls and 2 railings. The middle pillar divides the boundary (with end pillars on either side). My neighbour had decided to grow a California Lilac right up against their wall which has resulted in the central pillar developing 3 cracks ( 2 of the cracks are at the base and match from front to back which indicates the pillar is not supporting the wall but is now being supported by the two walls either side). I raised this issue with my neighbour amicably – they removed the hedge but now refuse to repair the central pillar –They are disputing that the hedge had no cause for this damage - Legally where do I stand? What is reasonable? Communication has gone down hill. I did take pictures of the hedge before they removed it for my own records. The deeds state we are responsible for our boundary walls - equally the middle pillar is supporting our own boundary walls so common sense says to me that both of us are responsible for its repair. Equally I feel nothing is on our side that has contributed to this damage, when they have an obvious aggressive hedge planted so close to their wall putting strain on the central pillar - also on the outside of the wall joining the central pillar on the neighbours side the mortar is crumbling away. See pictures 

what is the probability that the hedge was responsible considering how it planted so close to their side of the wall? 

any opinions would be much appreciated. 
 

[joe90]

Sorry but that’s hardly life threatening, if it bothers you rake out the  loose Mortor and point it up.

[Gav_P]

Just now, joe90 said:

Sorry but that’s hardly life threatening, if it bothers you rake out the  loose Mortor and point it up.

Wot e said! 
 

Really not worth falling out with a neighbour about... not worth stressing yourself about either.

[Jilly]

Even if that was in a building it would be 'treated' by simply removing or reducing the offending trees and monitoring. Ceanothus is not known for being damaging or thirsty. I would stop worrying and try to repair your relationship rather than the wall...

[joe90]

Sometimes removing trees or shrubs does more damage than planting them ?‍♂️.

[HappyDays80]

Hi folks

 

Much appreciated for all your comments. Completely respect and value what you say. 
The wall is not about to fall I agree but I personally do not want a problem further down the line, equally it has already been raked out and attempted to be repaired which has not worked. 
You are correct it is not worth falling out over the neighbours but equally they have not reciprocated my communication in discussing options as they feel they are not responsible and the hedge has no bearing on the wall. 
I have grown California lilac in my back garden and i disagree as it can grow big and the issue is not the plant per se....it’s planted too close to the wall for its size.

 

I agree with you Joe that removing the hedge can also be a problem too....hence why I suggested we should get advice before removing it....they made the decision to remove it but now the cracks are open to weather......they have been raked and filled in before which did not work.

 

im afraid the building of a rapport has been worked on ( even prior to this) but unfortunately some folk do not want to reciprocate this - only so much trying you can do.

[Russell griffiths]

I would say the wall has been built on standard poor garden wall type footings, it’s done a bit of settling. 

 

Yes the shrubs wouldn't have helped, but I don’t think I would loose any sleep over it. 

 

@Jilly well done spotting ceanothus from those pics.  

[Roundtuit]

As above;  looks like the quality of the wall and foundation isn't the best and there's been a bit of settlement.  I don't think you can reasonably pin it on the hedge. There are garden walls like this everywhere; as @joe90  said, just point it up for now.

 

Edited December 6, 2020 by Roundtuit
typo

[HappyDays80]

Thanks Russell and Roundtuit - good to know these facts. I’m just confused as to why the other 6 walls have not behaved in the same way. I just want to understand the possible reasons why the wall has behaved like this so I can understand how to move forward - I’m more interested in fixing the problem. I appreciate comments have been made to take out the mortar and re-point.....I don’t want to do this if it’s simply wallpapering over a crack that is likely to reappear.....the wall has been there for 13 years and these cracks only appeared since the  Ceoenthus hedge has been planted and grown.....mistakes and errors like this happen which no one intentionally goes out to damage a wall.....I suppose it doesn’t help the neighbours do not want to engage which does not leave me an option to be proactive and repair it myself - if I touch it I own the problem if anything happens if you get where I am coming from.

[Roundtuit]

There could be any number of reasons why your section has moved a bit, but at the end of the day , it's a garden wall, so unless it becomes so unstable as to present a risk to you or the public, then I'd just 'wallpaper'.  The only real 100% fix would be to take it all down, put in fresh  'belt and braces' foundations to prevent future movement, and re-build.

Based on the photos, I suspect most people won't judge it as actually needing repair.

 

[joe90]

1 hour ago, HappyDays80 said:

I’m more interested in fixing the problem

I think your more fixed on “who is at fault“, well you will never know. These things happen and may or may not be the planting of the hedge,  which by the way is not against the law and there are many many hedges next to walls that don’t have a problem. If you are serious about fixing this then you have to keep moisture out of that crack, perhaps a non setting mastic (the stuff used in expansion gaps etc.).

[Onoff]

Imho the wall has been built with the pillars separate and the infilling walls abutting them rather than being keyed in. It's then cracked on that abutting line. Certainly the upper courses. The lower 5 courses are engineering bricks, can't really tell what's going on there in terms of keying in.

 

 

Probably doesn't have any wall starters used. You'll be lucky if there's a few nails banged in!

 

See the pictures here, not quite your set up but see how the bricks of the infills and piers interlock.

 

https://www.gardeningdata.co.uk/construction/brickwork/stretcherpier.php

 

If you're going to repoint then mortar rake in a grinder then use a mortar gun. Follow the mortar gun instructions to the letter ref the mix and use a plasticiser.

 

A video I found on YouTube:

 

 

Tbh this particular gun has had some bad reviews but I can't fault it. My nephew in fact gave me his as he couldn't get on with it. What screwed him up I think is that he always adds a shovel of sharp sand to his mortar or render mixes. He also doesn't add plasticiser. 

 

Years back, not reading the instructions I tried putting a pure sharp sand / cement mix through another make of gun and it was so hard to squeeze out I cracked the barrel. 

 

Edited December 7, 2020 by Onoff

[Ferdinand]

To me it just looks like a poor wall. (Sorry). 

 

Not really sure why the whole thing is not engineering bricks - for that quantity the extra cost is very little.

 

Suspect it will a tartup every 12-15 years anyway.

[HappyDays80]

Thanks folks for all your feedback.

Much appreciated in you all taking time in replying - I’m learning! ?

 

[rh2205]

We had a wall almost exactly like this, it didn’t change in 8 years, I reckon it will look almost the same in another 10 years. Never bothered repointing it.  It was just on rubbish footings for clay ground conditions aka not very well built. It was more than adequate & I didn’t lose sleep over it certainly wouldn’t of entertained repairs because it would of been a waste of time & money unless I’d considered rebuilding it from scratch. We had some 6ft hedges next to the wall too, the same hedge ran along front of our house same distance away from it and the house was fine.

[SimonD]

I recently had an issue with a boundary wall with our neighbour. Technically, and according to the house deeds, the wall is their responsibility, but it's also a retaining wall to stop his garden falling into our house. I'd promised him ages ago that due to our building work, I'd replace the fence that sits on top of the wall. The fence has been falling down for ever and he got so stressed about it he starting blaming me for the cracked retaining wall, which was visibly worsening. He went to town insulting me about everything under the sun, including claiming that I'd caused all the damage through our building work.

 

After throwing my own wobbly in response to his tyrade, and despite it all being nothing to do with me, I managed to swallow my pride and told him I would fix it. It took me a couple of weeks in the end to dig it out, laying 600mm new concrete foundations and rebuild the wall (fully tied into another retaining wall) and fencing, but I have to say it ended up being the best thing I could have done. I showed him each stage, what I was doing and why and he ended up paying me some decent money towards fixing it and we're now on good terms. There's no stress there any more and I'd rather that than have a running feud with someone that helps nobody.

[Mr Punter]

There is no real issue with the wall.  If you want to neaten up the corner where the pier abuts you could scrape off the smeared mortar and apply a wide bead of low modulus sealant like an expansion gap.  You need to finish it neatly though.

 

https://www.sealantsonline.co.uk/Products/Expansion-joint-mastic-sealants