Guttering drainpipe blocked in by neighbours extension

[DaveAF]

Hi

Just wanted a few opinions on next doors building works.

 

Our neighbours are having a ground floor rear extension built on their property. It is the same length and height as our existing extension. Their builders have built the walls and put the roof on quite quickly.

 

They erected a wall 6 inches from our party wall but left the roof guttering down pipe in its original position, running down between the 2 walls, presumably into the original drain. See photos. 

 

This drain is now totally inaccessible so if it were to get blocked we couldn't get to it to unblock it. 

I'm hoping that they have thought of this and have a solution. I have asked them but they claim not to understand English. 

 

Can any experienced builders or roofers suggest what next doors plans for this trapped drainpipe and inaccessible drain might be? 

Many thanks

David Field

 

[Andehh]

Can't say I'd lose sleep over it, not much you can do now either way.. 

 

Either drainage rods/drain snake to get to the blockage or just have the drain pipe drain onto the roof! 

 

Are there any large trees or sources of debris that would make a block likely? 

[DaveAF]

Yes. The roof at the back of the house has moss on it which falls off into the guttering. 

[ProDave]

27 minutes ago, DaveAF said:

They erected a wall 6 inches from our party wall but left the roof guttering down pipe in its original position, running down between the 2 walls, presumably into the original drain. See photos. 

Neither wall looks to be a party wall.  If yours (the right in the photo) was meant to be a party wall it would have aligned with the fence?  And if it was a party wall they would be joining to it.

 

But some hedgehog moss protector in the gutter to make the moss bounce off rather than go down the pipe.

[Andehh]

1 hour ago, DaveAF said:

Yes. The roof at the back of the house has moss on it which falls off into the guttering. 

 

Few £100 to get the roof properly tidied up, gutter cleaned out, then stick a few large buckets of water down the down pipe and forget about it!! 

 

Our garage down pipe disappears underneath our single garage and just magically appears 20m in the verge. Has survived for 30 years without any obvious intervention before I arrived and tidied it all up. 

 

Thats not something I'd lose sleep over. 

[Dave Jones]

you could allways knock a hole in your extension to unblock your downpipe.

 

you would need to access next door anyway which is rude.

[DaveAF]

3 hours ago, ProDave said:

Neither wall looks to be a party wall.  If yours (the right in the photo) was meant to be a party wall it would have aligned with the fence?  And if it was a party wall they would be joining to it.

 

But some hedgehog moss protector in the gutter to make the moss bounce off rather than go down the pipe.

Thanks for your reply.

Our 18 year old extension wall is the party wall as its on the property boundry. The fence was erected 2 years ago where it is replacing the neighbours fence. Of the 2, it's the last fence panel thats slightly off the line, not our house. 

Both are considered to be on the party wall line by the 2 surveyors who compiled the party wall agreement for us and the neighbours.

It was the builders decision on day 1 not to join the neighbours extension to our existing party wall, leaving the gap. So far he's been unwilling to explain his reasoning for that decision. One of many so far.