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Half house single brick
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crazycomet


Posts: 14
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #1
14-02-2008 05:34 PM

Hi, we have a late Victorian Terrace Half house and are about to start renovations on it including extending into the rear side return. We have been told by a builder that there is only a single brick wall between us and our neighbours and he apparently know's this as he had been told. Just wondering if anyone has actually done an extension, which obviously includes putting supporting steels into the walls and found this to be true?

I know we can probably ask a structrual engineer, which we will do, but thought maybe someone on the forum might know seen as there are allot of half houses in FH.

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Sherwood


Posts: 1,412
Joined: Mar 2005
Post: #2
14-02-2008 08:37 PM

If this is correct, you will get a lot of noise from next door.

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voyager3


Posts: 29
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #3
15-02-2008 09:23 AM

We live in a half house and I think it is correct that the dividing wall is not a proper party wall but more like the wall between one room and another. Is quite an odd set up - there are some floorboards that go right underneath the wall between us and next door and when our neighbour stands on a particularly squeaky one on their landing, it creaks on our side of the wall which is quite disconcerting in the middle of the night... When we had our kitchen fitted, our builder managed to drill right through into next door's kitchen when fitting a socket which also suggests the wall isn't very thick. Not only do we get more noise from the neighbours in the other half of our house than from the other side, we also get smells. In particular, our next door neighbours are heavy smokers and we can smell cigarette smoke in our house quite frequently.

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crazycomet


Posts: 14
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #4
15-02-2008 09:41 AM

Thanks for your reply, I guess that means no lovely flat plate sockets & light switches for us on that side of the house unless we want the back of them showing on next doors walls! So the builder was probably right then as like you we have a fair bit of noise (although that might have allot to do with the fact our neighbours have a 3yr old who doesnt stop running around) and we also get really stong kitchen smells coming under the front door. The shared entrance is just is full of smells everytime they cook. Which wouldnt be so bad if our neighbours where bakers of bread, cakes that sort of yummy stuff but unfortunatly its like boiled meat..... sorry Ive digressed a little. You havent have a back extension or loft conversion done have you?

voyager3 wrote:
We live in a half house and I think it is correct that the dividing wall is not a proper party wall but more like the wall between one room and another. Is quite an odd set up - there are some floorboards that go right underneath the wall between us and next door and when our neighbour stands on a particularly squeaky one on their landing, it creaks on our side of the wall which is quite disconcerting in the middle of the night... When we had our kitchen fitted, our builder managed to drill right through into next door's kitchen when fitting a socket which also suggests the wall isn't very thick. Not only do we get more noise from the neighbours in the other half of our house than from the other side, we also get smells. In particular, our next door neighbours are heavy smokers and we can smell cigarette smoke in our house quite frequently.

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grahamw


Posts: 58
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #5
15-02-2008 09:51 AM

Remember any work that requires alterations to a party (or dividing) wall or structure requires, by law, a Party Wall Agreement, under the Party Wall etc Act 1996.

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1996/Ukp...60040_en_1

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voyager3


Posts: 29
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #6
15-02-2008 09:56 AM

No. But we are considering the idea of a loft conversion. There seem to be half houses on our street that have had them done. And I think also that a half house that was sold recently on our road had a two storey rear side extension. Which would suggest it is possible. Another thing we are considering is removing the chimney breast from the spare room upstairs which would require party wall consent but would make the room a more workable shape.

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crazycomet


Posts: 14
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #7
15-02-2008 09:57 AM

Yep, we are fully aware that we need to get a party wall agreement and we have already spoken to both our neighbours about it and they have both agreed, so all sorted. Thanks for the reminder though grahamw, as we need to get them to sign the paperwork.

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crazycomet


Posts: 14
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #8
15-02-2008 10:09 AM

We are definately going to have a loft conversion done, just not right now. We are going to do the extension first otherwise we will be spending money or an extra room that we dont really need right now. The extension we plan on doing is a single story side return extension. That will mean the second reception and the kitchen will be all opened up and will become one big open plan kitchen/diner/sitting area. (our bathroom is already upstairs so our kitchen is at the back where the bathroom originally was)

There is a half house up the top of our street that has already had a L shape dormer loft conversion approved under permitted development. There plans show the whole loft used as the bedroom and a full size bathroom built on top of the first floor upstairs bathroom. Id be surprised if you didnt get permission.

Our second bedroom is quite a good size and shape already but I guess it depends on how the wall was put in to make that bedroom.

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voyager3


Posts: 29
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #9
15-02-2008 11:13 AM

That's really interesting. We'd love to do something similar to open up the downstairs, especially as it can be quite dark. Sounds like we have the same arrangement as you i.e smallish galley style kitchen at back downstairs and bathroom upstairs and would be great to make it more open plan. Not sure we could use the loft space above the bathroom though as we have quite a big drop down into the bathroom, so imagine the loft would be lower than the main loft.

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crazycomet


Posts: 14
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #10
15-02-2008 11:18 AM

Yep, that sounds like ours! The people up the road are actually building a completely new room on top of the existing bathroom which will be a ensuite for the loft. So they will have two bathrooms that are equal in size/height. We have to step down into our bathroom as well.

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