Should neighbour have come through my side of wall?

TomsMom

keystone wrote: »

Yes do that. As DVS says it needs a proper surveyor. It's too late for any Party Wall Act action - the work has been done.

Thats the PRV drain and NOT the condensate drain. They are different. The condensate drain is (well it must be) the 32mm waste pipe with the two push fit connectors.

Thats a piece of 20mm overflow pipe acting as a sleeve for the gas pipe. Incidentally that is very poorly done and the soldering is pretty amateur too. I'll let SCRGI rip into that side in a bit!

Cheers

Sorry Keystone, am I mixing up the PVRs and condensate drains again .

This is the pipe, running under the window, from the meter box into the hole and through the sawn off small piece of white pipe, that's taking gas into the property for the boiler (the holes in the window frame is where the gas pipe went into the property when the previous owner lived there):



and the small copper pipe that runs horizontally with the spout pointing to the wall (underneath the larger one marked GAS) is the one my son reckons would corrode with any fluid coming out of it:



Actually, when you look at it the whole thing's a freakin' mess :rotfl: . Perhaps I should ask him to box the lot in .

I think I'd better get myself a cuppa, my brain's gone into overload. Actually, I might even be secretly delighted that a crap job's been done .

Gloomendoom

We have an external gas pipe. It's wrapped in some kind of greasy hessian protective stuff.

keystone

The PRV drain should 99.999% of the time be bone dry. Its only there in the event that the pressure gets too high and it if does get wet it will be the same water thats in the rest of your system. Its totally normal for the PRV drain to be in copper and totally normal for it to point at the wall.

Its the condensate which is acidic because its highly concentrated as as mentioned that pipe could be passing anything up to 7 litres per day of the stuff.

Box it in? If it were me I would get difficult and tell him I want his pipes out of my property end of.

Cheers

southcoastrgi

keystone wrote: »

I'll let SCRGI rip into that side in a bit!

Who me ? oh alright then as you asked so nicely,

well where do i start, the 15mm prv pipe should be turned back against the wall or terminate at ground level not at an angle like that floating about in mid air, the soldering on the gas pipe looks like a three yr old did it terrible, the sleeving on the gas pipe is 32mm plastic nothing wrong in using that i do it all the time however it should be sealed at one end which may have been done internally but prob not looking at that mess, the other pastic pipe with the push fit elbows could either be the condense or the basin waste i'm not sure which but KS is correct if it is the condense then it should have solvent weld fittings not pushfit a very very amateur job, i can see another waste pipe in there too half way in the wall i wonder what that is ?, just looking at the thickness of his front wall i guess he could have started close to the internal wall & by the time it got outside it was on yours.

all in all not a very tiddly job eh KS

TomsMom

keystone wrote: »

The PRV drain should 99.999% of the time be bone dry. Its only there in the event that the pressure gets too high and it if does get wet it will be the same water thats in the rest of your system. Its totally normal for the PRV drain to be in copper and totally normal for it to point at the wall.

Its the condensate which is acidic because its highly concentrated as as mentioned that pipe could be passing anything up to 7 litres per day of the stuff.

Box it in? If it were me I would get difficult and tell him I want his pipes out of my property end of.

Cheers

southcoastrgi wrote: »

Who me ? oh alright then as you asked so nicely,

well where do i start, the 15mm prv pipe should be turned back against the wall or terminate at ground level not at an angle like that floating about in mid air, the soldering on the gas pipe looks like a three yr old did it terrible, the sleeving on the gas pipe is 32mm plastic nothing wrong in using that i do it all the time however it should be sealed at one end which may have been done internally but prob not looking at that mess, the other pastic pipe with the push fit elbows could either be the condense or the basin waste i'm not sure which but KS is correct if it is the condense then it should have solvent weld fittings not pushfit a very very amateur job, i can see another waste pipe in there too half way in the wall i wonder what that is ?, just looking at the thickness of his front wall i guess he could have started close to the internal wall & by the time it got outside it was on yours.

all in all not a very tiddly job eh KS

Thank you guys. The more you tell me the more I am taking a very childish delight in hoping he has paid a lot of money for this crap job, especially as I understand it's not a local plumber so he's probably paying for travelling expenses too and he's been coming at weekends .

So, hopefully my brain is clearer this morning and I've got this straight.

From what my son says, after going into the property and seeing the bathroom, the white pipe with the elbows going into the drain seems to be the waste water pipe from the bath/basin.

The small copper pipe that's turned to the wall is the PRV pipe which rarely gets anything coming out of it and it's normal water not acidic. That being so I don't have to worry about it.

If I can see the plumber again I will ask him if those assumptions are correct.

Somewhere there is a condensate pipe that could have a lot of water flowing through it daily that is acidic and should be plastic as it will corrode a copper pipe (as happened at my house). That doesn't appear to be showing anywhere on the outside. (My son wonders if it's somewhere inside that he didn't see and is somehow connected to the waste water pipe.)

Hopefully I've got that now, sorry it took so long .

The other small piece of white pipe with the sawn off end that's showing above the larger white pipe with the elbows doesn't appear to be doing anything, my son thinks it may be there just to prop something up.

The walls are stone and quite thick, these properties are very old, possibly up to a couple of hundred years, I have conveyances and deeds of transfer going back over 100 years but no plans going back that far. We're not sure whose house was built first. If it was mine we don't know if the cottage was just butted up against my wall and literally only has three of it's own walls (which is how the previous house I had here was built). I don't think there's any way of finding out.

Anyway, thanks again for all your comments.

derrick

In the OP's post #6, first pic, the guttering from the cottage runs across the front of her property, OP are you not bothered about that?


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TomsMom

derrick wrote: »

In the OP's post #6, first pic, the guttering from the cottage runs across the front of her property, OP are you not bothered about that?


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Nah, see I'm a nice person and don't really want to cause any trouble . Live and let live. Life's too short and all that.

The current owner of the cottage didn't put the guttering up. If he had then I would definitely have said something as it would have been possible to stop the guttering at the end of his property, fix a downpipe on his side and then put an elbow on the bottom to go into the drain. That, of course, could have been done originally but who knows why it was done the way it has been.

I'm not sure when the guttering was put up and I'm not sure when my house was rendered (definitely by one of the previous owners and a fairly long time ago by looking at some photos I've been given). The guttering from the cottage is actually fixed onto a piece of wood fixed onto my wall that has been rendered around (the bit painted black across my rendering in that photo). It was there when my property was purchased, looks like it's been there for many years and I'm happy to let it stay that way. Just find it hard to understand why the cottage owner doesn't have the same sort of courtesy to his new neighbours rather than assume he can do what he likes without saying anything. I think his name is Mr R. Sole .

mrschaucer

Without rereading all the thread, I seem to remember some comment about a raised deck Mr R Sole has done enabling him to get a good view of a neighbour's property? Just pointing out that you're not allowed to fit a raised deck (over 30cm high) without planning permission (see the gov's planning portal) and he won't get permission if he's now overlooking. Something for the neighbour to think about.

keystone

TomsMom wrote: »

If he had then I would definitely have said something as it would have been possible to stop the guttering at the end of his property, fix a downpipe on his side and then put an elbow on the bottom to go into the drain. That, of course, could have been done originally but who knows why it was done the way it has been.

Thats exactly how it should have been done.

So devils advocate time. Is it possible that he because of the way the guttering is fixed that he has gone through his wall and not yours? Yes I know the roof line says that such is a load of old tosh but is it possible that that is actually what he thinks?

Cheers

TomsMom

mrschaucer wrote: »

Without rereading all the thread, I seem to remember some comment about a raised deck Mr R Sole has done enabling him to get a good view of a neighbour's property? Just pointing out that you're not allowed to fit a raised deck (over 30cm high) without planning permission (see the gov's planning portal) and he won't get permission if he's now overlooking. Something for the neighbour to think about.

I had my hopes raised on behalf of my neighbour then until I realised that is for England and we are in Wales . Have checked the Welsh site and decking is classed as an "extension" here. As we are in a conservation area an extension is allowed up to 50 cubic metres. Mr R Sole has reappeared today, he will be here for a few days. When he disappears again I will go round and measure up. I shall pray that it comes to more than 50 cubic metres .

Also the neighbour complained to the council about the decking, they sent a planning officer round. Planner man said it is classed as a temporary structure (don't get that myself, the supports are concreted in, but I know nothing) and therefore permissable. Planner man said if he puts a solid fence up between his and my garden then she can object because she will loose her right to light regarding the downstairs bedrooms. She has an upside down house so living room and kitchen on the first floor so she has a view of the sea.

At the moment there is a wire fence between my garden and the cottage (which makes both our small gardens look bigger and I'm very happy with), the other neighbour's house wall is directly adjacent to the cottage's garden. I wouldn't want a "normal" fence either.

keystone wrote: »

Thats exactly how it should have been done.

So devils advocate time. Is it possible that he because of the way the guttering is fixed that he has gone through his wall and not yours? Yes I know the roof line says that such is a load of old tosh but is it possible that that is actually what he thinks?

Cheers

I understand what you are saying, not sure if that's what he thinks. From the conversation my son has had with him cottage man agreed to make good my rendering so it would seem that he may think it is my bit of wall.

I think I am going to have to accept that it is there to stay, ugly as it is, but I don't have to look at it and I rarely use my front entrance or go round that way. As long as he makes good the rendering (and son says he will make sure he uses pebbles not just cement, and repaint) then that's OK.

What really, really irks is that Mr R Sole knows that my husband died a few months ago (he met him, had quite a few conversations with him amd they got on fine) and he's just gone ahead and done this without a by your leave, probably thinking he can do what he likes because there's just an old girl living next door now (well, not really that old ) who wont say anything. If my husband had still been here I'm sure things wouldn't have got to this stage as I know he would have asked what was going on when the work started. I didn't even realise what had been done until my son saw it and told me. The unfortunate thing is this all kicked off on what would have been our wedding anniversary so it really pee'd me off big time.