Finishing new patio/roof at boundary or neighbour's extension..

rvnmax

Hi guys

My mother has just installed a new patio and almost completed the cover.

She wanted the edge of the patio flush against the neighbour's extension wall to stop any rain coming through that would also bring the mud onto the patio. Only problem is that the neighbour's wall is not at the boundary. There are about 6 inches between their wall and the previous fence post, which also does not give a 'clean' look on the floor.

We were hoping the neighbours would be okay with us covering that bit with the roof (which can be cut away in the future whenever they want to use it) and covering the floor as a non-permanent but long-term solution, IYKWIM given that they don't and can't use that space. Hence that space is not currently maintained.

But after we asked the neighbour (saying that we won't nail anything to their wall), they said that's fine there and then, but then wrote us a letter while we were installing the roof saying not to come on to their property. That is fair enough, but now I am not sure how to proceed with the finish.

The builder and mum are saying they will put a board/sheet up in our side of the boundary up till the edge of the roof. That will leave a 7 inch empty space on their side, and so I was just wondering if that sounds okay or does anyone have any better suggestion. At the moment at least that space can be easily got to from our side should there be a need. But we would effectively be blocking that off now.
PS, the sheet you see on the roof in the pics is just sitting there temporarily. We know that that the water will be running into their garden the way it is now, which will be corrected ASAP.  The front corner was going to be cutout, but no need now I guess. Happy for you to suggest something regarding that point as well.

Many thanks,
RVNmax

SootySweep1

Hi
Could you put slate chippings or pebbles along that strip of earth ? I'd also suggest a weed suppressing membrane underneath.
It could be easily removed but would look attractive from your side.
Cheers
Jenny

ashe

Just put a fence panel along it to maintain their “border” 😂

rvnmax

SootySweep1 said:

Hi
Could you put slate chippings or pebbles along that strip of earth ? I'd also suggest a weed suppressing membrane underneath.
It could be easily removed but would look attractive from your side.
Cheers
Jenny

Hi Jenny
Thanks for your response.
We were thinking exactly that. In the midst of my mum trying to explain this solution to them, they simply asked if we had read their letter, and said nothing is going to change, dont cross the boundary.

So obviously we wete going to do that on our side. My mum was saying to just do it theirs as well, but I guess that is no different from putting the sheet panel flush either. Maybe there will be a lower chance of them noticing, but I'm almost sure they will check. 

I don't want to cause any more aggravation so I can only think of putting a board, sheet or fence there, with a tiny bit of stones on our side. Just don't know if that's best solution we can come up with (for either of us!).

ashe said:

Just put a fence panel along it to maintain their “border” 😂

We do have this is mind. I was just thinking if there were any problems with that. Such as blocking off that ill-maintained 7 inch strip of land completely. And where does the water go, bearing in mind the garden slopes towards the house, hence why the grass is higher than the patio.

In that regard, I may as well also ask for suggestions for finishing the grass edge with the patio. We are currently putting these concrete slabs there as that was what we had before on the house side of the similarly raised flower bed that was sitting between the grass and old slabs.
Maybe the spare bricks we have will give a better look and natural indication of a 'step', something about the sharp edges of bricks just screams ouch. I think cream ropetop edging would look nice actually, but would actually have to go and buy that.

-taff

I've got to ask, why didn't you slab to your boundary up to the concrete fence post?

And you can't really put a sheet up or a fence panel in between you because that strip is the maintenance strip and they might need access to it.

I think I would leave the sheet ovehanging on the roof explaining that if it wasn't there they may have damp problems because the rain would just drip into their side or extend the sheet perpedicular to the root a foot or two down at the boundary so the rain drips in the middle.

I would then make a feature of the concrete post by sheathing it in wood or something similar..then run a nice thick rope from that to the  one screwed into your wall [ cut it down to the same size] so it makes a chain of looped chain thing and looks OK. I would also put down a membrane and a stones in between.

I'm not sure cream edging is going to work with dark grey slabs and white plastic.

rvnmax

-taff said:

I've got to ask, why didn't you slab to your boundary up to the concrete fence post?

And you can't really put a sheet up or a fence panel in between you because that strip is the maintenance strip and they might need access to it.

I think I would leave the sheet ovehanging on the roof explaining that if it wasn't there they may have damp problems because the rain would just drip into their side or extend the sheet perpedicular to the root a foot or two down at the boundary so the rain drips in the middle.

I would then make a feature of the concrete post by sheathing it in wood or something similar..then run a nice thick rope from that to the  one screwed into your wall [ cut it down to the same size] so it makes a chain of looped chain thing and looks OK. I would also put down a membrane and a stones in between.

I'm not sure cream edging is going to work with dark grey slabs and white plastic.

That is what I was considering in terms of blocking that strip of off.  But my inexperiences self has no idea what sort of maintenance could be required apart from to that very strip itself that has been sitting unmaintained (apart from my mum pulling out the weeds) for 20 years or so since that extension was built. We were wondering if it would be suitable to just a put a beam across a couple of feet high and hang some cladding down from there (basically a mini fence that can be easily removed) just to cover that area and the weeds that would grown from our sight. The weeds could still be got at from the top.

In terms of the rain issue at least we can half resolve it by putting guttering alongside the patio roof edge which I shall ask my builder if that is possible.

I plan to put our plans in a letter back to the neighbour and tell them that the weed issue on their land will go unresolved unless they (or allow us to)  cover it with at least the membrane and stones.

On the topic of the membrane, mum was saying that the membrane doesn't stop the weeds in the long-term and so she wants to put concrete down beneath stones ( at least on our side).
Does this sound okay.

I had asked my mum the same question as to why the builder didn't start the patio at the edge of the boundary. She said it was because the drain he started (measured out) from the drain. But given we have two drains side by side, I'm pretty sure he could have made it work by shifting every thing across by a few inches to align with the other drain.

RVNmax