Raising party wall , timber or brick ?

griff450

Hi all

I have recently appointed a loft conversion company to undertake an L shaped dormer conversion under permitted development on our mid terrace victorian property.

As part of the proces we need to obtain party wall agreements, one neighbour signed no problems at all, the others have been very difficult from the start and are now not speaking to us and will shortly reach the deadline for disent.

In anticipation for this we began to research potentional surveyors for the dispute process.

The surveyor we were looking to appoint has actually flat out refused until we get confirmation from our building company that they will be raising the party wall in brick as opposed to timber which is currently shown on the architects drawings, claiming it is a fire risk.

From my research both timber and brick are valid methods of doing this , and will both pass building control , but brick seems to have better benefits in terms of insulation and noise reduction e.t.c

My question is should we be insisting on brick as the surveyor says or simply find another surveyor? Several dormers in our row have had timber raising as opposed to brick so I'm really unsure now !

Thanks in advance!

Doozergirl

It's up to you. 

We've only ever raised a party wall
in brick but our house is made of timber and has to be non-combustible at the sides.  

Between floors in conversion flats is usually
timber with double plasterboard or specifically fireproof board. 

So, to be as clear as mud, I don't
know.  It probably wouldn't
occur to me to work in anything other than masonry in a masonry house, but that doesn't make it wrong.  It is preference.  Try a different surveyor and see what they say, but the cheapest way is to share a surveyor with next door, which probably
means the one of their choice...