I don't know about uk.legal, but if you post to uk.legal.moderated, the main advice you will get is DON'T RESORT TO LAW! Apart from anything else, when you come to sell your house, you will have to advise your purchasers of any disputes with your neighbours and doing so will have a /very/ nasty effect on the value of your house.
I would have thought your best solution is something like tanking applied to the OUTSIDE of your garage. (Which will mean that you need to get your neighbour's permission).
While not trusting any lawyers as far as I could throw them, having a garage that is full of water or is about to fall down because the neighbour was completely taking the piss would drive away more buyers than any dispute over the illegal discharge of water from their premises. Making the neighbour aware that a dispute may affect their future property sale prospects might be sufficient to sway their mind.
Are there any small holes / dodgy pointing that can be made good, that may help a bit?
It may help but, AIUI waterseal is not perfect and has to be reapplied periodically, and if it floods after the floor after heavy rain there is a good chance it won't be 100% effective. Its cheap, invisible and may give a bit of respite though.
Again this might help, but how much water is seeping into or under his patio and then though the wall? Does the area accumulate standing water, if so and his patio is not 100% waterproof then again the solution might not be perfect.
Have you considered raising the floor internally above the external level? DPM and concrete perhaps or if the garage is not used for vehicles you could line the floor and use timber perhaps. Maybe in conjunction with external flashing/tanking the first couple of courses on that side.
Not exactly cheap, but maybe the neighbor would contribute to avoid retro-fitting drainage to his patio?
| snipped-for-privacy@email.com (sPoNiX) wrote: | | >I'm after the lowest cost/least effort solution possible. | | Its not your problem to rectify its clearly your neighbours (assuming | the garage is in the right place) You'll really only get physical | solutions here and while they may be useful the best place for a start | would be uk.legal.
Or been there for more than 12 years in which case you have squatters rights, even if it were in the wrong place. IANAL
It's only a garage on a separate deed to the house! With a sale of that size I'm pretty sure you don't have to reveal anything about the neighbour.
The problem is the neighbour took it upon himself to paint the end wall of my garage a month or so ago using some form of gloss paint. The advice from uk.legal was, as always, "Ignore it". (This is despite the fact it amounts to criminal damage)
Whilst I don't think the paint has caused the current damp/flooding problem as the water literally gushes through the brick, it's the latest thing in a long line of things the neighbour has done to p1ss me off such as parking in front of the garage and going away for the weekend etc.
I was after an ffective solution so that I could go up to the guy and bargain with him. "Repair the damp problem this way otherwise I'll take you to court about the paint (Criminal damage)" sort of thing. As the paint will cost oodles to remove I want to use it as a bargaining tool.
However, before I do that I want to know what the options are. I'm a reasonable person and wouldn't insist he does it an expensive way if a cheap way is just as effective. All I want is a dry garage again.
He needs to stop the water flowing before it reaches the garage wall. The option is to rebuild the garage when it collapses AND stop the water before it reaches the garage wall.
What's the seal between the patio and the wall (if there is one)? I'm not sure what to suggest in that gap, but something flexible, possibly bitumenous might be best here. Then I would overlay this with a strip of wide flashband, something like 10" up the wall to give protection from splashing, and 2" onto the patio (more if surface isn't smooth and flat). If the patio settles/drops, it will crack but you could put another (thinner) strip along the crack. Something like a sharp chair leg on the patio might damage it too. It would probably need maintaining every 10 years anyway.
The problem here is that AIUI the "patio" butts up against the garage wall. It should have a drain at least 6" below DPC. The best bet is probably to edge off the "patio", including a drain (possibly perforated plastic) in a pea gravel trench, possibly incorporating a vertical DPC, at the side of the "patio". The water seems to be running off the new flat raised surface of the "patio" and seeping into the OPs garage. The neighbour would get a nice decorative edge, the OP would get a dry garage. Try Cormaic's site for ideas.
Water 1/4" deep isn't damp - it's nearly a paddling pool!
As a short term measure you could reduce the possibility of damage to the brickwork by making some bleed holes in the bottom course of bricks. If it's a single brick wall you would only need to remove the vertical mortar between a few bricks to provide an easy passage for the incoming water. As a more long term measure you might consider cutting a drainage channel in the floor close to the wall inside the garage to stop the floor flooding.
====================== Bleed holes are frequently used in walls which are earthed up - such as garden walls. They help to prevent a build-up of water behind the wall, thus reducing damage to a certain extent . In the present case the OP hasn't got access to the patio and he is anxious to avoid confrontation. As you say, direct action on the patio is certainly the best solution but it's not an option open to the OP in view of his neighbour's belligerent attitude - locked gate and large dog.
Perhaps a pressure washer. Make "bleed holes" to prevent damage to the OPs. wall. Introduce a lance from a pressure washer (might need to use a hammer and bar on the "bleed hole", or an 1m. SDS bit to make a hole to accommodate the lance). Leave "on" for a while, only to clear debris from the hole, you understand. Withdraw apparatus when neighbours "patio" collapses. , & claim "Oh, you shouldn't let water build up at a junction wuith tghe foudations like that - lucky your new "patio" didn't cause your whole house to fall down!".
Anyway, more bed, less cider, for me. Pip pip, probly.
Been lurking here a while. Sorry to hear of your woes.
My understanding is that...
1: You are not responsible for retaining your neighbours land
2: You are responsible for your own surface water (you cannot just route it onto a neighbours land).
This is just a downright inconsiderate neighbour, no more, no less. Maybe he isn't/wasn't aware of the problem he's causing and now, in his mind it's too late/difficult to fix? I dunno, but I think the "I couldn't care less" attitude is more likely.
Some peeps on here have aired concerns that if you start anything formal then you have a notifiable dispute which could cause you problems later on if you sell. I would suggest you already have a notifiable dispute, and your best option is to deal with and fix it now.
I don't know if it will help, but these sort of things come up often on
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maybe it's worth a read there?
Also, a friend of mine on installing a new drive had the water board come round and give him a hard time about additional water being routed into the drains, maybe this could apply? Not sure.
Anyway, good luck ... the angle grinder seemed like a nice solution to me :-)
============ If you're thinking along those lines why stop at a pressure washer? A small home-made explosive charge would get the message across very nicely, I think!
I wondered about a plastic weatherboard screwed along the bottom edge of the wall, like a skirting board, then a gripfill/bitumen seal along the bottom edge bewteen the weatherboard and the concrete?
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