Building parallel to garden wall

[Derek]

Hi all,

I am planning to build a single story garage parallel and as close as possible to a 7ft party garden wall. I would expect the garage to run to

50ft parallel to this wall and parallel to my house. The reason I want to get as close as possible is that there is only 11ft between my house and the wall.

To this end, I will need to dig a trench about 3ft deep x 3ft wide (we're right onsub-soil) right next to this wall which also has about a 3ft deep foundation (slightly less). I am of course worried about colapsing the wall. I get on well with my neighbour and would like to keep it that way.

Some people I have spoken to have suggested: - Building the garage in two stages and linking the foundations with steel bars - not my favourite as two loads of concrete and two days hire of a digger required.

- digging pre-trenches, and pouring concrete deeper than my foundations every 10ft along the stretch.

Any other advice or suggestions appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Derek.

[Peter Crosland]

Take a look at these three sites that should answer most questions re the legal side that would be worth looking at just to see that there are no issues that you have forgotten or are unaware of..

[Grunff]

He didn't ask any questions re. the legal side! He asked a perfectly straightforward building question.

[Andrew Mawson]

Derek,

Why not take down that section of garden wall and replace it with the garage wall, using the rubble as hardcore in your slab?

Andrew Mawson

[Derek]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks, I thought about this, but it is a shared garden wall, so I only own the inside half, and the neighbour has it nicely planted and he has paved up to it. I get on really well with them, but I couldn't force them to endure more than necessary.

Thanks again,

Derek.

[e-mail]...

[Derek]

Thanks Peter,

I gave them a read and I seem to be ok - once I don't collapse the wall! ;-)

Thanks,

Derek.

[Peter Crosland]

Try reading the original again. He said "Any other advice or suggestions appreciated!"

[Hugo Nebula]

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 11:54:53 +0100, a particular chimpanzee named Derek randomly hit the keyboard and produced:

Sorry, I can't visualise imperial measurements (feet & yards at least)

Provided your foundations are no lower than the neighbouring wall, then it shouldn't collapse provided there isn't a long period between excavation and backfilling (i.e., more than a few months). While the wall is 'exposed', it is acting as a retaining wall, but if it's

225-300mm thick coursed masonry, it will be adequate to cope with most normal loads anyway. If it's thinner (only half a brick thick) then it should be OK provided it's not overloaded (i.e., if your neighbour parks his car next to it, or if you have a few weeks of heavy rain before you backfill).

Why do you need to be 0.9m wide? A normal strip footing for a small garage is between 450mm-600mm wide on most sub-soils. If you need to excavate below the adjoining foundations, then do it in short sections akin to underpinning.

[N. Thornton]

I dont know what you can and cant do on this point, but what about incorporating the existing wall into the new structure? In other words no tearing down and rebuilding, but underpinning it if it needs it, adding more wall onto it if needed etc. Is that an option?

The other point is that it may well be possible to pull the climbing plants off without cutting them, tie them back temporarily, then drape them onto the new wall, and if necessary tie them to new hooks or wires on the wall. Even if only half the stems can be got back in one piece it'll soon cover the wall again.

And of course you can offer the neighbour some additional free plants if you wish.

Regards, NT