Renovating a Party WallPosted by Nabin Shaw on March 18th, 2019 Say you share a party wall with another neighbour somewhere in Cheshire and want to renovate your home. Surprise, you have stumbled across a problem that has a few people acting like they’re tip-toeing over eggshells. You need to consult a party wall surveyor Cheshire offers regarding the things you need to do, or the things you’re allowed to do, with the party wall. It is sad to say, but a party wall is one of the most restrictive home areas to renovate. The thing that makes it difficult is that the wall is part of another person’s house. By law, both house owners own the wall. But because both people own the wall, both owners are not able to freely do whatever they want to with the wall. Neither can, for example, take down the wall, so long as the other party is using it. If your house burns down due to a fire, but the party wall remains erect and strong, keeping its usefulness to the other owner, then neither of you are allowed to take that wall down. You are, however, allowed to do anything with your side of the wall, provided that you do so with the other side in mind. You might also need to ask permission from the wall’s other owner if you’ll have to do a bit of work on the wall, whether it is adding, altering, or repairing your side of the wall. With that said, there are a lot of things you can still do with the wall that will give you free rein when renovating. Here’s just a few of them:
A fireplace is allowed if you can prevent the heat from affecting the other side. You’re allowed to make your side of the wall thicker, so layering the wall with insulation and another wall is permitted. Because you can repair the wall, you can add anything you want, provided you don’t damage the wall or add something that can significantly impair it or reduce the strength of the wall, which is not only a disadvantage to you but also to the person with whom you share the ownership of the wall.
Another thing you can do without needing permission is making the wall soundproof. Suppose that you need to soundproof your house for something, like creating a place to play music in or a small personal studio for video making. With the same logic as the fireplace, you can add a few more layers to the wall on your side to soundproof it.
You can add a layer on the wall so that you can punch holes in that layer to hang pictures. If you’re planning to hang paintings as part of a small private home gallery, you can do so. The law states that a person has every right to put up a sign on their side of the wall, and paintings fall under that law. Like it? Share it! More by this author |