Building a party wall in the loft - advice needed

[Jude001]

There is no party wall between me & my neighbour on one side of my mid terraced house built circa 1900. The front part is bricked up but the rear/ out rigger part isn't .

What materials (brick, breeze blocks etc) should be used to complete this job to ensure it's fire safe & secure?

What is the typical cost of a job of this nature & are building regulations required?

 

[johnny2007]

Do you mean that you can walk into your neighbour 's loft where the wall is missing???

 

[Jude001]

Yes. Very easily.

 

[SFK]

Jude,
I had a totally open loft between my neighbour and myself in a 1890 house (always strange when opening loft hatch to see next doors xmas decorations). Could not walk the entire length of terrace as their was a chimney stack every two houses (but these did have a small gap so in theory I could have walked and crawled entire length).

To remedy this and to ensure their was >30mins of fire protection, ontop of the party wall (the top of which was exposed in the loft) I used two methods:
- used breeze blocks on their side, mortared together in easy to accces areas, or
- made a stud wall, filled with rockwool, sheet of standard plasterboard (as red fireboard too heavy to get in loft) on each side in harder to access areas (for example your 'rear/ out rigger part' of the house).

Decisions were made based on ease of getting materials up into the loft through loft hatch, and width and consideration of weight of block ontop of party wall (stud wall where party wall was only one brick wide).
Note that no builders were willing to do the work as access was very difficult.

Not sure if a party wall agreement is needed, but as I did the work with the neighbour we did not bother.

Some mortgage companies will not provide a mortgage for the buyer if buyers surveyor discovers that there is no dividing wall. So it is useful adding one now, well before you consider selling.

I also put a smoke alarm in the loft.
SFK

 

[JP_]

I did the work with the neighbour

that is probably a party wall agreement in itself!

 

[SFK]

Jonbey,

:> Agreed.
And made it easier having two people to push and lift pre-measured and pre-cut sheets of plasterboard (so they would pass through the hatch) into loft.

SFK

 

[johnny2007]

In that case, i assume that there's a supporting wall between your property and neighbour, usually a 9 inch bricks for that period.
I would just continue that wall with breeze blocks.
They're light and small enough to be passed through the loft hatch and not much mortar needed.
They're also easy to cut with an old saw, considering that all the top ones will be at an angle to suit the roof line.
A day work at most.

 

[SFK]

Johnny,
Agreed, that is a good method as when i did it in the main section of the loft I used lightweight blocks, where needed cut with a saw and laid flat.

Jude,
for extra detail regarding costs.

For Main Loft Area
I mixed mortar (5bags of builders sand with 1 bag of cement) in garden in cement mixer and carried into loft in buckets. I cannot remember how many bags I needed, but It felt a lot.
As main house was 8meters deep and 2m high in loft I needed (8mx1.8m) / (0.44mx0.1m) = 14.4m2 x 0.044m2 = >328 blocks for main section of loft.

https://www.travisperkins.co.uk/Pro...Bricks+Blocks/Blocks/Aerated-Blocks/c/1500036
https://www.wickes.co.uk/Products/Building-Materials/Bricks,-Blocks+Lintels/Blocks/Aerated-Blocks/c/1001109

For End Return section of Loft
My issue was the 'end-return' section of my house (which is what I think Jude is referring to) was only one brick wide as it entered the loft space and there was a sloping roof 3feet to nothing. Hence I used stud wall there.

I made a square frame of stud, put in vertical studs at 40cm separation, put 12.5mm plasterboard on one side, filled with rockwool and 12.5mm plasterboard on other side. Filled gaps and screwheads with cheap no-more nails. Using fireboard or doubling normal sheets of plasterboard to two layers with offset seams would have been better.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=stud+wall
https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Studwork-CLS-Timber---38-x-63-x-2400-mm/p/107177
https://www.wickes.co.uk/Products/Building-Materials/Plaster+Plasterboard/Plasterboard/c/1000220

SFK

 

[johnny2007]

So you've already complete the job.
What's the question then?
I didn't understand

 

[SFK]

Johnny,
It is Jude who has the issues.
I responded to you as I was agreeing with your suggestion to Jude, and providing extra detail as Jude asked about cost.
I have edited my response to make this clearer - sorry for any confusion
SFK

 

[johnny2007]

Ah, ok.