The Wall

The phone rang just after three. The project manager had received a call from the foreman saying there was a problem with one of the boundary walls around the site. It was in imminent danger of collapse. The wall next to the extension is over three metres tall. It looks like it has had new courses of blocks added to it on several occasions and it has no structural reinforcements -- pillars or struts -- along forty or so metres of length.


On coming home we discussed how to approach it: offer the apartment building's owner half the repair costs straight off? What if he said it was all our fault? Did the builders have structural photos from before the demolition started? We thought they did, but what if they didn't show anything useful?

The project manager arrived at six and we walked the length of the wall as he cast his engineer's eye over it. The mortar looks ropy in places but there's nowhere it looks actually unstable. Where was the problem?

Then the project manager pointed across the site to the opposite wall, which separates our garden from next door's:


"Oh, that one!"

The lower course of blocks on the first two sections of this much lower wall (click for bigger) have developed cracks, most likely when the area was cleared and a row of supporting blocks was removed. The neighbours were out, but this should be just a matter of getting their permission and having the builders knock it down and replace it.

Phew. Bullet dodged.

Anyway, nothing really dramatic happened on site today, just more drainage. This new pipe running along the back of the kitchen looks like it will collect rainwater from the guttering at the far end.


We're due some excitement soon. Good excitement.