removing raised stones on driveway will weaken neighbours fence

unwashed potato!

unwashed potato!

unwashed potato!

Soldato
Joined
12 Feb 2006
Posts
18,170
Location
Surrey
i'm doing some work on our driveway to widen it so we can fit our cars better on it without blocking each other in. we have one one side a raised section, about 40cm off the drive way, which we'd like to remove as it's wasted space and is big enough of a space for a car so you can imagine getting it to the level of t he drive will be beneficial to us.

my concern however is that the 3 neighbours fence that goes to this drive, they have been concreted in only about as low as our drive way as the fence uses my raised bit for support. you'd be left with a 40cm gap below everyones fence, and the concrete now poorly supported.

i'm in 2 minds about what to do. I could try leave a small bit of the raised section, however really i'd like all this gone as i'll have to do more work to make it neat where it's been left.

so i'm then thinking screw it, it's their problem the fence has been poorly installed, relying on my section to support their fence.

i might go round and tell them my plans and see what they say, but wanted to see what others think. I assume i wont get in trouble for removing my part even if it reduces the strength of their fence?

just one thing to note. although i say neighbours. this is actually the back of their garden and they are on a completely different road/estate, so i'm not too worried about keeping them sweet as i will never see them again.

i've made a handy picture so you can get a good idea of what i'm talking about. it's the dark grey section i want to remove, and the north side fences will be affected.

iXEakuZ.png
 
Last edited:
And when the fence you've undermined falls onto your car the next time the wind gets up?

If the neighbour's gardens are at a higher level than your drive you'll presumably have to create retaining walls to stop it all collapsing onto your property?

A photo of what you're planning to remove would help.
 
Fairly sure the answer is no said:
i'm doing some work on our driveway to widen it so we can fit our cars better on it without blocking each other in. we have one one side a raised section, about 40cm off the drive way, which we'd like to remove as it's wasted space and is big enough of a space for a car so you can imagine getting it to the level of t he drive will be beneficial to us.

my concern however is that the 3 neighbours fence that goes to this drive, they have been concreted in only about as low as our drive way as the fence uses my raised bit for support. you'd be left with a 40cm gap below everyones fence, and the concrete now poorly supported.

i'm in 2 minds about what to do. I could try leave a small bit of the raised section, however really i'd like all this gone as i'll have to do more work to make it neat where it's been left.

so i'm then thinking screw it, it's their problem the fence has been poorly installed, relying on my section to support their fence.

i might go round and tell them my plans and see what they say, but wanted to see what others think. I assume i wont get in trouble for removing my part even if it reduces the strength of their fence?

just one thing to note. although i say neighbours. this is actually the back of their garden and they are on a completely different road/estate, so i'm not too worried about keeping them sweet as i will never see them again.

i've made a handy picture so you can get a good idea of what i'm talking about. it's the dark grey section i want to remove, and the north side fences will be affected.

iXEakuZ.png
Click to expand...


Without a doubt you win “drawing of the year” with that one lol
 
Their garden is the same height as mine. Their fence only stands up because they were lucky to not have to dig low down as my higher section is there.

Funnily enough 2 weeks ago one panel fell down and lay across my van.
 
Haze said:
As said above, I would sweeten the deal and offer to replace the posts
Click to expand...

there's no way i'd replace the posts, as not only is that money i don't have at the moment, but their whole fence needs redoing.

i'm more thinking, if i should leave a small part of my raised section to try and give it some stability, or if i do remove all my raised by, if i'll be in trouble for weakening their poorly installed fence.
 
You are looking at this the wrong way. Your neighbours didn't need to install the fence posts with a view that the land on the other side might change in the future, so you saying it is installed poorly because they will not work if you undermine your own side is not correct.

If you want to lower your side of the boundary line, you will be responsible for making sure that you don't reduce the integrity of your neighbours fences. If you want to get technical, if you lower your side, and their fence falls over because of it, that's criminal damage.

You will either need a sleeper retaining wall along the boundary line on your side, or to re sink the fence posts after you undermine the current boundary line.

Also getting a photo up would help.
 
thanks for the reply. We are slightly higher if including the raised part, or as good as the same if you go from the actual drive to their garden.

The concrete is out of the ground exposed in their garden. in my opinion you shouldn't put a post in the ground and not dig it deep enough, only because a neighbour has a raised section.
 
In your opening post you say that removing the raised section would leave a 40cm gap and that the posts only go down to the level of your drive. Does this mean that they only dug the fence post holes 40cm deep? How high is this fence?

If it's their fence the posts are presumably on their land. If it's their land then they must also have a raised section.

Pictures of this raised section and fence definitely required.
 
here you can see part of the raised section. This is at it's thinest, it gets much wider as it goes along, the size of a small car.
E1qzIen.jpg


you can see the exposed concrete in their garden. it's not even the level of the soil.

YrtNuvS.jpg
 
From that picture, you can't tell how deep the holes are, only where the hole starts (or have you been digging).

From the looks of it, you could remove the raised area and then drop in gravel boards to fill the gap
 
The photos help a lot. It looks like the soil around the concrete has washed away over time leaving the concrete raised. If you leave this as it is you will likely get problems in the future of it causing movement in the edge of your driveway. Given you will be doing significant groundworks right up the boundary it's very unlikely you'll be able to do this without disturbing the posts / damaging the fence posts so I'd personally allow for replacing the posts (approx £10 each) and give the neighbours the option to replace the panels at the same time if they wish to.
 
That doesn't look like you are all that higher at all, really a picture showing how much higher your side is would be better.

You can easily get rid of your stone, and make the ground usable on a slope up to the boundary line without affecting the integrity of the fence posts as they are.
 
singularity said:
Just get rid of your stone, it'll be fine, the fence isn't being held up by your stone
Click to expand...

I tend to agree with this.

Those concrete posts a heavy, if they were leaning on your stone at some point the wind would have blown away from your property and they would have fallen over.
Just be very careful you do not damage them or disturb then at all as you go. So go higher tech rather than brute force on removal of your stonework. It is possible the concrete/stone your side is on top of their concrete holding the posts in, so it is possible you are helping provide support.

Personally I would go and drop them a note. Say you are going to do some work your side, and you will let them know once complete so they can check their posts are still fine. Confirm you will not be touching them directly or indirectly damaging them.

Normally with fencing you go a third under ground and two thirds above or so. So there should be around 3 foot under for a six foot fence.
You could do a very minor amount of investigation arond the bottom of one post I guess
 
I think this thread hinges on exactly how deep those posts are in the ground.... If they are a good 2/3 foot down then what you are doing will probably be okay

If the posts are not deep then potentially you could move them but then it depends how deep you are going and what you're using to break that ground up!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom