"Pecanfan" wrote in message ...
Thanks for the reply - please see comments below:-

I see a series of issues here.

Firstly the floor structure will presumably be covered by the party
wall act, so if your neighbour doesnt want any work doing that will
add a couple of grand of legal costs, plus dictate how you do the
work, which can again add costs.

Without getting into the technicalities of the Party Wall Act, I'm kind of
hoping the neighbour doesn't object since the impact will be negligible. I
will be serving notice under the act but, by my understanding anyway, the
Act is more biased towards the owner doing the building work as opposed to
the objector - i.e. even if they do object there's not a lot they can do
about it without getting an injunction... I could be TOTALLY wrong here
though so please, anyone, don't take this as gospel! :-)

you sound optimistic. They cant generally stop you doing the work,
but they can make it cost a couple of grand more on legal costs, and
make you do it in a way that may be less convenient.


Rather than try to extend the beams, which would certainly result in
the ceiling breaking up...

Erm... 'it would certainly result in the ceiling breaking up'... are you
sure about this? Since posting this I've had building control and a
structural engineer look over my plans and they can't see any problems with
them!

Well, theyre the experts, Im not. I just cant imagine how you could do
all this work without ever causing small movements to the joist stubs,
which would crack the ceiling up. But I'm no struc eng.


The rest of your points I take on board, basically I overlooked the 7"
size somewhere. G luck.


Regards, NT