Help needed with neighbour /gas fire

DH1

DH1

Midfield
Need some advice and if anyone is clued up on the following input is appriciated.

So I live on a terraced street where a lot of the houses have shared alleyways and my neighbour isn't happy and I don't know where I stand. I bought the house over a year ago and have done it out from top to bottom. But I never changed the fence in the yard and kept it the same. My neighbour claimed it was put up by the old owner without permission as he's meant to have access to our allyway and now doesnt, and hasn't for 6 or so years now. Anyway, he said he wasn't bothered as he is happy just using his front door to get in his house and doesn't use wheely bins. Fast forward to a year and a half later. The said allyway has a always had a gate down one end that I keep locked from the inside. His living room wall backs onto the allyway wall. However above the allyway is my bedroom bathroom and hallway, so that wall belongs to me (surely?). I know it's quite difficult to picture but stay with me.

He has a flueless gas fire he says it has a catalytic convertor in. I've not looked into these much until now. His fire has a vent inside his livingroom and an approximate 5" circular pipe that comes out into my allyway at ankle height. Surely even with a convertor on his fire this pipe will still be leaking gasses into the allyway and into my bedrooms etc upstairs above. It is an enclosed space and only about 800mm wide allyway.

Am I right in thinking;

1. His pipe should be going to an external wall of the property I. E front or back of the terraced house.

2. He surely can't put a pipe all the way through a party wall?

3. I have a small dog and sometimes young family members come over, surely having a pipe that leads to a gas fire is a risk to them when they are in the ally way, even with a catalytic convertor.

4. I have bedrooms above the pipe so these gasses will rise into the rooms?

Thanks
 


When i did my extention, i wanted to put a vent/flue into a small alleyway owned by my neighbour, but Council inspector blokey said i couldn't. That it was illegal. Thats Gateshead. I'd imagine it'll be the same everywhere, unless its changed. This was 25 years ago.
 
natinnam said:
Put expanding foam inside it, everything will work itself out after that.
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There was some foam insulation inside the pipe, presumably of a tradesman I had doing work on the property. My neighbour came into my ally the other day when I was at work as I had a roofer working in the back yard. My neighbour removed the insulation for evidence for the police as he said someone is trying to kill him.
 
DH1 said:
...blah blah blah...
He has a flueless gas fire he says it has a catalytic convertor in. I've not looked into these much until now. His fire has a vent inside his livingroom and an approximate 5" circular pipe that comes out into my allyway at ankle height...

...blah blah blah
Click to expand...
It's a vent(ilator), fresh air from outside (or inside your ginnel) goes into his room/fire. You said yourself it's a flue-less fire with a catalytic converter.

They are shite & make the room damp, as gas burning produces twice as much water as CO2. Basically a Mains-Gas (Methane) version of a Calor-Gas Heater made to look "pretty". Gas cookers do the same of course but people don't tend to leave them on all day like pensioners do with their gas fires.
 
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DH1 said:
There was some foam insulation inside the pipe, presumably of a tradesman I had doing work on the property. My neighbour came into my ally the other day when I was at work as I had a roofer working in the back yard. My neighbour removed the insulation for evidence for the police as he said someone is trying to kill him.
Click to expand...
Get the patio going, people go missing all the time.
 
Vinyl Score said:
It's a vent(ilator), fresh air from outside (or inside your ginnel) goes into his room/fire. You said yourself it's a flue-less fire with a catalytic converter.

They are shite & make the room damp, as gas burning produces twice as much water as CO2. Basically a Mains-Gas (Methane) version of a Calor-Gas Heater made to look "pretty". Gas cookers do the same of course but people don't tend to leave them on all day like pensioners do with their gas fires.
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I am it possible for these to stop working as the ally way used to stink of gas when we first moved in? We never connected the dots at all
 
Kevj said:
Get a carbon monoxide test and stick it above the vent.
Click to expand...
He's getting a new convertor as it's broke due to the insulation blocking the pipe. But now he's wanting to put a 100cm2 vent on and chissel it into the wall so it sits flush. Easier said than done as it's a old stone wall... And it's also my wall
 
DH1 said:
Need some advice and if anyone is clued up on the following input is appriciated.

So I live on a terraced street where a lot of the houses have shared alleyways and my neighbour isn't happy and I don't know where I stand. I bought the house over a year ago and have done it out from top to bottom. But I never changed the fence in the yard and kept it the same. My neighbour claimed it was put up by the old owner without permission as he's meant to have access to our allyway and now doesnt, and hasn't for 6 or so years now. Anyway, he said he wasn't bothered as he is happy just using his front door to get in his house and doesn't use wheely bins. Fast forward to a year and a half later. The said allyway has a always had a gate down one end that I keep locked from the inside. His living room wall backs onto the allyway wall. However above the allyway is my bedroom bathroom and hallway, so that wall belongs to me (surely?). I know it's quite difficult to picture but stay with me.

He has a flueless gas fire he says it has a catalytic convertor in. I've not looked into these much until now. His fire has a vent inside his livingroom and an approximate 5" circular pipe that comes out into my allyway at ankle height. Surely even with a convertor on his fire this pipe will still be leaking gasses into the allyway and into my bedrooms etc upstairs above. It is an enclosed space and only about 800mm wide allyway.

Am I right in thinking;

1. His pipe should be going to an external wall of the property I. E front or back of the terraced house.

2. He surely can't put a pipe all the way through a party wall?

3. I have a small dog and sometimes young family members come over, surely having a pipe that leads to a gas fire is a risk to them when they are in the ally way, even with a catalytic convertor.

4. I have bedrooms above the pipe so these gasses will rise into the rooms?

Thanks
Click to expand...
Only cars have catalytic converters.
 
DH1 said:
I am it possible for these to stop working as the ally way used to stink of gas when we first moved in? We never connected the dots at all
Click to expand...
The smell in Gas is an additive so that leaks can be detected. Gas (Methane) Water Vapour, CO2, & CO (Carbon Monoxide) have no smell. Itwas most likely a gas leak which, if now smell gone, has been remedied.

If the cat. fails, he will die long before you, you will only get a tiny amount of backflow into your well ventilated ginnel (to make this clear, you are highly unlikley to get significant amounts of CO enter your dwelling) . They must have some kind of fail safe device too, so it's highly unlikely to happen.

yamar1 said:
Only cars have catalytic converters.
Click to expand...
wrong

DH1 said:
He's getting a new convertor as it's broke due to the insulation blocking the pipe. But now he's wanting to put a 100cm2 vent on and chissel it into the wall so it sits flush. Easier said than done as it's a old stone wall... And it's also my wall
Click to expand...
are you going to trickle feed us information slowly (ironically)?

The wall in question will be a shared wall, as will the ginnel, read your deeds. He should have shared access to the rar of his house through the ginnel (it's standard, I've lived in a similar house)
 
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Vinyl Score said:
The smell in Gas is an additive so that leaks can be detected. Gas (Methane) Water Vapour, CO2, & CO (Carbon Monoxide) have no smell. Itwas most likely a gas leak which, if now smell gone, has been remedied.

If the cat. fails, he will die long before you, you will only get a tiny amount of backflow into your well ventilated ginnel (to make this clear, you are highly unlikley to get significant amounts of CO enter your dwelling) . They must have some kind of fail safe device too, so it's highly unlikely to happen.

wrong


are you going to trickle feed us information slowly (ironically)?

The wall in question will be a shared wall, as will the ginnel, read your deeds. He should have shared access to the rar of his house through the ginnel (it's standard, I've lived in a similar house)
Click to expand...
It was a whoosh.
 
If its a flue less fire it won't be flueing into the alleyway (the clue is in the name). The pipe is most likely a vent for drawing fresh air into the room. The standard for the vent is generally 100cm2. He's right in that blocking it could potentially kill him if he has the fire on but I don't think that would damage the cat in it.
 

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