Mount Boiler and Pipework on Party wall?

[tricia]

Hi,

Can anyone advise me as to whether or not it is allowed to mount a gas central heating boiler, and the pipework for radiators and water tanks, on a party wall, as in a terraced house?

We live in a terrace house and the (thick) brick wall that we share with our neighbour has their gas boiler mounted it, on their side of the party wall downstairs. Their pipework then runs from their boiler up to their loft to/from their water tank. The whole system was installed by the owner quite a few years ago I believe. Dodgy? The boiler's exhaust vent is very close to the boundary outside, too close I thought.

Well, the problem is, their boiler vibrates the wall when it is on (it's the pump I guess?) and hence an annoying humming sound can be heard in our house when their boiler is on.

It's mildly annoying in the daytime, but when it comes on suddenly at 11pm at night or at 4am in the morning, it disturbs our sleep and wakes us up as it can be heard just as loudly upstairs! (And sometimes the rush of water in their tank filling pipes can be just as noisy.) Incidentally they recently replaced their boiler as the old one went wrong, but their new one is just as noisy as the old one unfortunately.

It seems a bit unfair to me that we get woken up by our next door neighbour's central heating system in the middle of the night, especially when we have gone to lengths to make sure our own boiler is quiet and not mounted on a party wall and not turned on at unsociable hours.

Are there any regulations on this sort of issue?

Is there anything we can do?

Any advice most welcome.

Thanks in advance!

 

[muggles]

Nothing wrong with mounting the boiler on the party wall at all I'm afraid. It sounds like your party wall is just very poorly soundproofed, if it's a cavity wall you could look at getting it filled with insulation, and there may be grants available to help you pay for this (although you may have to get the whole house done if you go down the grants route).

The only time it would be an issue is if it's generating so much noise it can be classified as a nuisance, but you'll need a man with a sound level meter to decide that for you. They could then force your neighbours to look at dealing with the problem, but then you'll end up with hostile neighbours who may find other ways of annoying you in retaliation.

Hope this helps

 

[kevplumb]

Is there anything we can do?

have a word with them

 

[tricia]

have a word with them

Yes, might do that. We did mention it years ago and when they had the new boiler put in, but there didn't seem to be anything they cold do.

Are there no such things as rubber mountings or some sort of noise dampening fixings?

Thanks!

 

[muggles]

Rubber washers behind the mounting plate could be effective but not sure that they'd be approved and you'd be asking your neighbours to have their heating system drained down, boiler decommissioned, bracket removed, washers installed, bracket replaced, boiler reinstalled and recommissioned. It's going to be the best part of a day's work, which will be expensive and might not work.

Look into getting the cavity filled with insulation if there is a cavity, it'll save on your heating costs if you insulate a bit as well

 

[tricia]

Rubber washers behind the mounting plate could be effective but not sure that they'd be approved ...

Look into getting the cavity filled with insulation if there is a cavity, it'll save on your heating costs if you insulate a bit as well

I see. Thanks.

It's a solid brick wall (Victorian house) about 2 or 3 bricks thick I think.

Is there any sound proofing we can apply on our side? I fear the whole wall from downstairs to upstairs resonates if you will, and really we need to stop the vibrations at source. Nonetheless, perhaps some sound dampening or sound proofing would help.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[muggles]

You can, I believe, achieve a certain amount of soundproofing by applying products to the surface of an existing wall, but this is getting away from my area of expertise. I suggest you take your question to the builders' pr plasterers' forum

 

[MrOcelot]

Structure-borne noise is a major porblem to address on solid brick walls. Dealing with it is not easy. You could try fixing resilient bars to the wall, then two layers of BG Soundbloc plasterboard and then skim-coat. The new lining would have to be isolated from the front and rear walls to prevent flanking transmissions and even then, it might only reduce, not eliminate the sount transfer. It would be costl and you'd lose about 40mm from the width of the room. Oh, you'd have to take off the skirtings and re-fit them and re-locate all socket outlets, ensuring they were mounted in "floating" construction. The Party Wall etc Act 1996 does not prevent mounting boilers on a party structure and you've proboably got to live with it.

 

[bengasman]

You can get plasterboard with foam on it; fairly simple job, but you have to do it right.
This a question for the building side of the site.