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Building works affecting my garden
Slarti Bartfast
Posts: 6,607 Forum Member
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My next door neighbor's son is starting building works in his (my neighbor's) back garden. As I was leaving for work this morning a big lorry arrived and some men were surveying his garden.
When I've got home there is what appears to be a crater in his garden filled with light grey sludge and in my garden my lawn it's full of this sludge too (it doesn't seem to have come under the fence, it almost looks like it has risen up).
I don't know what they've done as there's nobody around to ask now (and frankly I don't think it should matter) but whatever it it's I'm pretty peeved that my property has been affected by it.
Does anyone have any knowledge or advice which could help me?
When I've got home there is what appears to be a crater in his garden filled with light grey sludge and in my garden my lawn it's full of this sludge too (it doesn't seem to have come under the fence, it almost looks like it has risen up).
I don't know what they've done as there's nobody around to ask now (and frankly I don't think it should matter) but whatever it it's I'm pretty peeved that my property has been affected by it.
Does anyone have any knowledge or advice which could help me?
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This.
How big it the "crater"? The sort of size for a shed or summerhouse base or a whole paved area? If it was for an extension, plans should have been submitted and affected people notified. Even building for that can't be allowed to damage neighbor's property.
Just to clarify, the proposed work is to construct a detached house and has been granted planning permission. It's bad enough that someone is building a house next to my back garden but before things have even really started it's already impacting on me and my property. I've no idea what this substance is, whether it will be harmful to my lawn or my kids! Nobody has mentioned to me that they were about to do what they have done today and that it may affect my land.
http://www.pictureshack.us/images/60760_image.jpg
Edit: I should mention there's still nobody in to ask so I'm none the wiser.
That does look like wet concrete. Is the patch surrounded (by unaffected bits of your garden) or is it adjoing the fence?
It's very unlikely that it permeated up from the ground. Is there any next door? Definitely have a word.
BTW wet cement is corrosive to bare skin (concrete will have sand and ballast - coarse gravel - mixed in too).
On my side of the fence I have a barked border between the fence and lawn so it may have run under the bark, I will check properly in the morning. I can only see it in the bark right next to the lawn and on the lawn itself, but it has spread about halfway across my lawn in parts.
Not sure I understand the last bit properly (sorry), are you saying that this mixture may have a corrosive property to it regarding human skin? If so that makes it somewhat lucky that it's been damp here and my kids didn't come home from school and go in the garden! (Even if it isn't corrosive you wouldn't want your kids unknowingly playing in an unidentified sludge!)
Yes. It's not that dangerous, on the skin (like anything else, don't ingest it or get it in your eyes). But if you worked with it with your bare hands, you might not have any fingerprints left after a few hours!
(Which is exactly why happened to me when using lime mortar for repointing using my fingers; it was so clumsy with gloves on!)
Take care also with any cement dust that may be floating around in future (unless the concrete/mortar is mixed off-site)
I'd give them the chance to make good first, new lawn, topsoil etc. If they tell you where to go, time to get legal on their ass.
When our last neighbours applied for planning permission the corner of their new extension was in our garden because the boundary was at an angle. She was not happy at having to make the building smaller so it would fit on her own land
You could also try posting about this on the Garden Law forum. Some legal and other experts post there.
It can occur naturally but is also often deliberately introduced into ground-works due to it's moisture absorbent properties.
OP,
Sodium bentonite is used as a lubricant ('drilling-mud') for drilling bore holes deep into the ground.
Maybe your neighbour is setting up a gas ‘Fracking’ site.
Well, you could do worse than reading the information in the link in my post. ;-)
Bear in mind, of course, that if it is Bentonite, regardless of it's properties, it's probably already in the ground under your house (or, more accurately, the neighbours') so it's probably been doing whatever it's doing for years.
If, OTOH, it's something that the builders have introduced then it'll be a specific amount for a specific purpose and the tiny excess that you're seeing will just drain away without having much effect.
I think ‘Si_Crewe’ could well be correct that it is ‘bentonite’, but it has probably been introduced by the builders to maybe try and alter an underground water-course or even to seal off an old ‘well’; (or something similar to do with keeping water at bay).
Bentonite is used extensively for that kind of thing.
The bentonite that I have worked with, comes from the mid-western USA and is in powdered form. It was mixed with various chemicals to be used as ‘drilling-mud’ for use on North Sea oil/gas drilling rigs. We used to ship the raw material from Chicago to Eccles Wharf on the Manchester Ship Canal.
When the bentonite powder is mixed with water it swells incredibly and turns into a light-grey gooey mush. It has the consistency of a very thick yoghurt and is as sticky as Blu-Tack; it’s really horrible stuff.
However, it does dry out and forms a barrier that is impermeable to water.
It’s many years since I’ve seen ‘bentonite’ but the picture you posted certainly looks like it could be ‘wet bentonite’.
It’s non-toxic.......however, the stuff in your neighbours garden may not be bentonite!
I had a look this morning and it was still sludgy, like yoghurt as you say. Should I try to hose it off the grass before it dries?
No, my neighbour is rather illusive at the moment.
how did it get up that tree?
I find it quite ironic that this is coming from a planetary engineer and designer.
I only did the fjords remember