Latest blog posts

Working as an Architectural Technologist for one of London’s busiest firms of Chartered Surveyors gives me the unique advantage of being surrounded by party wall specialists every day.  More importantly, it has allowed me to gain a good understanding of party wall procedures and factor them in to my design projects at an early stage. As a ... Read more >>

The leasehold valuation team here at Peter Barry recently attended the annual Leasehold Advisory conference that brings together tenants, managing agents, solicitors, valuers and all other people/bodies that have a interest in the current leasehold sector. The conference was celebrating its 15th year and whilst a lot has changed since 2002, many ... Read more >>

In the first 2 parts of this post we looked at history of subsidence and the influence of trees; in this final part we'll cover other contributory factors such as the presence of ground water and variations in climate. Sloping Sites The slope of the site may have a significant effect for a number of reasons. If the site slopes steeply ... Read more >>

In the first part of this post we looked at the history of subsidence as we know it today and how subsidence related insurance claims. Today, we'll move on to look at exactly what subsidence is and some of the contributory factors. What is ‘Subsidence in Clay Soils? In geological terms clay is a relatively modern deposit and usually ... Read more >>

If we were to simplify buildings down to their very core elements it could be said that they contain only 3 different parts; walls, floors and roofs. Again, I stress this is a very simplified outlook but a lot of the time it's these three elements that are often overlooked in design schemes as they are deemed ‘too boring’ to think about. I ... Read more >>

A Bit of History Anyone who's ever erected a fence in clay soil using timber posts knows that you can hammer these into the ground when the clay is soft and the posts will stand firm but when you check your fence at the end of a dry summer your previously firm posts will have worked loose because the clay soil around them has dried and ... Read more >>

I recently took an enquiry from a client who was looking to have some building work completed; specifically, they were looking to have a rear extension built. As I personally believe that the needs of the project should dictate the design of the works I enquired into what the new space would be used for. My client informed me that they wanted a ... Read more >>