The article "Party Wall Breakthrough" (Brick Bulletin, 28 April, page 3) details a method of party wall construction without plastering that meets the acoustic regulations.

The method described is possible. However, building a wall this way can only be described as slow. You would have to build one skin to a height of, say, four courses, then proceed to build the other skin eight courses high, wait one day, fill in the cavity and hope the walls do not part as you tamper the mortar down to ensure solid compaction. Then you would have to repeat this operation.

If you are building to a soffit that is already in place, how do you fill the cavity between the last four courses? Once again, a very good idea but its uses would be limited. Please issue a warning notice to architects when you publish this sort of thing, so that at tender stage we do not have to point all this out to main contractors who will take the specifications as cast in stone.

These ideas are great in laboratories but totally impractical on site. Why not get people in who have had enough experience in this form of construction on site before making announcements like this?

Peter O'Brien, St Austell, Cornwall

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