I have a neighbor to the rear of my house and they have recently built a wall blocking most of my natural light along the back of my house. They are well aware of what they have done as when I remodeled my house 3 years ago I spoke to them of my intentions to put in a small sliding window to allow natural light in, which they said was no problem. I have just been away working for a few days only to come back and see this. I am pretty pissed off but wont resort to violence!!

They have left me no choice but to rebuild my rear wall with some glass bricks to allow light in. I cant remodel my roof as it has spray foam insulation and the last thing I want to do is install a sky light which will negate the effect of the foam.

Has anybody done this? How effective are they?

Yes, there doesn't appear to be anything resembling "planning permission" here and the feeling seems to be if it's your land you can do what you like with it. The only exception i'm aware of was an old lady who decided to keep pigs in her rear garden in the village. She had a visit from the "Poo Yai Baan" ( sp ?) who explained the smell and flies were upsetting her neighbours. Other than that it's up to you !

As for the glass bricks, i've recently had 2 walls partially demolished and rebuilt using them. The results are excellent with vastly increased light levels and without compromising on security. Also outside noise levels appear low compared with normal windows. Home-Mart have a very good selection, including patterned and different colours, starting from about 50TB each. Dimentions of each brick are 19 x 19cm ( 20cm square including grout / concrete ).

Good luck :jap:

a window needs to be 2,00 meters from property line, so if its blocked by neighbor, blame yourself

glassblocks are accepted as "windows" 0,5 meters from propertyline. They are more quiet than windows, more fire proof, no odors and secure as a brick wall.

I usually install them with zero gap, IOW white groutecement inbetween, but almost invisible grout from out/in side. Use them a lot, use them in all bathrooms, ventilation is over ceiling