kandgmitchell

Both these will almost certainly need to be presented by a fire consultant to BC

You want the highway terrier - this lists the classification of the roads maintained by Wiltshire County Council.... https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/media/8218/adopted-roads-january-2022/pdf/adopted_roads_january_2022.pdf

I'd agree there! Can't enclose it entirely though as any propane leak from an appliance ends up down there via the small grids in the floor under them. Transporting these things are a specialist job and we could only find those dealers who sold statics were set up for the job so had to buy from one of them. Glad we did it as it gave us more investment in the plot that was to be our home, we met the neighbours, started social contacts and could keep an eye on the work. Would never, ever, do it again though!

The consultant is correct - see diagram D6 in the Approved Document B. The highest floor level is measured from the lowest ground level up to that floor. The issue would be that escape for those rooms facing the higher ground level (so effectively traditional two storey) could be via escape windows. However, those rooms on the three storey side can't use that approach so a protected route is needed. You may be able to design a situation where the rooms on the three storey side can get access to the two storey side by perhaps closing off the upper storey with a fire door. That way persons can pass through the upper landing free of any fire and smoke coming up from below. These days a lot of BC bodies would expect to see this presented by a fire consultant. A sign of the times I'm afraid.

Must admit, the open web joists do make life easier. Used them for the first floor in a large two two storey extension at the last house. Apart from being lighter to work with, it's so much easier to run pipes and wires through them. The suppliers provide the supporting calcs so you don't have to bother, for, as you mention your span is off the end of the AD Part A tables.

It's normal practice to span the shortest distance and space at 400mm centres so that plasterboard for the ceiling and boarding for the floor works better. Spacing at 600mm centres means you need thicker plasterboard and floor boarding to avoid deflection. Spacing at 300mm centres just uses more material. The earlier versions of the Building Regulation Approved Document for Part A - Structure used to have very useful load/span tables for timber joists, rafters and purlins which could be used quickly to determine a joist size. You probably can find the archive versions on line. They stopped providing them as it favoured one material over others which became much wider available.

Well you'll be subject to continuing control under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order for the common parts. You could try asking the local fire authority for fire safety advice. If I recall correctly Velux make a AOV rooflight with linked detectors as a kit based on their normal range if one is needed.

That's the trouble with auctions ... you get all het up, do as much homework as you can and then on the day the lot just runs off like mad going way over what you thought was sensible. Still you never know - I bought one that had been put back into an auction after the buyer at the previous sale simply disappeared after the lot was sold and was never seen again. Rather than pursue them to complete, the owners put it back in. Mind you it went for another £10K over the last hammer price so it was probably the best thing for them.

Had a quick look at Southern Water's requirements and build overs are limited to sewers 225mm dia or less. If it's more then it's a diversion I'm afraid. Those drainage details provided by the seller are deliberately vague - enough to cover themselves - "look we told you about them" but not eneough to make a proper decision. It'll be a gamble............ good luck!

Depends where this is - Thames Water for instance will not agree a build over for new dwellings, only extensions.

You certainly can still get conditional approvals but the legislation says : the relevant authority may— (a)reject the application; or (b)subject to paragraph (4), grant the application for building control approval subject to either or both of the requirements set out in paragraph (3). I emphasise the "may" because it gives the authority the choice, the applicant can request a conditional approval but I think that "may" still gives the authority the option to simply reject if it wants to.

Presumably you have planning permission and building regs for what is a substantial renovation and extension to an existing dwelling. Knock it all down and you will will now need planning approval and building regulations for a new dwelling. Depending on the planning status of the land viz a vis the local plan, getting a new dwelling approval may not be as simple and of course you'll have the delights of complying with all the building regulation requirements for a new dwelling which are more extensive than those for extensions.

Well I hope XPS will last a long time in the ground as I have 150mm of it across the entire underside of my insulated raft. It's closed cell structure so keeps itself dry. I had to remove the perimeter insulation and then put it back (long story), when I did I glued it to the side of the concrete raft with CT1. In you case the patio makeup will keep it in place anyway?

You'll need a vertical dpc where the new inner leaf meets the stone wall. However, this is one of those situations where you just have to live with the potential ingress into what is now the internal stone wall. Just think that wall was exposed and how much damp came through it? Is the situation going to be any worse than if that blue arrow on the right came straight across the "existing stone wall"? With an existing cavity wall you can cut in a dpc or chop out a bit of the old outer leaf but not in a stone wall.

Blimey, no-one ever invited me to dinner to discuss their building projects, some clients didn't even offer a cup of tea when you'd been there a couple of hours measuring up!

Builder's merchants are there to sell you stuff, particularly the stuff they stock! Ask them whose concrete lintels they stock then refer to the manufacturers advice, decide what you need and then just tell them which one you want.

Just out of interest where the other houses given individual approvals at varying times or were they all (including number 6) given a single approval? I only ask because a few years ago near where we used to live in north-west essex a developer built two or three new houses on land that was definately open countryside on the edge of a village. How did they get that I thought? It turned out that an approval was given for four houses way back but only one was built but that was sufficient for them to argue the development as whole had begun and thus could continue........

I remember when as a trainee in north London, an elderly surveyor used to recommend mixing broken glass into the concrete when blocking up a redundant drain in a chamber. It stopped rats scrabbling away at the fill and using the void behind as rat heaven

I suspect that many council's do not want to check the extension meets all the other requirements as they see it as tantamount to a CoL shortcut. They only want to carry out the adjoining neighbour checks and leave it to the applicant to be certain it meets any other restrictions.

Just check that lintel doesn't need bonded masonry over to achieve that UDL. If it does make sure it's there and not interferred with by any dpc cavity tray etc.

It's probably cornish then......

So your BC are ignoring this in Approved Document L1 then? Historic and traditional dwellings 0.10 The energy efficiency of historic and traditional dwellings should be improved only if doing so will not cause long-term deterioration of the building’s fabric or fittings. In particular, this applies to historic and traditional buildings with a vapour permeable construction that both absorbs moisture and readily allows moisture to evaporate. Examples include those built with wattle and daub, cob or stone and constructions using lime render or mortar. and: 0.12 In determining whether full energy efficiency improvements should be made, the building control body should consider the advice of the local authority’s conservation officer. Which advice presumably is contained within the emails between you and conservation officer at the time of the works. To whose benefit is this sort of pedantic nonsense?

The centre line of the sockets should be between 450mm and 1200mm so presumably they are most convenient for a wheelchair user but this is for new dwellings.

It is interesting that the means of escape requirements in the Building Regulations mention "habitable rooms" needing access to a suitable escape route when on the ground floor or a floor no more than 4.5m above ground level. For floors above 4.5m above ground level the reference changes to "dwelling houses" shall have etc..... the implication being that whatever the use of the rooms on that floor above 4.5m, the correct means of escape should be provided. As to why no protected route was provided in this case is odd. My guess is there was an existing non-compliant loft conversion probably done without approval but some time ago. That put it outside the enforcement provisions of the Building Control system. Then some minor alteration to the loft room was proposed that did not make the existing fire escape situation worse than it already was and the applicant claimed the protection of Paragraph 3 of Regulation 4 (of the 2010 regs as they were) and the LA couldn't really not have approved it. The refusal of the LA to allow the current owner of the property a view of the application seems bizzare, I bought and completed a project that had been abandoned by the previous owners and the LA were quite happy for me to see their file as I needed to know what they had approved and what they had or hadn't inspected. The OP is the only one that can make this call but on a personal basis I'd walk away. Two reasons, 1) the real risk to users of the 2nd floor, and 2) the pain of trying to sell it again at a later stage. Not easy if in all other ways the house suits their needs. Of course, if the alterations can be done to make it compliant then a hefty discount might make up for it.....

Yes, the requirement for a raised height is in Part M - Access to and Use of Buildings of the Building Regulations. This only applies to new buildings and not extensions. Having said that I've found the higher locations much easier to use!