Beanyboy2802

Well, that was short lived..! My wife and I have decided to put the whole "self build" idea on hold, on account of us soon to be expecting! But I will be back - thank you all for your support, and hopefully it won't be too long before I start looking into this properly again! Thank you!

Like I said, any nugget of information can help and is really appreciated - it's why I'm here, and I'll try to contribute elsewhere if I can as well, to pay it forward. Attached my sketches as of right now. As I say, there have been a few compromises - and I don't know for sure if what I've done thus far is reasonable or anything. Few things to note, things I've compromised on; 1. The storage cupboard is huge - it was originally part of the dressing room, but the need to have the structural wall (and align it to the structural wall downstairs) just left Bedroom 2 too large to be reasonable. Hence, reduce the bedroom, make use of the "dead space" in some other way. 2. I wanted integrated wardrobes in all rooms - but Bedroom 4, the structural wall requirements prevented my extending the shower into that room a little (through the wall) without a visible, so the alcove I had was removed. Not a major issue, but a little annoying. 3. Not sure if the door to Bedroom 4 is compliant - could be too close to the end of the wall. I think it meets the requirements of Regs, Diagram 14, P5, but not sure if the 550mm in Diagram 12 applies at a wall corner. Genuinely don't know which is correct, but the wall of the bathroom prevents 550 working, so I've done the 350 not sure what I'll do if that's wrong. 4. Speaking of the bathroom wall - it's already moved for the door, making the landing wider. The landing is also wider on the opposite side because of the position of the structural buttress (to align with where it could be placed downstairs). Not sure if it's, again, a poor use of space, having a landing that big - the rest of the house is big enough I think, but my thought is "Could it be smaller?" as a matter of efficiency more than anything else. 5. The main bathroom shower was turned into a bit of a "wet room" because of the structural changes. I don't mind this - but it took a bit of convincing (and a rough 3D sketch) to talk my wife around to the idea. Again, was made necessary by the structural wall changes I needed to make. 6. Floor spans are a thing. I don't know if what I have is at all workable at this point, particularly in the master bedroom which has the biggest "unsupported" span between structural walls. Again, I'm assuming the downstairs will be fine just on the ground. There is probably more I could bring up - but I think that's enough to digest to start with. I think I need the dummys guide to building regulations to give me a head start! But that's my early design work, as it stands. Please, everyone - feel free to critique and advise as you see fit! Extract.pdf

As I say, any guidance is very much appreciated - and I'll get a (very rough) drawing uploaded when I get back to my laptop shortly - thank you!

Yer, frustrating is right lol. I started the process blind, before having any knowledge of the building regs at all - but it had gone pretty smoothe while just working up a concept. Figuring out exactly what the wife wants was a challenge, seeing as she didn't really know herself (!), but we sort of get there. Keeping it to a reasonable plot size as well to be fair. But then when I looked at the regs - 70m^2 area limit inside any set of structural walls. Walls no greater than 12m. Adjoining walls not allowed doors at the end. Floor spans is just my latest crisis, and I've been at it for less than a week! (On a side note, while it's in my head - I assume the ground floor doesn't need to worry about floor spans - it's on the ground..!?) So far all these regs related issues have taken me longer to sort out than the rest of the house combined, and I feel like I'm only just scratching the surface. I've made a number of "compromises" already (some have resulted in design improvements, to be fair), and every change seems to be moving me away from my ideal outcome. For example - at present I have a 4m long storage cupboard in one of my bedrooms. I just don't know what else to do with the space, I can't move the structural wall without compromising elsewhere, or going over the 70m^2! it's a headache - but you're right, it will be worth it in the end. Hopefully..!

I like the thought of this - but how would I implement it? Obviously I need a structural wall at each end of the steel beam, to support the beam, and hence the floor. Can the beam just sit into the structural wall as it is, or do I need to build out that wall to meet the beam (like a buttress)?

Another basic regs question. The regs say a floor span can only be a maximum of 6m. I presume that can be 6m from an internal wall, not 6m between two structural walls. Is that right? The way I'm reading this, it feels like every wall in the house will need to be structural, which doesn't feel right!

Using doors and windows as movement joints is an interesting suggestion, thank you. Can't say I know much about the aesthetics of it, so I'd have to look into that - but I think I'm a ways away from that just yet!

This is useful - I'll have a look for this section in the regs, cheers. Top of my head, the question that comes to mind is, the first sentence of 4C.18. In my arrangement above the garage obviously has an adjoining internal wall on the left, so bot ends are supported. But at present I have 4m on the first floor which doesn't have a supporting wall at its far end. Does the internal buttressing wall, of 4m length, need a buttressing wall of its own? If so, what is the maximum length the internal structural wall can be without its own buttress/adjoining wall at the far end?

Thankfully the design I have, both sides will be easy enough to provide a structural buttress wall over both floors, and if necessary it can go to the full height of the house. Some minor mods to the layout and I think my wall length problem is resolved. Obviously, the experts will tell me otherwise if I have a bad steer in there, when I get to that stage! Thank you for the advice, much appreciated.

Brilliant - thank you. I assume the positioning of the door doesn't make much of a difference. Does the buttressing wall need to be the full height of the exterior wall? Even if the exterior wall goes up to the eaves of the roof?

Yes, I'd seen this - thank you for the link, because I'd lost it lol. I'd considered putting the expansion joint somewhere near the middle of the wall, which puts close to the buttress wall. Do I need to consider the effectiveness of the buttress wall when determining the location of the expansion joint? Would it be best to stay away, or make use of the buttress in some way?

Sure - forgive the roughness of the extract, it's barely a started drawing yet, let alone finished! I've removed interior stud walls for clarity. Showing planned doors and windows in the heavy walls as approximate positions. Nominal wall width of 350mm shown, based on other planning drawings I've seen. Wall height is a normal 2 story house - hoping for 2.4m ceilings, but not figured that out just yet. Could end up being the end of the roof, so consider that height as worst case.

Hey all. I have a question about the building regs. I'm in the early stages of design for a new house, and just starting to wrap my head around building regulations - and there's a clause in A1/2 (clause 2C17) which states this section does not deal with walls longer than 12m, in reference to exterior or structural walls. The clause does state that the 12m length is to be measured from centre to centre of buttressing walls - I assume that includes where the exterior wall turns a 90 degree corner. So if I make the back wall of the garage (which is half the depth of the long exterior wall in question) a structural wall, does this effectively mark the the measure point for the 12m limit? I.e., I measure 6m from my garage wall to the front end of the long wall, then 6m from my garage wall to the back end of the long wall. Thank you for any help you can provide - it is much appreciated.

Evening all - thanks for having me. After looking on the market and finding nothing in our budget that is exactly what we want, me and my wife have made the decision to design and build our own house. We aren't in any particular rush - happy to figure out the basics of design first, but I've signed up to my local authority self build scheme so am "sort of" actively pursuing it. I'm completely new to all of this process, so expected this forum will be an amazing source of information for me as I go through - and I'll apologise now for asking so many questions, the first of which will be as soon as I figure out where to post it (and check it hasn't already been answered!). Thanks again for your help - and hope to see you around the forums.