the_r_sole

so you want to make a flat roof into a pitched roof with habitable space in it? (is it a garage?) sounds like a decent footprint but it's a massively open ended question you ask here! (iirc I did a loft over a garage that worked out at somewhere around 1k per m2 by the finish but that was new build on top of nice new walls - and the client did nothing, all done by main contractor)

Quite interesting here, the elephant in the room is that the local authority clearly wanted a natural barrier between two developments, so if they allow everyone to absorb them into their private gardens it means the council have placed an unnecessary planning condition on here, possibly a big can of worms to open - the other thing to check is that there's no drainage/soakaways or services running in there, thats something you don't want to own!

Land registry plans show your ownership, ownership boundaries aren't considered or referenced in local plans (unless you submit your boundary for consideration to be adopted into the local plan)

doesn't mention BBA or any other type of accreditation on there, I'd be very wary until it has all the paperwork to keep funders/building control/engineers etc happy

interesting! have sent this on to a client who is looking at using warmcell (and I'm also working for another client about 10 miles away who is looking into it too!)

In my experience, getting something just on the edge of a settlement can be a real pain, so a success based fee is probably a decent way to go - if you've got a quote for 12k already on a normal basis, then 18k on a bonus scheme doesn't seem unreasonable at all! (I'm clearly working at the wrong end of the country with those planning fees!)

Tbh, an architect should be able to show you plans and design to your tastes and brief - we would usually spend a good bit of time with clients at the early stage to understand what they want/need and then balance that with what the site offers (then usually that they don't have enough budget to do everything they want!) If you go to an architect with a floor plan already you're not making the most out of an architect - what would be better is to figure out how you want spaces to work together and what links to what...

Sounds way less than we'd charge for building regs drawings, never mind a schedule of works and a survey... If the guy is competent, I'd say go for it

It really depends on the quality of information you have given him - I don't think you can expect him to come back with a fully priced bill of quantities unless you have employed a QS to prepare the bill. Usually if we are tendering a house, we would issue a set of tender drawings, which are much more detailed than building regs drawings and a schedule of works which will normally run to somewhere around 30 pages for a house - the better the information you give out, the better information you will have returned, with building reg drawings there is always a danger that the builder assumes one thing and you assume another, and you don't find out until they'll brought the brass sockets on site and started fitting them!

This looks sweet, open for visits when the lockdown eases? Be really interested to pick your brains a bit on how you got it through building warrant/SER etc!

I'm currently working on a conversion of a two storey barn into a house for someone - we are just about to get the building warrant approval for it (just need to show a 10,000ltrs water storage tank) I'd say the main issues we've had are easy to avoid with a new build, they're more conversion specific. So the biggest issue we've had is really getting an engineer to prove that the structure is suitable (we didn't have access to the original drawings or calculations from the manufacturer) but we found that the foundations weren't what they should be and the ground floor slab wasn't thick enough either. Then the timber midfloor wasn't properly supported. Putting opening rooflights in seems to be an issue, all the panel manufacturers are very resistant to that (although this place has two already installed! My biggest worry is the thermal bridging over the portal itself, as we aren't using an isulated panel system, we're effectively building a new insulated inner leaf which will take the windows etc too... and then we have the buildability side of how to put it all together!! however, it'll all be worth it in the end, the views from the place are amazing!

to be fair 150m2 is a huge 2 bed, and miles away from a tiny house - you haven't made the choice between owning somewhere tiny or renting somewhere with access to communal facilites, you've built a big house on an individual land parcel...

and therein lies the problem - that's the first place people's minds go to ?

I just don't see the tiny house as anything more than a niche housing solution, they work for people who want them to work but it's not something you could roll out generally imo. Small houses are fine, should always be an aim to not overbuild, but that's still some way off a "tiny" house. The thing that needs to chage, rather than the size of house, is the fascination with home ownership! I think there are much more innovative solutions in ideas like co-housing where you have a mix of private space and then shared facilities which you can access...

What can you buy for 70k more than this is worth? A loft conversion on a new build roof and a sizeable extension for that budget I'd say is very unlikely... fitting a compliant stair into your floor plan will be difficult without comprising something... With your design, I'd start from first principles, I.e. figure out exactly what you want from altering the house, a full width extension like you've shown rarely work, it looks like you've just said "we need an extension" without going through the reasoning for it. It might be you can achieve better quality, more useful spaces with much less new building...

They aren't all equal, nhbc, checkmate etc are voluntary organisations who have preferred details and methods of construction that you have to follow to get their guarantees or warranty- the building regulations are mandatory standards which apply to all buildings and are enforced by local authorities. If your design meets the building regs, it meets the building regs, applying third party recommendations has no bearing on the suitability of the design. Your SER certifier has double checked your engineers design as structurally sound and this is covered by their professional liability

So you're trying to force the engineer to redesign for free? If it's got an SER then its been designed and double checked so I don't think you'll ever convince them that they have given you a design that's not compliant... What did you ask them to design in the first place? Did they design it before you knew the finished floor level and then move it up or did they design it with the full knowledge of finished levels?

Who are your engineers? Sounds like they don't want to do the work for some reason? What's their reasoning for saying it's not possible to redesign it? Probably cheaper to get a new engineer and avoid the import of that amount of infill!

What's the "domestic build act"? I'm not sure exactly your situation but normally SEPA would comment on planning applications and that's when they would dictate a finished floor level, following that you would usually start detailed design for the building warrant. Generally as long as you comply with the planning conditions and the floor design compiles with the regs (usually you'll have an SER certificate from a structural engineer) then you're fine, if you're using an nhbc warranty then you'll have to build using their details. The structural engineer is the only person that can certify a floor slab design so speak to them. Having said that, 1.7m is a substantial underbuild, usually planning departments dont like an under underbuild like that (in my experience of scottish planning authorities) I would be looking at some form of suspended slab for an underbuild that size unless you have a quarry on site!

you just have to be very careful with this approach, really millions of fixings and movement joints etc otherwise you'll get cracking in the render as the timber frame settles

they only give you the air tightness info after you've paid their deposit - I had to sign a NDA to get it to pass on to a sap assessor!! The window reveal details are awful with Scotframe, they are very resistant to put insulation around the inner reveal (even though it's usually required by building control!)

Just be careful with the scotframe kit details, I'd say you'll fall well short of passivhaus standard with their kit...

Hi there, would recommend design engineering workshop in Glasgow, they've done a few passivhaus projects...

Is that the fitted price? Walls and floors website is always a decent place to cross check prices of the tiles themselves...

by the time you have properly insulated the ceiling to current regs it's going to sitting somewhere in line with the purlin anyway? Do a quick uvalue calc to see how much insulation you're going to need, and then revise the stair layout