barbour33

@ProDave Well I can pull it the structure away from the my house essentially making it an outbuilding and simply bridge my decking from the back door to walk on top of it. My neighbours can't see into my back garden, someone would have to trespass onto my property to take a picture of it. I'm not worried about digging below the footings. My property is a bungalow and where I would be digging has a flat roof. I'm speculating but the weight of the property will be alot less than that of a 2 story with a gable end. If the footing is shallow then I will just under pin in 1m sections if it's feasible and cost effective. Most of this work I will do myself I've been a shutter joiner/civil engineer for 17 years. Plenty of room to fit an 8t excavator and 6-9 tonne dumper for the digging process. At a 1600mm dig it cubes up to 90 tonne, it may seem alot but I could have this dug out and transported around the front to be collected via grab wagon by 11am if I started at 7.30am. @Russell griffiths The reason I didn't opt for block and beam was the fact that beams are heavy and expensive. 4"-6" RSJ's are manageable and I can get them at a good price. I would need to hire an excavator to lift the beams on. @JohnMo I'm confused why the height of the decking needs planning if it has already existed for a minimum of 10-15 years? How could they enforce me to remove it? Fall prevention will be bollards and glass panels at 1200mm high. This is exactly what is there now but timber. If it's an outbuilding does it really require structural engineer? Thank you so much for your replies,, it's greatly appreciated. I was lucky enough to bump into building control today during a drains test on site. I had a quick word with him and he said that realistically it's at my own risk. If no one sees it built no one knows it's there other than me, just looks like I've refreshed the old decking. The headache I would receive from the council and structural engineers over killing things would make it a nightmare. I might just build an outbuilding instead at the bottom of the garden...

Hi all, I really hope someone can help me. I moved into my house 5 years ago, it has raised decking installed and would be somewhere between 10-15 years old. The decking is 1.5m above ground level in my rear garden, the area of the decking is 7m x 3.6m. I intend on trial holing down the rear of my property to see how far down my footing is. If my footing is over 1m deep then I would really like to remove the decking, dig down, pour the footings/slab, build a block structure that is tanked and water tight with external steps leading to a door. Something along the lines of 100mm or 150mm RSJ's with 300mm centres spanning 3.4-3.6m, fix and prop ply sheets up with acros in-between the RSJ's known as decking in terms of shutter joinery and then pour a 75-100mm suspended slab with steel on top. The slab would overlap 300mm over the block structure and sit on 300mm centred RSJ's which would then be paved/cladded and steps down into my garden or I could re-deck/clad the structure exactly as it looks now but new as far as externally goes. The height, width and length would not change other than the appearance of brick and patio instead of old wrotten timber decking or potentially look the same but new. Would I need to seek permitted development or planning permission for this? No one would ever be living in there. It will be for storage of Christmas crap, other crap and a gym room. As far as my neighbours are concerned nothing would change for them? Would there be consequences if I were to go through with this without informing planning permission/permitted development or the council? Im asking this because I know someone who has built a structure in there garden that they just built without asking anyone anything. Its 6m x 3m and when the neighbours complained all the council said was there are no rules on outbuildings under 2.5m in height and not consuming more than 50% of the garden. Do I fall into this category? Could I fall into this category if I build it say 300mm off the property so it's not attached to my property? If I were to ask the council or planner would I get away with providing a decent sketch or would it require an architect, structural engineer and building regulations?