Gus Potter

Unlikely there are any record drawings, photos, back then photos were expensive to take, gut feeling is that there will be no meaningful records. From time to time I work on old buildings, we add load, change the load pattern (the floors get loaded in a different way as the use changes). For me it is one of the most rewarding types of design to undertake. It starts with researching the history of the construction and what the site was used for before construction, anecdotal information, ground conditions and so on. It is hugely interesting.. the history, folk think SE's (the failure we see of the column) just do sums but we don't, there is much more to the job. Frankly the maths are massively boring once you have done it a hundred times or more. What I find exciting and rewarding is the "detective work", the history, working out what has caused the failure I see. Then you need to convert that into say a report that a layperson can understand. The fun part of being an SE is the art and craft of design and detective work , but knowing you can "prove what you are saying". Now in all that,we at times need to exercise Engineering judgement, some of the maths are based on probability, some empirically based, but again these maths need to be presented often in a way that a layperson ( a lay person also includes most BC officers) can also understand. Yes there is. We can often identify historic steel sections. I have documents in my library that helps me do this. Once we have dated and potentially sized a section we need to look at the strength. As we go back in time the manufacturing process was less controlled and a bit dodgy cf modern terms. Thus we need to use a different set of safety factors for example. So yes Alan we can do it more often than not. I've attached a historic copy of the Dorman Long Handbook from 1906 to let all see the kind of things I look at. This is just one of the fun parts of my job, you can do the maths, takes time and study to learn this.. but then you get to be a historian.. a detective, when something goes wrong the person that can actually design a solution and keep folk safe. If any of you have kids, being an SE is not the worst job in the world! If your kids are ok at maths then they stand in good stead. For me the being an SE is about the art and craft of design. The best SE's are actually really creative folk, you need some thinking logic, the maths almost comes secondary. Dorman Long 1906 handbook.pdf

Just ask the planner, drop them an email and get it in writing. Disagree as we have no other information.

I think you're right. Had got myself over excited with the SE stuff! Hope all is well at your end.

What a belter of a photo! Now funnily this serves as a good example, all be it on a smaller scaler, as what not to do if self building or extending your house. I make some points. It's debatable. Technically to me it looks like a Universal beam, if you look at the flange width cf the web depth.. it look looks a beam, a column is more squat in profile. I can see from the photo the beam has buckled perpendicular to what seems to be a heavily loaded transfer beam at ceiling level. My gut feeling is that either the designer has made a massive cock up in calculating the loads on the, now call it a column. More likely is that they have not understood the top and bottom connections. They may have designed them as pinned, but then inadvertently introduced a stiff connection or some off centre loading ( called an eccentricity) that introduces a bending force in the column and not spotted it. This extra bending force reduces the capacity of the column to carry load. But on the other hand the Contractor may have thought they know better and just gone off and done their own thing. My experience of Contractors / project manager is mixed, I used to be a Contractor myself. Some think they know it all, some are arrogant in the extreme (pride comes before the fall) some are sensible enough to just make a call to the SE, which I now am. Now the photo is of a big building, heavily loaded. But when I design houses, wall slappings for extension etc the loads are much less, but I design with much smaller steels, thus pro rata they are doing just as much work. The design is lean. But if you listen to your builder without checking you are taking a big risk, don't be swayed by bravado, a builder telling you they know better. At the end of the day if the builder changes the design in any way and something goes wrong their insurance won't cover it, and possibly your home insurance won't either. It also critically unsafe. My advice is, if you want to deviate from your design drawings then call the designer, just lift the phone! IT'S THAT SIMPLE

Ok a bit of food for thought. You have a steel column, likely supporting a structural load. Let's say as a minimum you need some fire protection? Say 30 minutes. Now you can achieve that in two common ways. 1/ Box it in with say Gyproc Fireline board. Which probably gives you a detailing problem, which is why you are probably wanting to use Aerogel as it saves space. 2/ Paint the steel with intumescent paint. But for intumescent paint to work it needs to have space to expand into... you see the dilemma? As a rough rule of thumb the intumescent paint thickness needs to expand some 50 times to work properly. It needs space to do this. So you can't stick Areogell to the steel per say and you need manufacturer approval to stick it to intumescent paint. Now often BC etc don't pick up on this. But if something goes wrong, there is a fire, the steel fails and the building falls on say the Fire Brigade.. then the buck has to stop somewhere.. as an SE I'll be on the radar, Architect's also, and you if you have taken it upon yourself to become a designer then you are facing a huge liability. Now the above is a worst case.. but if you get a smart BC officer that knows about this stuff then they might be minded to fail your design unless you can prove otherwise. There are cases where the steel is well protected by masonry and very heavy and thick and thus possibly as at Paulie I think in Paulie's case the steels are so heavy they don't need fire protection. The load we use when designing steels for fire protection get reduced as they are called an accidental case. In lay terms we don't design most steels for the building being fully loaded up and a fire starting at the same time. I would go back and look at what your steels are doing, the loads and so on. Also have a chat with your SE to check if what you are proposing might invalidate their design for example. I appreciate you may not like this news.. but it's up to you and your risk.

Good questions. A soak away draining too quickly can be more easily mitigated than one that drains too slow, the too slow causes problems. Often you just need to understand the ground composition, then adapt the design a bit.

Interesting question. The one metre depth may actually be to do with health and safety in terms of accessing an excavation without support. If your house is on a slope, on a hillock then we don't want the water just running out further down, especially if it is from a septic tank for example. Sometimes it works to sit a soakaway deeper, for example there is a gravel layer a bit deeper down that can accept a bit of extra water. There is a trade off in that the excavation is deeper thus more cost.. but in a good gravel layer the soak away can be less extensive. What you mention 1.8m depth seems more like an "Engineered" solution which can be elegant and offer best value for money while still performing.

Yes agree. Moving the drain outwith the building foot print is the safest option and would probably simplify the foundation design and thus possibly reduce cost.

Would this help? It looks like you might have space to move the public sewer outwith the zone of influence of the new foundation? I'm assuming the direction of flow runs left to right on the drawing. If not then just reverse the diagram. For reference a private drain is a drain that serves only one house, a public sewer serves more than one house and often this asset belongs to the water board. As others have said you should determine,if you need build over permission for this, you will need permission to move the sewer, build over or near to it. The notation R/E indicates a rodding point. Best to do it right to avoid later potentially horrendous complications.

Can you post a drawing of what you are going to build. The figures you present seem high at first glance. But I often do these types of design, they can be very time consuming, although small, and thus the fee cost is higher in proportion to the floor area. To put this into context. I have a potential Client that needs a modest new build and the design fees are similar to your over all fee. An interesting number is £120/hr for site visits. Now the 120 rate is fine if for time spent on site as there is travelling and then inevitably writing emails etc when back in the office. But if it is also booked at £ 120/ hr for travelling and then writing emails when you get back to the office then that is different. Do that and don't be afraid to ask questions.

Agree, you might open a can of worms.

Yes there are some parameters that you breach at your peril. Daylight and over shadowing of neighbours are one, traffic visibility splays another for example. Folk often bend the permissions a bit.. but it's a risky business! If you do deviate from the plans then you should ask yourself, how confident am I that if I get pulled up I can get an amendment to planning? If I come to sell and a surveyor spots this are they going to write your house value down? If the house goes on fire for example could the insurers use a non compliance to angle towards refusing a claim? It's best to check these things so you can make an informed judgement.

Lovely looking house and a great job, well done!

Good observations, none of which I disagree with generally. Your house is often the most valuable asset so take time to read the fine print when the detailed insurance terms and conditions come through. I had one Claim where there was a bit of initial push back, gathering of information and a bit of SE by me reporting on a house on the south coast of England. The gable end of the house was next to the public pavement, lots of prams being pushed and pedestrians walking by, major HSE risk that they clocked once pointed out to them. The thing was so badly built and so expensive and difficult to fix that the warranty provider settled, from memory in about four months after I got involved. The warranty provider bought the house back, paid all costs; professional fees, legal fees, a bit extra for finding another house, removers cost and some ancillary stuff. Some claims can be pretty straight forward and get dealt with relatively quickly. It's not always that bad in terms of reaching a resolution. Some providers are using Claims handling companies.. the clue is in the name.. just how do they make their money? Obviously by making the Claims process as easy as possible and being helpful by not indulging in; gate keeping for example, offer up suggestions to the house holder at what is a stressful time for them .. or some may suggest not?

Hamilton Leonard Insurance Brokers, just changed their name to Roxburgh. Ask for Allan Burns, always helpful. 53 Moss St, Paisley PA1 1DR Phone: 0141 226 5161 Website: https://roxburghinsurance.co.uk/