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JudithC

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    Doing a self-build extension and loving it!
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    Cambridge

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  1. Hi there, long story but we're building a 2 storey extension on the side of our house, all 7N concrete blocks. The new 1st floor will become part of an existing bedroom (to make the bedroom bigger). For various reasons we can't rest the new 1st floor joists in the new wall so we'll be using a ledger board and joist hangers. 47 x 150mm joists on a 47 x 150mm ledger. Our SE hasn't included any detail for this but elsewhere he's suggested M12 wall bolts on 400mm centres. Would this be sufficient to support a floor? Really struggling to find any detail on this in the building regs. Thank you! JC
  2. It's a hipped roof with a box gutter, so no overhang. We were going to join the flashing at the box gutter to cover the gap, but if that's not an option then so be it. No issues raised by BC. Plans approved. As I say, just about every house on the street has done this. The houses are set back from each other so they don't look 'terraced' as such.
  3. Thanks for the responses! PWA sounds like the sensible approach. I just wish they'd speak to us instead of going behind our backs all the time. The vast majority of similar extensions around here are joined, the odd one has left a small gap, probably for similar reasons. It's tricky since we don't want to build over their boundary and if they haven't built to the boundary then it will be too bigger gap for a cement join. But presumably we can use some sort of trim strip and flashing at the top. It will be a cavity wall above the garage so building a cavity underneath just makes life easier.
  4. Hi everyone! Really hope you can help as this has been rumbling on for a couple of years now and it’s becoming quite stressful. We’re trying to do everything by the book but our neighbours are being very unkind at every turn. We’re building a simple side extension over our garage. It’s a semi-detached house (non-attached side) and our neighbours built exactly the same extension about 5 years ago, before we lived there. Their property doesn’t touch our garage, there’s about a 50mm gap, presumably to avoid party wall discussions when they built their extension. Our structural engineer has suggested we need to demolish our garage, dig new foundations (no deeper than their foundations) and build a new cavity wall to the boundary line. It should be very simple. All permissions (planning and building regs) have gone through fine (even with their objections, that they didn’t tell us about). Just about every house on the street has done this work. We’ve tried to keep them in the loop with everything we’re doing from the outset. We’ve sent them e-mails with all the designs, we’ve sent build schedules, we even give them advance notice by text of any noisy work. Face-to-face they’re absolutely fine and have no issues, but they then lodge objections to everything behind our backs. The plan was to build up to the boundary and ‘seal’ the gap to avoid debris etc. building up between the two properties. We’d also need to install some flashing around roof level for the same reason. Our architect said this was normal and best practice. We gave them the plans months ago and asked if they had any questions. They were fine. The only relevant Party Wall matter seems to be the Line of Junction notice since we're building entirely on our own land up to the boundary. Needless to say they immediately raised a dissent against this without speaking to us first. We’re happy to go down the Party Wall Award route but given their history I think they’ll continue to be difficult even after this. We’re now reluctantly thinking of building shy of the boundary and leaving the small gap between the properties, so we build entirely on our side with no junctions. Obviously this means their existing wall (covered in very shoddy render) will be inaccessible for maintenance. Can anyone anticipate any issues with this? If we go down this route is there anything they could do if they still wanted to be awkward? (which they inevitably will) Or do you think we should continue with our plans to build up to the boundary and go down the PWA route? Thanks in advance! Judith
  5. Hey there! New member here and you're in a very similar boat to us. My other half is a joiner and has worked with builders for years. We're doing all the groundwork, got a good bricky lined up and got great contacts in the trades for everything else (plastering, electrics, gas etc.). Obviously my hubby will be doing all the woodwork. We're just doing a simple side extension (over garage) and builders were quoting £100k+. We did have some more reasonable builders lined up but it was like something off Rogue Traders. So enough is enough, we're doing it ourselves. Best of luck with your project! Sure we'll have a lot of experiences to share!
  6. Hi everyone! More self-build extension-ers here! My other half is a joiner and we're adding a simple side extension to our house. Some party wall issues at the moment but I'll post separately about that. Doing the groundworks ourselves, got a good bricky lined up along with most of the other trades we need. We'll be project managing it and obviously doing everything woodwork related. He's worked with the trades for years so we're lucky to have some good contacts for all the specialist stuff. This is the first time we've managed a project like this but we've been let down by too many dodgy builders who just farm out the work to sub-contractors anyway. Look forward to learning lots on here! Judith
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