Fire stuff - Building within 1m of boundary

[WorksItOut]

Hi all. I'm exploring designs and ideas for a self-build garden room at the end of my garden under permitted development but having issues understanding the building regs requirement/process for non-combustible material when building within a metre of the boundary.

 

I want to give part of the build over to a chill out/games room and the rest to a separate workshop. My garden is 6.5 metres wide. I want to maximise the build area and build close to the boundary so I'm thinking 4.5mx4m for room and 1.5mx6m for the workshop/shed, creating an L-shaped building.

 

The right and left boundaries are neighbours' gardens, the rear boundary backs onto a park. The garden is 6.5 metres wide and I was hoping to use most of the full width. Under permitted development I think I'm good but believe under building regs I need to make sure the walls on the 3 boundaries are made of non-combustible material. I've found cement boards from Cedral which are 

A2-s1, d0 rated which I'd use rather than cedar.

 

So, can I just install the boards and (along with the manufacturers specs/receipt) accept that meets building regs? 

 

If that's feasible might my neighbours have reason to complain/raise concerns to the council (I have one neighbour that is certainly pedantic enough to notice building within 1m of the boundary and what that requires)?

 

Or am I being a naive newbie and I'd need to follow some complex building regs application/process with plans, fees, inspections for the entire build etc? The cost and oversight from.what I've seen seems a bit prohibitive when trying to keep the costs of the self-build down - especially as the Cedral seems expensive.

 

And if I did go through building control route would I have to meet any other requirements I'd not considered (other than electrics) such as roof joist spacing, rain water runoff....etc..?

 

Hope that's enough background info and the questions aren't to broad/vague. Any thoughts welcomed!

[PeterW]

Regs are simple :

 

If the floor area of the building is between 15 square metres and 30 square metres, you will not normally be required to apply for building regulations approval providing that the building contains NO sleeping accommodation and is either at least one metre from any boundary or it is constructed substantially of non-combustible materials.

 

So you don’t need building regs if you keep it 1m away, neither do you if you use Cedral or another non combustible material. 
 

Sounds like a bit of careful planning of layout and you could actually not need regs at all. 

[Onoff]

34 minutes ago, WorksItOut said:

any other requirements I'd not considered

 

You're not in an AONB are you? That complicates pd rights...ask me how I know! ☹️

[Dan F]

We are bulding a garden room that falls under PD, requires building regs and is within 1m of bounday.

 

Building inspector said we needed 30min fire rating on inside and outside of the walls along boundary (the wall can still be timber-framed). 

- Internally we are assuming a fire-rated plasterboard gives this.

- Externally we planning Savolit wood wool board and lime render (avoiding the use of a cavity)

 

We had a neighbour complain and someone from planning out a couple of weeks ago.  We had applied for a Lawful Development Certificate though, so sent them packing and told them to go and look at there own planning records first!   

 

Are you having any toilet, drainage etc.  If you are that is another area that building inspector will be interested in (if BRegs apply).  Even things like how much space you have around the toilet and width of doorways I think..

 

Edited October 28, 2020 by Dan F

[WorksItOut]

12 hours ago, PeterW said:

Regs are simple :

 

If the floor area of the building is between 15 square metres and 30 square metres, you will not normally be required to apply for building regulations approval providing that the building contains NO sleeping accommodation and is either at least one metre from any boundary or it is constructed substantially of non-combustible materials.

 

So you don’t need building regs if you keep it 1m away, neither do you if you use Cedral or another non combustible material. 
 

Sounds like a bit of careful planning of layout and you could actually not need regs at all. 

 

So if I have Cedral on the outside of a timber frame and I'm 0.5m say from any boundary then I can just plough on? I guess I wasn't sure if Cedral on the outside constitutes 'constructed substantially of non-combustible material' given the timber walls, ply internal boarding I was planning, timber roof, timber floor etc

Edited October 29, 2020 by WorksItOut

[WorksItOut]

11 hours ago, Onoff said:

 

You're not in an AONB are you? That complicates pd rights...ask me how I know! ☹️

Where I live is nice but no AONB thankfully!

[WorksItOut]

11 hours ago, Dan F said:

We are bulding a garden room that falls under PD, requires building regs and is within 1m of bounday.

 

Building inspector said we needed 30min fire rating on inside and outside of the walls along boundary (the wall can still be timber-framed). 

- Internally we are assuming a fire-rated plasterboard gives this.

- Externally we planning Savolit wood wool board and lime render (avoiding the use of a cavity)

 

We had a neighbour complain and someone from planning out a couple of weeks ago.  We had applied for a Lawful Development Certificate though, so sent them packing and told them to go and look at there own planning records first!   

 

Are you having any toilet, drainage etc.  If you are that is another area that building inspector will be interested in (if BRegs apply).  Even things like how much space you have around the toilet and width of doorways I think..

 

Interesting build scenario you have Dan. Was it building close to the boundary that caused you to require building regs, or was it something else and as a result your wall-boundary-combustible materials issue has come under the scrutiny of the inspector?

 

Interesting point about making the internal wall fireproof. I was planning on putting up large sheets of beech ply over the timber frame rather than plasterboard as I didn't want to cost of a plasterer as I couldn't do the plastering myself.

 

No utilities other than electrics and maybe internet. 

 

Interesting about the LDC. Was that a safety net for you? Was it at that point Planning said 'ok, but you need building regs for this and that'? I'm confident I don't need planning permission but don't want to find myself going through BR process if I can avoid it.

[Dan F]

5 hours ago, WorksItOut said:

Interesting build scenario you have Dan. Was it building close to the boundary that caused you to require building regs, or was it something else and as a result your wall-boundary-combustible materials issue has come under the scrutiny of the inspector?

 

The latter.  Requirement for building requirements depends on size.

 

5 hours ago, WorksItOut said:

Interesting about the LDC. Was that a safety net for you? Was it at that point Planning said 'ok, but you need building regs for this and that'? I'm confident I don't need planning permission but don't want to find myself going through BR process if I can avoid it.

 

Planning process won't tell you if you do/don't need bulding regs, these too are decoupled.

 

We got LDC partly as safety net before investing money.  But also because we are building house at the same time, so wanted to get the garden room in the bag, so we didn't need to include it in the house application to reduce scope of main application.  (PD only applies when main house exists..)