Building Regs Drawings

[richo106]

Hi

 

We have just had our planning permission granted (subject to Bat survey)

 

A couple of builders whos been the quote our extension/conversion has suggested have building regs drawings with structural calcs on etc...

 

Has any one used an online service provider of this? Just send them the drawings and they produce them?

 

Any opinions on this? How has other people approached this?

[Temp]

I think it might be a bit too late in the year to get a bat survey done. Think they can only be done May to September but might be wrong. Get on the phone ASAP.

 

Personally I like builders that make such suggestions. Suggests they have thought about what the job might involve or they are anticipating what BC will want. Ideally speak to Building Control, tell them where your plot is and see what they want/ expect. For anything complex involving steel beams or non-standard construction they will want drawings and calculations. You might get sent a standard list or useful comment. Hard to tell. In some areas you will be lucky to be able to get hold of them.

 

The gold standard for a new site requires test pits be dug and a ground condition report compiled so a structural engineer can design the foundations for Building Control Approval and your builder to work to. In some areas on known good ground that  would be overkill and you can just copy what other builders have done or go with suggestions from the BCO.

 

.

 

 

[Temp]

Forgot to add that we got our architect to do BC and some construction drawings because our place is pretty complicated. Concrete first floor for example.

[Oldsteel]

We are half way through our build, using a main contractor, and the BR drawings have been invaluable. A BR drawing specialist (not a structural engineer) was recommended to me and he produced a full set of drawings for £2.5k. Our house is 200m2 and double garage on sloping site with fair bit of steelwork. No matter how experienced the builder is you will need these drawings not only during the build but also before you start to find and make minor changes that will save loads of time and money during the build. My philosophy is that it is much better to find mistakes at the drawing phase rather than during the build. By the way, we have also needed a structural engineer to advise/sign off on very specific aspects such as point loading for steels etc. The tech who created the BR drawings was very up front that we might need this.

The choice is not whether you need BR drawings at all (BTW the BCO asked for these before we started the build), but whether you need just BR drawings or pay for a full set of construction drawings as well - the Rolls Royce option. A friend went ahead with a build just using the planning drawings and had no end of expensive problems during construction.

[Dave Jones]

you can do without BR drawings but you have to know what your doing to anticipate issues. For self builders its too much of a risk as you will have umpteen other problems due to lack of knowledge and experience so anything that reduces the risk and unforeseen costs the better.

 

You wont feel confident enough to push back on some of the more extreme nonesense BC will try to push on you thats costs £££ where as a builder will as he knows the  score.

[WWilts]

BR drawings & spec notes found very useful for agreement on price,
for reassuring the BCO,
for the builder to follow precisely,

for agreeing on what is a variation etc

In our case the BR drawings sufficed, sometimes supplemented by details we provided to improve energy performance