Class Q conversion and old DPM

[LSB]

Hello

Next question.

 

On Sunday we started digging out the floor of one of the areas of the barn to investigate further the underpinning requirements.

The existing floors are concrete on concrete on concrete on and on.

We were planning on removing all the existing floors to put in new ones with insulation and UFH.

 

But, we have now found the below.

 

On the first picture the wall that needs underpinning is showing the end, a new block / block wall is going off to the right from there and this wall will have EWI on the outside or possibly a 2nd skin with cavity.

We have to keep this wall.

 

 

 

This picture shows the top level of concrete we are removing, about 3in with ballast below, breaking up very easily, not attached to the outside at all so no idea why they needed this for the piggies.

Wall is 6.6m long, the wall facing is an internal wall that is going to be knocked down and is no longer attached to the outer wall except by a couple of rebars.

The wall above the DPM is also not attached.

 

 

this shows where we removed a large lump of concrete with a steel post above, not attached to the remaining wall to the right.

Attached to the internal wall that will be knocked down facing.

 

 

The existing foundations are about 50cm and we have to go down to 1m.

The wall is stable at the moment.

Question is; are we likely to have to keep this floor and DPM, if we do then we will need to step up into this room (snug) as the rest is lower.

We are concerned that if we remove it that the wall will become unstable when our plans say that we must keep it, but underpinning, even at 1m at a time will be much more tricky if we don't remove.

If we keep then we will add insulation and screed as the floor on top of the DPM is not level because of the previous use and the requirement for drainage.

 

The BCO is coming out soon, but wanted thoughts before I discuss with him.

 

Thanks

J

 

 

[Carrerahill]

Surely the plans don't state you need to keep "that" wall, just a wall in that position? Don't see why they would be precious about a block wall! I could understand if it was a 300 year old stone wall.

 

Take the concrete out and give the wall a nudge, put it down to a site incident, excavator bucket crash or something, dig out and rebuild. 

[Jilly]

We did a conversion on a similar non valuable building and many bits had to come down and be replaced, so parts ended up like Trigger’s broom. As I understand it, if a conversion is done like this it’s acceptable as there is no permission for demolition of the whole building. It’s of course much more laborious. Do take advice to double check this. We were able to remove old non stable walls and replace them. My builder advised only to ask BC questions that were directly relevant to the inspections. 

Edited February 28, 2023 by Jilly

[LSB]

3 hours ago, Jilly said:

We did a conversion on a similar non valuable building and many bits had to come down and be replaced, so parts ended up like Trigger’s broom. As I understand it, if a conversion is done like this it’s acceptable as there is no permission for demolition of the whole building. It’s of course much more laborious. Do take advice to double check this. We were able to remove old non stable walls and replace them. My builder advised only to ask BC questions that were directly relevant to the inspections. 

Thanks Jilly, we have lots of walls like this, and even our architect (off the record) said that no one would know if they 'fell down' when a new one was built.

I'm just aware that the barn (old pig stys) can be seen from the road which is probably regularly travelled by planning officers.

 

We did decide deliberately on private BCO just to avoid the above being quite so likely.

 

 

Edited February 28, 2023 by LSB