When is a large renovation a new build?

[allthatpebbledash]

23 hours ago, peekay said:

The advice (and to some extent sowing of FUD) was enough for us to make the risk based decision that we would not fully demolish. We would not have been able to afford any time delays for resubmitting planning as we were paying for a rental house whilst doing the works

Understandably this makes sense. Was there a possibility in which you would’ve gone about it as the following; since you having planning approval for the renovation, so whilst works were ongoing, submitted a concurrent application with the same drawing sets (more or less) but with a full application for demolition and rebuild? This way you would’ve continued to make progress on site, works staged so that you would avoid doubling back on the remaining walls till after a decision was made?

 

23 hours ago, peekay said:

As the house had been vacant for 2+years, the majority of the materials and labour were changed at 5% VAT at the point of purchase (VAT note 708), whereas if we had knocked down and been caught needing to to a full new build application the VAT would be paid at 20% then reclaimed at the end, so would have severely impacted cashflow for only a relatively small saving.

 

This is exactly my thought process right now. The cash flow aspect is critical. Given the cost of a new planning application which is circa £600 with my LA, the saving of a further 5k per every £100k on the works does sound attractive. If the total cost for instance runs up to £250k, that’s a sum of £12.5k which can fit out 2-3 bathrooms. I think?

 

But I can’t help think if all the walls came down, would building control allow existing foundations to be used?

 

Would they allow the cavity’s to remain the same width, or dictate new wider foundations?

 

Would they stipulate the wall insulation value be improved if allowed to keep the foundation and cavity the same? 

 

In my case, I would be having 2 external walls left standing hence the line of questioning.

 

After much reading on here and elsewhere, I think the saving of £12.5k for instance could easily be sunk in the above added works easily. New foundations and extra insulation.

 

Unless someone more clued on could educate me on this.

 

I am pretty conflicted. On the one hand I’d end up with a better insulated house and build up without errors of the previous construction, but at the same time, how much thermal performance can be made to make it worth it? 

 

23 hours ago, peekay said:

In hindsight, I am pretty sure that we would have gotten away with it, but we are happy enough with our decision. We were already doing it in quite a risky way with finances and mortgage.

 

If you can shed more light on this (privately via DM if you have to), what do you mean by getting away with it? 
 

Would the remaining standing walls “accidentally meet steel” therefore need to be taken down for safety and rebuilt?

 

How would the building inspector react to this? I’m sure this kind of stuff happens all the time. 

Edited October 8 by allthatpebbledash
Formatting

[peekay]

4 hours ago, allthatpebbledash said:

Was there a possibility in which you would’ve gone about it as the following; since you having planning approval for the renovation, so whilst works were ongoing, submitted a concurrent application with the same drawing sets (more or less) but with a full application for demolition and rebuild?

Not really. By the time I was seriously considering knocking the whole thing down, my builders had already started on site with the partial demolition. Pausing mid way through this partial demolition to allow time for submission of a full knock down/new build was not feasible given how tight we were on cost, and spending £2k+ per month on rent, double bills and double council tax. 

 

 

4 hours ago, allthatpebbledash said:

 

If you can shed more light on this (privately via DM if you have to), what do you mean by getting away with it? 

 

I'll send you a message.

 

 

 

[saveasteading]

6 hours ago, allthatpebbledash said:

same width, or dictate new wider foundations?

Contrary to the rule of thumb, forces don't dissipate at 45°, so a narrow footing might be OK but needs assessment.

Re the depth... if you keep the old walls they will be deemed OK. If you are building new walls then the bco will likely want the foundations to be assessed by an SE. So a trial hole for depth and soil type.