Egress Windows On Loft Conversion

[Neil T]

Hi all,

 

I've been planning a staircase from my bungalow conversion that comes into an open plan kitchen / diner area and so I've been advised that we need egress windows in both bedrooms.

Fortunately both bedrooms upstairs have a rear or front facing elevation which can be used for windows.

 

A house 2 doors down has just been completed and their plans have windows on the front and rear elevations where our bedrooms will be. 

I've attached an image of their floor plan as well as my proposed plan. 

 

I'm confident that we can put windows in but it's whether they'll satisfy both the egress requirements and the planners that worries me. I've read that I can use a top hung velux window as an egress window but it must be at 1100mm cill height and 450mm wide etc. I've attached an image of the front, side and rear elevations of the neighbour's house and you can see we both have a decorative gable that I'm told the planners will ask us to retain as it's a key feature of all the houses on the street.

 

One concern is that the planners might reject a bedroom egress window on the front elevation that is so low to the eaves (compared to the neighbours which are around 1500mm) and also that the decorative gable will be deemed an obstruction to the use of the egress window by building control ? You can see the location of the proposed egress window on the first floor plan where I've positioned it in the bottom left corner of the front bedroom - it'll be a lot closer to the decorative gable than the window on the neighbour's left most bedroom. So you'd be exiting onto the side of the decorative gable and the sloping roof to the front elevation. 

 

Also on the rear elevation for the other bedroom the window would open onto the flat roof of our single storey rear extension. Is it acceptable to have our escape route run along the flat roof assuming it's built to provide enough time for escape ? The neighbours have a balcony and french doors but we are happy to remove this and replace with suitable egress windows.  

 

Anyone with any experience of something similar ?

 

Many thanks,

 

Neil