legepe Posted May 25, 2019 Share Posted May 25, 2019 Hi all.. Does anyone know if I would be granted change of use from office b1 to residential for a building with windows as in pic attached Don't have measurements but you can see they're pretty low off the floor It's on the second floor of building Any advice welcome Thanks legepe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted May 25, 2019 Share Posted May 25, 2019 Worst case would be a 900mm (or would that be 1100mm) high handrail to be fitted in front of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legepe Posted May 25, 2019 Author Share Posted May 25, 2019 4 minutes ago, ProDave said: Worst case would be a 900mm (or would that be 1100mm) high handrail to be fitted in front of them. Thanks Dave but not totally sure what you mean with 900mm/1100mm.. at a guess bottom of window to floor is around 450mm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted May 25, 2019 Share Posted May 25, 2019 I mean check with building control what they want. 900mm is the normal for a banister but I have a feeling this comes under "other" so they might require it to be 1100mm high, The other issue is the window opening would have to meet "means of escape" dimensions. With the handrail there I suspect you would be changing the windows to achieve that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted May 25, 2019 Share Posted May 25, 2019 The bit that would come in to play is the prevention of falling bit of the regs, so a handrail might be needed, and/or toughened glass. I don't have the building regs on this laptop, so can't easily check, but they can be downloaded, so you could download the relevant approved document and check. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legepe Posted May 25, 2019 Author Share Posted May 25, 2019 46 minutes ago, JSHarris said: The bit that would come in to play is the prevention of falling bit of the regs, so a handrail might be needed, and/or toughened glass. I don't have the building regs on this laptop, so can't easily check, but they can be downloaded, so you could download the relevant approved document and check. I feel the trouble with it is that it would need to be safe for a child.. n a banister would not do enough to prevent. I need to find out if regs would accept any other solution n they don't give much help without application being filed n I don't have time to do that. If someone could direct me to where the regulations are written I would appreciate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Davies Posted May 25, 2019 Share Posted May 25, 2019 Scotland, but I think the other UK countries are likely to be similar: https://www.gov.scot/publications/building-standards-2017-domestic/4-safety/48-danger-from-accidents/ 4.8.2: Quote Glazing should be designed to resist human impact as set out in BS 6262: Part 4: 2005, where all, or part, of a pane is: within 800mm of floor level, or part of a door leaf, or within 300mm of a door leaf and within 1.5m of floor level. So that means toughened glass, I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted May 25, 2019 Share Posted May 25, 2019 They need to be toughened at that height but no requirement to have any sort of bannister. They would be better fitted with restrictors to stop them opening more than 150mm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legepe Posted May 25, 2019 Author Share Posted May 25, 2019 7 minutes ago, PeterW said: They need to be toughened at that height but no requirement to have any sort of bannister. They would be better fitted with restrictors to stop them opening more than 150mm So long as they don't fully open it wouldn't be a cause to refuse the change of use application to residential Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted May 25, 2019 Share Posted May 25, 2019 Planning don’t care about this sort of thing - building control do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legepe Posted May 25, 2019 Author Share Posted May 25, 2019 17 minutes ago, PeterW said: Planning don’t care about this sort of thing - building control do. Ok thanks for that.. Just trying to understand as much as possible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted May 26, 2019 Share Posted May 26, 2019 It could get tricky if it is a listed building and planning don't want you to change the windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpmiller Posted May 26, 2019 Share Posted May 26, 2019 a sheet of polycarbonate on the inside? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Punter Posted May 26, 2019 Share Posted May 26, 2019 You can normally change office to resi under Permitted Development rights if the building is not listed and you do a mini planning application. The windows will not affect this. You will still need building regs before you start and if you are splitting this into flats there may be quite a bit of work required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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