Building regs help!

hwalkerh

Hi

We have an extension on the house the we recently bought that seemed to be a room, though we new that it was only single brick. We have now found out that it is classed as a covered way. The council have confirmed that we dont need to apply for planning permission to change it into a room however we need to go to building regs.

We know that we need to improve the insulation etc to bring it up to building reg but I have a concern about a drain in the room, I don't want to pay the council £150 for them to say that we can't change it into a room because of the drain.

There is an inspection cover for the storm water drains in the concrete floor. Will this mean that we wont get the room signed of as building reg??

Any help would be great as i don't want to throw money at the council.

Thanks

Wherryman

This web site may be of interest to you, the page 'Utility room floor' may answer your questions.

http://www.myhouseextension.com/

waynehayes

Phone your local Building Control department and ask them. I was in a similar position to you, and the fee for Building Regs where I live is over £400. I phoned them and they were very helpful. I explained that I didn't want to start forking out if I couldn't do what we wanted to do, so they sent out an inspector for free who cleared things up for us.

dander

You wouldn't need to give the council money to get an answer from them. Just call them up and ask what the regulations are on drains. I believe the rules have got a lot stricter about building over manholes and having inspection covers inside, but how it all applies when it's already inside a structure is something you would really need to talk to the council about.

hwalkerh

Thanks for all the help. The council have confirmed that a double seal cover will be fine as in the website wherryman pointed out.

many thanks