I bought a house with extension that had no building regs

smartiedude

I bought a house late 2017. It had an extension built at the rear of the property to extend the kitchen room, but it was discovered it had been built without any building regulations/planning permission. It was a first time buy for me, and I bought the property on my own. I am young, dumb, and had no idea about what to look out for when buying your first house. I am literally on my own. Since moving in, I've realized that this extension does indeed have some defects. It has a back door that opens outwards into the back garden. The trouble with this is that it has nothing to stop it from opening fully outwards, to the point where it hits the exterior wall and being pulled it off its hinges when it’s windy outside! I've put up with it for over a year now (yeah, pretty dumb I know) because I had no idea about what I was going to about it, other than phone a builder to come and sort it out. So I pulled my head out the sand this morning and decided I was going to sort it out. The first builder I got hold of told me that I should have been advised to take out an indemnity insurance to cover me for any sub-standard work. Apparently I can use this to claim for this kind of work? I checked and found I do have an indemnity policy luckily but have no idea about what this entitles me to.I really need advice from someone who knows more than I do.

pinkteapot

Others will advise on the indemnity insurance but just to say.... A lot of external doors open outwards, and all those I've ever had will freely swing back on themselves. Our kitchen has French doors which open outwards and they could be blown back hard enough to damage the door if it were windy. You can either get hooks to hold them back in position... Or just keep the door shut when it's really windy? (Which is what we do)

If that's the biggest problem then a window/door repair type company would be a better bet for advice than a general builder.

jbainbridge

An indemnity would have been worth nothing - they don't cover you for rectification work.

Perhaps fit something to hold the doors in the open position? What has the builder recommended?

hazyjo

Mine open outwards. I either stick a heavy plant pot next to them or keep them closed (as pinkteapot says). We get a bit of a wind tunnel if the front door is open too so close it.


No, you can't claim for things like this.

Paully28

Both my kitchen door and patio doors to the rear of my property open outwards, as did my last house. As do that of my in-laws houses back doors and patio, and other people I can think of. i don't think it is unusual. And also our doors do blow in the wind so make sure they are either not open on windy days or you could, as has been said, have them held back as we do, and no issue.

need_an_answer

How old is the extension?

Was it constructed recently or is it established at the back of the property?

I'm not sure what your issue is regarding the back door opening outwards is...lots do,my conservatory also does.
You can either get some door stops to stop the wind blowing it closed or hooks as others have suggested.
It may even be possible to get the hinges turned to allow the door to open inwards.

What other issues have you experienced with the construction?

smartiedude

Thank you for all your responses so far.


I have no idea how old the extension is. It's at the back of the property.


The builder told me I'd have to get an architect. I’ve no idea how much an architect would charge to draw up plans to sort the extension out, I’m dreading the thought.

The other issues I have with this extension are this… they built the extension with a single skin of bricks, then on the inside of this they lined the wall with a damp proof membrane, a big huge black plastic sheet all around the inside wall that looked as if it had been carried on upwards from the floor when they did the damp proofing/concreting for the new floor, and they battened this down all round with a wooden frame, then put plasterboard over to complete it. For a long time after buying the house I wondered why the kitchen always smelt so bad, and after failing to get rid of it by cleaning everything in the room I possibly could, I realized the smell was either coming from under the floor (the original room floor which is suspended timber) or from behind these plasterboard walls. I took up the suspended timber floor and found it damp but it wasn’t the same smell I was looking for. So I then ripped up all the plasterboard walls, the wooden battens, and the damp proof membrane, and found that behind this was a great deal of mold. It was a horrendous smell. I had to take it all back to brick, which is the state it’s currently in.

Going back to the door, the problem I have with the back door and the extension is that, the back door is positioned slightly lower than the interior kitchen floor. I'll get a pic later to show you what I mean by this. So basically, if the door was to be switched round so that it swings inwards instead, it will have to be raised up a bit, but doing this will have it touching, or being inline with the ceiling inside, because the extension roof is nearly a foot lower than the internal original kitchen room ceiling, so the extension ceiling needs to be raised up too. The door is also starting to wobble in its housing. It feels like it might come off if someone went into it with some force, plus I've had to re-position the lock keeps in the door frame because at first, when you went to close the door the rollers in the door were not catching the keeps, causing the door to leave a great big air gap at the bottom. It was only during winter when it was cold that I realized this was a problem. I was able to pull the door open from outside when it was supposed to be shut.


Edit: I also found mold in the ceiling of the extension too. I can't quite get rid of this as it's permeated into the wood up above the plasterboard ceiling.

Davesnave

It's much easier to just live with an outward-opening door. You can buy restrictors which screw to it and prevent sudden movement with the wind, as used in places like schools, hospitals etc where claims for lost fingers are not easily afforded.

The indemnity insurance was against legal enforcement action by the council; a most unlikely event now.

As for the build, even a numpty builder ought to know walls need to breathe, so any membrane should have been air permeable. However, they either didn't know or didn't care, as the problem with trapped water vapour would only show up over time.

To improve the room, you need to look at ways to insulate single skin walls correctly, as in, say, garage conversions. Or you could have another skin built with lightweight blocks if the concrete floor is up to it. (You mention both concrete and suspended timber, so I'm unsure) This would mean losing some of the space in the room and it would be best done by a competent builder, who wouldn't need an architect if that's all that was required to make the room more habitable and dry.

Doozergirl

I wouldn't take much of that advice from the builder. He's utterly confused and wrong about everything you've told us so far.

As Davesnave says, a decent builder is really your best option - one who knows how to convert a single skin building.

We should establish how old this extension is. How old is the house, for example?

[Deleted User]

Yes that builder sounds like someone who didn't know what he was doing who didn't want the job.

If you have another builder come round, ask for references and go and speak to the people who have had work done by the builder. Expect to have to wait for a good builder to fit your job in.

You could also do some research on the net so you have some idea as to what needs to be done, so you are more informed when the next builder comes round.

I googled 'how to fix single skin extension' and a few links came up. I;m sure there are other things like 'damp extension' etc you could search for.

FreeBear

Doozergirl wrote: »

As Davesnave says, a decent builder is really your best option - one who knows how to convert a single skin building.

Depending on how badly this extension was built, it might be cheaper and easier to demolish and start again. I'm wondering if the foundations are deep enough, what insulation is under the slab, and what measures have been taken to ensure ventilation of the suspended floor isn't compromised.

As for doors opening outwards, my front door does that - Great for those cold callers who ready themselves to put a foot in the door when it opens. They end up with a blooded nose for their efforts