Loft extension - proposed steel at an angle??

HHarry

tostaky said:

Also, we went with a very large company and although the architect came and took pictures, the structural engineer did not come - so it makes me feel even more worried, that he hasn't got a sense of the building structure.
Finally, my builder want to use a private building control surveyor. Is the private surveyor meant to do a visit and check the struct eng calculations/plan before my builder orders the steels? 
Thank you!

Section62 sums it up pretty well.  You’d usually have ‘square’ steels because rooms are square and it makes things easy to build.  An angled steel isn’t an issue it’s just going to be more work (and thus cost) to fit the timbers that attach to them - possibly still less expensive than coming up with a design for square steels.  Why would you worry about the steels in years to come?  They won’t be visible and if they’re big enough to hold up the house then the angle matters not one bit.  And a Structural Engineer not visiting isn’t unusual - I’ve just used one 250 miles away because the local ones are busy.

 As for Building Control I’d personally only use the Local Authority service.  Many anecdotes of Builders ‘knowing’ the private surveyors and getting away with things not being done properly, or the company goes bust and causes grief

https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/building-control-firm-liquidation.633510/

 Either way, they won’t neccesarily check the SE calculations.  The SE has the qualifications, skills and knowledge and the expectation is that he has provided an adequate solution and that you’ll follow the plan.

tostaky

Thank you for this and for alerting me to the difficulties i may encounter with private BC. I had wrongly assumed they would double check the SE work AND the builders work!

The fact that it is very unusual to see non-perpendicular steel threw me off however the idea that there will be less steel (and so less weight) does appeal to me since we have subsidence and the more weight, the worst it may become!

Also if I may ask you all, as you seem very knowledgeable, our insurance was cancelled as they said "we lied" when we took the insurance about cracks on the wall (we had a SE came and do a survey and said we did not have subsidence so i relied on his experience and so i didnt "lie"). Anyway. It is quite tricky to get an insurance but i have found a company that does offer insurance when one had a previosu cancelled insurance. However I am not sure whether to take it now, as we are about to embark on a loft concersion (the builders have underpinned part of the house), or to wait until the end of the work to get an insurance? In my old insurance there was a clause about needing to inform them if the amount of work was above £70k - which it is. 

When i looked at getting a new insurance, so many things in our house are outside the "good state of repair" requirement (like windows, doors, electrics etc) that i wonder what is the point of paying for one before the works are done.... and presumably my builders have their own insurance, in case something goes wrong?

MikeJXE

Do not presume anything 

HHarry

Do you really want to gamble without house insurance?  I understand the get out clauses based on condition, and the Builder (hopefully) has PLI, but what if a rogue firework next week burns your house to the ground?  That’s a big gamble.