knocking thru' side of 3 story house - advice please

[teta]

I need to know about things like builders insurance and how to make sure my house is safe from falling down.We are planning to take out a wall that is 3 foot thick as its supporting 3 stories.Will need a support of arround 5-6 feet to connect up between 2 windows.Builder reckons it will take a week and equipment cost will be 1000 pounds and labour will be arround 2500 pounds.This is on top of the costs of building an extension to kitchen and reflooring and a total kitchen rorganisation.Normally i am very gung-ho but am really apprehensive about this and i would really welcome any advice at all.

You need a structural engineer. They will advice on spec for any beams needed etc. They also have insurance if the house falls down!

My brother-in-law has offered to help -but he normally designs bridges and plants in China and India![am not impressed by the structural engineer used by my architect].However i'm guessing that he won't have insurance to cover him in this sort of situation.

Why arent you impressed with the engineer your architect uses? WHy not discuss this with him?
And no, I wouldnt have thought your brother would have the relevant insurance. Does your builder for that matter?
You must have paid for calculations, in your shoes I'd pursue this first up.

I think it would be a mistake to involve your BIL - if anything did go wrong it would mean a huge family row, regardless of insurance. Get another engineer if you don't like the first one and maybe ask your BIL for input rather than advice as such, iykwim. Good luck - that sounds a huge project.

I'll has my DH later - sounds like the sort of thing he does a lot of ...and I know our insurance is HUGE £$£!!! If you're not impressed with the struc engineer then find another...you need confidence in them!

Yes Lala i think you've raised a really important point there.He's a really academic guy and of course has offered to help.Maybe he can just advise us on options.Pannacotta the architect has been totally incompetent -right down to telling us we didn't need planning permissiom[when we did].I have asked for info on load bearing from building engineer and got this scribbled dairy size piece of paper that was barely legible.Nothing was written on the architectural plans re. this.Building regs. guy has been this morning and said you need more detail on the plans - go back and tell your architect.Hence i give up and am trying not to blow my top at them as that would be even worse.Secondly we have only just decided to open up this wall [the original plan was to have a large window opened up into the dining area so we wouldn't have needed any structural support.

For some reason i ran out of space there!.Can someone tell me how much insurance a builder needs for this sort of job and what [if anything] i need to look for on his insurance certification.

Typically the builder should have public liability insurance and the struc engineer should have professional indemnity cover.

If it's done through building control at the council the struc engineers calculation should go through them first...submitted to the department and they check it.

Are you you doing this on a building notice? or full plans? Full plans requires all the details are done upfront and presented to the building dept...it then gets checked, signed off and then built to the spec given. A building notice doesn't need lots of plans etc...it's all bog standard. You undertake that the building inspector will check it and it's done properly - if not - it has to be ripped out and done again.

Sounds as though the architect and struc engineer are working in a laid back Building Notice kind of way.

Assert yourself! If you have a builder in place then ask for the insurance cert - we have 2 million pound public liability. Ensure the struc engineer is covered by his professional cover too. He may have thought you didn't need planning permission because if fell within the permitted developement rights...although he should really have checked.

If you feel you've lost confidence then move on to another team. Honestly - for the amount of money you're going to be paying you really must have trust. HTH

No, defintly full plans JeanJeanie.I have been told by several builders that my architect is totally incompetent[even though he was recommended to me].I have already told the practice that they are not giving me a good service and the plans need to be more detailed, only for the architect to start shouting down the phone at me.He has said any queries you need to go thru' building control.The problem is that we are just doing one amendment this week and in case we have to do more i need to keep the architect on my side don't I?.I will get more recommendations for a structural engineer though.Yes,my builder said he has a huge insurance liability but i shall check his papers[incidentally he wasn't recommended by the architect!].My brother-in-law has asked me for the cad files for the plans and the architectural practice are totally ignoring me so

Give them notice that you are sacking them. Get a structural engineer and another architect or, if you know what you want by now, an engineer and an archtectural techonologist (or technician, I can never remember which they are) to draw up plans or a surveyor.

But Lala is it worth it at this stage?.We have already got planning permission with the drawings.But there is not enough detail for the builder.I have already been billed nearly 2000 pounds for basic drawings.Won't a new architect have to recharge me for doing the whole lot again?.I just need advice on specific problems such as building a wall next to a rock face and consequent drainage issues[watherproof membrane and concrete?].I really do feel this whole job is being made doubly difficult by this situation.

Oh dear, I got the impression that they had provided sketches rather than drawings.

In that case, write a formal letter to the architect (and the head of the practice if it's not a one-man band) politely pointing out what you feel the problems are and asking for a response. It really is normal for architects to provide detailed drawings in my experience, I don't know why they think building regulations dept would answer your queries. Maybe assume he was having a bad day and give him the chance to rectify the situation.

Otherwise don't pay until it is resolved.

It isn't unusual to switch architect once you have planning permission. I have an architect friend who often picks up jobs like this and does the detailing for the builders.
The work you have described isn't something that should be done without a proper design by an engineer - you should not rely on Building Control for it.
Normally I would suggest that you use the engineer that your architect recomends as they will usually have a good raport and work well together. In this case though I'd look for another engineer. A good place to look is findanengineer.com it is run by the Institution of Structural Engineers.

In which case Lala he has been having a permanant bad day since september!
Thank-you Minxpinx.Why is it so common to switch architects for the finer detail?.No i won't rely on building control.Thanks for the tip on the engineering website.This has all been a real learning experience.

I wouldn't say that it was common... but planning is a natural place to split if the client/architect relationship isn't great. Often people have an agreement to pay the architect a certain % once planning is obtained.
Good luck!