When building reg.s company keep changing their minds!

[BlogOnTheTyne]

We're currently having 2 garages, either side of the house, converted into reception rooms. I got a private building regulations firm to do the various checks. They were recommended by the people who drew up the plans.

They're turning out to be a nightmare for my builders! They want far far more insulation than the builders ever use even in another garage conversion they've just done, which was checked by the local council building reg.s people.

But worst of all is that on their second visit today, they sent out a different rep. who's now telling my builders something different to what their last rep. said 2 days ago. This new one wants some extra insulation lining paper on the wall as well as they super-thick insultation.

My builders are really upset, understandably, as their costs keep rocketing up for them. Fortunately for me, we agreed a fixed price at the start. So it won't harm me and of the course the rooms will be extra well insulated compared with the rest of the house which I don't think even has any insulation at all (1930s build).

But CAN a building reg.s company really keep chopping and changing what they request? This seems to me really unethical and stupid because it means that one rep. may come out and say one thing and then a different guy comes out and tells the builders something else.

In theory, this could end up meaning that the builders have to take out work already done and agreed and re-do it - only to have the other rep. come back on a different occasion and tell you you don't need to do this.

I had this with the council. One guy said the next step was to do X then they next guy came out and he said no to X and made us do Y. It was very frustrating.

As you are paying a private company, I would request that the most senior person come out to authorise each step.

Re insulation, I have a converted garage and it isn't as warm as it could be, we are taking measures to insulate it more before the winter comes. In comparison I had a kitchen extension built where we had insulation in the floor (the rest of the house doesn't have this, just concrete) and when I walked from the old concrete floor to the new one there was a distinct difference! It was warmer.

That was two different builders though, the second one was fantastic.

BRegs do have an element of interpretation so you may get slightly different responses from different inspectors. However if you are getting big differences I would call the company and discuss with a director/project leader that you need to get consistency on your project in order to proceed with the build.
Insulation requirements are forever increasing and the requirement is quite high these days. It might be that your builder hasn't yet caught up with that or it may be that your inspector is taking a conservative approach to the regs. Part L is one of the most complicated bits of the BRs so it's harder to check for yourself.
The Approved Documents can give you guidance (available to download free online) but are not straightforward for this section.

I might be being daft, but why aren't you just getting the council inspector to come out? Ours has been ever so obliging when checking our loft conversion, came out the next day every time we asked him.

Mummytomog - there are 2 options for building control: Local Authority or Private.
Some places/jobs it's better to use LA, sometimes better to use private. The costs are usually broadly the same but depending on where you are the service may vary wildly.
We've used private for a lot of jobs just because they were more helpful & more efficient, & better at helping you do what you want & getting your job to work within the refs, rather than follow prescriptive criteria.
I do know some LA inspectors who are fab & really helpful but I know just as many if not more who are awful & hard to get hold of.

Thanks for the advice. MummyToMog, the plan designer recommended the building regs company and so I just went with this as it was part of his 'package'. Regret it a bit now, although as I said earlier, it's not having any impact on me - just on my poor builders.

In a way, the building regs. people are being protective of me, actually - it's just that the builders are right in the middle of another job too with a different regs. company or possible the local council - and are being allowed to do much less insulation there, even though this build is happening at the same time as mine.

I think it's unfair if we keep getting different building reg.s people coming out and contradicting each other. The builder has now said he'll ask them to send the same man out each time from now on. Hope they agree.

I didn't realise private was even an option!

Mind you, we are on a fixed price contract too, except where building control insist on extra works. Maybe I should have queried that bit as I suspect our foundations will need to be deeper than standard thanks to the large number of trees on our property...

I'm surprised your builders haven't spoken with someone higher up overseeing the project at the building regs company ?! My advice would be to set up an onsite meeting with all those concerned. As you are right - this doesn't seem fair, but as Wonkylegs said - these things can be interpreted differently by different people. Good luck with it all :-)

Mummytomog I think private is only an option in englandshire. In scotland it is all done by the council. Not sure about NI or Wales. So depending where you are private might not be an option.