Building Regulations

[Patricia1986]

Help !!! Does anyone know if you need building regs for an extension/conservatory under permitted development rights,. I've read so many different things and heard all sorts

My old lean to conservatory is being removed and being replace with a new extension. I have been told I don't need building regs as I am keeping my original doors into the extension in place but would need them if I removed the doors and made in part of the original lounge, Is this correct ??? Plus if I had a pitched roof it would change things. I am slightly confused 😫😫

I would say yes you would need BR from what you have said. Was it the builder who said you don't need them ?

Yes. He said I would only need them if I removed the original doors from the house. Is it the same it or was a
Conservatory ??

You will need building regs sign off for foundations, soil, etc. If you're putting in new electrics or gas this can be signed off by a competent person (or your BCO, but usually easier if you use a registered installer). I think the door comment relates to fire regulations. Planning permission/permitted development are completely separate to building regulations. You can use your council BCO or a private firm. Get quotes as the cost might vary - as in everything building related, there's a charge. You need a completion certificate at the end of your build - without this it would be very hard/loads of hassle to sell your house. Also check you don't need a party wall award.

Yes anything that's effectively outside ie separate from the house and smaller than a certain size is exempt, so porch, lean to, conservatory, etc, but the original house still has to comply as it did before.
For an actual extension you'd want to comply so that you can open up to the house and not have any condensation, cold, damp etc issues inside.
Planning and building regs are completely separate, planning a about appearance mainly and building regs is about the quality, safety and efficiency mainly.

Thanks for your replies So if I was to have a conservatory with two full height brick walls would this still need building regs ?? I've also been told I could have this providing there is a certain percentage of glass

Two different regulatory procedures apply here.
'Permitted Development' is under the Planning Laws.
The other is under Building Control Regulations.
Research it yourself and don't think the builder will know this all or bother to fund out or tell you.

Ring your building regs dept and check - ive found builders in the past have never mentioned this to me and also make sure they send you the signed off certificate when the work is done - we didnt realise until over a year later that we hadnt received it!

I think it used to be a glazed roof was the key thing but i think it's been relaxed.
But anyway i don't see what the big deal is with whether regs apply, ideally it would all comply with regs then you know it's built properly and will be warm and healthy. I'm not a big fan of conservatories they are just glass sheds to me, similar to a porch, I'd rather built properly.

OP I am doing exactly the same- removing current conservatory, building extension at the back. We already have double doors leading into the what will be new extension. It's all under permitting development and yes we need building regs. Have just submitted them/ told by our architect could take 4-6 weeks for it to be approved. I would assume yours is the same. We also had to get a party wall agreement in place, so check you don't need to send neighbours a party wall notification. Do you have an architect?

Hi. No I haven't got an architect. I'm on a really tight budget so was sorting it all myself. I have spoke. To my neighbour as I am in a semi detached and she's fine with whatever I want to do. Was wondering whether to get something In Writing from her thou

I looked to do what you're doing (remove a conservatory and have two brick walls with a mainly glass roof and a glass back). I consulted the council who sent out someone from BR as they wanted to inspect the foundations. Good job they did as they were nowhere near deep enough for what we wanted to achieve. Worth mentioning our builder thought it was going to be fine.

Essentially you can put a conservatory on if it's the prebuilt type (some small walls are permitted) but not a full extension - but if you require a steel beam for the access you do need building regs even for glass roof conservatories

Please get some proper advice. It will come back to bite you on the bum when you come to sell if you don't.

Agreed sounds like it needs building regs , if he has built a new wall then the foundations up wards will need checking. I think walls need to be more than 50% glazed and roof 75% to be classed as a conservatory , amongst a few other items.
How far along is the builder ?

The build is at the very early stage as I wanted to check things out first. I have been in touch with the local authority building regs department and they are saying even if it's permitted development I still need regs unless it's a dwarf wall. Looks like it's going to be a long process

Thank you all for your help

It's exempt if it's thermally separated from the house, under 30 square metres in floor area and substantially glazed (that is at least 50% of the walls and 75% of the roof).

Yours sounds like it may not have enough glazing so you would need to make a building regs application. This will cost you more as you will have the building regs fees (at least £500) and it will be treated like an extension, so your builder will have to dig proper foundations. You may also have to give the council an energy calculation to justify the level of glazing you do have. You should also serve notice on your neighbour under the party wall act, if the conservatory is next to the party wall.

Building regs doesn’t slow up the process you just need to make sure that they come and inspect at all the correct points . I’m in the SE and our building inspector was very easy to get hold of and was also very helpful and informative .

Many thanks for that I will have a look 👍

I'm not sure how much stuff my architect did for buildings regs, but he submitted, I got an email saying they had received, I phoned up and paid then got an email back with approval number. Just need to give 48hrs notice before we start. So it shouldn't delay you too much, they just come out at start to check foundations and the end and maybe in the middle depending on what you are doing (checking steels in my case) it cost just shy of £500 with the council where I live
I'm taking down an old lean to conservatory, putting a brick built extension up with a solid pitch roof (incorporating a velux) and the one wall will be fully brick, one half brick and the other side will be bifolds. Mine gets more complicated as I'm removing my patio doors that lead to the conservatory and knocking down some internal walls to end up with a "L" shaped room flinging into the extension.

What your having sounds similar to what I'm after. My council want £790 for building regs I wanted to build under permitted development but I won't be finished by end of May so now going to have to wait and see if they change what your allowed as if they do I will have to apply for planing permission as I do want to go out 3 metres. Just didn't realise how complicated things were as I have never done anything like this before It's great that I can listen to other people and what they advise. Thank you to everyone 👍

I wanted to go out 3.8m (we have a terraced garden and this is where the first step is) but I was panicking about being finished by the end of May.
When the architect came round he convinced me (after much discussion) to only go to 3m rather than the bit further under the extended permitted development as then I wouldn't need to worry about getting a neighbour consultation or panic about being finished by the end of May. Although he did say if it wasn't finished we'd "probably" be fine but just need to apply for planning (£206 So I'm told).
As it is the builders look like they can start a month earlier than planned as their last job went quicker due to good weather, typical. Would have probably been a month late if I'd decided to go to 3.8 though.
We are going to use the low front half wall (Windows planned to start 15cm above patio height) as a retaining wall and bring the patio to meet it so we don't have a awkward gap between the two.
Today I need to finish clearing junk from the old conservatory as someone's hopefully coming to take it down in the next couple of days.
There is a home extension 19 thread on here somewhere (I avidly read the home extension 2018 one, which had filled up about 2 weeks ago and it gave me lots of things to think about) that might be worth checking out.