Rebuilding and/or redefining garage and sunroom addition

[PeterMilner]

Hi,

I moved into a 3 bed semi about 6 months ago. The house needs more or less everything doing to it, rewire, heating, kitchen, bathroom and redecoration / modernising through out.

The first project on the list is to do something with the garage and sunroom on the back of it. The garage itself is separated from the main house structure by what was at one time a path way between the two. This has been covered over by the previous owner by some very dubious rough sawn 4 by 2 framing with some corregated plastic roofing sheets slapped on the top. As the garage roof is corregated tin and the whole roof slopes quite allot from front to back as it was built in 1964 so is an old design. At the back of the garage the original external pebble dashed wall has simply been covered with plasterboard sheets and painted. The original gutter on the back of the garage is still there, it has actually just been boxed on with plasterboard and a timer frame built to rest on the end of the garage roof, taking the sunroom roof up about 18 or so inches above the level of the back of the garage, the frame then returns to a 4 by 2 battern bolted to the side of the house.

The wall of the sun room furthest from the house, is not actually parallel with the garage wall, it is instead set in by about 6 inches.

What I would like to do is knock a door way through from the hall at the bottom of the stairs into the area which is now just a covered pathway and convert it into a cloackroom, in the remaining part of the pathway I would like to create a storage area acessible from inside the garage and behind that an area for the washing machine and tumble dryer. I would also like to be able to use the sun room area as a hobby workshop for my radio controlled modeling.

I would also like to put a continuous flat roof across the whole of the area but have it a little higher than the ceeling joists as I need a space to run electrical cables and plumbing for the electrical consumer unit and boiler I would like to install into the garage.

Effectively what I am intending to do is tie in the existing separated garage to the house, this is where the questions start,

1. As the garage is a single skin pebble dashed structure that doesnt appear to have any form of damp proof course, do I have to take down the existing walls and rebuild them with a proper damp proof course?

2. What will I need in terms of building regulations and or planning permission, other than moving the sunroom wall out parallel with the existing side wall of the garage I am not intending to increase the area or change the usage of it?

3. How high can I go with the flat roof above, does it have to sit on the same rafters as the plasterboard ceeling below or can I have a gap between the two and have a separate frame above for the flat roof structure?

4. Do I need to run the soil pipe for the sink and WC in the cloakroom at the front of the house all the way back down the existing passage way and into the kitchen at the back where it could join the existing soil stack or can I run it into the existing drain at the front, I am not sure if it is just a rain water drain as it is a covered pipe that the guttering down pipe is sealed into?

5. What would be a fair estimate as to the cost of this sort of work?

Any comments gratefully received

Cheers,

Peter.

 

[TexMex]

This post is much too big to even scratch the surface. It would be better to break it down a bit to deal with each issue as a separate post. Also, so much of what you are asking is dependant on your local regulations. Have a quick chat with your local building control office concerning what parts of this project they will want involvement in. They will probably give you some pointers on what is or isn't allowed in your area.

 

[felix]

The idea of flushing a toilet into a rainwater drain gully doesn't bear thinking about. If you can't tap into the existing soil pipe you'll have to run a new 100mm pipe into an existing inspection chamber. And hear we have another possible problem; if you have separate drains for sewage and rainwater you have to connect to the right one. It's not difficult to find out if you have separate drains and which is which. First, lift all your manhole covers. You can learn a lot about your drains this way. Next, flush the toilet and see where it goes. Finally, poor a bucket of water into each rainwater drain and see where that goes. Underground drains generally run in straight lines so try to visualize their routes. When you've done all that you'll have a much better idea of how best to plumb your new toilet - and you'll know where not to go digging foundations!