Parking on garage roof

[kark]

My house is on a steep slope with a practically unusable drive (the car bottoms out or a wheel leaves the ground) leading to a single garage.
I want to take the top 2 feet off the garage (level with the road), beam and block it and then level the drive to get my cars off the road. (the void would be for garden storage/bikes only).
I can't see this is covered by building regs or planning - what do you think?
The young lady I spoke to in county hall seemed to think I should apply for planning just in case.

Sloping driveway

• kark
• 13 Feb 2013
• 1

 

[mattylad]

Young ladies at county hall will always fall back on apply and pay the fees.

IMO it's not change of use as there is already storage and parking there.

A novel idea, ensure that it is well fenced and very strongly built - consider not just your car but any car.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Young ladies at county hall will always fall back on apply and pay the fees.

IMO it's not change of use as there is already storage and parking there.

A novel idea, ensure that it is well fenced and very strongly built - consider not just your car but any car.

I would be building it to suit the biggest vehicle that anyone could park on it not just a car.

 

[kark]

Thanks guys. Good points - I'll submit the dimensions to the concrete firm - they've suggested a reinforced concrete screed but I will build an inner skin out out block.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Sorry, to reiterate, to just have a go and hope for the best is downright irresponsible, it needs a proper SE design.

 

[kark]

Hi Freddymercurystwin - apologies if I looked as if I wasn't taking it seriously. The concrete beam manufactures, Stowell Concrete, offer a free structural service so I was going to make use of that initially (for the loading/support/reinforcing specs) although I have informally contacted a local civil engineer who will come out.

I definitely don't want it collapsing but I'd like to do things right - especially if I need permission.

 

[RonnyRaygun]

Cars don't weigh that much in the scheme of things. The problem is that all the load ends up concentrated at the four corners. Beam and block doesn't generally like concentrated loads but I'm sure your supplier will have no trouble designing something to work.

However, you do need to consider the walls and foundations too. You will be adding a lot of load to the roof in the form of concrete, and the vehicle load given in BS6399 is more than three times that of an imposed roof load.

Your total load is going to go up from something like 1.85kN/m2 to about 9.00kN/m2.

It might get a lot more expensive than just sticking a new roof on...

 

[^woody^]

Cars don't weigh that much in the scheme of things. The problem is that all the load ends up concentrated at the four corners.

And that it is a moving load

Anyway, the work would seem to need planning and building regs approval

 

[mattylad]

Anyway, the work would seem to need planning and building regs approval

Building regs yes but why would it need planning?

 

[^woody^]

Because it is a construction operation, and not covered by permitted development

 

[kark]

Good point - I found this on http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/commonprojects/patiosdriveways/

"However, significant works of embanking or terracing to support a hard surface might need a planning application."

I guess this would be seen as significant. Might prove to be too expensive.