Shaving 40mm from a brick wall please help.

[taz15964]

Hi all,
I have a real problem, I am opening a doorway from a hallway to a kitchen, but as building regs insist the doorway must be 770mm wide.
This wouldn't be a problem if the doorway opens into the kitchen directly but instead it will open up into a 785mm wide mini corridor and so I need to remove at least 40mm from the corridor wall so that I can fit the door frame and comply with building regs, maybe even a tiny bit more.

Any ideas as the best way to shave 40mm from a brick wall and not make a complete racket and annoy the neighbours?

Hammer and chisel would take forever I'm worried but angle grinder would be a real mess and very loud in such a confined corridor space.

Thanks for the help.


Tom

 

[noseall]

building regs insist the doorway must be 770mm wide.

Why?

 

[taz15964]

Not sure to be honest, I had a read through the regs regarding door widths and it said that doors from hallways (less than 1200) not head on have to be a minimum of 775mm wide, am I misunderstanding the documents?
Ohh sorry I wrote 770mm my mistake.
Oh and the case officer from the council said it had to be be a FD30 fire door.

 

[xdave]

Surely if the hallway is only 10mm wider then building control would accept that the door would need to be smaller than that allowing for the minimum thickness of frame needed to be usable? You can get a fire door made to your dimensions.

(Note - I don't know either way, I'm just asking the question.)

Or would they simply demand that the door opened into the room instead?

Is the wall loadbearing? Shaving 40mm from the surface of the wall might weaken it too much depending on the construction. If not loadbearing then could the wall be removed and rebuilt in the new position? It would be easier than reducing its width...

 

[taz15964]

lol it's a bit of a strange situation the wall that makes up the mini corridor into the kitchen is not load bearing, it makes up one side of an old dumb waiter in the kitchen. infanct I asked the freeholder if I can remove it to make the kitchen bigger but he said no, so my plans have gone up the creek, and now I am trying to work out how to get into the kitchen without taking the wall down.

The only thing I can think of is to shave off a little from the 2 layers of brick that makes up the wall.

Sigh ..... It's so annoying.

 

[tony1851]

There is no regulation for the minimum width of a door in a dwelling!

 

[taz15964]

I am getting mixed messages, do you mean I can ignore page 67 table 4 of the part M of the building regs?
http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/upl...F_ADM_2004.pdf

But assume I have to shave away 40mm what is the best way?

 

[mfarrow]

The regulations ask you to make reasonable provision for disabled persons, and that it is no less satisfactory than before. Make sure you are reading the latest pdf version from 2013. Particularly Section 0, parts 0.2 onwards.

The table you refer to gives a cross-reference of door opening sizes required for different corridor sizes. However if your house is not generally Part M compliant, which I think was introduced shortly after 2000, then I do not believe you need to worry about allowing a wheelchair access to your kitchen alone.

I would imagine though, that BC may require compliance if the old access to the kitchen complied but the new one does not. So even if your house is old, get your tape measure out and see if that's the case. I would include all stages required in accessing the kitchen, so from front/back door also.

As an example, last year we had a downstairs pantry converted to a W/C. The doorway is 600mm and we did not, nor were forced, to change it.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

The regulations ask you to make reasonable provision for disabled persons, and that it is no less satisfactory than before. Make sure you are reading the latest pdf version from 2013. Particularly Section 0, parts 0.2 onwards.

That para in the guidance points out that under regulation 4(3), building work shall be carried out so that, after it has been completed the building complies with the applicable requirements of Schedule 1 or, where it did not comply with any such requirement, is no more unsatisfactory in relation to that requirement than before the work was carried out.

But in Schedule 1:

PART M ACCESS TO AND USE OF BUILDINGS
Access and use
M1. Reasonable provision shall be made for
people to -
(a) gain access to; and
(b) use the building and its facilities.

The requirements of this Part do not apply to -
(a) an extension of or material alteration of a dwelling;....