Glazing area on side of the house ?

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was told by planning officer that additional window for new downstairs toilet should not of been added as the law states you can't enlarge the glazing area on the gable side of the house.Have now the option to brick up another gable side window under stairs and keep new window or remove the new window.Have checked internet and can't find the ruling. Where do I stand ?Is the planning officer right in his judgement ?
 
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You don't normally need planning permission to insert new windows in a house. The rules are different for listed buildings, conservation areas etc. so that needs to be checked. Side windows must be fixed and obscure glass only if they overlook adjoining boundaries.

You do need building regulations thoguh. Are you maybe confusing the two?
 
Thanks for your reply Jeds. The house isn't listed or in a conservation area. The planning officer was reacting to a neighbours complaint and stated that it broke building regs due to the fact you couldn't enlarge the glazing area so I'm not sure where I stand ?
 
Thermal reg's state that glazed areas (windows and doors) should not exceed more than 20% of the floor area to that room.

This rule can be overcome by increasing the the thermal resistance elsewhere within that room.
 
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I think you'll find it's simply to do with overlooking your neighbour's windows or garden.

My recent planning approval included the requirement to not insert any new windows facing the neighbour's side. We were expecting having to frost the existing windows but that wasn't mentioned. :D
 
The added window looks into the walkway between the two houses so it's only facing the opposite brick gable wall. Thanks for everyones replies.
 
Thanks for your reply Jeds. The house isn't listed or in a conservation area. The planning officer was reacting to a neighbours complaint and stated that it broke building regs due to the fact you couldn't enlarge the glazing area so I'm not sure where I stand ?

As I said, you do need building regs to insert new openings. The maximum size the window can be is actually 25% of the floor area of the room it serves. You can go more than 25% but, as noseall says, you would need to upgrade some other part of the thermal envelope to compensate. You would also have to provide a SAP calculation to prove that the proposed compensation measures do offset the additional heat loss caused by the larger window area.
 
Yes this is covered in the building regs but rather than the thermal issues quoted it is more likely to be covered by part B fire regs, there are limits on the amount of openings if the wall is less than 1m from neighboring propertys, would be surprised if a planning bod would know this though?Do you have any other openings on this side of your house?
 
Sorry to bring up old thread, but my neighbour is building a large garden room at the end of the garden, it approx 1.5m from the boundary. I noticed yesterday that they are going to put a window in the garden room on the side that runs parallel to my garden so it will be directly over looking my garden, are they allowed to do that ?
 
Thanks for your reply Jeds. The house isn't listed or in a conservation area. The planning officer was reacting to a neighbours complaint and stated that it broke building regs due to the fact you couldn't enlarge the glazing area so I'm not sure where I stand ?

As I said, you do need building regs to insert new openings. The maximum size the window can be is actually 25% of the floor area of the room it serves. You can go more than 25% but, as noseall says, you would need to upgrade some other part of the thermal envelope to compensate. You would also have to provide a SAP calculation to prove that the proposed compensation measures do offset the additional heat loss caused by the larger window area.

Does the same applied if you insert velux window on the roof?
 

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