Rebuilding the conservatory?

I have moved into a house which has a 5m x 3m conservatory at the rear of the property coming off the lounge. The conservatory has a dwarf wall, glass glazing to sides and rear plus polycarb roof.
Planning permission for the conservatory was granted back in '76.

I want to build up the side walls to full height, remove the rear dwarf wall, put in a lintel to expand a 4m opening so I can put in some of those rather fancy folding doors. Also, I want to knock down the wall between the lounge and conservatory to incorporate both rooms into one. I plan to change the old polycarb roof to a flat roof.

The footprint of the conservatory will remain the same so will it be just a case of conforming to Building Regs on the rebuild or will I need to submit another planning application? No doubt I will have to build the side walls again as the foundations don't appear to be that deep according to the original plans.

On investigating the wall between the lounge and conservatory there is what appears to be a full width lintel in place .

I have had a structual engineer to have a look and he thinks itmay be best to submit planning permision again. He sent his quote to me last week at a price of £1460 + VAT!

On phoning the planning dept I've just been told that because I'm not increasing the volume no planning permision would be needed if I put a flat roof on but I would obviously would have to conform to building regs!

A builder has just had a look at the job. Bearing in mind I will remove and demolish the existing conservatory he has quoted me £8200 and that doesn't include the folding doors. I can do the internal fixes, sparks etc.It seems a lot of money to me for building two walls and putting in a lintel and some joists. But perhaps this is todays prices?

Any thoughts on this project gents would be much appreciated however critical!

regards

get three more quotes and compare.

from your description, the quote does appear a little heavy on the pen.

so..... get more quotes.

euroman said:

I have had a structual engineer to have a look...he sent his quote to me last week at a price of £1460 + VAT!

Click to expand...

Wish I could get away with charging that

Thanks for the replies.

I've just had another builder quote and the quote seems quite realistic ( £5500). Good news is that he can start in a few weeks time which would be great for summer.

Bad news is that I can't find a structual engineer who will do the calcs ( lintels, roof load etc ) in my area ( Eastbourne). And what's more, the only one who wasn't booked up for weeks wants a min of £850 to do the calcs. Now a couple of years ago when I lived in Horsham Sussex I paid around £250-£300 for the same kind of service!

Can anyone give us a rough idea of what you are paying in your area for similar calcs? If that is what SE's are charging these days then so be it! Perhaps I should go back to school - I'm certainly in the wrong job!!!

regards

A reasonable hourly rate for a chartered SE would be £90/hr plus VAT for non London-based one.

From your description, if you had someone else like a plan drawer do you a simple set of plans, for which I would expect £400 tops, then without seeing it say 4hrs for design work and no site visit should be more than enough, which makes that £360 plus VAT.

Fee levels have increased (and not before time), but they've clearly passed us by in the sticks, if £850+ is the level being quoted.

You don't need a local SE you know, if plans can be emailed...

Be aware that knocking the conservatory and living room into one is highly likely to cause you all sorts of problems with the Building Inspector .

The conservatory area will now need to be treated as habitable accomodation .
Overcoming the heat loss calcs will be your greatest problem