Can a garden room be attached to the house?

Gazman16 · 28 Feb 2013

Hello

Long story short....

A neibour (just jealous/ trying to make thing difficult) has complained to planning about the garden room/extension that has been built, So now planning people have been and say full planning and building regs need to apply. (planning and building reg people around here are generally ****'s that make stuff up to sound important).
The main reason they are saying this is as its 1m from the boundary and it should have been 2m.

This is a timber framed, timber clad room with a flat felt roof thats main purpose is for the dogs to have there own space.

Now Im sure there are a million questions coming my way but from what I have provided here can anyone awnser a few questions:

1. Are there any definitive guide lines on a garden room?
1a. If so can it be attached to the house or does it need to be away from the house?
2. My interpretation of the regs is that 1m from the boundary is fine for single story and 2m is only nessasary for 2 story? (I got this from extention regs as I couldnt find anything specific to garden rooms).

I was just the window supplier/fitter for this job but I am friendly with both the builder and customer. So as Im quite handy on a computer I thought I would try and get some helpful information for them.
I can take pics and sizes to upload if nessasary but wont be able to do that until tomorrow.

Any help/information to prove the planning people are talking out of their ****'s would be appriciated.

noseall · 28 Feb 2013

How big is this timber frame, timber clad, flat roofed kennel?

Sounds horrific.

Gazman16 · 28 Feb 2013

Its actually quite nice.
These are guestimates will confirm tomorrow but about 3m out from the back of the house, about 3m wide and about 2.4m high.

I will upload the 1 photo I took for my window portfolio, Its not very helpfull to you guys but at least the window looks good

noseall · 28 Feb 2013

How are the dogs getting on with the chaise longue?

tony1851 · 28 Feb 2013

It could need planning permission because the timber cladding may not match the walling of the house.
It could need Bulding Regs approval because of the 'unprotected area' adjacent to the side boundary (fire regs). There may be other building regs issues as well.

Gazman16 · 28 Feb 2013

noseall said:
How are the dogs getting on with the chaise longue?

That has been claimed by the dogs, It is their bed

noseall · 28 Feb 2013

Gazman16 said:
That has been claimed by the dogs, It is their bed

Have they got a wash basin and loo as well?

^woody^ · 28 Feb 2013

Gazman16 said:
1. Are there any definitive guide lines on a garden room?
1a. If so can it be attached to the house or does it need to be away from the house?
2. My interpretation of the regs is that 1m from the boundary is fine for single story and 2m is only nessasary for 2 story? (I got this from extention regs as I couldnt find anything specific to garden rooms).

1,1a and 2. The name of the room is irrelevant in a planning context. They are all treated as extensions.

You need to read up on "permitted development" and check out the size and other dimensions to see if the extension conforms or not. If it does not, then formal planning permission would be needed

For building control, there is a distinction between a conservatory and an extension - with no permission required for the former. It would be a conservatory if the walls were 50% translucent. If not it would need to be more than 1m from the boundary (1mm more will do)

grovepark · 28 Feb 2013

Not too sure on the planning side of things but as far as building regs go this is my thoughts.

Have they kept the original house separated from the garden room? Is there no or seperate heating provided to this room? If the answers to both of these is yes they have themselves a very nice exempt rear porch. Check out planning portal for more info http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/commonprojects/porch/

freddiemercurystwin · 28 Feb 2013

^woody^ said:
It would be a conservatory if the walls were 50% translucent.

^woody^ that rule went out ages ago, there was a thread about it on here a while ago .....

Gazman16 · 28 Feb 2013

grovepark said:
Not too sure on the planning side of things but as far as building regs go this is my thoughts.

Have they kept the original house separated from the garden room? Is there no or seperate heating provided to this room? If the answers to both of these is yes they have themselves a very nice exempt rear porch. Check out planning portal for more info http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/commonprojects/porch/[/QUOTE]

Yes they kept the external door separating the rooms. They are planning on putting heating in there but haven't yet.
Loving the idea of calling it a rear porch "Adding a porch to any external door of your house is considered to be permitted development" I didnt know that one, but unfortunately in this instance we are over 3 square meters and within 2m of the boundary.
I like your train of thought though

Gazman16 · 1 Mar 2013

freddymercurystwin said:
^woody^ said:

It would be a conservatory if the walls were 50% translucent.

Click to expand...

^woody^ that rule went out ages ago, there was a thread about it on here a while ago .....

Just reread the conservatory page http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/commonprojects/conservatories

As a window/conservatory fitter I should know it by heart but they keep changing it grrrr.

It looks like we could possibly call it a conservatory? the only thing that seem to go against this are:
It dosent mention distance from a side boundary but could that could be a good thing?

freddiemercurystwin · 1 Mar 2013

It is all taken care of within Part L1B Existing Dwellings, no need of any special notes or other LABC blurb. http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/BR_PDF_ADL1B_2010.pdf

If the conservatory complies with 3.15 (and 3.16) it will be exempt from the regs no matter how much or little of its roof or walls are glazed. Building such a conservatory is not notifiable.

Taken from this thread //www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=278544&start=0

Gazman16 · 1 Mar 2013

freddymercurystwin said:
It is all taken care of within Part L1B Existing Dwellings, no need of any special notes or other LABC blurb. http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/BR_PDF_ADL1B_2010.pdf

If the conservatory complies with 3.15 (and 3.16) it will be exempt from the regs no matter how much or little of its roof or walls are glazed. Building such a conservatory is not notifiable.

Taken from this thread //www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=278544&start=0[/QUOTE]

Thank you Freddymercurystwin. Some excelent information there.
Ok so the only real problem we have here is the boundrys, I will start a new topic on boundrys for conservatorys and porchs as I have spotted something else that confused me.

I will pop out there later to get pics and sizes for this thread too.

Gazman16 · 1 Mar 2013

Maybe I should start a new topic with a heading along the lines of definition of a conservatory. What do you think? for the moment I will continue in this thread.

Assuming we can call this a conservatory I belive we have no problems with the boundry issue (see this thread)
//www.diynot.com/forums/buildi...-for-conservatorys-and-porchs.356866/#2692708

So it all comes down to whether we can define and prove to the planners that this is a conservatoy.

I have sizes and some more pics:
The conservatory is 3480mm wide, 3465mm out from the bungalow (it is a detached property so the 4m rule should apply) and it is 2950mm high

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Can a garden room be attached to the house?

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