Dormer 20cm set back (PD) HELP!!

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Hi all desperately seeking advice!

Going to keep this as short and straight to the point as possible...

We are near finishing our rear dormer but we have recently noticed some MAJOR issues that our builder either noticed and thought he could keep quiet or was just stupid enough to not even realise he had done it (although I’ve looked at photos of previous builds and he has done so).

He has not set the dormer back the required 20cm, the outside is now finished, even painted!

It was clearly stated in our drawings that it should have been back 20cm and we do not have planning for it not to be so.

He has also built the side wall straight up from the parapet wall.

What I want to know is what my options are here.

Is the parapet wall an issue?

Would I need new structural engineer calculations?

Will building control have an issue with this?

Will I be able to get retrospective planning on it not being set back 20cm?

Would this lack of set back required an additional steel?

Any information would be truly appreciated.

Jake
 

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That's a major risk, as it may never get planning approval if applied for.

Options are to keep quiet and hope for the best for four years following completion.

Apply for planning approval and chance it.

Get the builder to alter it.

In any case you should put the builder's insurers on notice of a potential claim coming their way. Otherwise if the builder goes bump and the dormer gets enforced, you have no one to claim against.

As for the technical beam questions, no one here will know, but if loadings have changed you need these confirmed by a suitably qualified person.
 
Thanks for the reply, We’ve been thinking along the same lines but were after a second opinion for sure to reinforce our thoughts.

We had also thought to also get a letter written up by a building solicitor that will legally bind him to alter the work if it ever came up as an issue when we were looking to sell, as the likelihood is we won’t be staying for 4 years.

Looking back on the drawings it was all there 20cm back, honestly a shambles!
 
He's built it directly off the wall to save the cost of setting a steel beam just behind the wall.
Clearly it's not PD; whether or not the council find out about it is anyone's guess.
 
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Thanks for the reply, We’ve been thinking along the same lines but were after a second opinion for sure to reinforce our thoughts.

We had also thought to also get a letter written up by a building solicitor that will legally bind him to alter the work if it ever came up as an issue when we were looking to sell, as the likelihood is we won’t be staying for 4 years.

Looking back on the drawings it was all there 20cm back, honestly a shambles!
You don't need a letter. You have a contract already, that's enough.

It will definitely get picked up in any sale process.
 
I imagine this will definitely be picked up, how did you not notice it?

It essentially looks like a 3 story extension rather than a subordinate dormer, I fully understand why they ask for the 20cm setback because it does look rather awful.

You must get the builder to rectify this. That is a huge cowboy move, I'm sure they are fully aware of the PD rules.
 
Could you stick a fake row of tiles on the front of the dormer, same angle as the roof?
 
I've never understood the logic of stepping the front face back?

I think the reason is the way dormers are defined in the legislation. They're not actually described as 'dormers', but are referred to as 'roof enlargements'. The rationale is that to be a 'roof enlargement', some of the roof still has to remain, hence they require a small width of roof at the eaves. With no set-back, it would cease to be a roof enlargement but would just be a vertical extension, as someone pointed out on this thread.

Strangely, there is no requirement to leave a little bit of original roof between the dormer roof and the ridge.

When these changes were being discussed in the mid 2000s, there was a proposal that a minimum of 1m of roof should show above the eaves, and 1m between the roof of the dormer and ridge. This ridiculous idea would have meant that the vast majority of houses would not be able to have dormer loft conversions because most lofts tend to be 2 -2.8m high. The loft conversion industry fought this hard and eventually got the government to see sense.
 
Hmm.. Yes but from a structural point of view not building up from the wall plate where there are foundations and setting it back a foot doesn't make sense to me, especially when most dormers are at the rear.
 
Hmm.. Yes but from a structural point of view not building up from the wall plate where there are foundations and setting it back a foot doesn't make sense to me, especially when most dormers are at the rear.
Planning is concerned with how it looks, not how it's built.
 
Hmm.. Yes but from a structural point of view not building up from the wall plate where there are foundations and setting it back a foot doesn't make sense to me, especially when most dormers are at the rear.

It's only 200mm! You can usually go straight up from the existing wall plate and still maintain 200mm to the existing fascia line unless the eaves projection is very tight.

The example above is clearly a cowboy bodge job by someone who has never done a dormer loft conversion before.
 
If the fascia & guttering is flush with the brickwork then what are you supposed to do then? which is what this house looks like.
 
If the fascia & guttering is flush with the brickwork then what are you supposed to do then? which is what this house looks like.

A flush eaves is quite rare but in that case you still set back the dormer by 200mm. If it is a cavity wall you still won't be that far from the existing wallplate but you may need extra support for the face of the dormer such as beefing up the floor joists.
 
Yes, if you have a good eaves overhang as in a typical Arts-and-Crafts style house,you can get away with aupporting the dormer and floor off the inner skin (though you have to be careful not to overload any existing timber beams over the windows).

But in my area, most of the late Victorian houses have flush eaves and 9" thick walls, which makes it impossible to support the dormer off the inner half of the wall thickness and still maintain 20cm from the edge of the slates. In this case, we put a beam running from party wall to party wall as close to the inner face of the wall as possible. Because the space is tight between the ceiling and rafters, you use the shallowest beam possible, which usually works out at a 152 x 152.
 

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