BR or Building Notice?

[miljee]

I am trying to convert a single integral garage into 2/3 living room and 1/3 garage/store, retaining the up and over door. This will involve the installation of a new external window, too.

I gather the new wall that divides them must be fireproof (several people have advised me of what that should be made of to be fireproof). Being completely new to this, I have just properly realised I will need Householder PP (definitely) and some sort of BR.

My question is whether I need Full BR or a Building Notice? I quote the following from the Planning Portal:

"There are also specific exclusions in the regulations as to when building notices cannot be used (so Full BR must be!). These are:

-For building work which is subject to section 1 of the Fire Precautions Act 1971" etc


Am I right in thinking this only applies to public buildings, not domestic premises?

Many may say 'Get a good builder, he'll sort it' but I have having the devil's own job getting one 'confident' enough to quote without ME getting BR or whatever in place first ('It's like being asked to make a cake without knowing the ingredients, innit?' for example), thus I find myself worrying about 'u' values, Part A, B and L of the building code.....

 

[tony1851]

You are confusing the names.

1. Your work needs Building Regulations approval, as you are converting a garage to a habitable room

2. There are 2 routes in Building Control, 'full plans' and 'Building Notice'

3. The Regulations are applied in the same way; the only difference is that with full plans, you submit drawings of the work to Building Control, and they check the specs. on the drawing against the regulations. When work starts, the Inspector checks it at various stages.

With Building Notice, you don't submit any plans. You just tell the Council what you are doing, and they check the work in progress as with full plans.
The advantage of Building Notice is that you dont have the cost of drawing up plans. The disadvantage is that you (or your builder) have to be sure you know the regs, otherwise the BCO can ask you to re-do non-compliant work.
.

 

[^woody^]

I'm sure I mentioned this in one of your other threads, but if you can't find a builder who can do a simple garage conversion to b/regs specification without a set of plans, then they are not worth employing in the first place , so keep looking until you find one.

Have you read any of the 100's of threads on garage conversions? They will contain the details about how a Building Notice is the preferred route, is applicable for this type of work, and how the Fire Precautions Act does not apply

 

[miljee]

Sadly, woody, I am struggling to find a builder who does appear to know what he's doing without full plans (and BR) in place! 3 have been so far. 2 won't actually quote til I have the BR in place! This all brings me back to my very first post months ago- How can I get BR unless I know what I'm specifying; how can I know what I'm (supposed to be) specifying unless an expert comes along and tells me?! I, too, am rather surprised that there appear to be few builders in southern Hampshire who don't know how to set about what seems to me to be a straight forward building job without an instruction manual.

I am of course hoping I can get someone to do it on a Building Notice as I did not want the hassle of getting drawings made. I gather applying for a BN costs more overall than BR but that'd be made up for in architectural tech's fees, I'd imagine.

Tony- I recognise that the 'choice' is between a BN or BR, that they are different means to the same end. My question really was whether, with the inclusion of a fire-safe wall in the building works, I wasn't allowed to 'get away' with just a BN, that it had to be BR, but I now see you only have to use BR alone if it's a public building.

Woody- yes, I have trawled the garage conversion threads. The vast majority are for simple 'change the up and over door to a window' jobs. The 'fire safe' wall seems to muddying our waters!

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Keep searching, if your builders to date are asking for an approved set of regs drawings for this, they are clearly unsuitable builders as previously mentioned in this or one of your other numerous threads on the same subject. Consider one of the multitude of 'garage conversion specialists' that exist. Just specifically ask that the works will need to comply with Building Regulations and that the builder is responsible for arranging the inspections and handing over the certificate at the end.

If you really want to put a set of regs drawings together yourself then either employ someone to do it for you or trawl DIYnot for answers. Believe us when we say that any questions you have asked and are ever likely to ask have been answered hundreds of times already on the forum.

Your firesafe wall as you put it is just a partition with plasterboard each side and insulation in the middle nothing more complicated than that. If you builder doesn't know that then he isn't worth employing

A garage conversion can be done on a notice or with full plans route simples.

 

[rjm2k]

If you are up for a read, the building regs docs are all available to download for free, with extra guidance notes too. Might at least give you an idea of what the builders should be talking about.