Building a Porch - idea of costs (also building regs?)

[dfarry]

Hi there,

I want to replace the windows in my home and also have a part bricked porch built.

I have been quoted £2000 for the follwoing work... which I suppose when broken down and considering the labour is OK... but I just wanted to sanity check the price really...

The Porch is 900mm x 2000mm, currently there is about 6" of pattern imprinted concrete and base so this would need to be dug out for the footings of the porch.

The porch needs to be bricked half way up then the window company will do their stuff... finally I want a double hipped, tiles roof added with lead flashing onto the existing tiles of the house.

A floor would need to be laid/screeded... I could do the internal plastering myself... plus any guttering.

Also I haven't spoken to my local planning office yet but do you think I may need permission?... or have the local council involved with building regs? I have been told that I only need to do this if I cover more than 2 square metres... however the footings will be directly next the party wall of the house....could this mean the party wall act comes into force?

Cheers

DAN

MOD

see this

 

[masona]

Also I haven't spoken to my local planning office yet but do you think I may need permission?... or have the local council involved with building regs? I have been told that I only need to do this if I cover more than 2 square metres... however the footings will be directly next the party wall of the house....could this mean the party wall act comes into force?

Porch regulations,

You will need planning permission if the porch has a ground area of more than 3 square metres external & if it's going to be higher than 3 metres above ground level and if it would be less than 2 metres away from the boundary of a dwelling house with a highway including footpaths, public road, and byways etc

 

[dfarry]

Hi there thanks for the reply.

I have spoken to a planning officer now and he gave me the same information as you. I am ok on all those points so he told me that the porch would not be a planning issue and would instead be covered by "permitted development Part D?"

But....

It would still have to be covered by Building regs, so I would still need to submit plans and have a surveyor comee around and check the work out

....and at a cost of around

Plus if I wanted a "Certificate of Proposed lawful development" that too would cost around

So that makes of EASY money for the local authority...even though they do very little apart from complete a few bits of paperwork.... I think that is outrageous

 

[masona]

Wasn't like that when I did mine as long as I follow the building regulations, sounds like to me another rip off money spinning.

 

[dfarry]

Slight variation on this now... have spoken again to the council they said I could send them an informal letter detailing my plans... they would review this and reply with their own informal view of whether planning permission would be required...

They have already told me that the plans don't but I wanted something in writing...

I also spoke to building control and they said that the porch would be exempt from building regs...and sent me a leaflet to confirm this....

I just still need to clarify the party wall act stuff though... this is separate from building/planning and is more of a legal issue.....so in itself is not enforceable (such as making me pull the porch down) but if I wasn't careful I could leave myself open for compensation claims if the work breached any of the acts statements.

 

[masona]

Get a free Planning & Building regulations handbook from your BCO. It will tell you what you're allow to do and nobody can argue with this.

 

[Richard C]

Try looking here; very usefull & you can download all you want!
http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_control/documents/homepage/odpm_home_page.hcsp