Building Control in a 300 year old cottage...!!

[andymet87]

Hi all,

I'm a Town Planner and am on my third renovation now so relatively up to speed with Building control things...

Our current renovation is a 300 year old cottage which has over the years had many unsympathetic alterations - we have essentially gutted it and reinstated original features etc whilst bringing it up to modern standards. It has cost far too much but hopefully that won't matter as we plan on staying in it for many years...

All our works were shown and signed off under a full plans BC application...

Building control popped out to check insulation etc on the extension and general works to the main house before we begin plasterboarding - the inspector has taken issue with our staircase, not something we were expecting as it was all signed off under a full plans application.

It is located in the old part of the house and we have replaced and relocated it to make it safer etc... Our ceiling heights are circa 2m...

We have gone from this... (a very tight metal spiral staircase with open hole on landing, circa 1650mm head height on the staircase, and the treads being about 40cm wide)...



To this.... (a fully compliant BC staircase, minus the fact head height is circa 1800 at the bottom step due to a joist running across at that particular point, banister etc not yet put up)




I'd appreciate peoples thoughts on this and the best way to reason with BC to keep it as it is (partly because we like it and it is inkeeping with the house, and partly because we really can't afford to change the staircase), key points from our perspective:

• the staircase is in the "old" part of the house
• had we left the old staircase in situ (which would have been dangerous) BC would not have taken issue with it... the replacement staircase is a vast improvement in terms of ease of use, safety, in fact in every way... upstairs the extension simply relocates a bedroom from the old house into the new bit to allow for a landing to bring the new staircase up.
• No one has hit their head on the beam yet! They have on the other beams in the house...
• To mitigate the perceived "danger", we have offered to chamfer a 45 degree angle into the beam which would add maybe 50mm the the head height and add a characteristic ...

Many thanks all in advance!

(apologies for the poor pics, all I had on my phone!)

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Unless the very non compliant 1800 height was marked on the approved drawings then you are subject to their site inspection. Or was the headroom of the existing stair 1800 or less?

1800 is just daft though for a new staircase - why is it so limited.

 

[^woody^]

You mentioned the plans being signed off, but is this stair alteration part of the atual or general work within the application?

Points to note:
Site inspections supercede any submitted plans, or approved plans.
Altering staircases and means of escape is a life safety issue for which the inspector can get involved with.
Chamfering a beam may not help people running down the stairs in a panic in a fire.

You will be on a hiding to nothing if this flight is part of the application, and it may be a similar situation if not, and the stair may need altering. Or the beam changed.

You will need a very good technical reason as to why the stair could not be made compliant (or as safe as possible) for any relaxation of the headroom requirement, and finance is not one of them.

Find out the inspectors actual concerns and see how they can be addressed or negotiated. This will be a bit more than "it's not 2m headroom".

 

[wessex101]

The spiral staircase will not be the original so chances are whatever was there originally had a very low headroom. The only thing I can think of is work out where the original staircase would have been and work out what the headroom would have been. Then try the argument that the new contravention is no worse. You might get a bit of leeway with it being an old property.

Failing that how about a timber post to the offending floor joist/beam and cut out the bottom section over the stairs to get you a bit more headroom. You probably won't get 2 metres but 1.9m might be accepted.

 

[andymet87]

Hi all - many thanks for your thoughts.

We have persevered and agreed a solution with Building Control - we will be cutting the 45 degree chamfer in the beam which will gain about 10cm on the headroom.

Thanks for your thoughts / comments on this. Always nice to be able to turn to here for some advice!