Building control?

[alastairclark]

Hi all, just wondering if anyone has experience with this, I’ve bought a fixer upper to sort out and sell, I want to take down a brick non load bearing wall on the ground floor to make space for a utility and also turn a large cupboard into a cloakroom toilet. I’ve tried several structural engineers so I don’t get any headaches trying to sell it, but they don’t seem interested in a small job like that. The Glasgow council planning forms are overly complicated. What’s the best way to go about this?

 

[Wayners]

Just phone building control and ask. They will advise what you need to comply.if anything

 

[robinbanks]

Show us how you came to the conclusion it's not load bearing

 

[alastairclark]

It’s below the middle of the bathroom and is in between 2 joists so supporting fresh air

 

[robinbanks]

OK. What are you thinking you'll need an SE, building or planning for?

 

[alastairclark]

When I sold my last house, I had made an opening in a partition wall, it caused issues with the buyers lawyers and I had to take out an indemnity policy, you have to have been in the property at least a year to get one and I aim to flip this house in a few months. Trying to save headache further down the line. I’m also adding a cloakroom toilet which I’m sure needs approval

 

[robinbanks]

How much was the indemnity policy?

 

[alastairclark]

20odd quid, I asked my lawyer if I’d be able to just do this again, and that’s when she told me you can only get one after owning the prop for at least a year

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

That's pretty lame to sell a flipped house with no building regs, strikes me you'd wonder if all the work was just crap and you avoided the regs to save even more cash.

 

[alastairclark]

Well I’m a plumber so I can fit out a toilet and if the wall is not load bearing, I’m hardly damaging the place. I am trying to do it properly with building control but I’m struggling to get a structural engineer to even come out hence my post

 

[flameport]

I’ve tried several structural engineers

What information do you want from them that you don't already know?

Glasgow council planning forms

Planning and building control are two separate and different things.

adding a cloakroom toilet which I’m sure needs approval

Yes, it does.

 

[alastairclark]

Well this shows my inexperience of this, I was expecting a structural engineer to come out, sign something saying the wall is fine to come down, and a toilet could be fitted, submit whatever needs to be submitted to the council, then crack on doing it. I’m sure my original post was basically this in different words

 

[flameport]

The process in Scotland is slightly different to England, but the general concept is
1 - submit plans and the appropriate fee to building control
2 - they will either say all is well, or state what they don't like
3 - get on with the work
4 - some works might need interim inspections as it progresses, or just a final one to ensure it matches the plans
5 - you get a completion certificate or equivalent from building control when it's finished.

In some cases others will need to be involved such as where calculations are required for structural or thermal elements. Those are obtained first and submitted as part of the plans.

Depending on individual competence. you can do all of it yourself, or pay someone to do some of it and do the rest yourself, or pay someone to do all of it.

 

[alastairclark]

I appreciate your reply, I am aware that is the process, I don’t feel that I have enough understanding to, with confidence, fill in the forms required. Saying that I haven’t spent any great time on it, but the terminology used I felt was worded for an architect/struc engineer. Thanks for your input though

 

[robinbanks]

1 - submit plans and the appropriate fee to building control

You'd do a full plans app for installing a toilet? Surely a building notice would be better suited..

I appreciate your reply, I am aware that is the process, I don’t feel that I have enough understanding to, with confidence, fill in the forms required. Saying that I haven’t spent any great time on it, but the terminology used I felt was worded for an architect/struc engineer. Thanks for your input though

I think you might be getting your clipboard wavers mixed up; none of the work you've described seems to need an SE, and they wouldn't necessarily do anything with the council; they work for you, draw plans for you, tell you what steel to put where to make sure your house doesn't fall down when you knock out load bearing wall X.. The building inspector would want to see what an SE had done and check that you'd done as they said, if you needed an SE, but you don't appear to.

Planning are mostly uninterested in what you do inside; they're concerned with what you build and how it impacts things around it. From what you've said you want to do, it doesn't appear that planning would have any interest in it.

I missed the toilet bit to start with; new foul drainage needs to comply with building regulations. Also, depending on what this wall you want to remove is separating, it may have a regulations implication.

Phone your local council building control department and ask them what you need. Alternatively, private companies can also perform building control functions if you don't want to speak to the council or think you'd get a better service from the private sector