Building notice: plans help equired

[burygas]

Hi

I am having a small extension 3m x 3m to the rear of my bungalow.

I am not required to get planning permission,under permitted developments.

I will need plans for building control,can these be done yourself with a little help .

The architects i have rung want £450 this seems way over the top.

Or anyone on here help out for a fee?

 

[burygas]

Please help.

Do you need drawings for work on a building notice,my extension will be built by tradesmen.
So as long as it is built to current regulation as no planning approval is required,should the building inspector just check it throug each stage. IE ;will they still do the inspetions without drawings?

 

[Richard C]

Employing an Architect is way over the top for such a small & you don’t need that; if you make your submission under a Building Notice with stage inspections you don’t need Architectural plans just simple scale drawings/sketches, if anything at all.

As for the drawings, you can make a decent & acceptable enough job on sheets of A4 using a pencil & scale rule, even freehand as long as it doesn’t look like a spider has crawled over the page! You can make it look much more professional by using “MS Visio” & I used this for all my Planning & BR submission drawings. If you feel it’s beyond you & you want decent drawings for quotation purposes, you can usually find someone advertising drawing services in you local paper; these guys are usually Architects Technicians (draughtsman) who do all the donkey work anyway but at much lower cost.

When you start work, make sure it’s quiet clear exactly who will be responsible for LABC inspections; if you want your builder to organise & take care of it, you must make it clear from the outset, when he quotes for the job.

 

[mikric]

Some good advice there from Richardc. Yes save your money and go the building notice route if you have trust in your builder but make sure you understand the specs etc required.The best method if you are project managing yourself is to be on site at each inspection stage, that way you should not get the shock most people get when the LA will not sign it off due to not being called in by the builder.
Give your LA a call and ask them to give you some pre submission advice and go through your project with them . It is free at this stage
I would be surprised if you even need to do a sketch for this.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

To be fair whether an extension is 3x3 or 10x3 you essentially do the same amount of work, I'd do a plan and section, a detail through the floor where new floor meets the new, detail through the floor for the new external wall, a detail for the new eaves and where the new roof meets the wall I'd also include a set of notes inc spec of lintels, glazing, insulation etc, doing the forms for building control, postage, a site visit or 2. It all adds up. Its a misnomer that every jobs the same. If you wanted a set of drawings to give to a few different builders you'd be naive to do it without a set of drawings. As a private job I'd prob charge about £250. If an extension like this cost I don't know £10-15k, £250 is only 2.5%. If this is what you'd get for your £450 I don't think thats a bad price if its a firm with all of its overheads. As mentioned by mikric the key to doing it on a notice is trust in your builder.

Edited for grammer

 

[^woody^]

If you submit a notice, then its highly unlikely that you will need any drawings for a standard extension.

You just need to ensure that the builders know the required b/regs standards - eg 1000mm deep footings, suitable insulation in the floor/wall/roof, suitable sized timbers etc.

You will also need to sort out who will take responsibility for the work if the BCO wants changes.

The BCO will just inspect at the normal (5) stages, at which time you can discuss proposals for the next stage of the work

 

[Richard C]

To be fair whether an extension is 3x3 or 10x3 you essentially do the same amount of work, I'd do a plan and section, a detail through the floor where new floor meets the new, detail through the floor for the new external wall, a detail for the new eaves and where the new roof meets the wall I'd also include a set of notes inc spec of lintels, glazing, insulation etc, doing the forms, building control postage a site visit or 2. Its a misnomer that every jobs the same. If you wanted a set of drawings to give to a few different builders you'd be naive to do it without a set of drawings. As a private job I'd prob charge about £250. If an extension like this cost I don't know £10-15k, £250 is only 2.5%. If this is what you'd get for your £450 I don't think thats a bad price if its firm with all of its overheads. As mentioned by mikric the key to doing it on a notice is trust in your builder.

I purposely didn’t comment on the price as I agree that the size of the extension (up to a point) is not relevant to the amount of work/time involved; I also believe £450 would be a very fair price for preparing the necessary drawings, calculations & documents for a Full Submission. But in reality, a straight forward, 3 x 3 extension just doesn’t warrant it & providing he gets a good, experienced builder & takes a keen interest, he shouldn’t have many problems.

 

[^woody^]

The other reason for drawings is that they will form part of the contract and define what is being done for the price.

So both parties will know where they stand in terms of what is, and is not included for the quoted price - which will avoid arguments later.

 

[noseall]

£450 can be a small price to pay for peace of mind.

fall in with the wrong builder and things can get messy.

extras will mysteriously crop up and things may get overlooked.

if you seek prices and want a non-ambiguous quote from more than one builder then a regs's drawing or specification is essential.

i have done both and would always advise for ink and paper.