changing a conservatory

[jcmorrison]

I currently have a conservatory but I'm interested in turning it into an extension for all year use, there are a couple of things I would like to know regarding building regs, if anyone knows
I suspect the floor may not meet with regs regarding heat insulation although I'm not sure, if it doesn't is there a way round this? and would the foundations be able to support changing from a conservatory to an extension, there is currently a dwarf wall on what I remember being deep foundations.
would it be possible to get around problems if they exist using the same template to turn the conservatory into a ground floor extension?
any help would be greatly appreciatted

 

[noseall]

We started a dig today (Wed 4th Nov) that had a connie on a similar footprint to the new extension.

The existing foundations were not exactly shallow but were no where near wide enough or deep enough to satisfy reg's. I wasted no time and hoofed the lot out.

There are few conservatory foundations, that i have seen, that will satisfy reg's. You may be lucky but it will involve digging a test hole so that labc can have a squint.

Ideally the concrete needs to be 150mm wider than the wall on each face. So, for a 300mm wide cavity wall you are looking at 600mm wide foundations that have a trench bottom about 1m down.

 

[jcmorrison]

thanks for the reply, from memory, I think my foundations may struggle to match up to what you say is required, obviously i would need to have a test done to confirm this, do you have a rough guide to how much these tests cost?

 

[noseall]

A test hole is simple enough.

You dig down the side of the footings thus exposing the concrete, making sure you expose the concrete bottom. This may have to be done in two or more locations. You then ring building control to have a look.