Conservatory

[amwc]

I am just wondering if a conservatory installer has to meet any regulations when he is building a conservatory. As far as i can find out they can do as they want as a conservatory is classed as no more than a shed. I have had one installed and they used hardly any foundations less than I would on a shed and it seams this is fine?

 

[^woody^]

There are (building)regulations to cover the glazing and what must be done to make it exempt from other building regualtions. There are consumer regulations for the glazing and performance in the context of supplied goods and services.

But otherwise it all depends what you specified in your contract, and whether the conservatory performs with your specifications under contract.

Whilst various British Standards will apply to various parts of the build, it is only when something goes wrong that you can claim for sub-standard work, and then only under contract law and alledge negligence.

So yes the foundations may well be fine right up until the point the conservatory moves and then they are not fine.

 

[amwc]

Thanks woody
That's what happened
Too many trees about and the soil has moved and taken part of the conservatory with it.
I can say that the foundations were not deep enough but as its not regulated does it matter?

 

[^woody^]

What you would do is infer that the work was not up to common building practice as would be expected. To do this, you would reference the relevent standards for whatever has failed (say BS8004 for foundation design, or BS 8000 for workmanship) or something like the NHBC Standards - and argue that although they don't apply per-se, building to the standards are a sign of acceptible practice from any firm or person doing any building work.

This has to be done via a claim of negligence under your contract (duty of care under common law), as a civil claim. The firm may well have their own opinion - eg "the foundations were adequate and to the customer's approval and I've never had this happen in 30 years of building. It's that big tree he planted.", and so you would need expert witness reports to guide any judge as to who's version of events is the most probable and correct.

If the firm is a member of a trade association then you may get some assitance there.

The council's trading standards will only get involved in clear cut cases, and not where issues hinge on a technical or design factor - ie it needs to be a complete and obvious rip-off before they will help.

 

[Notch7]

Thanks woody
That's what happened
Too many trees about and the soil has moved and taken part of the conservatory with it.
I can say that the foundations were not deep enough but as its not regulated does it matter?

you can get an idea what the foundation should be by using the NHBC foundation calculator

If you have an oak tree within 5 metres and you have shrinkable soil -you may have a nasty surprise.
If you have good ground maybe 1 metre would be ok (but would need a soil test with close trees).

deep foundation requirements may have made the conservatory not cost effective -but you shouldve found that before it was built.

 

[Leofric]

or something like the NHBC Standards - and argue that although they don't apply per-se, building to the standards are a sign of acceptible practice from any firm or person doing any building work.

Couldn't agree more but unfortunately they won't apply to the conservatory.

you can get an idea what the foundation should be by using the NHBC foundation calculator

Couldn't agree more about working to NHBC Standards but the conservatory company won't have bothered about such things unfortunately.

 

[amwc]

Hi
Thanks for the replies
There should definitely be regs for these as some are pretty expensive and soon become an eyesore which instead of adding to a house can devalue it all due to the fact that an installer can do what they want

 

[Leofric]

Hi
Thanks for the replies
There should definitely be regs for these as some are pretty expensive and soon become an eyesore which instead of adding to a house can devalue it all due to the fact that an installer can do what they want

I suppose that is an argument against Permitted Development which is a Planning matter of course. The suitability of foundations would need to come under other regulations/standards as others have stated.
What are the foundations exactly, I don't think you said ?

 

[amwc]

The foundations are strip foundations probably 200 mm of concrete and about 500 deep into clay with conifers close by.

 

[Leofric]

Presume the 200mm is the thickness of the concrete strip foundation but you don't give the width ,but in any case at only 500mm deep into clay with conifers close by - google drying shrinkage ,zone of influence of trees and foundations, NHBC Standards 4.2 I think but check.