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Hi all - new to this forum & desperately seeking advice. We have no idea what to do, have a contractor that wants to walk away and steal our money AND a baby on the way in the next few days. 
We are currently trying to build a garage conversion. (We have a double garage in a new build home - only half of the garage will be converted). The conversion will be entered through our hallway. The level of the garage floor is exactly the same level as the internal hall (more on this later....).
We seem to have chosen a particularly bad contractor... After 5 months of complete silence from them - they sent a letter stating that they could not get a building warrant & hence could not do the work. However - they were still going to take our £700 deposit!
They have not shared with us the submission to the Council or the Council's response. They have not discussed what the problems were - or any potential solutions.
I called the council myself and spoke to the surveyor dealing with the application. He was helpful and explained that the heat / insulation calculation & resultant floor level were the biggest issues. There appears to be 4 options to be considered:
1. No floor insulation at all. We put flooring straight onto the concrete. The wall insulation compensates. (the surveyor seemed to suggest this was unlikely. He mentioned that he had not seen a compensatory calculation from our architect but he also mentioned that he had never seen anyone just put a floor straight onto the concrete because this would be a "cold bridge")
2. Dig down to create space for insulation. (this of course would be quite expensive)
3. A step - which apparently has to be 100mm high and completely within the room. (my wife doesn't think that this is going to be workable)
4. A ramp - leading up to the slightly raised floor with clear landings at the top and bottom. (this perhaps seems like the most likely option - but I have no idea how it could work in practice!)
So - my questions is - has anybody got any experience of a similar issue?
Does anybody have any advice on how it could be resolved without having to incur significant expense?
Many thanks in advance.
We are currently trying to build a garage conversion. (We have a double garage in a new build home - only half of the garage will be converted). The conversion will be entered through our hallway. The level of the garage floor is exactly the same level as the internal hall (more on this later....).
We seem to have chosen a particularly bad contractor... After 5 months of complete silence from them - they sent a letter stating that they could not get a building warrant & hence could not do the work. However - they were still going to take our £700 deposit!
They have not shared with us the submission to the Council or the Council's response. They have not discussed what the problems were - or any potential solutions.
I called the council myself and spoke to the surveyor dealing with the application. He was helpful and explained that the heat / insulation calculation & resultant floor level were the biggest issues. There appears to be 4 options to be considered:
1. No floor insulation at all. We put flooring straight onto the concrete. The wall insulation compensates. (the surveyor seemed to suggest this was unlikely. He mentioned that he had not seen a compensatory calculation from our architect but he also mentioned that he had never seen anyone just put a floor straight onto the concrete because this would be a "cold bridge")
2. Dig down to create space for insulation. (this of course would be quite expensive)
3. A step - which apparently has to be 100mm high and completely within the room. (my wife doesn't think that this is going to be workable)
4. A ramp - leading up to the slightly raised floor with clear landings at the top and bottom. (this perhaps seems like the most likely option - but I have no idea how it could work in practice!)
So - my questions is - has anybody got any experience of a similar issue?
Does anybody have any advice on how it could be resolved without having to incur significant expense?
Many thanks in advance.
