"Oh....that's a temporary structure. The vendor's have confirmed that the managing agent plan to remove it shortly"
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Saw this photo of a house on RM
- Thread starter mike42
- Start date
It may have been to facilitate scaffold for a loft conversion, but that would be equally as bonkers as my first suggestion.
If you're looking to buy a flat with that sort of budget then do yourself a massive favour and buy a freehold house instead, perhaps somewhere cheaper.
I attempted to find planning documents but it won't display search results without a door number, and the numbering makes no sense at all when I looked on Streetview.
But it looks hellish! A vacant shop below, a chip shop next door one way and a pub the other way.
I'm guessing the rooftop thing at the top is probably heat pumps for the shop.
But it looks hellish! A vacant shop below, a chip shop next door one way and a pub the other way.
I'm guessing the rooftop thing at the top is probably heat pumps for the shop.
This appears to be from the latest (approved) planning application but the beams aren't present on the drawings, the balcony barrier on the drawing is a railing yet now it's a parapet wall, perhaps it's a structure to hold the parapet up, most peculiar.
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Oh yes, just saw the horizontal strap across the top of the parapet about halfway up the crazy metal things. Can't tell what's supporting what though!
Someone spent a lot of time or money making them. Precisely made, lots of welding. Galvanised too. There must have been a good reason for them, they'd have cost £1000s.
I can't see any reason why they couldn't have rebuilt the roof using just standard scaffolding. I'm sure they could have put normal posts up from the ground and spanned the balcony. Perhaps with some of those taller joist things they use sometimes.
The previous plans were dated 2010. I'm sure they'd have removed any temporary related stuff by now. Unless they just couldn't be bothered I suppose.
Someone spent a lot of time or money making them. Precisely made, lots of welding. Galvanised too. There must have been a good reason for them, they'd have cost £1000s.
I can't see any reason why they couldn't have rebuilt the roof using just standard scaffolding. I'm sure they could have put normal posts up from the ground and spanned the balcony. Perhaps with some of those taller joist things they use sometimes.
The previous plans were dated 2010. I'm sure they'd have removed any temporary related stuff by now. Unless they just couldn't be bothered I suppose.
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You can often get it from comparing with the EPC records.
I guess we could ask FMT how he go it.
That does look like the most likely reason - the parapet wall surrounds a balcony, so people could lean on/over it, with a fair bit of force. Also it will have a DPC under it so will have little or no adhesion to the wall below. So it could get pushed over/off if people leaned on it.
They possibly worked this out after building. This sort of safety risk would justify the pretty big cost involved in making them, it was this or people could have got injured or died, with massive consequences for the owner. The only other alternatives would be removing the wall and replacing with railings (huge re-work), or flying buttresses from the ground.
If the agents have said it's temporary then they're probably doing the thing they're famous for - making stuff up and lying, saying what buyers want to hear, with great confidence and certainty.
They possibly worked this out after building. This sort of safety risk would justify the pretty big cost involved in making them, it was this or people could have got injured or died, with massive consequences for the owner. The only other alternatives would be removing the wall and replacing with railings (huge re-work), or flying buttresses from the ground.
If the agents have said it's temporary then they're probably doing the thing they're famous for - making stuff up and lying, saying what buyers want to hear, with great confidence and certainty.
Having said all of that, it has return walls at each end and probably one in the middle between the two separate flats. So I'm not sure. Perhaps just a strap along its length would have been sufficient if this was the reason.
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