When are building regs required?

[ambercelery]

Hi guys

I'm writing on here for some advice as I have a number of relatively large jobs to do in my house and want to know which if any I need to apply to building regulations for before I start the work (or before I get the professionals in)

Here is a list of the work I want to get done - please let me know if there is anything i need to do as far as getting plans drawn up, structural engineers in - or building regulation plans submitted and inspectors around. Or do all of the tasks need building regs to be involved i.e. I cant make a start on anything yet?

1) I am knocking my kitchen and dining room into one room - this will involve taking down 2 supporting walls and putting RSJ's in their place.

2) I am wanting to move an upstairs wall (between bathroom and spare bedroom) to enlarge the bathroom by about a foot. The current wall is solid but is not supporting so should be able to come out easily. I want to replace this (can it be breezeblock? or does it have to be stud wall??)

3) I am wanting to replace my current kitchen window - with one that is slightly larger than the current one. This will require removal of the old lintel and putting a new one in. Does this require building regs?

4) Similar to (3), I want to replace my old back door and dining room window with a large french door with 2 glass side panels. This will involve removing 2 lintels and replacing with 1 large one.

5) Finally, as the upstairs bathroom will be a bit larger, we want to move things around a bit. Also as the current waste pipe from the upstairs toilet goes out of the wall and runs down a large pipe down the exterior back wall and into the sewer - we will need to move this waste pipe and create a new channel to the sewer because the current waste pipe comes down the wall in the middle of where we want the new french door. Therefore we want to move the large pipe about 1.5 metres to the side.

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

 

[noseall]

i would say points 1, 3, 4 & 5 do warrant building reg's.

you may also need calculations for the steel supporting beam. a structural engineer would be useful for this task.

 

[ModernMaterials]

Sounds to me like you need the knowledge and experience of a reputable building contractor.

In my experience, digging new manholes is not to be taken lightly and nor is the insertion of an rsj (ouch)

What makes you so certain that wall that you mention isnt load-bearing?
You need someone to give you a second opinion i think.

Get 3 quotes for the whole job before you decide to go it aloneand ha=ve a chat with your local authority building control..is my advice.

 

[simoniris]

Agree with noseall & modernmaterials.
Building regs a yes [while a fensa contactor could do the window replacement they are unlikely to take responsibilty for the other element where an opening needs to be altered so becomes a BC issue. Structural engineer a yes - definitely for replacing walls with beams, you'll need calculations for beam section & bearing sizes.
Moving your manhole can be a diy job and if a standalone thing then building regs could be avoided - however lump all your jobs together as one application and that way you can rest assured you won't do anything dangerous - well, get away with it anyway. If you're getting close to the sewer main then you get into the territory of the water board. You can't touch their infrastructure so it may be that you have to form your new manhole further down the existing line rather than across from where it is now and dig your new drain to that.
Your new wall upstairs should be stud - imagine the existing solid wall is directly above / continuation of one on the GF. If the new one is going elsewhere it won't be supported. A SE will be able to confirm the existing wall is not load bearing but you could make the same investigations, go into your loft and check it is not supporting the ends of ceiling joists or long ones mid span, also that there is no masonry built above it or water tanks etc sitting on it.