building regs for staircases

[Mary Fisher]

Coarse emery I think. Never thought about rosin, there's still some hanging about from the kids' string instruments I should think. There's still a lot of their other jun ... er ... treasured belongings.

I doubt it. Depends what you call shapely ...

LOL!

I tell you what though - I'm very impressed by some of the stunts I see practised by skate boarders up, along and down steps. Even Spouse is - and he's very rarely impressed by anything Yoof does.

Is it going to be the next Olympic sport? It should be, there's an enormous amount of skill there.

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

But in UK?

We had a television for about three years but I can't remember when ... I seem to remember making a son watch the destruction of the Berlin wall ...

Thanks for the explanation. It makes some sense now because when we teach people how to make candles some say that 'it feels like The Generation Game' and I never liked to show my ignorance :-)

Mary

[Rod Hewitt]

"Mary Fisher" wrote in news:40819324$0$8568$ [e-mail]:

Funnily enough, I watched the building of the Berlin Wall on our first television. In Berlin. I do remember when. :-)

[Mary Fisher]

Some things are more memorable than others. I don't remember where I was when Kennedy died (which seems to be the gold standard) but I do remember where I was when I heard the report of the Cuba crisis - it was more significant. I remember where I was (playing the piano) when Lennon was shot and (in bed on a Thursday morning) when Mrs Thatcher resigned; in bed again when I heard that That Woman had been killed and in the caravan on The Isle of Arran when the report of the twin towers came through - the sun shone on the solar powered radio bringing it into sudden life.

Apart from those universal happenings I'd say that family incidents are more important.

I'm still not all that good at remembering the When though ...

Mary

[Pete C]

Ah, when you mentioned a conservation officer earlier it meant the house was listed.

Still, it's a shame to see original features go. Would it not have been better to buy a house without these features if you don't like them? You could say that it's OK to demolish 17th century cottages or pubs as the ceiling or doorways are too low and people would hurt their head...

cheers, Pete.

[Mary Fisher]

Indeed. They should only be sold to short people, at a suitable reduced price.

I'm 5'3" ...

Mary

[Andy Hall]

Which woman?

You don't have one of those clockwork ones?

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[G&M]

Nope - just living within a National Park where the conservation officers try to pretend that everything is effectively listed. Expecting a visit anyday from the jackboots about the duck pond mentioned on another thread that I've just had dug in my garden.

I'd love to have done so. Or even built a house to suit our needs from scratch. But it took over a year to even find an unlisted one with land round here large enough for what we wanted. And getting planning permission for a new build here is simply impossible.

[G&M]

I would expect 17th century stuff to be preserved and fully agree it should be listed. But 19th century is rather more common, especially late 1890s when this staircase was put in.

[big al - Peoples Pal]

I saw a few French yoof doing "free running" on channel4 last September and what they did was truly impressive. The HMS Belfast stunt jumping about 2 storeys from the bridge to the gun turrets and down was in my mind suicidal and the stunt co-ordinator said so himself, but these amazingly fit guys did it without injury and made it look easy peasy.

I just hope none of them turn into burglars or the like.

[Mary Fisher]

Named after a huntress.

It's a combined solar/clockwork one but it's better than the first we bought which only lasts for 25 minutes on one wind. I keep that in the greenhouse. The newer one is smaller and lighter and stores energy, whether mechanical or solar. Recommended. I bought it when Spouse was in hospital and he couldn't get R4 on the telly. His room faced south, it was July and it rarely needed winding. Now it goes with us in the caravan or tent.

Mary

[Pete C]

Life in a National Park must be hard :^)

I can't see why that would be a problem, but they may not allow a huge pond in a conservation area.

It works both ways, if there was no listing process or planning permission you might end up surrounded by Tudorbethan boxes and not want to live there anyway. So maybe living with these things is an acceptable price to pay.

True, but art deco buildings and town centres were considered common enough in the 60s to make way for tower blocks and ring roads, and it was seen to be 'progress' at the time.

Could you give the staircase a second chance? It's served it's purpose for 100+ years so far. My rule for such situations is to always look where I put my feet, has served me very well so far.

What sort of timber are you planning to replace it with if you don't mind me asking?

cheers, Pete.

[Owain]

"Mary Fisher" wrote | > | > There was an episode of the Generation Game where the | > | > contestants had to make a door. | > | er ... Generation Game? | > A popular televisual entertainment of the 1980s, featuring Mr | > Larry Grayson, a well-known and rather camp variety entertainer | > (whose catchphrase was, appropriately for the topic, "Shut that | door!") assisted by Isla St Clair. | Thanks for the explanation. It makes some sense now because when we | teach people how to make candles some say that 'it feels like The | Generation Game' and I never liked to show my ignorance :-)

Ah.

Explanation of the Generation Game follows.

Two relatives of different generations of the same family in each team. Three teams if I remember. An expert would demonstrate a task such as assembling a door or icing a cake, against the clock, preferably something involving manual dexterity and sticky stuff. The contestants would then have to repeat the same task in the same amount of time. Mr Grayson would rush about making 'helpful' suggestions like "Squirt some more glue all over it". At the end of the time, the expert would award points according to the level of accomplishment, trying not to be too scathing about what were obviously complete bodge-ups.

The contestant with the most points then got to sit in front of a conveyor belt along which would pass the prizes ... teasmades and the like, and of course a ubiquitous CUDDLY TOY. After the prizes had passed out of sight the contestant had to remember them all, with the audience shouting out helping. Everything the contestant remembered within 30 seconds or whatever, including the CUDDLY TOY, they got to take home.

All good clean fun on Saturday tea-time television.

Owain

[The Natural Philosopher]

Hear hear!.

Just because its old doesn't make it any bloody good.

If yiou want to see how ghastly really old hoses were vistit the open aur museum of riral life? near goodwood in west sussex.

Open fires in the centers of rooms with smokeholes in teh roof? No thank you.

nearest thng to 'en suite' is a cupboard built out over a 20 ft drop with a hole in the floor and a bucket underneath...

staircases which are essentially ladders.

The standard of a modern house in all but _appearance_ and _size_ is better than the best tudor mansion.

Take that tudor mansion, insulate it, underfloor heat it, stick in modern plumbing and lighting, and THEN you have a real house worth preserving.

[Mary Fisher]

You mean I've missed all that fun?

Ah well, I'm very pleased that someone obviously enjoyed it enough to remember it all. Including the CUDDLY TOY.

I seem to remember that on my parents' tv such conveyor belts would always include a set of travelling luggage. I'd never seen matching luggage in real life.

Still haven't, come to think of it. Perhaps no-one ever won it - or always chose the CUDDLY TOY.

Mary

[G&M]

Not for me perhaps. But for all the farmhands who can't actually afford to live there it isn't so good.

They'd rather there was nobody here at all. No homes, no farms, no sheep. Just a few walkers.

Problem with the listing process is it stagnates the farms. Farms used to build a farmhouse. Next generation that would become the barn when a new farmhouse was built. As this went on unused structures were demolished and the stone used for the new buildings. Thus farms moved from crofts, through cottages onto the farmhouses we now know. Suddenly with listing and the National Parks, this stopped dead. I live in a valley with 30% of the buildings unused and unusable, but it is impossible to get permission either to demolish them or convert them to any sensible use. If course if a demolition was allowed the replacement would have to fit in with the look of the countryside, but that isn't beyond the wit of at least a small proportion of modern architects.

And fortunately still is. Whoever tried to list the Portsmouth Unicorn should have been strung up from it.

Haven't got that far. In fact aren't going anywhere until foot mends :-) But there's a traditional staircase company working in a barn nearby so I'll get them to take a look. Maybe they can rebuild what's there a little safer which of course would fit in best of all.

[Pete C]

People who have those kind of jobs can barely afford a home anywhere. However part of the reason local homes are unaffordable is that prices have been driven up by second home owners and incomers.

True, turning them into homes is better than nothing. What would be better is to have some restriction in the title deeds to make them available to local people, so they don't end up as more holiday homes.

Anyone got a link to this on the web? I'm curious to know what it looks like.

cheers, Pete.

[Hugo Nebula]

On Thu, 15 Apr 2004 17:20:59 +0100, a particular chimpanzee named Chris J Dixon randomly hit the keyboard and produced:

I do the same (although the only SWMBO is the cat, and she isn't really paying attention).

Ironically, you CAN rip out a stair, guarding and all in an existing dwelling without having to replace it with anything which is no worse than the existing, and not fall foul of the Building Regulations.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Did you spell that last word aright?

No. I have to agree 100%. The concept of 'sympathetic evolution and preservation' needs to replace 'frozen in space time, forever'

At least for the lower grades.

Agood carpenter can make alomst anything you want. But spend some time sketching out how you want it fist.

I cotsed out a staircase from the joiners - 3 grand plus whatever the chippes charged to fit it. Got 600 quids woth of wood and the chiipoes charged about 2500 to fit it all togther perfectly. MDF where the carpet was going for strength, and oak wherever you saw it, which looks stunning.

>

[The Natural Philosopher]

I am not at all sure that is true. If making a 'material alteration' you are required to esnure that the alteration is to standards. If you merely repair iot, then thats true. But putting a new staircase in - it HAS to comply IMHO.

Staircase design was the biggest bugbear of my house in fact. I had to move the fireplaces off center to accomodate the main one. The second staircase going up to a low half storey under the eaves could only go up the house center, to meet height requirements, and ended up as a virtual spiral. You can bend the rules to breaking point with a slightly narrow staircase that winds. It uses the absolute miniumum of floor area.

It seems that you can have plenty of low ceilings in rooms, but not in staircases :-)