Building Regs, Planning Permission or not?

[John]

My mum has bought her council house after living in it for over 25 years. As my next project for her she wants me to 'knock' the bathroom and toilet room into one, and install a new suite, tiles etc. The toilet room only houses the toilet, I.a. no sink etc. Both rooms are upstairs and next to each other. The two rooms are separated by a stud wall, it is approx 3" wide, and is hollow all over, and as far as I can see has no load bearing purpose at all. The existing bathroom door will also be removed and blocked in using plasterboard etc. When 'opened up' the new room will measure approx 1.7 Metres by 2.4 Metres.

The stud wall has always been there while Mum has lived in the house so I don't know if it part of the original build or not. The house is approx 50 years old, and the council "did some work" on the bathroom and toilet prior to my Mum moving in so it was probably put in then. One of her friends (old fell in her swimming group, who says he was a building inspector or similar) says she will need planning permission in order to do this as she is reducing the number of rooms in the house! I cannot see this as being correct but thought I would check on here. If it helps this is the only toilet and bathroom in the house.

I will also have to change the lighting a little as the existing bathroom light is on a pull switch, but the toilet light is on a normal switch which will be inside the new bathroom. She wants only one central light and a pull cord putting in the 'toilet side' and the other one removing. I have the capabilities to do this but can I, with this new Part P regulation?

Cheers

John

[Christian McArdle]

You can do the work yourself, but you'll have to submit a building notice to the building control department and have the work inspected. You need to bring the room up to spec with regards to supplementary bonding, as well.

Christian.

[Set Square]

As far as I can see, there's not a planning issue. You're not changing the appearance from the outside, and there's no change of use of the premises - e.g. residential to commercial.

Removing the wall would come within the scope of the building regs if it is structural. So you need to make sure that it isn't supporting the roof joists. If you can find evidence that it wasn't in the original build, this would be fairly conclusive. Are the adjacent houses built to the same design?

I rather fear that the electrical changes would come within the scope of the new Part P regs. If I were doing it myself, I'd use some of my stock of old-colour cable, and pretend that I'd done it prior to Jan 1!

[Mike Harrison]

Of course you _can_ do it, but according to the govt you now _may_ not without involving building control.

[Mike Harrison]

New colours have been generally available for several months so no need to use old colours

[John]

I am not a structural engineer etc. but as far as I can see the wall isn't supporting the joists. The joists and wall run in the same direction and the wall is between two joists

This may prove difficult, you know what councils are like!

I will ask next door if I can have a butchers at theirs next time I'm at my Mums.

My thoughts exactly!!

Cheers

John

[Lobster]

colours

Sure, but old colours would be preferable to avoid highlighting the newly-done work to anybody carrying out an inspection, won't it? And you can bet that 5 years down the line, any new colour-ed wiring will be assumed to have been installed after 1/1/05 unless it can be proved otherwise!

David

[quisquiliae]

John wrote:>

The wall is probably original if the house is anything like the one I grew up in. What is on the floor imediately below? Probably a kitchen covering the whole area of your proposed combined room. ie your new layout will be the same as the ground floor plan. In which case i is very likely the wall is not supportng anything

Don't think bathrooms etc count as 'rooms' in this context. Adding extra rooms would be another matter.

[John Rumm]

So the wall is just sat on the floor then? If so then pretty conclusive that it is not load bearing.

[Mike]

And the ventilation up to the latest standards as well.

[Owain]

"Set Square" wrote [slightly re-ordered] | John wrote: | > As my next project for her she wants me to 'knock' the | > bathroom and toilet room into one, and install a new | > suite, tiles etc. ... The two rooms are separated by a | > stud wall, it is approx 3" wide, and is hollow all | > over, and as far as I can see has no load bearing purpose at all. | Removing the wall would come within the scope of the building regs | if it is structural.

Walls between rooms, and changing the layout of rooms, closing up doors etc, is subject to building regulations irrespective of whether the wall is 'structural' or not.

| > I will also have to change the lighting a little as the existing | > bathroom light is on a pull switch, but the toilet light is on a | > normal switch which will be inside the new bathroom. She | > wants only one central light and a pull cord putting in the | > 'toilet side' and the other one removing. I have the capabilities | > to do this but can I, with this new Part P regulation?

As you will need to make a B Regs application for removing the wall and closing up a door anyway, simply add the wiring to the same application. Then you may do the work yourself.

Owain