DIY madness, or are exposed RSJ's the fashion ?

[Andrew]

Here is a house for sale with an interesting 'feature'

You'd think that the local authority would be interested but the female who answered the phone only wanted to know what the address of the property was. I told her the estate agents listing only shows the road name, and she could see the offending work by simply looking at Cubitt & Wests website, but no, without an exact address she wasn't going to pay any interest.

Her "is it dangerous ?"

Me "It's an exposed RSJ right near the chip pan fire"

Her "Oh well if we had the address I could check to see if the work has been signed off"

Me "I doubt if you have any record of this work at all"

Typical useless council employees.

Odd that the owner didn't paint it with coloured Hammerite or metallic paint or summat.

[Andy Burns]

Double layer of PB or one layer of pink (fire-rated) PB?

[The Other John]

I doubt if a chip pan fire would hurt it, but if you flew a plane into it... ;)

[John Rumm]

Why were you contacting the local authority in the first place? If you want to buy the place, then that is the kind of stuff to resolve during conveyancing.

You seem to be are assuming it is actually structural and not just a decorative feature. If it is structural, you are assuming its not protected by an intumescent coating or perhaps backed up by an additional RSJ above the ceiling which you can't see.

Probably been trained how to spot "difficult" customer's and send them on their way in a non aggressive way ;-)

[Tim Lamb]

You could clad it in timber but I don't know what thickness gives 30 mins. fire resistance.

>

[Tim Watts]

If the damn house is on fire, who's going to stay in it long enough for the RSJ to collapse? This is not 9/11 - 1000 gallons of aviation fuel are not going to hit that. Relative to the time PB takes to burn through.

[Andy Burns]

But it might make the difference between a few weeks to re-fit and redecorate a couple of rooms vs a few months to rebuild half the house?

[Tim Watts]

If you warp an RSJ, it's not going to be a few weeks...

[Andy Burns]

If protected by 1/2" of plasterboard, I'd hope the fire service arrived in time to prevent that happening ...

[GB]

I can answer that: the firemen.

[ARW]

Well it's number 9.

[ARW]

No PP that I can see

[Andy Burns]

PP wouldn't be necessary, but no BR approval that I can see

[Brian Gaff]

Surely, when a prospective buyer shows interest, then somebody will ask the right questions and know the address. I'm sure many councils have quite enough on their plate without looking for trouble. Brian

[Jack James]

Takes less than a day to replace a warped one.

[Graham.]

What about the erotic driftwood sculptures in the bedroom?

[Vir Campestris]

On a house that size I suspect feature.

Andy

[tabbypurr]

Imagine you have her job. "Hello someone's broken a rule but I don't know where" is wasting her time.

[alan_m]

Only if the buyer gets a full survey by someone with a clue and not one of those buyer surveys which is no better than a drive by to ensure that the property is worth the purchase price. On the legal side, searches will find no evidence of planning or approval and this will be OK because no-one has asked them anything about searching for RSJ related matters.

[Tim Watts]

Would a kitchen fire dealt with in 30 mins would do much to an RSJ???

Serious question - whenever I've worked with lumps of metal and fire, it's taken quite some time with a gas forge to get a bit of inch+half bar red hot. And a kitchen fire in the start is not a gas forge.

All I'm saying - is whilst not to regs, is there really much to worry about as this is not a high rise all steel structure.