Lintel requirement

[marpate1]

Hi all,

We are considering removing the exising wall between the kitchen and conservatory. Prior to applying for building regs, I'd like to understand how easily this can be done and rough cost for materials.

The kitchen is a single story flat roofed structure and the wall in question spans approx 12ft and currently hoses a 5ft window and one 32" door frame (and in reality only the 2ft of wall between the two would be removed), but the lintel must obviously cover the whole span and provide support for the 5 coarses of bricks above and the weight of the flat roof.

Any comments?

Thanks, Mark

[Guy King]

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I don't think they'll let you. The heat loss rules will almost certainly insist that there's a wall or external-grade heat and draught-proof doors.

[marpate1]

Oh, that really screws my plans though.

Are these regs recent additions as I know of two other properties with a similar configuration ... unless the owners removed the doors after the inspection ;)

Thanks, Mark

[Guy King]

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Part L - came in last year IIRC. Certainly when the woman came to look at my plans last summer she said I couldn't take the window and wall out to replace with doors unless they were insulated and draughtproofed. Unless the insulation of the conservatory was of such an extraordinarily high standard (in practice unattainable) or I raised the standard of the rest of the house (impractical) to compensate.

[Matt]

Precisely, the test applied was something along the lines of "can you remove the conservatory and still maintain the thermal and weatherproofing qualities of the original house" I mentioned this in here a while back and someone said they managed to get an interior quality door past building control.

[Andrew]

What you seem to be saying is: they will probably let you do things if at the same time you take steps to increase the thermal efficiancy of the rest of the house. Is this correct?

The reason that I ask is that with the price of gas having gone up yet again I was contemplating putting in cavity wall insulation. However this makes me wonder whether I would be better delaying installation so that I could use it to offset any thermal inefficiancies due to adding an extension, especially if I want a lot of glass in said extension.

If so then it all seems a bit silly. Governement regulations encoraging people to delay energy saving measures. But then this is the same governement that brought in Part P so what are we to expect.

Andrew

[sm_jamieson]

Will it still officially be a conservatory, or just a badly insulated extension. And planning rules are different for a conservatory that an extension. I don't know what the building / planning would make of it. Having said that, I know several people who have just taken off the doors without telling building control. I've decided to do all future work by the book, due to the sellers pack coming out in 2007 etc, All the best, Simon.

[Guy King]

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As I understand it, yes, but the offset is rarely practicable - or so the nice lady from the planning department said.

[Guy King]

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The planning person who visited my place said "It's an extension, isn't it." I blustered a bit and she said "Oh, it's OK, as long as you jump through all the hoops to make it a conservatory it's perfectly OK"

[marpate1]

Hoops? Please enlighten me :)