You can usually do alot of work to your property without getting planning permission. Here are a few points on what you can do but please CHECK FIRST.

1. As mentioned in other “Certificate of lawfulness” blogs you can do dormers/ Dormer windows as long as they’re below the ridge height, not on the front roof slope and under your 50 or 70 cubic metre limit for extending the house. CHECK FIRST to make sure there are no hidden extensions that you didn’t know about as it could cost you dearly in the long term…

2. Aerials, up two slandered sizes are allowed either satellite dishes, TV aerials or similar equipment. (Except large communal dishes) Please CHECK FIRST as other criteria may apply.

3. Oil storage tanks holding less than 3,500 litres, and less than 3 metres high. They also have to be placed either in line or behind the front wall of the house.

4. Gates, Walls or Fences to the front of the property under Permitted Development have to be less then 1 metre high next to a road used by vehicles and allowed to be 2 metres high every where else.

5. Garages less than 5 metres from the house count as an extension. so the whole garage will have to be taken into account. If the garage was built at the same time as the house or built pre 1949 then the council will class the garage as an existing structure. If the garage is more than 5 metres from the house then it will be classed as a shed.

6. Sheds, Greenhouses and Garages (see above) are more than 5 metres from the house will be classed as permitted development. This is only if they are built 3 metres high (4 metres from the ridge height if it is a sloped roof) and if the structure is covering less then 50% of the garden.

7. New Windows (including Velux roof lights in the front slope) and Doors to the house are aloud to be maintained and painted or replaced but please CHECK to make sure you’re not living in a listed building.

8. Porches to the front of the property less than 3 square metres in floor area, no more then 3 metres high and more than 2 metres from a footpath or public road.

9. Block paving or Hard standing to the front of the house .

PLEASE NOTE THAT OTHER CONSENTS MAY BE NEEDED SUCH AS BUILDING REGULATIONS OR IF YOUR HOUSE IS A LISTED BUILDING OR IN A CONSERVATION AREA. OCCASIONALLY MORE RESTRICTIVE RULES DO APPLY IN SOME COUNCIL BOROUGHS SO PLEASE DO CHECK FIRST.

Permitted development is an allowance in which you can extend your property without having to achieve planning permission.

For a detached or semi-detached property an allowance of 70 cubic metres is allowed in total (only 50 cubic meters of the 70 are allowed for the loft)

And for a terrace or end of terrace an allowance of 50 cubic metres is allowed in total (only 40 cubic meters are allowed in the loft.)

e.g If you lived in a semi detached that already has a rear extension of around 30 cubic metres. This property would have 40 cubic metres left for the loft conversion. If the rear extension was only 18 cubic metres then you would still have the total amount of 50cu metres to use for the loft.

If you lived in a terrace house with an extension of 20 cubic metres then you would have 30 cubic metres left for the loft.

Please note that a listed building or a conservation area has it’s permitted development rights completely removed, and will always need planning permission.

Summary of changes in new approved document B, Volume 1 Dwelling houses in which will affect building a loft conversion.

This will become a major problem for the Loft conversion industry and for the customers wanting to convert there lofts.

You can read my fire regs post to see how the regs stand at the present date (pre April 7th 2007) but for every one who hasn’t or wont have time to serve the initial notice to the local authority before 7th April, will have to now build the loft to the new approved Document B.

These fire regs have been divided into two Volumes; Volume 1 covers Dwelling houses which is for houses, and Volume 2 is for every thing else including flats.

New Provisions that have been introduced are as follows:

The rescue window at the front of the house normally called the Velux M08 emergency velux has now been considered impractical. This window was designed for fire fighters to erect a ladder from the outside to rescue you in case of a fire. Now its known as impractical and unsuitable. In some peoples minds this will be a good thing as once its installed it is very low to the floor of the loft. This becomes a safety hazzard in itself due to infants or small children being able to open the window so high (around 5m high on average) and could fall out.

But when there’s a good point with the regs you can almost definitely expect something else to now be 10 times worse.

All the doors that divide the stairscase from living rooms (habitable rooms not including w.c’s, bathrooms or shower rooms) will need to be replaced with rated FD20 Fire doors.

This will be a nightmare for all those original Victorian and Edwardian doors that are part of the original character of the house. What’s been designed is a special fire paint that will upgrade your original doors to this new standard.

Self closing devices are no longer needed on all the doors because the government know that owners are removing them because children where constantly trapping fingers and/or the automatic closers were becoming annoying to live with. And so once removed the regulation was ineffective.

This is why FD20′s are now essential.

The next ammendment is in open plan ground floors of private dwellings, the area will need to be enclosed (which is how the old document stands now) or you will need to provide sprinklers on the ground floor and separate the stairs at first floor level to provide a suitable escape from a window on the first floor in the case of a fire on the ground floor.

Smoke alarms are now required to all circulation spaces on all floors and will all have to be mains wired with a battery back up.

If you want to avoid changing all your doors or avoid painting them with a thick coat of fire paint to upgrade them, make sure you either start work on site or serve your initial building notice to your local authority on or before the 6th of April 2007.

If you do, this means you will be able to still build under the old approved document B regulations if it is what you want to do…

See our Building regs Category for more deatils.

GPR stands for Glass reinforced plastic and is made from very fine fibres of glass that once bonded results in a composite material properly called FRP. Fibre reinfored polymer “Fibreglass” as it’s more commonly known, is an amazing material and once layed onto your roof it has been said in the industry that it will never leak…

Topseal is one of the countries leading GRP roofers and really worth a quotation. Visit www.topseal.co.uk to find out more.

A typical 25m2 roof can usually be completed within 1 day, and can be finished in many colours. There are two options that are avalible for different uses, for a dormer roof I would recommend the 450gm of glass content as the 600gm even though more expensive, was desinged for heavy foot traffic such as roof terraces/gardens.

A fiberglass roof will last the life of the building and with a standered 20 year guarentee with most suppliers you will never have to worry about leeks again.

The only thing that might happen is that the fibreglasse’s colour pigment may fade but you’re never really going to notice as most flat roofs aren’t visible. Just make sure you speak to your builder about choosing the right colour edging strips as this is the only piece that can be seen from the ground.

A Re roof is when all the tiles are replaced with new tiles that match the exsisting surroundings and adjoining neigbours. (this picture is a great example of a good re roof compared to the adjoining roofs)

When having the loft converted it is usually a good time to consider having a re roof, especially if the old tiles are on their final years. Whilst the scaffolding is up and the tiler is already on site, it is really worth paying the extra even though the loft is costing you alot already, to stretch to pay for something that needs doing will never be something you will live to regret. The last thing you will want is to not go ahead with the re roof and in 1 or 2 years time have to pay 3,4 or 5 times the amount you were quoted when the loft was being done. Especially if water damage has ruined your new bedroom and after ringing the builder or loft company you find out they wont pay out on your guarentee because you were advised to have a re roof at the time of build. This is where the costs may get a bit nasty.

HOWEVER always get at least two opinions about a re roof, and even two quotes would be a good idea…

Your builder however nice he is could be telling a few porkies about the roof so do be careful, and dont waste money on a job that doesn’t need doing.

Cost’s for re roof on a standard mid terrace house at 5m wide, if you deal direct with the roofer could cost you around £1500 to £1700 to tile and battern the front slope. The rear slope is normally included in the price of the conversion but make sure before going ahead.

 This picture just shows what a house will look like if corners are cut. You can see that the builder has just changed the tiles that have shattered when installing the new Velux’s. For the sake of £800 (approx) the front of this house could be looking brand new and possibly the best on the street. Instead it now looks the worst… 

Here are a few roof’s that have had lofts done but didn’t need re roofs so i thought you could compare the quality of your tiles to these pictures, and make you own mind up on needing a re roof. PLEASE SEEK PROFESSIONAL ADVISE ON THIS MATTER.

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Fire Doors
Fire resisting doors also known as FD20/30′s are vital to contain smoke in a room for a sufficient time for you to become aware of the fire and able to evacuate the building safely and efficientley.

There must be 1/2 hour fire resitant partitions to separate the landing from the rooms in the new loft conversion, and the doors around the stairs must be fire check doors, and be fitted with door closers.
The code which is numbered either 20 or 30 of the fire door defines the time span of how long that door will survive in the case of a fire. The doors rating will be decided by your building inspector, and will be on your plans for the builder.

An FD20 is a fire door that lasts for 20 minutes in the case of a fire. normally 40mm thick, solid or compressed wood and will also need a door closer near the hinge so that the door will close automatically.

This is a picture of a door closer that would need to be installed on the back of all the doors around the stairs to meet building regs. 

An FD30 is a 30 minute fire door and from the end of May 2007, word of mouth between Building Inspectors is that all doors around the stairs will have to now be upgraded to FD30′s.

This is not good news for all the owners of beautiful Victorian and Edwardian houses with their original doors that are part of the history and character of their house… 

We believe that there will be a special paint that the existing doors can be covered in to give them the fire protection to meet the new fire regs. For more details ask your builder or Building control officer.

This regulation also goes for any glass in existing doors around the stairs, it will need to be replaced with either a wired glass, the sort of glass that is found in most schools. (click on the picture to enlarge the sample) This is the cheapest sort of fire glass at around £150 per m2 but looks quite cheap. The second grade of fire glass is called Pyroglass and even though it’s more expensive at around £300 per m2 it looks like real glass, It is basically the same glass that is used in oven facias. You buy all the fire glass made to measure and fitting would cost around £50 or so direct with your builder. You must really love your existing doors to take up this option…

Unfortunately this also means any glass panels above doors including fan lights, glass blocks or any sort of gap between a room and stairs will all have to be blocked up permanently either by plasterboard and plaster or fire glass.

If the glass is fire proof it will have a fire proof rating stamp in one of the bottom corners etched with the British Standered BSI kite mark (see picture) triangle. Next to the Kite mark will be an ISO number similar to this BS EN ISO 12543. This specifies the grade of the glass that has been installed. This will all be checked by the inspector before it’s passed off. Visit British Standards at www.bsistandards.co.uk for more infomation.   

This doesn’t effect doors that are not directly onto the stair area e.g between the lounge and dinning room. These doors can be normal glass.

Staircase Enclosure

A full staircase enclosure is needed from the new loft room/s, down to the front door to provide the first means of escape should a fire start in your house.

The stair enclosure is a major part of the fire regs, and to get all your building regulation certificates at the end of the build you will need the fire escape signed off by your inspector.

This enclosure is designed so if a fire happened there will be an escape from the new bedroom in the loft right down to the ground floor without going through any other living room that could be on fire.

If you have an open plan ground floor this will need enclosing to meet with all fire regulations.

There are 3 ways of doing this:

1. One way is to put a wall from the bottom of the stairs to the front door. As this is classed as part of the new building works being done to the house, the door into the lounge or kitchen (or where ever the wall has divided) this door will have to be a fire door normally called an FD20.

2. The second way is to put a temporary wall in to meet fire regulations and make it look like it’s permanent and then take it down once it’s been signed off by the inspector. I don’t agree with this solution as the reg’s are there for a reason but lot’s of people do take it down. 

Please note that this could effect your home insurance and invalidate your policy so please do be careful.

Also when you sell your house and the survey is being done on your property it will come up as a major issue on your buyers report. This could affect the sale of the property as well.

3. The third way is to install a fire sprinkler system. It is a fantastic option but is the most expensive. If the stairs go up to the 1st floor in an area where you can’t really put a wall this may be the only option the Building control will allow you to do.

Please note that you cannot knock a wall down around the stairs making it open plan after applying for building regs approval. The Building control will only make you rebuild it which will just be a pain and a waste of money. I suggest that if you want to remove a wall between the stairs and a lounge or kitchen, you have your builders do this before involving the building control. You will have to make it look like its been like this for a while (a year or two) and then you should get away with this. You will still need to have fire sprinklers to pass the loft. If you try to ask for sprinklers when you have a perfectly good wall there already, it will ruin any chance you haveof having it removed in the future as your building control officer will now be aware.    

Rescue Windows
A window should be set on the front of the roof to be used as a means of escape the most commonly used window is an M08 Velux (see Velux post for sizes).

The size of the window when open should be at least 550mm wide x 800mm high. And this needs to be in the new room NOT on the landing, this is because it is meant as a means of escape if the stairs and landings become filled with smoke.

There should be enough space for the fire brigades ladder direct from the ground and pitched at a 3 in 1 angle.

Smoke Alarms
Smoke alarms should be fitted in the stairway, one in the hallway, one in the landing and one in the new loft conversion, this is the minimum standard. They should be mains powered, and they can be connected to the lighting circuits, that way there are no batteries to replace.

Staircases
The stairs are where most accidents happen in the home, so it’s important that the new stairs are safe, and the existing stairs are not made unsafe. At least 2.0m headroom is needed over the exsiting stairs. The new stairs headroom can be reduced which might allow the flight to fit under a hipped roof.

The landing should be the same width as the stairs, and there is no minimum width for the stairs, a width of 750-800mm works well, and doors must open away from the stairs.

The New Loft
If the dormer is less than 1.0m from the party wall the side of the dormer must provide 1/2 hour fire resistance from inside and outside

Eaves ventilation, at least 25000mm squared per linear metre, equivalent to a continiuos 25mm ventilation gap.
Ridge ventilation, at least 5000mm squared per linear metre, equivalent to a continious 5mm ventilation gap.

A 50mm air gap must be left above the insulation, so the roof joists need to be at least 150mm deep, and because rafters are usually 100mm deep, they need 50mm battening under them. This is because water vapour rises through the ceilings and can condense out, above the insulation which can cause structural damage and unsightly stains.

Planning permission will need to be obtained from your local authority prior to building work if the property in question does not have any permitted development allowance as this has been used up, or your permitted development rights have been removed.

To apply for plannng permission you will need to either go online to the Planning Portal, or download a copy of their application forms from their local site e.g. www.merton.gov.uk.
If you are applying onlne via the Planning portal you will need to attach a copy of your drawings in Pdf format or you could post them seperately along with a cheque for £135.00 (on the portal ou can pay by credit card). You will also require a design statement, you can ask your architect to do this for you, if you are writing this yourself you can ask the council for some guidelines about what exactly they require from you from the design statement.

Once the application has been received by the council they will then check the application and make sure it is valid. Once it has been made valid it will be given a reference number, a case officer, and a decision date. You can call the planning department to get this information. Some loft companies will do this for you, and follow the application up on your behalf. If you are doing this yourself the application will be given 8 weeks to be decided. Within this time i would contact the case officer and find out when they will be undertaking their site visit. Try to be there so you can discuss the application with them briefly to find out what their views are. Most councils will probably not give you much information until the decision date, but it’s always worth a try. I would advise you try to find out as early as possible if they are happy with the application, if they are find out if they will be recommending the application for approval. If they are not happy ask them to give you the opportunity to submit amendments. Be careful if you are in the Richmond Borough, alot of their case officers are extremely difficult to deal with, and will more often than not not take your phonecalls, and if they are not happy with the application will just refuse the permission rather than give you a chance to amend something that could be simple.

This will be very frustrating if you have a time scale you need to stick to. As you will need to do all the neccessary amendments and then re-submit a whole new application, taking a further 8 weeks.

You could call the case officer every couple of weeks to find out what stage the application is at, and if they have made any decisions yet.

A hip to gable is a type of construction that is used on most semi-detaches and end of terrace houses.

These houses usually have three slopes (ignore the velux in the front slope as it could be there just to let natural light in their dusty loft space) Unconverted. 

To maximise the loft space the ridge board is extended to the side wall and the front slope is continued and the gable is built up in either tile, render, pebble dash or brickwork (see picture)

As it’s all built in a new construction a window is normally installed for extra light. Nine times out of ten the window in the gable is normally over the stairs or new landing area but this obviously depends on the exsting house design.  

The picture below shows a gable with a port hole window installed. This house is located at the end of a street so the finish was quite important. If there was another house right next door i wouldn’t normally suggest to spend the extra money on the porthole window and just install a standerd Upvc / Sash Window. You can also see a red brick coarse around the primeter of the window which again is only worth the extra money when you get the privilege of the side of your house being on display. 

(click to enlarge)