Been in a year now time to do some work on the house!

[nrwilliams]

Hello all,

Been lurking for a while now, getting inspiration from other peoples projects to I thought I would start a thread of my own.

We bought the house almost a year ago now.

The building was started in about 1936 and from what I have been told sat roofless throughout WW2, it was then finished after the war and has been subject to many questionable additions and alterations.

The first six months was spent putting small things right, the previous owner had rushed through a kitchen and bathroom refurb to sell the property. Also some dodgy electrical extensions.

Our focus is the loft extension which was once one large room but has been sub divided over time.

It currently consists of a bedroom, bathroom and a small side room.

Our aim is to convert the roof from hip to gable ends and create three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs.

We started at the weekend removing an internal wall.

The plan is to slowly and methodically without created to much mess deconstuct upstairs so that we can then proceed with our roof extension plans.

 

[Bahco]

Look forward to your progress. Keep posting.

 

[nrwilliams]

Well managed to spend yesterday in the garden and today continued the deconstruction of upstairs.

Removed two radiators and associated plumbing, discovered lots of damp and mould which is looks like the previous owner decided to cover with plasterboard rather than sorting out!

Not sure on next stage, floors are not correct as they are the original joists with another set of joists laid at 90 degrees, may remove carpets and look at getting the boiler downstairs.

Thanks for looking, any comments gratefully received.


Neil

 

[nrwilliams]

Hi again,

Well progress has been slow! Done a few more things but more importantly the planning has gone in

Hopefully this one will go through, the last application got rejected.

Current Property

Proposed

 

[Geps]

Is that the one that got rejected? Or the new proposed one?

What were the reasons for refusal?

 

[Richard C]

Front & rear elevations look OK but those side elevations look dreadful & I wouldn’t be surprised if they kicked it out again; sorry!

 

[nrwilliams]

That's the new proposal. Our first plan which was refused was totally different in that we wanted to develop what the council see as the principal elevation.

The houses in our lane are not all facing the same way so there was confusion regarding which was the principal elevation.

The new proposal has been put together in conjunction with the planning department, the neighbours have also given their verbal agreement in a meeting we had with them. The proposal also copies a development already completed to a neighbours property which originally was identical to ours.

I will agree in the drawings it does not present well but when looking at our neighbours completed property it looks better in the flesh.

 

[wotan]

my view is you have completely removed all character of the original building, modify by all means, but do it sympathetically.

Wotan

 

[nrwilliams]

I disagree, but I would be pleased to see how you would develop the property while retaining the character and keeping within a tight budget.

I am always open to idea on how we can achieve our goals.

If you need floor plans please let me know and I will make them available.

 

[Geps]

develop the property while retaining the character and keeping within a tight budget.

Typically, the two are mutually exclusive!

I'm a fan of the tear it up and make it meet modern day styles and lifesryles approach.

 

[nrwilliams]

Well its taken many many weeks but we now have planning permission for the extension detailled above!

We have started to work on small things and are currently getting quotes for the larger works.

More photos soon to show progress and upgrades in case anyone is interested.

Neil

 

[nrwilliams]

Hello all,

Not sure if anyone reads these but here goes.

Have been sorting out small jobs around the house and getting quotes for work.

First shock was a quote for £60k to just do the roof, thats a hip to gable conversion on the existing property, I think they do not want the work but we will see. That price is just to build a water tight structure, no insulation or floors.

Have had a price back from the DNO re moving the cable, after lots of replies on here about it costing huge sums of money they have quoted us £240 inc vat, result!

We have the downstairs windows being replaced next month, ready for the winter.

As we are planning to get the boiler moved downstairs we thought we would go through the plumbing and change some rads, what we found was that both downstairs bedrooms had at some time had sinks installed in them.

So we have removed over 50m of unused copper plumbing, including a 57mm copper waste pipe! I am hoping that I will be able to get some money for this from the scrap man.

We did find some rather nasty joist notching!

Got a few days off later in the week so should have some more updates!

 

[nrwilliams]

Hi all,

Its been a stressful few weeks and I am sure the stress will continue, we now have a roof structure and the beginning of a floor. I would really appreciate any opinions on the photos below, specifically stuff I can question the building inspector on. The loft conversion company are using a 3rd party building inspector and I would like to be able to ask relevant questions.

This is still an ongoing project I would just like to be armed with the correct knowledge.

Steel resting on internal walls, there are I believe engineering bricks under this and a metal spreader plate, should the steel be secured with straps on anything or will the weight of the floor and ashler walls be ok?

The beginnings of the gable wall, nailed together, is this sufficient or should it be bolted?

The steels supporting the new floor, joists are on hangers on side and cut into the steel on the other, I cannot see what this has been done? Any ideas? Also the joist in the steel is not bolted to the steel, its placed there and the floor joists hangers are then nailed to it so there is quite a lot of movement, is this ok?

Many many thanks for your comments and opinions.

Regards

Neil

 

[fmck]

Neil,

Have you a copy of the drawings + engineers calculations?
These will be your bible for the project for things such as bolts or nails.

Engineer bricks are load bearing 15kn crush strength but steel should be normally be on a concrete block (pad stone) this will allow a resin anchors to be placed to hold the steel, Other wise the steel has to be built in.
BC should always pick these things up but they are all different from question everything to not really interested.

The pictures from the previous loft conversion are entertaining

BTW : Check your timber going in is structural. It should be stamped C16 etc. If not ask for documentation to prove it is. It might be good idea to ask for all documentation for materials and photocopy them. They can have them back so theres no reason to hold them back. If they dont have them tell them to get something from the suppliers. Keeps them on there toes.

 

[nrwilliams]

Excellent idea about the paperwork thanks.

All the timber is c16 and c24 in the right places. I have some structural calcs but no details on fixings so I will have to chase that up next week.