Flat Roof - Converting to a Balcony?

[catlad]

Wow!!!!!! a lot of words were written there about somebody dreaming about a balcony on the front of their house. NO CHANCE

 

[Georgie73]

Wow!!!!!! a lot of words were written there about somebody dreaming about a balcony on the front of their house. NO CHANCE

I can dream - or I can ask. If I don't ask, I will never know. There aren't any balconies on the front of any houses in my street. However, today I noticed about six houses nearby with balconies on the front of them.

 

[Georgie73]

OMG what a painful thread, as mentioned in principle there is nothing wrong with your plan. Agree a step down onto the balcony is daft. The new bay roof just needs to be built higher. But frankly I suspect that panning would be the major hurdle here unless front balconies are frequent within the immediate vicinity. Now we don’t really know anything about your architect and BTW an RIBA registered architect assuming he is one is complete overkill, a good architectural technician would be more than adequate but just instruct him to whack an application in for a balcony at floor level or with one step down. There’s little point fully designing the thing if planning can’t be gained though the proposals need to reflect reality so if a couple of posts in each corner were needed for example the proposals should reflect that. Whilst balconies like this can be complicated they should not fluster a good designer. If the architect is no good then employ someone else, look through the online applications and find a technician that way. For a basic planning application should not be costing you more than say £400 + £172 local authority fee. Then if planning is successful then some Building Regs drawings should be done including some structural engineers input but as mentioned not before planning is granted.

Forget feckin mood boards that kinda crap exists for new builds, interiors or multi million pound developments not feckin balcony’s, if you can’t convey what you want about a balcony without maybe a the odd google link or pic the architect or the client need some urgent hospital treatment.

@ the other contributors the OP does not have £35K for this balcony, that’s their total renovation budget so forget loft conversions etc

A word of caution, if the bays are being rebuilt – as in completely demolished and then rebuilt then theoretically you may need planning permission for rebuilding them especially if they are significantly different, once something is demolished it is no longer there so PP is then required for building something in their place.

Thanks -this is a really helpful post.

I will look at getting a technician through the online applications. Are you saying that I just ask for a basic balcony and if it gets approved that's when I go into exact measurements and the building regs?

Many thanks
George





Also, when you mention 'step-down' to the balcony - is the purpose of 'step-down' assuming I don't increase the height of the bay?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Are you saying that I just ask for a basic balcony and if it gets approved that's when I go into exact measurements and the building regs?

Within reason yes, a good technician should be able to submit something to planning that's buildable and consequently will give some thought to its construction without having actually draw/design it.

Also, when you mention 'step-down' to the balcony - is the purpose of 'step-down' assuming I don't increase the height of the bay?

No, keeping the bay roof where it is now and having to step down several steps will make the whole thing impracticable but a bit of a step down, say if the balcony floor was 150-200mm down will not make it impracticable yet will help to minimize its impact, if that's possible. Your designer will have to see what it looks like ......

 

[Georgie73]

Are you saying that I just ask for a basic balcony and if it gets approved that's when I go into exact measurements and the building regs?

Within reason yes, a good technician should be able to submit something to planning that's buildable and consequently will give some thought to its construction without having actually draw/design it.

Also, when you mention 'step-down' to the balcony - is the purpose of 'step-down' assuming I don't increase the height of the bay?

No, keeping the bay roof where it is now and having to step down several steps will make the whole thing impracticable but a bit of a step down, say if the balcony floor was 150-200mm down will not make it impracticable yet will help to minimize its impact, if that's possible. Your designer will have to see what it looks like ......

Thanks Freddy Good news - I've just been on to the planning portal and come across an almost identical house with permission for a balcony on the front of the house. It got approval in November 2015. I will see if I can get the architect to submit my application or find a technician who can more or less do the same drawings for me.

Thanks again.

 

[FRAN1870]

So you've found a design you like & is feasible for planning, and you're going to tell the architect to use that as a basis for your design ?

Mmmmm ..... #justsayin

 

[Georgie73]

So you've found a design you like & is feasible for planning, and you're going to tell the architect to use that as a basis for your design ?

Mmmmm ..... #justsayin

Does that mean I can do it myself?

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Some councils offer so called Outline Planning Permission, without having to provide detailed working drawings, they do charge a small fee for this, and you can meet planning officers for a limited time to discuss your plans, they would offer you advise, and may rule any objections before hand, and you could then work out another acceptable way around the problem. They would tell you if your proposal is likely to succeed or fail, you could tell them of other similar balconies in the area, take camera pictures with you, obviously this type of development may require a consent from the neighbours if there is any likely hood of you intruding into their pricvcy

 

[Georgie73]

Thank you Mike.

 

[FRAN1870]

So you've found a design you like & is feasible for planning, and you're going to tell the architect to use that as a basis for your design ?

Mmmmm ..... #justsayin

Does that mean I can do it myself?

No mate ... Sorry I was being sarcastic.
It's basically what I said / meant "mood board" ... Convey your ideas to the designer, which we seem to have done.

As you were

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Thank you Mike.

This is what I meant and have a look at this :
http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/up...outline_application_with_reserved_matters.pdf

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Some councils offer so called Outline Planning Permission, without having to provide detailed working drawings, they do charge a small fee for this, and you can meet planning officers for a limited time to discuss your plans, they would offer you advise, and may rule any objections before hand, and you could then work out another acceptable way around the problem. They would tell you if your proposal is likely to succeed or fail, you could tell them of other similar balconies in the area, take camera pictures with you, obviously this type of development may require a consent from the neighbours if there is any likely hood of you intruding into their pricvcy

This is what I meant and have a look at this :
http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/up...outline_application_with_reserved_matters.pdf

No, Outline Planning Permission is for new houses or larger developments. It is not for balcony’s to dwellings.

Maybe you are getting confused with Pre-Planning Applications which are offered by councils, many charge for the service and many local authorities will not allow a meeting with an officer, the reply will be in writing with no discussion and will carry a hefty disclaimer stating its only advice anyway and the process often takes six weeks or thereabouts. And furthermore if you want to maximise the value of this service you need to submit the same info you need to produce for a planning app anyway. For domestic jobs pre-planning is generally a complete waste of time and money and is certainly an inappropriate course of action here.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Thank you for updating me and that may be the case now with most local authorities, my local planning department used to consider such outline applications free of charge once, not so long ago, before the Olympics it used to be free, it would cost you nothing.