Hello all and happy new year!
I'm about to get started on my garage conversion, paid my building regs council fee for building notice submission. As per previous advice, I did my 2 way light switch and added a few more double plug sockets by extending the ring already (as it is non-notifiable work if already in place before the project).
I had a quick chat with the building officer and he's prepared to pop out and have a first look to tell me what foundations I will need for the front opening dwarf wall onto which I will add a patio door, insulation requirements he will impose, whether he will allow a floating wooden floor or solid meshed screed etc. He asked me to excavate a little to determine how thick the floor slab is to see if I can build my wall directly onto it. I had a little dig this evening after work. The slab ends halfway out to the front piers, then there is a 20mm thick layer of mortar in front of it which is 100mm deep and an echo drain in front of that. I smashed a bit of mortar out and dug between the slab and the echo drain, which was mostly hardcore. I dug down 150mm and hit a solid lip approximately 60mm wide beyond the top of the slab e.g. side on, the slab appears to have an "L" shaped profile. I dug down a little more between the front lip and the side of the echo drain. The slab to this point is at least 200 mm thick. How thick does the slab generally have to be before you can brick onto it?
The open end of the garage has nothing above it apart from a small pitched roof (as the front 1/3 juts out from the house back end). Generally 100 to 125mm thickness slab is required to be of use as a garage floor, I can't imagine a patio door assembly putting any more stress on the slab edge than a 1.5t car rolling in and out of the garage on a daily basis.
I'm about to get started on my garage conversion, paid my building regs council fee for building notice submission. As per previous advice, I did my 2 way light switch and added a few more double plug sockets by extending the ring already (as it is non-notifiable work if already in place before the project).
I had a quick chat with the building officer and he's prepared to pop out and have a first look to tell me what foundations I will need for the front opening dwarf wall onto which I will add a patio door, insulation requirements he will impose, whether he will allow a floating wooden floor or solid meshed screed etc. He asked me to excavate a little to determine how thick the floor slab is to see if I can build my wall directly onto it. I had a little dig this evening after work. The slab ends halfway out to the front piers, then there is a 20mm thick layer of mortar in front of it which is 100mm deep and an echo drain in front of that. I smashed a bit of mortar out and dug between the slab and the echo drain, which was mostly hardcore. I dug down 150mm and hit a solid lip approximately 60mm wide beyond the top of the slab e.g. side on, the slab appears to have an "L" shaped profile. I dug down a little more between the front lip and the side of the echo drain. The slab to this point is at least 200 mm thick. How thick does the slab generally have to be before you can brick onto it?
The open end of the garage has nothing above it apart from a small pitched roof (as the front 1/3 juts out from the house back end). Generally 100 to 125mm thickness slab is required to be of use as a garage floor, I can't imagine a patio door assembly putting any more stress on the slab edge than a 1.5t car rolling in and out of the garage on a daily basis.
