Permission required converting existing side porch into laundry room

[flipindy]

We've got an existing side conservatory 4.6m x 1.3m. It's built from a short concrete block wall of around 70cm with upvc windows on top a short timber frame around the windows in the corners/top and a polycarbonate sheet roof. It's still got the original exterior door opening between the main house and the conservatory. it has an existing lighting and a socket spurred off the ring, and an 110mm soil pipe which has a washing machine connected.

We were hoping to be able to remove most of the windows and reconstruct the walls back on top of the concrete block with 2x6 timber frames/osb, then cladded, a fibreglass flatroof and then partition the inside of it into a smaller porch and a laundry room. This would be retaining the existing maximum height.

As this is an existing structure and the footprint isn't changing but would be somewhat structurally altered I'm unsure if this would require planning permission.

 

[martygturner]

Did it require planning in the first place,? ie was it built under permitted development ,which given its construction, location and footprint seems likely. The issue would not be a planing one but a building control one.

The dwarf wall is designed to support a light weight structure and probably has foundations to suit that construction.

Given that the porch / conservatory has been opened up to the rest of the house , which is not allowed under Building regs ...

see : https://pureconservatories.co.uk/opening-up-kitchen-into-conservatory/

Your best bet may be to not alter the conservatory style but do what is permissible. Poly carbonate roofs can be replaced with a solid light weight roof- Building regs are needed but to be fair anything that ups the U value of a conservatory is just waved through.
You can replace window units with insulated panels, glass out solid in.
Eg : https://cosypanels.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/CosyPanels-Brochure_v1.pdf, its for roofs but does walls too.

Or you can just demolish it and build a proper one... you will not need planning on a like for like but you will need building regs.

 

[flipindy]

Thanks for the info.

As far as I'm aware there wasn't any planning permission required/requested for the original one. The sellers when we bought it were executors on behalf of a deceased owner, and we did bring it up but our solicitor mentioned he had no concerns as it had been there at least 20 years.

sorry I should have written more clearly, the connection to the house is a door not an opening. it is an interior style door, I've attached a picture attached

I think if not realistically possible to use the dwarf wall to support a timber construction, I would be better to demolish it and do it properly, rather than patch it up with panelling.

 

[martygturner]

You are probably right...its done its job and now you need something else.. at that size you could do a utility, cloakroom and porch.

I have used SIP panels to construct over old conservatories bases, to save costs you can reuse the old conservatory windows.

 

[^woody^]

It won't normally require planning permission unless the existing structure did, but it would need building regulation approval.