Get Yourself Up To Speed With Building Regulations

Customers buying lifestyle extensions for their properties this winter not only potentially need to obtain planning permission before their conservatory or orangery can be erected, but they must additionally ensure it complies with building regulations.

Planning permission is a subject we have already covered in a previous blog post and some mistakenly think that planning permission and building regulations are interchangeable, however, they’re not!

Building regulations “set standards for the design and construction of buildings to ensure the safety and health for people in or about those buildings” while planning permission requires a householder to obtain “formal permission from a local authority for the erection or alteration of buildings or similar development.”

Unwittingly or intentionally ignoring building regulations can have very serious repercussions. You can be forced to modify the extension at further cost to make it fulfil the guidelines or you may not be that lucky and just be ordered to completely knock the extension down.

This threat will be averted when the extension satisfies all of the following rules:

• At ground level and not exceed 30m2 floor area.
• Glazed to satisfy the requirements of Approved Document K of Schedule 1.
• Physically separated internally from the building it is attached to, for example, by a door.
• Without sanitary appliances.
• Not intended for year round habitable use.
• Used to some extent for the propagation of plants.

To be absolutely sure that your proposed extension meets building rules you can always ask your local authority for an Exempt Buildings Form.

An Exempt Buildings Form can be used to outline your plans for the extension ahead of you returning it to them. They will then analyse these plans and determine whether they’re happy for the extension to be built. This will be confirmed in writing. If they give you the thumbs up, keep this written confirmation stored somewhere safely as you can use it as proof that your extension meets building regulations, vital if you ever decide to sell your home.

Building Regulations are best left with Bon Accord Glass

No conservatory or orangery gets built by Bon Accord Glass until we know for certain that it will be in accordance with building regulations and we will do all the legwork. Book an appointment to get that helping hand you need.