Building regulations
- Thread starter User
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
You live in a Radon prone area I presume?
hopless500
Trundling along
- Location
- not-as-flat-as-you-think Norfolk
[QUOTE 4670124, member: 43827"]We're having a very small extension added to our kitchen, about 2.4m square and I am absolutely amazed by the building regulations in place. The house is 90+ years old, built on shallow non-concrete foundations, but has managed to stay upright all that time.
The extension has to have foundations around three feet deep, the wall cavity has to be a lot wider than in the existing walls, plus the floor has to have a radon barrier.
The extension is about 12% of the original footprint of the house and if I ever feel in danger of radiation or earthquake I know where to run for safety.[/QUOTE]
Only 3 feet? Our bloody extension had to have footings over 6 foot deep due to a tree we wanted to keep. Given that the original cottage has no foundations, it's an interesting addition!
The extension has to have foundations around three feet deep, the wall cavity has to be a lot wider than in the existing walls, plus the floor has to have a radon barrier.
The extension is about 12% of the original footprint of the house and if I ever feel in danger of radiation or earthquake I know where to run for safety.[/QUOTE]
Only 3 feet? Our bloody extension had to have footings over 6 foot deep due to a tree we wanted to keep. Given that the original cottage has no foundations, it's an interesting addition!
MontyVeda
a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
- Location
- Lancaster... the little city.
you can get radon proof insoles for your shoes and slippers... wear those whilst using the old part of the house 
Salar
A fish out of water
- Location
- Gorllewin Cymru
Don't forget to seal any pipes that go through the radon barrier with "top hats"
swee'pea99
Squire
It's amazing how well all the building that was built before building regs has managed to stay upright. Our Hungarian builders said that most of the London buildings they work in wouldn't stand a hope in hell of gaining approval from the authorities in Hungary, and yet hardly any of the houses in our street have collapsed in on themselves.
hopless500
Trundling along
- Location
- not-as-flat-as-you-think Norfolk
You've reminded me we're also in a high radon area.
What nasties is it going to do?
What nasties is it going to do?
Salar
A fish out of water
- Location
- Gorllewin Cymru
Supposedly lung cancer, more so if the property is not ventilated.
I was involved in the radon surveys during the 90's when there was a panic on about it in public and local authority buildings.
I had a nice job driving around the country "installing" radon sensors i.e sticking them on the walls with double sided tape.
They looked like smoke alarms and I collected them some months later.
I'd do round trips up to 400 miles and be at the locations for about 20 minutes.
I was involved in the radon surveys during the 90's when there was a panic on about it in public and local authority buildings.
I had a nice job driving around the country "installing" radon sensors i.e sticking them on the walls with double sided tape.
They looked like smoke alarms and I collected them some months later.
I'd do round trips up to 400 miles and be at the locations for about 20 minutes.
I had a pile driving firm in for the foundation of this house.
Ian H
Ancient randonneur
Our house seems to have reasonably good foundations for a Victorian property – at least, they go all the way to the bottom of the cellar. As the cellar is well-ventilated, there should be no radon build-up. We are in a nominally radon-risk area, though just here it appears to be solid clay.
- Location
- Somewhere wet & hilly in NW England.
Last edited:
subaqua
What’s the point
- Location
- Leytonstone
Lots of London properties are terraces. Which use physics and other engineering wizardry to stay up with shallow foundations.
There are several cases of walls between front and rear rooms being removed in terraces , and the block staying upright , until the point of no return is reached and one too many gets removed incorrectly , then it comes down like a house of cards.
That's why your extension has decent sized foundations.
There are several cases of walls between front and rear rooms being removed in terraces , and the block staying upright , until the point of no return is reached and one too many gets removed incorrectly , then it comes down like a house of cards.
That's why your extension has decent sized foundations.
John the Monkey
Frivolous Cyclist
- Location
- Crewe
Although it is, perhaps, worth remembering that the only ones we see day to day are those that did survive
swee'pea99
Squire
Although it is, perhaps, worth remembering that the only ones we see day to day are those that did survive
Good point!
Mate of mine got taken on as a labourer by the son of a friend of his father, call him Tarquin, who saw himself as some kind of pre-Grand Designs grand designer, and had been - through family connections - left to renovate a Chelsea town house. My friend was taken down into the cellar and told to take out that wall there. He looked at it dubiously. "That's a supporting wall isn't it?" He was severely chastised for getting above himself, handed a sledgehammer, and told to get on with it. On his first day, and needing the money, he thought oh well and took a swing. An hour or so later, working on a hole that was now a metre or so across, there was an almighty crashing noise, and he flew up the stairs at high speed. When the dust had settled, it turned out that not only was the floor above which he'd made the hole now v-shaped, so were each of the four floors above. And that was the end of Tarquin's career. It had lasted about six hours.
GrumpyGregry
Here for rides.
"The Project" took a nasty turn in the summer when it became apparent that the pier of Victorian brickwork, we'd left when demolishing the outside wall, required to sit new steels on wasn't, crack, up to the job, creak, of supporting, crumble, the weight of the floor above. Partly because the foundation was about as thick as a paperback book, and partly because of a dodgy Victorian brickie cutting corners.
Thanks to modern building regs, there was a nearby new wall, with a lovely metre deep concrete foundation, upon which we could erect a kingpost and fly new steels to take the load, and do away with the dodgy brick pier. Phew! Though it wasn't the cheapest fix ever.
I find the inspectors' attitudes a bit arbitary. We submitted a detailed spec. to Building Control when we got planning and they signed it off. We have since had challenge from the inspector over stuff built to spec. We've 'won' every 'fight' thus far by dint of pointing to the signed off spec. but it is tedious.
One unexpected bonus, though, was having to relocate the new boiler to the loft, of a three-storey house, one heck of a lot of new pipework, because the regs no longer allow a new boiler to be installed where the old one was!!
And don't get me started on compartmentalisation and the need for a fire door, where no fire door ever was before, simply because we moved a doorway!! (Even so I 'get' the safety arguments.)
Thanks to modern building regs, there was a nearby new wall, with a lovely metre deep concrete foundation, upon which we could erect a kingpost and fly new steels to take the load, and do away with the dodgy brick pier. Phew! Though it wasn't the cheapest fix ever.
I find the inspectors' attitudes a bit arbitary. We submitted a detailed spec. to Building Control when we got planning and they signed it off. We have since had challenge from the inspector over stuff built to spec. We've 'won' every 'fight' thus far by dint of pointing to the signed off spec. but it is tedious.
One unexpected bonus, though, was having to relocate the new boiler to the loft, of a three-storey house, one heck of a lot of new pipework, because the regs no longer allow a new boiler to be installed where the old one was!!
And don't get me started on compartmentalisation and the need for a fire door, where no fire door ever was before, simply because we moved a doorway!! (Even so I 'get' the safety arguments.)
