grade 2 listed 1870 terraced

[janscovitz]

Hi
Just bought a great house that needs loads doing .Few quesis for you guys if you may....
Not sure what grade 2 listed means as in what I can do and can't?
Also want to move a bathroom from a horrible extension out back to the first floor other side of house....how do I get wastes etc outback again as in the row see no pipes outfront?Help :?

 

[Penners]

Listing (whether it is Grade II, Grade II* or Grade I) means that the building is of special architectural interest. You are permitted to carry out like-for-like repairs to the building, but you are legally forbidden from making any changes to it without Listed Building Consent from your local planning department. If you contravene this law you are committing a criminal offence.

If you want to move the present bathroom arrangement, you'll have to do the following:-

1. Have drawings made of the existing layout and the proposed new layout. Also a site plan and a location plan.
2. Fill in the appropriate local authority application form for listed building consent, and send it in to your local Planning Office with your drawings and plans.

LBC applications are free of charge.

However, you may also have to apply for Building Regulations Consent if you are going to create a new bathroom. This will involve a similar process as that for LBC, but you'll apply to the Building Control Department. Unfortunately this won't be free!

To understand fully what is involved, I suggest you visit your local authority's website. It's bound to have full details of how you make the above applications.

If you decide to go ahead with these applications, I recommend you to contact the local authority first. Ask for an informal chat with your Conservation Officer (who will deal with LBC) and with your Building Control Officer. Show them sketches of what you are proposing to do, and ask for their guidance as to whether your modifications are likely to be permitted. It's much better to do this than to send in a formal application "blind".

Remember that the Conservation Officer is much more likely to be happy about your plans if they do not involve the destruction of any historic fabric of the building, and are in keeping with its character. The BCO will want to satisfy himself that your proposals comply with all aspects of the Building Regulations. However, in certain circumstances where the constraints of a listed building make this compliance impossible, the regulations will sometimes be waived.

As regards drainage from your new bathroom, do I understand that you are in a terrace, and have no drainage facilities on the side of the house where you'd like to create the new bathroom? If so, then I think the only way that you can solve this problem is to use a Saniflo pump. This will macerate any solid waste and pump all waste across the house to the existing drainage facilities on the other side. You will, of course, need to plan a suitable route for a 22mm pipe from the Saniflo to the soil pipe, but you can, if necessary, take it up into the loft, across the house, then down again.

Have a look at Saniflo's website: http://www.saniflo.co.uk/ The model you probably want is the Saniplus.

 

[Nemesis]

I'd also check with your CO about 'like for like replacement' too...

 

[NT]

I'd also check with your CO about 'like for like replacement' too...

hear hear. I would also panic if anyone suggested installing a saniflo here.


NT

 

[janscovitz]

Hi...thanks for info...do you know how long this permission could take?.Basically the house is georgeous as is but has had the useual seventies and eighties bits put in to spoil it.We want to take it back to as original as possible over the coming years.This will mean taking out yacky plastic glazed units for box sash windows etc...so I guess I better get to know the planning department now!!I am sure the CO will back my plans 100% or you would think?I guess the only option is a saniflo as mentioned...ok its not correct but any other ideas appreciated.
Also have a large loft room with small feature sash...currently just a narrow,steep staircase up...likewise anyone any experience of converting one of these??Loft room is 18x20 approx with 6'6'' head height and already one velux and the sash at front..all bare to roofspace and original oak floorboards not sealed together?
thanks
iain

 

[Moo]

I would also panic if anyone suggested installing a saniflo here.NT

and - "a saniflo as mentioned...ok its not correct"

Why?

 

[Nemesis]

Many have reservations about Saniflo - noise being one.

However - it does sound as though many alterations may have been done without the appropriate consents - uPVC windows?

So you may find that the CO will need to be involved sooner rather than later, and you also may find some of what you do is taken out of your hands, timescalewise.

I'd contact the CO asap for a talk.

 

[NT]

Too many compain about saniflo's dire reliability record and equally bad design. I've not used one myself. For more info on saniflo check out news:uk.d-i-y's FAQ archives.

NT

 

[Penners]

do you know how long this permission could take?

That depends on a number of things. If your proposals are regarded as major, they may have to be put before the planning committee. If not, then they might be dealt with by a CO without reference to committee.

If they do have to go before the committee, then it depends when in their cycle of meetings your application hits the desk.

The specified length of time for a correctly submitted application is, if I remember correctly, 56 days. However, the council has the right to ask if you will permit the process to take longer. You don't have to agree... but how many people will argue?!

 

[Moo]

We have a Saniflo pump in our cellar to cope with the water from our washing machine and sink. After about nine years it's still going strong.

In our last-but-one house we had the choice between drainage pipes snaking round the outside, making it look like a Pompidou Centre, or a Saniflo, so we plumped for the latter which coped with the waste from a bath, basin and loo with no problems (apart from the noise, it must be admitted, but we just didn't flush the loo in the middle of the night).
We're still in touch with the people who took over from us and, as far as we know, it's still going strong.

 

[NT]

If you read the nature of the complaints you soon see that that is an application to which they should be well suited. But pumping pressurised poo around isnt quite the same thing from an engineering POV.


NT

 

[plumbers mate]

The Study Centre I go to in North Wales put masticators in when they installed ensuite rooms - they were very noisy and even someone getting a drink of water and running the trap for a very short while, or emptying a glass of water down the wash basin would set the masticator off.

You got very conscious of it too and tended to use other facilities in the House which didn't have masticators before retiring.

So make sure it's in an area where the sound won't travel through the walls to other family members or neighbours.

Plas has got rid of them now because of the noise issue.

 

[Lime]

Just another thing to consume energy and to go wrong.
I wouldn't like to be the service engineer!

 

[Penners]

We have a Saniflo pump in our cellar to cope with the water from our washing machine and sink. After about nine years it's still going strong.

I've never had one myself, but have known three people who have. None of them has ever mentioned problems.

If Saniflos were as bad a suggested by some here, I don't believe they'd have stayed in business for several decades. Yes, they make a brief noise when used. Yes, they consume electricity briefly when used. But sometimes they are the only solution to a problem.

 

[NT]

If Saniflos were as bad a suggested by some here, I don't believe they'd have stayed in business for several decades. Yes, they make a brief noise when used. Yes, they consume electricity briefly when used. But sometimes they are the only solution to a problem.

Thats precisely why theyre still in the marketplace.


NT