Old building - new front

[JanieB]

I was talking to someone else about building regs today and after I'd had a think later it occurred to me the reason next door did what they did.

To explain. My next door neighbour's house was originally two cottages and part of the terrace I live in. In the 1950's the 2 cottages were turned into a shop with an upstairs flat. The fronts were removed and replaced with plate glass windows. About 5 years ago the business moved to other premises and the shop was taken over by the business owners daughter who decided to turn the premises back into residential housing. She got planning permission with the requirement that the frontage matched the rest of the terrace. It doesn't. Only recently did I find out why. My next door neighbour on the other side is an old friend who bought the house and moved in 3 days before Christmas. Because he's an old friend I received a lot of emails from him about the house, the neighbour's and the environment.

One of the questions was a concern from their surveyor that the window sills at the front of the house were too low and don't meet current building regs. This is a 200+ year old terrace! Anyway. That is the reason that the other side doesn't match the rest. It's close but the bottom sills are higher than the rest of the terrace. I presume replacing the front of the cottages meant that the new fronts had to meet current building regs.

 

[MikeG]

There is no Building Regs requirement for a minimum cill height in upstairs windows (there is a de facto maximum, but that's another story). It can be floor level if you want. However, if the glazing is below 800 above finished floor level it must be safety glass, and if they are opening windows then measures to prevent accidental egress (ie falling!) need to be put in place. This is usually in the form of a bar/ rail across the window.

Remember, and this is important.........a building only needs to show compliance with the Building Regulations at the moment it is inspected. As soon as the Building Inspector is out of the door you can perfectly well unscrew the rail from across the window.

So I doubt very much that Building Regs are the reason the facade of the building in question is the way it is. However, without photos and drawings, it would be guesswork to speculate on the reasons. Despite this, I'll go with cost and using a non-architect for the design work as the two most likely starting points in the search for reasons.

I was talking to someone else about building regs today

Who? A lot of people think they know something of the Regs, and my experience is that very few do. For a start, almost everyone confuses Guidance with the Regulations.

 

[Flyfisher]

I've no doubt MikeG is right in absolute terms but I'm also convinced that there is so much confusion surrounding building regulations that they end up being the reason for many unnecessary things being done. We frequently discuss example here and I personally have been told different things by different building inspectors with respect to our listed house, one saying something was necessary the other saying it was not.

JanieB said there was 'concern from the surveyor' aboutthe window heights, and I'm sure there was, but whereas one person might immediately take fright and implement an unnecessary change so as not to risk refusal to sign off the work another person might not bother, get lucky with the final inspector or, more sensibly perhaps, seek absolute confirmation from the building control.

This is why, I think, 'building regulations' are blamed for all manner of things these days. They are probably quite easy to relate to a new build but rather more open to interpretation when applied to old houses.