Restoration Project Considerations - Any Thoughts??

[Burdekin]

Originally Posted by Steve 940

Now you're rubbing it in Mitch

This was the problem in the first place, plans were approved with one of the roof pitches having box profile sheets with alternate clear plastic sheets for daylight. Would have worked a treat along with LED strips.

Building Regs chap yesterday decided not to allow metal sheets unless I put a membrane under it, thereby negating any benefit of having clear plastic !!!!

I did point out its only a shed/workshop, but no go.

Cheers
Steve

Can you question the clear areas? I have membrane under everything apart from the skylight areas. The sides are insulated and the ceiling has polycarbonate sheeting. Maybe play the it's more environmentally friendly as you could save on lighting use during the day.

[Burdekin]

You could always remove the membrane after if they insisted it needed to be there. Planning told me I couldn't have two small windows but of course have never been back to check. They are a escape route and add ventilation for me so I thought they were too important to remove. I also used a architect tech for my application as it was a bit more complex even though I did the design etc. They can have a good relationship with planning and often make things easier.

I personally think the more natural light the better, it feels like a nicer space to be in for me. That maybe a personal thing but I do mych prefer when it's warm and sunny with the rollerdoor open and some good music playing. My wife gave me the old sonos system for tje workshop and one thing I wouldn't be without is music at the workshop.

Sorry on my phone and clumsy fingers. :-)

[Steve 940]

Hi Mitch,

Good shout, and great points, however on reflection I think I'll stick with no roof lights and doing a minor planning alteration request, and not rocking the boat on our first meeting with Building Regs. Yes, I agree having an architect involved does 'grease the wheels' of bureaucracy, but I was a skinflint, and done hand drawn plans to scale.....I knew my O Level TD would come in handy one day

Had this sort of 'box ticking' when we done our major house refurb 20 years ago, as we were converting our loft to a main bedroom, they insisted every one of the 7 doors on all upstairs rooms were fire doors with self closers etc.

As the cottage was built in 1850, and 'old style', the missus was none to impressed and made him fully aware she wasn't happy

We had had a really good relationship with the Building Regs chap though, and on leaving he did say, "well of course there is nothing to stop you changing them in the future". Needless to say, we wasted a few quid on the cheapest fire doors, got final sign off. Now we have the original oak doors we wanted in the first place.

Cheers
Steve

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Steve 940

... Costs are indeed something that always spirals, but I'm taking a "get the basic structure" right approach (hopefully)😀 Adding a few extra lights is pretty simple and cheap to do later if needed, however not laying a concrete slab thick enough and not to specifications needed for a 2 post lift is something not worth cost cutting on. Even though I probably will never have a 2 post lift touched on earlier in the thread.

Cheers, the help and suggestions are really valuable.
Steve

No Steve! Costs don't spiral on properly planned jobs. Time spent on identifying the your requirements, specifying what is needed to meet them and costing candidly will be well spent and will help you bring the project in on time and cost. If you don't establish what you are trying to achieve now then the costs will almost certainly spiral out of control as you allow mission creep and quickly use up your contingency on things that could have thought about at the start.

A good example is a floor structure strong enough for a 2 post lift. It will cost you a great deal more in concrete and steel to include that in your specification now, but is a 2 post lift really a requirement (have you specified 4m high ceilings to exploit it)? If your actual requirement can be met with a scissor jack then that might save you £5,000 or more on the floor and the ceiling height - without the cost of the car lift itself.

From my experience I'd say it is much better to get things right with the pencil now than wrong with concrete (and your wallet) later.

Just the musings of a middle aged man with a beard.

[ITSv40]

Regarding the floor and lift scenario:

When I installed the four post 3ton lift, it entailed a new concrete floor, knocking through the back wall of the existing garage to the barn behind and raising the barn roof slightly to accommodate the lift. All the building works were necessary as the farm buildings were in a pretty poor state. Coming back to the floor: I worked out the position of the lift - allowing space to walk around the lift with a car on it with the doors fully open. I then dug pits under the post bases 750mm x750mm x600mm deep and filled them with concrete. Then concreted the floor all over 100mm deep. Installed the lift posts rag bolted into the floor. It hasn't moved at all despite having the Rolls up in the air many, many times - that weighed in at 2 tons.

I'm sure the position of your future lift could be determined and foundations installed to suit. At least you can then future proof the lift installation.

[Steve 940]

Originally Posted by Othen

No Steve! Costs don't spiral on properly planned jobs. Time spent on identifying the your requirements, specifying what is needed to meet them and costing candidly will be well spent and will help you bring the project in on time and cost. If you don't establish what you are trying to achieve now then the costs will almost certainly spiral out of control as you allow mission creep and quickly use up your contingency on things that could have thought about at the start.

A good example is a floor structure strong enough for a 2 post lift. It will cost you a great deal more in concrete and steel to include that in your specification now, but is a 2 post lift really a requirement (have you specified 4m high ceilings to exploit it)? If your actual requirement can be met with a scissor jack then that might save you £5,000 or more on the floor and the ceiling height - without the cost of the car lift itself.

From my experience I'd say it is much better to get things right with the pencil now than wrong with concrete (and your wallet) later.

Just the musings of a middle aged man with a beard.

Hi Alan,

Ah the musings of a organised chap, and yes proper planning is worthwhile.

From my investigations most lifts require a strong floor, and BendPak have a spec list as below:-

https://www.bendpak.com/car-lifts/co...the%20concrete.

Anyway, for a small domestic type of lift, a reinforced 6" slab of C40 concrete would suffice as approx 5800PSI, of course we work in N/mm2.

The cost difference per cube between C10 and C40 concrete is circa £50 probably less.

My back of a fag packet calculations of the extra costs for a slab 42m2 100mm thick compared to 150mm thick with reinforcing mesh:

1) Dig out extra 50mm of soil = 2 cubic metres say £200 for skip
2) Hardcore, I will be able to reuse the hardcore that is under the existing slab and hardstanding, may need to get a couple of tons just to top up, along with a bit of sand to bed the DPM on. No additional cost on this.
3) Re-inforcing Mesh - £250 approx
4) Concrete 100mm of C10 = 4.2m3 @ £120, say 5 cube = £600, 150mm C40 = 6.3 m3 @ £170, say 7 cube = £1190

So I reckon the extra cost to do a slab capable of holding a lift, is circa £1040. I reckon that is a worthwhile investment, even if I wont use it, it could of course also add value to the property when we will need to sell, hopefully in many years time.

Cheers
Steve

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Steve 940

Building Regs chap yesterday decided not to allow metal sheets unless I put a membrane under it, thereby negating any benefit of having clear plastic !!!!

I did point out its only a shed/workshop, but no go.

Cheers
Steve

I think (but don't know) that may be the point Steve - it's a workshop/shed but it's attached to the house so would have to comply with house building regs rather than shed/workshop regs.

If it was a separate building, probably nothing they could do but don't quote me on that..........

[Steve 940]

Dave, it is a separate building, so who knows??

Either way, I will just go with no roof lights and really good led strips, keep the Building Regs chap on side, a screen you never know when I might need a bit of leeway later on.

Cheers
Steve

[ITSv40]

Originally Posted by Steve 940

Dave, it is a separate building, so who knows??

Either way, I will just go with no roof lights and really good led strips, keep the Building Regs chap on side, a screen you never know when I might need a bit of leeway later on.

Cheers
Steve

I think the Building regs apply because you are building within one metre of your boundary - regs apply to practically all structures near the boundary. If the garage is more than 30 sq metres, regs also apply.

[Steve 940]

Originally Posted by ITSv40

I think the Building regs apply because you are building within one metre of your boundary - regs apply to practically all structures near the boundary. If the garage is more than 30 sq metres, regs also apply.

I think you've hit the nail on the head there, and all said and done, if I'm going to all this trouble, then it's best to do it right.

Trying to skirt around Regs, will only come and bite me later as without them signing it off, I would have major issues with selling the house in the future.

Cheers
Steve