Fire, Structural and Basements – Page 2
Planning Gateway One, fire statements, structural surveys and basement impact assessments.
Fire, Structural and Basements articles – page 2
335 articlesEvidencing load capacity for added storeys
Permission for storeys a building cannot carry is worth nothing. What survey work proves, where load paths break, and why foundations stop more schemes than frames.
Dissolution features: chalk, gypsum and swallow holes
Ground that dissolves needs a different answer from ground that settles, and the usual soakaway is often the worst option. What to investigate and what to submit.
Scoping a ground investigation for a planning application
A day on the desk study usually halves the fieldwork. Here is how to choose between trial pits, window samples and boreholes, and what the planning submission needs.
Ground movement assessment and the burden of proof
The ground movement strand of a basement impact assessment has to demonstrate an accepted damage category at each neighbouring structure. The burden sits with the applicant.
Underpinning, party walls and a basement next door
A basement under a terraced house usually needs both a party structure notice and an adjacent excavation notice. What each requires and how long the process takes.
Facade retention: the structural case at planning stage
Councils will not check your calculations, but they will refuse a facade retention scheme whose deliverability is unevidenced. What to submit and what to commit to.
Fire planning for care homes and specialised housing
Class C2 residents cannot evacuate unaided, so the strategy is sideways movement into an adjoining compartment. That decision has to be made before the floor plan is fixed.
Fire evidence for a change of use to flats in a block
A Fire Statement is required at 18 m or seven storeys, and for major development in London. Below that, the fire evidence you supply decides how much design risk you carry into Building Regulations.
External wall build-ups: what planning can and cannot control
Combustibility of an external wall is a Building Regulations matter, and a planning condition that tries to cover it usually fails the tests. This sets out where planning control actually reaches on relevant buildings.
Firefighting shafts, dry risers and the planning layout
A firefighting shaft is set early and is expensive to move later. This covers what the shaft contains, where the inlet has to sit relative to appliance access, and what the planning drawings should show at application stage.
Evacuation lifts and what planning drawings must show
An evacuation lift needs a protected lobby, a refuge clear of the stair and a secondary power route. All of that is plan area, so decide it before the core is fixed.
The fire statement form and what each section demands
A fire statement on the prescribed form is a validation requirement for relevant buildings. Here is what each section expects and the drawings it needs.
Reading a Gateway One consultation response from HSE
The Health and Safety Executive's Gateway One response is a statutory consultee response, not a decision. Most points are drawing omissions or inconsistencies that an addendum answers without any design change.
Which buildings are relevant buildings at Gateway One
Gateway One applies to buildings containing two or more dwellings or educational accommodation that reach 18 metres or seven storeys. Both limbs must be met, and the height is taken to the top occupied floor finish.
External wall information at Planning Gateway One
The planning-stage question on external walls is narrower than full compliance: can the building as drawn be built within the restrictions that apply to it. What to state, and how to keep conditions workable.
Sequencing site investigation before an application
Ground investigation after the design is fixed tells you what went wrong. The order that works, what the desk study should assemble, and why monitoring sets the submission date.
Geotechnical assessment and Eurocode 7 in planning
Planning needs feasibility and risk, not a finished foundation design. How Eurocode 7 and BS 5930 shape the investigation, and how to split the deliverables between planning and construction.
Party wall and planning overlap for basement works
Planning permission does not authorise excavation next to a neighbour, and a party wall award does not authorise development. On a basement the notice periods are fixed by statute and usually decide the programme.
Common basement policy restrictions in London boroughs
London basement schemes are governed by the borough's adopted local plan rather than national policy. The limits on depth, garden coverage and light wells follow a consistent pattern even though the numbers differ.
Fire Statement for a change of use application
Converting an office block over 18m into flats creates a relevant building and triggers the article 9A Fire Statement requirement, even with no external alteration. The fire issues on a conversion are inherited rather than designed.
Second staircase requirements and planning applications
A second stair costs floor area on every storey and removes units. Whether an existing permission can be varied or needs replacing depends on its description.
Evacuation strategy and the planning interface
The planning submission fixes core count, stair width, lift provision and fire service access. Smoke control and compartment details belong at Gateway Two.
Structural survey for a conversion: scope and limits
The survey has one job: to show the building can become the proposed dwelling without substantial rebuilding. Scope the brief around that, not around general condition.
Fire service access and hardstanding in a site layout
Appliance access is fixed by the planning layout. The dimensions, the tracking evidence and the conditions that keep the route clear once people move in.
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