Fire, Structural and Basements – Page 4

Structural repair evidence for a listed building

Repair schemes are judged on how little they do. The evidence has to show the cause was diagnosed and that nothing less intrusive would resolve it.

Structural capacity for an upward extension

Prior approval does not certify that a building can carry two more storeys. Establish capacity and foundation headroom first, then design the extension that fits inside it.

Trees and basement excavation on the same site

Basement excavation and root protection areas cannot both occupy the same soil. Here is how to measure the conflict, test it with root investigation, and resolve it.

Basement lightwells in a front garden

A lightwell in a front garden is the most publicly visible part of a basement. Most refusals turn on the railings, the boundary wall and the loss of planting.

Party wall and underpinning alongside a basement plan

Planning permission for a basement tells you nothing about whether you may excavate next to your neighbour. That is a separate statutory process with its own notices and its own surveyors.

External wall construction as a planning matter

Planning judges appearance; Regulation 7 judges reaction to fire. On a relevant building the two have to be reconciled at application stage, not in technical design.

What the Gateway One consultee looks for

At Gateway One the statutory consultee reads your planning drawings as a fire engineer. Access, water supply, wall build-up and stair strategy are what it comments on.

Article 9A and how the fire statement is submitted

A fire statement on the prescribed form is a validation requirement, not a supporting document, so an application without one never starts. The trigger, the form and how outline and section 73 applications are treated.

Reusing existing foundations on a redevelopment site

Retaining existing piles saves carbon, cost and programme, but only where the investigation happens before the structural grid is fixed. Here is the sequence that works.

Temporary works design and the designer's duties

Anyone preparing or modifying a temporary works design is a designer under CDM 2015. The BS 5975 management structure, the check categories and the interfaces that fail.

Educational accommodation and the Gateway One dwelling count

Counting bedrooms is the wrong test for a student block. Article 9A's educational accommodation limb has no numerical threshold, so the scale test decides it.

Secure information boxes and premises information at planning

The box is an operational duty on the responsible person, but its position lands on a composed entrance elevation, so it belongs on the planning drawings from the start.

Scaffold licences and highway occupation during a dig

Your planning permission grants none of these. A basement dig in a terraced street usually needs three highway licences at once, plus bay suspensions and sometimes a footway closure.

Structural surveys for a scheme relying on retention

A survey supporting retention has to show the building can take the intervention you are drawing. Here is the scope, the limits of visual inspection and how it feeds the design case.

Ground source borehole arrays and ground stability

A domestic closed loop array rarely needs planning permission. The questions that decide it are the Environment Agency's view of drilling through an aquifer and whether the ground will stay put.

Crane oversail and airspace rights on tight sites

A jib swinging over adjoining land can be restrained without proof of damage, and the usual remedy is an injunction. Here is how oversail licences are negotiated and how the risk is built into the programme.

Fire safety works in a listed building and the consent

Fire safety duties and the duty to preserve special interest both apply in full. Here is how a heritage-led fire strategy upgrades doors, hides detection and trades suppression for an unaltered plan form.

Smoke ventilation shafts and facade design

The shaft is not optional and the vent has to go somewhere. How to resolve smoke ventilation terminations before they land on the principal elevation.

Converting an existing cellar: is it development?

Section 55(2)(a) takes internal-only works outside the definition of development. The three things that pull a cellar conversion back into the planning system.

Basement swimming pools: plant, ventilation and discharge

Councils rarely object to the pool. They object to the plant, the louvres, the chlorinated backwash and the muck away lorries. How to design and document each one.

Floor loadings when converting commercial space to homes

A lower imposed load looks like good news until you add the acoustic floor, the partitions and the services. Survey the frame before you price the conversion.

Heave in shrinkable clay after removing a tree

Felling a tree on shrinkable clay does not solve a foundation problem, it swaps a downward one for an upward one that lasts far longer.

Balcony materials on refurbishment and remediation schemes

Stripping timber decking off a block of flats is rarely a like-for-like repair in planning terms. Here is when permission is needed and what the material rules require.

Fire safety in conversions of commercial buildings to flats

Prior approval can be cleared in 56 days and building control can then prove the scheme undeliverable. The six diligence items to obtain before exchange on an office conversion.