Building regulations plan: a complete guide. The building regulations plan takes all of the wordy regulations that will apply to your build, and puts them into functional text form, across various plan views and elevations of your extension drawings. Here’s an upshot of what you need to know about them.
In the house extension process, the building regulation drawings are produced after the plans have been approved by the authority, and before the working drawings are penned. They will be prepared alongside the structural calculations/plan. The structurals and building regulation drawings are symbiotic and are commonly combined on the plans.
Within the building regulations plan you will find a decanted version of all the various regulations that apply to your project. More accurately, you will see how these regulations need to the implemented in practice. Information such as how and where joists can be cut, how thermal values will be met with insulation, the fall required on drain runs, compliance to mechanical ventilation requirements, the list is exhaustive. All of this is shown over various plans views, elevations and sections to make it easier for the Builder to pick up and see what piece of information relates to where on the drawings.
This building regulations plan and structural outputs are submitted to the appointed building control inspectorate, usually upon application, and are used by building control as a baseline document from which they commence their engagement. However the plan is not sacrosanct and the appointed Inspector is at liberty to ask for further compliance measures to be implemented on site if necessary. The level of fluctuation between baseline and site can be minimised by opting for a full building control application rather than simple building notice.
A word to the wise. In a bid to save time and effort, CAD technicians occasionally cut and paste the building regulations from one project straight over to another. Where for example the loft extension drawings should be showing steel connection detail, instead one finds the regulation details for poured concrete foundations! This is not how you’d want to begin a relationship with the professional in charge of signing-off your project.
In summary the building regulations plan is where you will find the germane building regulations distilled and applied to your specific house extension.
If you would like some free planning advice, get in touch with us.