Currently I have an integral garage I can't park a car in, and it would be better untilised as a dinning room, which the house is lacking at the moment.

I've just spoken to Building Regs of my local council and they say that this is a 'Permitted Development' (rather than requiring full planning permission) and I only need to fill in some forms, and the ok will come later.

He mentioned I would need some floor plans of the existing and proposed, as well as an elevation.

Question is, as I did Graphic Communication (easy tiger) at GCSE and Design Technology at A-Level and pretty handy with a pencil and paper, is this something I could do myself? Or is this best left in the hands of an architect?

If so, can anyone recommend an architect (local to Surrey/SW London) and what sort of fee would I be looking at?

Thanks in advance
Andy

...and pretty handy with a pencil and paper, is this something I could do myself? Or is this best left in the hands of an architect?


Times have moved on to CAD now! All the architects I used to work with used AutoCAD or Microstation.

I appreciate that, but would my 'fat-fingered' drawings be enough for the council?

And to be fair, I can do basic CAD drawings (thanks to my Engineering degree... and people say that education don't teach you things you can use in the real world!)

Would they need to see that there is a gas meter, electricity meter and points of running water in the drawing as well?

No idea to be honest - try and PM SaxoBoy he may be able to help

I'd be pretty certain you'd need to get drawings done for this to be honest and here is why! For planning all you would need is drawings to scale or with measurements annotated on and you could bash them together no problem. However, you don't actually need planning permission because all you are doing is internal conversion and changing a garage door to (I presume) a window or a pedestrian door with no other extension. This form of development is "permitted development" provided the building is not in a Conservation Area or listed.

You will however require a Building Warrant I assume from building control and for this you need more technical drawings detailing ventilation, insulation, etc, etc. I certainly don't think I could cobble together drawings for a building warrant submission so you'll probably have to bite the bullet and get them done for you. Make sure you get copies of those drawings so that you can send them to the planning department with a cover note saying, 'please confirm in writing that these proposed works are permitted development'.

Hope that helps :)

Fantastic, looks like everything I learned at school was wasted!!! :eek: ;)

They are sending out all the forms I need and there was no mention of building control, but I will find out the hard way! :)

Thanks for your help Kenny! :)

I've had some "minor" work done, patio doors filled in, back door knocked in, interior walls knocked down. We submitted building regs, which was just hand drawn scale "top down" line drawings.

cheers,

gre

Try asking whoever your getting the authorisation from, what level of drawings etc they need.
No point in going over the top unnecessarily.

I'll wait until the forms arrive and see what they need from there.

I spoke to our buildings controls dept in Windsor recently, and they don't seem to want detailed drawings, just simple ones. thats if you go the 'building notice' route, which should be fine for an internal conversion - you just tell the council what you are doing, and have some meetings between the builder and the council buildings control officer.

For a simple job, where it is clear what is specified, that should be fine.

If its more complicated, or you'd like the reassurance of getting the council to check over the plans in advance, then you can go the full plans route.