A Step-By-Step Guide

Step 1

Instruct us to talk through your ideas, wants and needs. Zach will then be able to give you guidance on what is possible, and what the council policies will/won’t allow. This stage is an initial consultation, and this service is FREE OF CHARGE.

Step 2

Once you receive the quote for the work, you will need to instruct us to go ahead with your project. At which time a property survey will be carried out. This will allow Zach to get full accurate measurements of all walls, window, and door positions, and photographs of the exterior. Zach will also look for things such as manholes and soil pipe positions at this point to see whether these would impede a design.

Step 3

Zach will then begin to draw up your project. This will begin by drawing your ‘existing’ property floor plans and elevations. From this, designs will be created to show ‘proposed’ options.

Step 4

Once you and Thorp Design Services Ltd have agreed on a design you are happy with, the design will then need to be submitted for prior approval (under permitted development rights) or planning permission. There are lots of weird and wonderful rules surrounding building under permitted development – so don’t always assume a ‘single storey rear extension’ does not require planning permission.

Step 5

The council now have a minimum of 8 weeks to go through their relevant checks on your application. These may include a neighborhood consultation period, and a highways consultation. With planning permission, Zach should get a chance to make slight amendments to the project if required by the council to gain a granted outcome, and if agreed with you.

Step 6

Great, you have your planning permission document. However, this is not the end of the road.  You now need to decide between two options, a building notice or building regulations. What does this mean?

Building notice – your chosen builder submits a build notice to building control to state that you are beginning the build. You can start almost immediately, and the builder will take responsibility for choosing materials for your build such as insulation and timbers. The build is signed off at stages throughout, by the building inspector to make sure everything is up to standard.

Building regulations – We progress your original drawings to include specification of all materials and a section of how the build is to be built up. This is submitted to building control prior to the build starting and is signed off to say that everything meets standards and regulations. Your builder then takes these drawings and uses them as a ‘manual’.

You will still have inspections from a building inspector, however, they will be less intrusive as everything is already documented. This can take roughly 6 weeks.

Step 7

Regardless of whether you choose a build notice or building regulations – you will more than likely need to acquire structural calculations from a structural engineer (depending on the work you are having done).

And after all that…you are finally ready…to BUILD!

P.S. Prepare for dirt and dust!!