"Peter Taylor" wrote in
message ...
"Jim Ingram" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I'm intending to make some internal alterations as illustrated by
the
diagram that can be found he

http://odin.prohosting.com/jimrock/house.jpg

Should I need to inform building control. Would there be any
issues
if I was to put a large opening in the wall between the kitchen
and
lounge (sort of an extra large serving hatch/breakfast bar to
give a
more open plan feel).

Thanks

Jim

Jim, firstly it's very difficult (and dangerous) to give reliable
advice on this
without seeing the house. Forgive me, but your terminology is
incorrect in
places, suggesting you might not be totally sure about what you're
planning.

The age and layout of the house suggests the roof is probably built
of trussed
rafters which do not need any intermediate support, so it's
unlikely there will
be any roof load on the ground floor internal walls. However,
these walls could
well be supporting the first floor joists, which carry the dead
loads of the
ceiling, floorboards and first floor partitions, as well as the
first floor live
load. For this reason you should get someone in who knows what
they're doing
when designing structural alterations. If he/she finds that
loadbearing walls
need to be removed then it will certainly be necessary to involve
Building
Control. Also, changes in layout like this could well have other
Building
Regulations implications, such as fire safety, danger from falling
etc etc.

The best thing I can tell you is to take your proposals along to
the council
offices and ask a Building Control Officer for advice.

Peter

Thanks Peter,

Well one of the joists is not inserted into the party wall (all the
other joists on this side of the property are cemented into the party
wall) and therefore must be supported by the boilerhouse wall so I
guess that means I need to contact them anyway. When visiting the BCO
what information would he be expecting to see. I could take some
digital photos to show how the layout of the joists/walls. Would he
want to see a picture of inside the roof? Any idea roughly how long
it takes to get a building notice through.

Cheers

Jim