Local Building Control

[Evans Electric]

I just watched ,on video, last weeks Cowboy Builders programme, someone did mention it in an earlier post.

Extension to a house in Bath by a Polish so called builder. It was so bad it had to be pulled down. Cavity wall filled with household rubbish, RSJ sitting on a Thermalite block wall, pitch of the roof would not carry weight of tiles and manhole concreted over and blocked and sewage backing up, electrics looked carp.

My point is , the presenter spoke to the two building inspectors who said it was not their job to instruct or advise the builder , to that I agree.

But the client is paying for them to monitor the project and enforce building regs. at footings, at wall plate, at roof, even at the end to say ,e.g. There is no extract fan in the kitchen. How could they possibly have allowed that construction to continue, and the client to part with

 

[Pyro]

Like you , I do wonder about the building inspectors...... "The client was never on site" or something similar was the response as to why they did nothing about querying (or stopping) the project. A lame excuse. No phone number(s) available for the client? Inability to write / type / post / fax / e-mail? It may not be in the inspector's remit to instruct the builder on how to do his job, but surely there is a level of responsibility to ensure that the job actually meets with the requirements of the regulations.

Were there any plans, how detailed were they and were they approved? Surely plans would have shown the locations of the manhole and services lines? Plans would / should also have detailed the roof pitch, dimensions of wood used and that tiles were to be the type of roofing material, and that's before we get on to an RSJ sitting on thermalite! I don't believe for one moment that planning applications go through detailed calculations to pass the "compliance" stage, but surely covering a manhole and the RSJ on thermalite would ring alarm bells.

If I were the home owner concerned, I would be wanting to grill the planning approvals and buildings inspection processes as vigorously as the builder himself. Having said that, I also think that there were many failures of due diligence on the part of all persons concerned (including the home owner).

 

[ian932]

Totally agree on all of this, the 1st inspection on any build is the footings before you concrete so why did it get beyond that as the footings were only 4" deep and there was a communal sewer manhole still within the footprint of the extension.

They should have issued a stop notice on their 1st visit, but they said that they had a meeting and discussed the various defects with the polish builder. Sorry but they are there to ensure buildings are erected in a structurally sound way and they should have written to the home owner before it got to this stage.

By my calculation they should have been up to their third inspection 1. footings, 2. DPC, Wallplate / Rafters on. But what do you expect for an organisation that is a jack of all and master of none!!

 

[a1]

A link to watch it, would be appreciated.

 

[ian932]

A link to watch it, would be appreciated.

Admin there should be a link in the earlier thread

Electrician Forum

 

[Mark2spark]

I think the local BC here are on soft ground, if the house owner made the building regs App then I think BC had a duty to correspond with the Applicant rather than *just* the builder.