2009 - The Year of the Extension

Domestic extensions and renovations have accounted for over 30% of all the projects I was involved in over the last 12 months. Not since I started working within the industry back in 1994, have I been involved in such a high % of this type of work. They say everything goes in 15 year cycle, which in this case seams to be true.

Of the projects, very few were exempted development under the Planning and Development Acts and Regulations, so as part of our work, making a planning application was one element. The main reason for this in many cases was the works to be undertaken were to the side of the dwelling: however a number of the extensions were over the 40sq.m threshold or when previous extensions were taken into account the floor area exceeded the 40 sq. m.

I haven’t encountered any problems with the planning applications to date and in a number of cases the decisions were made well within the statutory period, which was great for the client.

People seem to consider extending rather than trade up in dwelling size due to the current house sales market. Typically extensions involved the provision of additional bedroom accommodation. Granny flat extensions or the extensions, which are easily adoptable as granny flats also featured high in the list of extensions.

In many cases I found that people also took the opportunity to improve the energy efficiency of the existing structure, be it upgrading of insulation or windows, heating systems and controls. I expect that upgrading works will be a growth area in the next few years, particularly after the introduction of carbon taxes to fuel in the recent budget. With this in in mind, early in the new year I will be attending a one day CPD event entitled “Designing Low Energy Domestic Refurbs” which will hopeful fine tune me skills and improve my knowledge even further.

Building Regs-Technical Guidance Documents

The DEHLG seem to be getting their act together in terms of getting Technical Guidance Documents (TGD’s)out for public consultation as Part H relating to Drainage appeared within the last week. How well its written might be another story.As expected gone are the references to SR 6 1991 and in its place the EPA Code of Practice. Many would say about time for SR 6 to be replaced. We have not used SR6 1991 for an number of years now, instead using the FETAC certified Site Assessors to undertake the site suitability testing.

There’s also references and guidance on rainwater harvesting, which is definitely a positive thing, if we are to take sustainability seriously. It seems pointless to be flushing toilets with what is meant to be good quality drinking water, however as some parts of the county found out within the last few years, here included, the quality of the water wasn’t fit for consumption anyway. Personally I’m looking at installing a rain water harvesting unit, as part of works to be undertaken in the future.

Getting back to the DEHLG and public consultation, I understand that they have their hands full after the Part M consultation, with 40 or so submissions. I’m sure the interest was increased due the introduction of the DAC Certs as the document will have a direct bearing on these in the future. How soon we can except to see the amended document well that’s another story, it will be a case of doing as many DAC Certs as quickly as possible under the current Documents I suspect…. Part F relating to ventilation which went for public consultation last year has yet to appear in its final format, so one can draw their own conclusions from that.

Of course Part L is due to be revised next year, to improve standards in thermal performance and reduce further our carbon emissions… the question is will we see the document… my money says yes if we still have a green minister for the environment. I don’t think that there has been too many houses built under the 2008 guidelines, I can see the 2010 guidelines been a complete culture shock to others when they do arrive.

DAC Certs

Disability Access Certificates ( DAC Certs) are on the way as of 1 January 2010, which is not to far away now. Their introductaion is as a result of IS 351 of 2009 BUILDING CONTROL (AMENDMENT) REGULATIONS 2009.

 Their introduction will bring some teething problems no doubt like:

• Whom in Building Control is going to access them...... the Fire Officers have said they won't.
• Will Building Control Authorities be satisfied with demonstrating Compliance with the current Part M or will they be looking one to demonstrate compliance with another document eg NDA's publication  Buildings for Everyone
• What level of detail will they require, will full construction drawings be required or will documentation similar to the level of detail in a Fire Safety Certificate Application be sufficient?

The application fee won't sit well with persons whom require to make a DAC Cert application, in that it is €800 irrespective of size of project.

One has to ask the question it it now time that each element of the building regulations should be accessed by building control authorty in a single application,  like what happens in the UK?

POP RECORD

It’s finally time, to make my POP Record submission for Chartered Membership of CIAT or to give it its correct name the Professional and Occupational Performance Record Results Schedule.

• Results Schedule signed off by POP Record Supervisor
  
• CV updated
• Cheque made out (€106 in my case)
  
• Cover letter to accompany the submission.

Next correspondence should be the request to supply evidence for 5 of the 17 Units at which stage it should be just a case of taking the stuff out of the relevant file and submitting it.

One off housing

Over the last few years, I haven't been involved in too many "one-offs" as time was spent working on larger commercial projects or designing residential schemes: as this work, has dried up, things have come full circle, in that the one off is now featuring more and more again in my work, which was the type of work I did went I started working back in 1994. Its not to say that I haven't designed many houses in those intervening years, its hard to count how many I have, while there's been plenty of 3 bed semis, I've also been involved in many schemes of large individual houses too.

One off house design has moved on from the "bungalow bliss" type  grant sized house, which has is to be found on each rural road across the country. Have things improved much, I'm not so sure, however it is fair to say that design has become more of an important issue.  Many of the local authorites have developed Rural Design Guidelines, mainly following the lead of Cork County Council, whom produced a good publication back in 2003... a must have for both designer and potential house builder.

I can't take the credit for the design of the above dwelling, but rather I have developed the design from a planning application design to working drawings. There are things I don't particularly like myself nor would I have advised the client to do in the house, but then I didn't have a significant say in the dwelling design at concept stage.

Work on the house is progressing on site at the moment with another site visit due shortly.

Impression

Its been a while since I mentioned Autodesk’s Impression software, however that’s not to say that I haven’t been using it. In fact I use it almost as much as I use AutoCAD these days. It allows an AutoCAD user generate presentation drawings quiet quickly and with little hassle, once you use your layering system in AutoCAD correctly. A standard layering system through each project with good discipline, can allow one create render drawings in a matter of minutes, once you have your styles set up.

The current version is Impression 3, only available on subscription as have past releases, I think, which means in the short term anyway I don’t expect to see the next release, as our AutoCAD subscription wasn’t renewed, in a effort to keep overheads down for the coming 12 months.

I have to say Impression 3 has improved in terms of stability since Release 1, although, it can still be a little unpredictable when it comes to updating data following revisions in AutoCAD drawings. Fills too can pose problems if you move the drawing or elements of it following your original impression render. The importing of AutoCAD Blocks however seem to cause me most problems, in than I have to re-apply the styles on each occasion that I update the drawing.

For someone who just wants to jazz up their AutoCAD drawings (Like me) it is far simpler to use that say Adobe Photoshop, particularly if you aren’t familiar with photoshop. There aren’t a huge number of commands, yet there’s huge scope for a different presentation techniques. Be a maker style drawing with extended lines, a blueprint type finish to a drawing or whatever takes your fancy. Its just a matter of playing around with the style command.

Anyway the lads at Autodesk University are far better at explaining how to use the software than I, particularly in the two presentation I found.

• Creating a Good Impression 
• Styles and Entourage
  

An another extension

Extensions and renovations seem to be the run of the mill of late, I am currently working on another one comprising of a granny flat this time. The brief is to extend an existing bungalow with a reasonable sized granny flat with bedroom and living accommodation, which will offer independence to the occupants, yet allow for care and supervision in years to come. As part of the works the clients intend up grading the thermal performance of the building and making alterations to the existing fenestration.

The project is ready to be submitted to the planning authority for assessment. Hopefully it will run through without any problems.

Tender Prices

As noted in a previous blog, we recently tendered a small extension with 5 building contractors. At first glance there was a 24% difference in the lowest and highest tender price, with the 3 middle tenderers very closely matched. (which would indicate the actual tender price) These 3 were between 10-14% above the lowest tender price. The building contactor of the lowest tender has been back, to advise that there is an error in their price, and that the actual price should be 7.5% more than the one submitted in their tender, however under the Code of Practice for Tendering and Contractual Matters 2006 published by the Liaison Committee, the contractor is required to either stand over the tender price submitted or withdraw their tender. It is most probable that they will withdraw as they have advised that their tender price is suicidal or in any case we will be recommending to the client not to appoint the lowest tender as the tender price is insufficient to complete the project. The price is coming in at €135/sq foot, excluding PC Sums for sanitaryware / tiling and painting however it involves a lot of manual work due to restricted access and alteration works internally to the existing dwelling. We are currently waiting to see if the client will proceed with the project.

CIAT ramblings

Recently I attended a CIAT committee meeting in Dublin, which was held to tie in with Plan Expo .Unfortunately I didn’t get to visit Plan Expo, things ran late in the office however I understand that there were more exhibitors than visitors (on that afternoon anyway), which is an indication of the poor state of the industry at present. Talking to some of the committee members afterwards, some don’t hold out much hope for their future in the industry, ( in the short term anyway) which is worrying, as people who engage on committees are generally the one’s who interested in progressing their career and practice.
There’s a practice meeting in early December, which should be interesting to see how others are coping and how they view the future.

Its 3 years, since I was admitted to CIAT as an Associate member. I had hoped to have had my pop record completed at this stage however things have been difficult for the last 18 months and its a case of survival and the pop record gets put on the back burner. However I’m now at the stage where I can of make my record submission, just have to update the CV at this stage and get the application fee. Watch this space.

Extensions and tendering.

With many home owners not able to sell their homes or sell for what they hoped to get, some have resorted to extending rather than trading up. Depending on the works involved it may not be necessary to apply for planning permission, however I have found that generally the planning authorities make decisions well within the statutory period where planning permission was required and there are no issues .... something which would not have happened 12-15 months ago. Maybe its just that I've covered everything in the planning application submission and that they had no cause to request any further information.

Within the last few days I've sent one extension out to tender. It had been a while since I prepared tender documentation for an extension to be honest, but I now have a run of them to do. Extensions by their nature can be difficult to predict budget prices for so it will be interesting to see how much the tenders will come back for. I am expecting some variation in the prices.

The Society of Chartered Surveyors estimate that tender prices generally are back to 1999 levels, which would bring building costs well back from what they were 15 months ago, yet material prices and specifications have risen beyond the 1999 levels as have prelims., which makes one wonder.