[Closed] Do building reg officers offer advice for free?

That's not really what they do. They will say whether the design you have is OK but won't generally tell you how to do it from scratch. In reality once you get going they are generally happy to offer advice on details IME but they won't do big structural stuff.

That said there is very little that can't be done, its just that some solutions may cost big money. Post a few pics up on here or DIYnot and you'll get some idea

Down to individual personalities. Some will gladly give you a bit of friendly advice, the same ones are also usually quite forgiving when it comes to accepting less than perfect home drawn plans as well. Just phone them up and have a chat.

This^+1.

I spoke to one in Glasgow and he couldn't of been more helpful. Lots of advice and how some of the requirements could be met without massive expense.

Spoke to one in Kent about getting him to sign off a woodburner installation and he was absolutely useless. Refused to do it.

A guy came out from our local council to look at a loft conversion that had been done without permission on a house we were looking to buy.
No cost,advice on how to rectify the situation and also had a look at some other work that had been done on the property.

I did plans for an extension years ago and they were fine. I spent a couple of hours doing them to scale with different aspects so they were very detailed and quite neat and it was only a simple extension.
I have heard of the odd nasty one but IME they are normally just everyday blokes who are happy to give you a steer.

They vary hugely but if it's structural (ie you're taking out some of the wall and it's going to need support) then I expect they'll want to see structural calculations.

For a lot conversion we did that was the case - we had no plans but wanted structural calcs for the floor strengthening.

Are chap did the calculations for are extension roof, couldn't be more helpful.

When we moved house earlier this year, we discovered whilst getting together all our documents for the house , that the planning officer hadn't signed off on our building work from 4 yrs ago. You can view everything online with Leeds City Council, and showed all our documents apart from the final ok. A quick phone call to his office, and a completion was emailed to us that day, but bugger me! we paid quite a few hundred quid for his services and he couldn't be bothered to do his paper work.

Where are you?

Thanks everyone.

Rockhopper im in Swindon. Just about to load a picture, hopefully its an easy one to answer. Essentially I want to remove the yellow section so the dining room has seamless walls into the extended part. Single storey extension with a normal lean-to tiled roof, all using standard building materials. Extension about 3 x 2.4m.

[img][url= https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8098/29727421182_36f6b95d6b_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8098/29727421182_36f6b95d6b_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/MhUNCw ]Extension[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/41655460@N08/ ]terryward4[/url], on Flickr[/img]

You'll need a little nib on the left hand side and a couple of bits of steel across to support the cavity wall above. You might end up with a bit of a bulkhead depending on how big the steels need to be.

Cheers Rockhopper, whats a nib? And is the bulkhead the bit currently above the existing patio doors?

Nib = a bit of the wall remaining that you want to remove marked yellow between patio doors and external wall. Ie you probably wont get a continual flat transition between old and new walls as the steel will have to be supported by something.

Bulkhead is above existing patio doors, likely to extend a little bit from ceiling downwards. Basically plasterboard to hide the steel.

Thanks km79, I understand. Would it be possible to have the nib on the other side of the wall (an external nib) so the dining room wall can be seamless?

Yes, as nickjb says, almost anything can be done. It's just that the cost will rise the more complicated the solution.

No, you can't have an external nib as the steel would bridge the cavity. The steel needs to sit on something solid hence the nib on the inside. You could do a steel goalpost arrangement but you are getting expensive then as you'd need a base for it.