Unhelpful BCO

[bandejapaisa]

I email the building control company prior to doing some work, giving them bullet points of what I'm going to do and for them to give me a heads up if they're going to want to see something in particular, and whether I'm doing it correctly.

But they refuse to be helpful in any way.

All they reply with is pretty much, "Do the work, and then we'll come and inspect and tell you if it's ok or not"

How unproductive is that! This is Thames Building Control, a private building control firm.

Is this typical?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Building Control, be they private or LA are not obliged to offer advice they are an inspection/approval service, are you doing this on a Notice? In which case you should know what you're doing, they won't offer advice on a Notice. If you wanted advice/feedback on what you're proposing then you should have done a full plans application and submitted drawings to be assessed prior to the work commencing. Normally they give you a schedule of the relevant inspections, in any case take photos all along the process.

But then the naysayers of the forum always sing the praises of private BC ....

 

[bandejapaisa]

Ok, that makes sense.

It's a single story extension. So yes full plans were drawn and submitted, and approved.

So essentially, if I do what I said I was going to do in the plans, then all should be good and their job is just to check that I've conformed to my plans.

However, building things isn't always that straightforward. I hit a snag, have to change plans slightly mid build - so I want to let them know what I'm doing so that I can get the all clear before wasting my time, for them to criticise and tell me to do it differently, which they could just tell me in the first place.

For example, I moved a manhole, I asked them for advice beforehand. I got f-all advice. So I did the work, bedded pipes and bottom of manhole in pea shingle, as per manufacturers guidelines and instructions. Inspector comes out and says, yeah but did you bed the base of the manhole in concrete... err no. So he made me move all the shingle and bed it in concrete, so it didn't move... despite the fact this is a 1.2m deep manhole, which was surrounded my pea shingle and then backfilled... this thing wasn't going to move!!

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Annoying.
I've always found it best with BCO when approaching them for advice to have a scheme of works in mind (in your example ' hi BCO, i've hit a snag- got to move a manhole. My plan is dig hole, set pipes to x fall, bed it all in pea shingle etc etc, any comments before i proceed?' rather than 'hi BCO, got a manhole to move, any suggestions on how best to do it?'
They (this is local authority) also like proposals where it is obvious from the wording that you've read the Approved Documents.

 

[bandejapaisa]

I did do that.. here is my latest email:

Hi,

I’ve got block and beam flooring arriving in a week, so want to make any preparations that you need to see before it goes in. The beam company, floorspan have designed and specified the layout.

• The ground I was going to give a week killer treatment, then cover in a weed control fabric.
• I have a 150-225mm gap below the blocks, it will be ventilated with 2 vents on each side with telescopic vents ( 6 vents in total)
• The beam will be sat on DPC on the inner skin of new wall, and also inside existing wall.
• Once installed, it will be covered with a sand/cement slurry to grout joints and bond together.

Do I need to arrange a site visit at any point for this, or just photographs? Can you advise if you require more than this. My previous extension didn’t get either, and was left as bare ground.

Thanks
David


Their response is:

Dear David

Thank you for your email. Once you have prepared the area below the block & beam floor and built the bricks up to DPC level please call the office on *********** to book an inspection.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Well as mentioned they're not an advisory service, so getting advice is not in their remit, that said some BCO's are certainly more helpful than others and will offer advice to a greater or lessor degree, seems like you've got a crap one so if you want to divert from your approved plans then you better make sure it's compliant. You'll have to tap into the knowldge on here or somewhere if you get stuck ....

 

[^woody^]

You should have been sent an inspection schedule. And be careful not to call them out more than they state in that schedule (4 or 5 times, normally) else they may charge you.

They need to see the oversite, and structure up to DPC (dpc installed), and (at the same time or separately) they also need to see the floor insulation in place and the floor in place.

I think it was your other thread where it was mentioned that it's your responsibility to ensure that your work is compliant, and the inspector's job is just to check that it is. I don't know a better way to piiss an inspector off than to constantly ask them what to do or if "this or that way" is OK.