Good morning,
I am planning some internal changes to my house and would appreciate some help on whether planning and/or building regs will be required.
To set the scene: my home is a 2 bed inner terrace cottage built around 1840. It already has a single story ground floor kitchen extension, which was built before we bought it. The building is not listed, but it is in a conservation area.
What I want to do is essentially the following:
• Convert existing upstairs bathroom into a 3rd bedroom and change window from frosted to clear glass;
• Install new bathroom downstairs in small area off the kitchen (will involve creation of new walls and a new doorway being installed to gain access through an existing (non-load bearing) wall. The new bathroom will not have a window;
• Knock down internal wall (possibly load bearing – will be getting structural engineer in to check)in existing kitchen extension between kitchen and utility room to create open plan kitchen diner;
• Create a new doorway through from lounge through to kitchen extension (load bearing wall).
Specifically, the two issues I am unsure about are:
• Is planning required to change from a frosted glass window to a clear glass one? The window over looks the rear of the property and would have originally been clear glass before an internal bathroom was installed;
• Will I need building regs/inspection. E.g. Are there any specific building reg requirements for installing new bathrooms that I need to be aware of and will the work need to be inspected/approved prior to starting?
Many thanks
Otleygas (James)
