New Outbuilding - Utility Room - Restrictions and Regulations?

Amph

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We have an old, large shed in our garden that eventually I will be removing and replacing with a smaller shed elsewhere, however in it's place I was hopeful of building an outbuilding made up of small utility room (to house a washing machine and tumble drier) and a summer house/man den. These rooms would not be accessible from the other and the building would not be attached to our house.

My hope would be to build at the very least the utility room out of brick (if not the whole thing) and of course would need basic plumbing to the waste drain, cold water feed in, and electricity.

I think I understand the basics; It will be within 2 metres of boundary wall so overall height would be no more than 2.5 metres and would only be a small footprint in comparison to the size of garden but is anyone able to advise on the sort of regulations/restrictions that would be in place? Would we need any sort of permission to do this? The electrics would be inspected and certified. Would the plumbing need to be inspected?

Any advice/tips comments welcome.


Thanks.
 
I'll be honest I still find it a bit confusing. I think I'm ok to extend water and electricity from existing supplies in house but not sure. Also, need to get a tape measure out and find out how big it's going to be.

Thanks for the link @phillyd1981
 
You will need a electrician to add a separate circuit from your consumer unit to the out building. A cold water feed will also be needed and you will need a means of running the foul water away a open drain would be ideal.
One thing that springs to my mind is what will happen when the freezing cold nights set in the washing machine contains standing water and the cold water feed pipes freeze up. Water expands when frozen so it may bugger your machine and burst the pipe in.
 
You will need a electrician to add a separate circuit from your consumer unit to the out building. A cold water feed will also be needed and you will need a means of running the foul water away a open drain would be ideal.
One thing that springs to my mind is what will happen when the freezing cold nights set in the washing machine contains standing water and the cold water feed pipes freeze up. Water expands when frozen so it may bugger your machine and burst the pipe in.
Thinking of perhaps getting an oil heater with frost protection for the colder nights and also doing what i can to insulate the cold water pipe between the house and new building. Seen a few suggested solutions, insulated pipe surrounded by expanded polystyrene and suspended in plastic piping, dug under the ground.
 
There are some funny rules and they will vary from council to council so difficult to give good advice - other than speak to your council.

But as an illustration of some of the weird rules about :-

I have have just converted a detached garage to a mancave. Contacted the council about whether I needed planning permission and this was the answer.

If i left the two garage doors in place, even though it was walled up behind them then I did not need planning permission.

If I replaced the two garage doors with brickwork then it would be a change in purpose and planning permission would be required.

Can't see how the first example isn't a change in purpose but suits me as that is how I planned to do it anyway just in case I or a future owner ever wanted to turn it back into a garage.

Another silly we have encountered.

Putting a tiled roof on an existing conservatory.

If there is no central heating radiator then still a conservatory and no planning permission required.

If there is a central heating radiator then adding a tiled roof turns it into an extra living room so planning permission is required.

Cheers,

Nigel
 

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