Image courtesy of Clkr.com
Lately we have gone crazy on Energy Efficiency stuff in response to reader’s comments. This week we received feedback from readers requesting more information on:
- Updated regulations;
- Interpretations – things change over time;
- A specific case study (this so caught our interest we actually offered to do this! see below)
- DDA stuff e.g. Access to Premises, What’s going to happen?
Stay tuned!
We have a deck I’d like to convert to a kitchen additional, but it’s on fill, with the concrete slab of the house on one edge. Can we convert it to part of the kitchen ? Would we need to redo the foundations of the deck?
Hi Julia,
In theory there should be no problem if your deck was built with building approval in the first place the conversion is relatively straightforward. The approved design would have anticipated the fill. The main issue will be the physical disconnection between the new and existing structures to provide some form of articulation for movement of the two parts independently whilst remaining physically connected so they can function together.
Without building approval you would need to investigate the suitability of the footings to the deck. You need to get a soil report for the location and get a structural engineer to review the soil report findings and either endorse the existing or provide a new design.
I would need to know a bit more about the fill? Type? Depth? Extent? etc to give you more comment.