Orangery Single Storey Extension and Alterations Project in Great Baddow Essex

This update written 23 02 2022.

This is an interesting project, which is in the progress of being built as we speak.

The brief was essentially to improve light to the hallway areas and upstairs landing by removing the large chimney breast, as the customer felt that this restricted movement somewhat and blocked light.

The main part of the project was to design and specify a substantially glazed orangery and knock through into the kitchen, in order to create a larger kitchen open planned with the orangery created area.

This was to be done in a traditional style of appearance in keeping with the predominantly red brick traditional style of the property.

Essentially it was desired that the new orangery would provide a sense of it always being there, as if it formed part of the original design of the building.

Orangery floor levels had to be matched to the existing ground floor hallway floor levels, as there was a drop down which was quite disconcerting and needed to be improved.

The customer also desired that some alterations upstairs ought to be considered, in order to make the upstairs bathroom larger , more befitting of the relatively large property and its otherwise fairly large rooms.

The services we provided on this job for the customer were :

Produce a set of drawings suitable for applying for planning approval acting also as the planning agent.
Produce a set of drawings suitable for making a building regulations application acting as agent in so far as achieving approval of the plans, with the responsibility of agent reverting to the builder once work started on site.
Liase with structural engineer as appropriate.

The quirky design challenges we had to overcome were :

Ensuring the floor level work was designed such as to protect the newly formed timber members from wet and dry rot, by ensuring suitable details were introduced to take into account the slightly higher levels externally compared to the new internal floor level and ensure that the voids were suitably ventilated to prevent dry rot potential.
The flat roof which the chimney breast / stack to be removed penetrated, took some structural timber studwork support off the chimney breast itself, meaning that continued support of this roof had to be considered and addressed prior to removal of the chimney breast / stack.

Below are some photos of the general areas, however this is still in the process of being built and so we will update this case study blog when the project is more complete with more photos.

We felt that it was a good example of the type of projects we enjoy doing here at MB Design and Surveyors Ltd, which is working the general homeowners and improving their properties with loft conversions, extensions etc. and so if you are a homeowner planning a small project and need architectural drawings etc. please give us a call.

Thanks for your time in reading this and please enjoy the first set of captioned photos below: Kindeest regards Mike and George of MB Designs and Surveyors Ltd.

General building regulations proposed overview drawing we produced, which forms part of a much bigger set of drawings

Scaffold up ready to remove chimney stack.

Chimney breast to be removed of GF to improve light to this area.

Flat roof which takes structural stud support off the chimney breast (to be removed) needed careful consideration on site.

The top of the flat roof supports mentioned above.

Kitchen position which is to be knocked through into the new orangery area. The level drop mentioned (step down) which we have addressed in our design is also visible here.

General area where the orangery is going to be situated.