Since buying the house in 2007, we undertook a major addition to the bungalow in 2008 when we added two additional bedrooms. Now just nine years later (2016) we decided to take down the existing concrete panel garage and replace it with a brick garage.
Planning
First task was to ask Wigan Planning if we needed to apply for Planning Permission, easy enough for me as I could use my Architectural Technician skill to prepare the drawings & do the submission. Answer from Wigan – No Planning required.
Next step was to check with the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) if we could dismantle the asbestos cement roof ourselves. Answer from the HSE was Yes as long as we took precautions. Wigan MBC would also allow us to dispose of the material if we made arrangement with our local recycling centre.
If you are planning any work that involves or you think involves asbestos it is your responsibility to check what can be undertaken with your local authorities.
Demolition Day
So, we ordered the skips, asked for and were offered help from family and friends to do the demolition which took us two days to complete. This also included wrapping the asbestos cement roofing in double sheets of Visqueen & sealing with ‘duct tape‘
The rebuild
Now that the demolition has been completed, we needed to rebuild. We found a great bricklayer called Ray Buxton from Leigh. He was absolutely fantastic. He managed the foundation dig by himself and then set about building the walls for us. Up in no time at all.
We’d ordered pre-made trusses at a reasonable price and better still they were cheaper than actually building a traditional roof. Warren & I put the trusses up with the help of Joshua. Not sure Warren enjoyed working off the ladder at the height and I haven’t worked so hard in all my living days. But we got them up and secure.
The roof was made watertight by calling in an owed favour from a local roofer who I’d undertaken some drawing work for the previous year.
Roller shutter garage door was ordered from a company called Easy-Fit Garage Doors and all arrived in a timely manner. All that was needed was for it to be fitted by myself with the help of Warren. Only issue was that the actual door curtain was too wide. Checking the order, it was identified that it wasn’t my fault but the manufacturers. As a gesture of good will they dispatched a fitter to trim to size and fit for us.
Michele and I decided to split the internal arrangement one-third Utility Room and two-thirds Garage. We knew full well that the garage area wasn’t large enough to get a car in but it would be put to good use as storage.
The electrics were carried out by Josh Pemberton of Pem Power who we have known for many years as he’s a school friend of Lewis.
You must be logged in to post a comment.