Badger Towers

There are many things that seem like a good idea when legislation is passed or rules are made.  But at the sharp end of these are a bunch of people who have a job to do.  It gets harder for a skilled person to get paid to do something he’s good at without tripping over some rule or regulation.

So far in the process of renovating a house I’ve had to deal with:

• Understanding permitted development and its borderline interpretations (the hard way)
• Understanding planning submission formats
• Environment Agency flood report requirements
• Oxford City Council’s guidelines on light blocking and availability
• Understanding building control and regulations, and making the correct application without costing a thousand pounds
• Party Wall Agreement etc Act 1996
• Correct disposal of lead paint
• Correct disposal of plasterboard
• Correct disposal of solvents and wood treatment
• Certification of electricals (17th Edition)
• Fire regulations for loft conversions (changed late 2008)
• Parking permits and dispensations
• SAP Reports for energy efficiency
• Environmental impact statements

All I’m doing is getting a 1.2 metre side extension added to a terraced house and some renovations at the same time, but if you followed all the rules they lay out for you I suspect you’d never want to start. 

I was brought up to follow the rules and be a good citizen and do the right thing, but every time I take this approach I get stung for another cost, or fret that I fall under a particular regulation and end up hesitating.  When I say “oh sod it” and just get it done things fall into place and work.

As overall client and half-arsed project manager I understand I should have to deal with lots of different issues, but I just don’t see how a builder who’s supposed to be on-site trying to get things knocked down, removed, measured, rebuilt and finished has any time to find out any of this stuff. 

It’s probably quite easy to sit in your office like a cardinal writing edicts about something you heard from someone at a conference who stands to gain financially from you regulating it without really thinking of the consequences for the people doing it.  It makes every step a more costly, complex job than it would have been before. It means people like me who try to do The Right Thing end up suffering, whilst the people who bodge it and scarper often get away with it. Thank god we didn’t have any asbestos.

When the CBI or some other lobbying group grunt out another press release about “£11 million lost each day to improperly laced boots” or something, they fail to account for the “£20 million lost each day to boot lacing paperwork, red tape, phoning around, getting British Standard boot lace quotes, paying boot lace designers, architects, building control officers, surveyors, structural engineers, recyclers, disposers, councils etc.” 

It’s a bit like bribery. Only it’s legal and it doesn’t make life much easier.