2024 So Far At IGB Architectural Design
2024 has certainly got off to a busy start for the team at IGB Architectural Design with multiple projects progressing through planning permission and building control approval stages. Construction has also begun on several house extensions so we here at the office thought it might be interesting to share a few highlights and surprises of things that have happened at IGB Architectural so far in 2024.
January seemed to be a month of surveys at IGB Architectural with 6 completed in very quick succession across the north of England and southern Scotland including 3 houses, 1 former factory, 1 social housing site and a former pub. Quite the variety.
In January we completed a very challenging building survey at a former pub and restaurant in west Cumbria. The large 5 story building had been closed for about a year and the electric and heating had been disconnected. This made measuring the basement a particularly fun adventure, have you ever tried surveying a building in the dark? Conducting a measured building survey with headtorches is certainly something that is not taught at college or university but the team at IGB Architectural Design are usually up for a challenge.
Accurately surveying almost any building typically takes much longer than most people expect and this was certainly not a straightforward survey. Many expect a building survey to take just a few minutes with a handheld laser measuring a simple length and breath of each room but this usually will not provide the accuracy needed to develop a set of as existing survey drawings into a detailed technical as proposed drawing set which will give builders and contractors all the data and information, they need to give the clients a fair price for their construction project rather than simply relying on a square metre rate. Whilst more modern surveying tools can be very useful and IGB Architectural do use many, sometimes a simple tape measure is the best tool for the job at hand.
The site surveys continued into February as well as several planning applications also being submitted to various local council planning departments across the north-west of England. Renovation works across several social retirement properties to greatly improve the levels of insulation as well as installing underfloor heating and air-source heat pumps to several of the units completed with many of the new residents now moved in who should be enjoying much reduced heating bills for many years to come.
At the beginning of March, we had a very pleasant surprise with a building control application for a 2-story extension to a traditional large detached country property within The Lake District National Park in Cumbria which was approved and returned by the local council in less than a week. Works have already begun onsite with the demolition of an old conservatory and out-shot store to make way for the new foundations that are due to be poured by the contractors in the next week or so.