Building Regulations Drawings Review in London | Fixed Fee
A chartered check of a building regulations set someone else drew, Part by Part, before it goes to building control or to site.
Plenty of London projects reach the building regulations stage with drawings from a builder or a designer who is not a chartered professional. They are often fine for a quote and not much more. A loft may be priced without anyone asking how people get out of it in a fire, or a new opening may be drawn with no sign of the structural information behind it. By the time a building control surveyor raises the problem, the fix costs time and money.
DrawingsDirect is an MCIAT-chartered architectural technologist practice. Our building regulations drawings review reads the set you already have, tells you in plain English which Parts it fails to cover and where, shows you on your own drawings, and gives your builder a short list of actions to close out. The fee is fixed at £300. We do not redraw anything unless you ask us to. Questions that are only about planning permission are a different check and are not part of this review.
Fixed fee from £300 (see all prices) · Drawings in ~7 days · Free redraws to approval.
What do I get from a building regulations drawings review?
You get three documents. A written report in plain English lists every issue with what to do about it. Your own drawings come back marked up, with each issue clouded and numbered. A short builder action schedule turns the report into a table with a space to sign off every item as it is dealt with.
- The report: each issue ranked by seriousness, explained without jargon, with a recommended fix and the Part it relates to.
- The marked-up drawings: your actual sheets, clouded and numbered, so you can see where each issue sits.
- The builder action schedule: a short table to hand to your builder, with a sign-off box against each item.
Which Parts of the Approved Documents do we check against?
The Approved Documents are the government's practical guidance on the Building Regulations 2010, one Part for each subject. We check your set against the Parts that apply to your project and say in the report which ones we used. Which apply depends on the work, so we do not read all of them into every job.
Structure, fire and moisture
Part A (Structure) and the structural information on the sheets: where a new opening, a loft floor or an altered roof is drawn, we look for the beam sizes, loads and details that an engineer should have supplied, and flag where none appear. Part B (Fire safety) covers escape and warning, which for a loft means the route down from the new floor. Part C (Site preparation and resistance to contaminates and moisture) covers damp-proofing, floors and walls against moisture.
Comfort, ventilation and sound
Part E (Resistance to sound) matters most for flats and conversions. Part F (Ventilation) covers extract and background ventilation, which are often missing from a drawn set. Part O (Overheating) applies to new homes only; where it applies we check that the glazing and ventilation openings have been considered.
Safety, access and energy
Part K (Protection from falling, collision and impact) is where stairs are checked. It gives a maximum pitch of 42 degrees for a private stair, which is often where a loft stair squeezed into a small landing starts to fail. Part L (Conservation of fuel and power) is the energy Part, so the drawings should state the build-up of new walls, roofs and floors and not leave it to site. Part M (Access to and use of buildings) covers step-free access and the usability of the entrance and the rooms.
Electrical, security and charging
Part P (Electrical safety), Part Q (Security in dwellings) and Part S (Infrastructure for charging electric vehicles) are checked where the project is one they reach, mostly new homes and some conversions. The report states which Parts it treated as relevant, so nothing is silently skipped.
How issues are ranked: Critical, Recommended and Minor
Each issue gets one of three ratings so you know what to deal with first. Critical means fix it before submission or before work starts, because it risks a rejected application, a safety problem or an expensive correction later. Recommended means resolve it before the building regulations submission. Minor covers tidy-ups and good practice that will not hold anything up.
Critical
These are the items that can stop a project. The kind of thing that sits here is a new top floor with no workable escape route, or structure that is needed but has not been designed. A Critical item should be closed before anything is submitted or ordered.
Recommended
These need an answer before the building regulations submission. A typical example is a roof build-up drawn without enough information to check the insulation or the ventilation.
Minor
These are small inconsistencies, missing labels and good-practice points. They are worth fixing because a tidy set of drawings draws fewer queries from building control and from contractors, but none of them should delay the job.
When is the right time to get a set reviewed?
The earlier the better, because changing a line on a drawing is far cheaper than changing a built wall. There are two useful moments: before the Full Plans application goes to building control, and before work starts on site. The report states which stage your sheets are at.
- Before the building regulations submission, so the technical gaps are closed while changes are still changes to a drawing.
- Before work starts, when a builder is about to price, order steel or book trades from the drawings.
- If building control has already replied with comments, our building control comments service is the one to use instead.
What we look for on the sheets
We read the set for four things on top of the Part-by-Part check. Where something turns on facts we cannot see from the sheets, such as ground conditions or the true height of an existing floor, the report says so rather than guessing.
Dimensions that agree
Whether the plans, sections and elevations agree with one another: the same room sizes, floor-to-ceiling heights and opening widths on every sheet, at a sensible scale. A stair that fits on the plan but not in the section is the classic case.
Structural information present
Whether the structure the drawings rely on has been designed. A new opening in a loadbearing wall, a new loft floor or an altered roof should come with calculations and details from a structural engineer, and we flag where none exist. We do not design or certify structure in a review. If it is missing, our structural drawings service can pick it up.
Fire escape for lofts
A loft conversion is the classic case. Under Approved Document B Volume 1, where a conversion creates a storey more than 4.5 m above ground level, the escape route has to be addressed. That usually means fire-resisting doors and partitions along it, or an alternative based on sprinklers. Whether it applies to your house depends on its height and layout, so we check the sections for the actual floor level before saying either way.
Details left to site
A flat roof is a common one. A cold deck and a warm deck deal with moisture in different ways, so the drawn build-up needs ventilation or insulation details that match whichever one is chosen. A section that shows only a line and a label leaves that decision to site, and we would flag it.
Is a review the same as redrawing my plans?
No. A review leaves your drawings as they are and reports on them. A redraw produces a new set, which costs more and takes longer. Many clients only need the review, then pass the action schedule to whoever drew the plans. If a lot is wrong, you can ask us to quote for a redraw afterwards.
How long does a review take?
Allow 3 to 5 working days from the day we have your drawings and any specification you hold. A 48-hour express option is available if the clock is already running, for example before a builder starts. Ask for the express option when you request the review. Large or incomplete sets can take a little longer, and we tell you at the start.
| Drawings review | Redraw the whole set | Go ahead unchecked | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | £300 fixed, with no VAT to add | See /pricing | Nothing up front, but any errors are paid for later |
| Time | 3 to 5 working days, express available on request | See /pricing | None to start, though corrections can delay the job |
| What you get | Ranked report, marked-up sheets and a builder action schedule | A new set of drawings | The drawings as they are, with unknown gaps |
| Best when | A set exists and you want it checked before building control or site | The existing set is not worth keeping | Not advisable before a submission or before work starts |
Complete your drawing package
Full-plans construction packages, with the engineer's calculations drawn onto the set.Structural Drawings
Steel beams, load-bearing walls and foundations, calculated by a named, insured engineer and drawn onto your set.Loft Conversion Drawings
Dormer, mansard, hip-to-gable and Velux loft conversions, drawn for permitted development or planning.
Building Regulations Drawings Review — frequently asked questions
How much does a building regulations drawings review cost?+
Can you review building regulations drawings that a builder produced?+
Do you check structural calculations?+
What if the review finds a Critical issue?+
Does the review replace building control approval?+
What do you need from me to start?+
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