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At the groundworks stage of a build, how do people decide where everything is going? It is easy to have an overall plot drawing to scale, which was needed for outline planning permission. Is it then up to me to tell the groundworker where to lay the services, drains etc and will he work solely under my instruction?
What will he need for the foundations - does this come in the form of a building regs drawing? It is all very confusing and seems rather daunting. We also need a pumping station installing as the house is lower than the private foulwater sewer. Who designs this? Can I just tell the groundworker to put it "there" for instance? I think I am getting confused with what the architect requires for submitting to building control and what the groundworker "works" off.
The groundworker will do what you tell him to: he may get it right and on the other hand he may not.. If nanything is wrong it us completely up to you and not him to rectify it. What you need is a lot more drawings and a few specifications. Normally these form part of a building regulations application. To begin with the house or building structure needs to thought about in detail so you at least know the dimensions and locations of the walls, and you need to decide which ones will be load bearing. Someone, usually the architect, has to do this work. Only then can you proceed to a foundation/floor design. Also the drains and services should be detailed at this stage.
with reference to the house layout (where are the bathrooms?) and the site levels. You may find that the drainage suppliers will do this work for you for free, if you supply them with levels and a detailed floor plan.
Then you proceed to the setting out stage where you, in effect, transfer the details from the drawings onto the ground. Then when the groundworker comes to do his stuff. He has not so much a map as a paper trail guiding him where to go. It's also much faster, and much less prone to error. The last thing you want to do, once the excavators start moving earth around, is to guessing where walls and rooms are going to be or where the pumping station should be going.
The position of the pumping station will be partly governed by building regulationss - Part H covers this in England & Wales - and partly by common sense. There will be a minimum distance you will have to place it from the house, something along the lines of 4.5 metres minimum: after that it's up to you and your designer/groundwork along with the advice of a building inspector.