Loughborough, at the end of the A60
Loughborough is in Charnwood, Leicestershire, and the A60 starts here and runs north to Nottingham. The town's 20th-century suburbs went up in stages. Shelthorpe was started in 1929, paused by the Second World War and resumed in 1946. Thorpe Acre grew mainly in the 1950s for Brush Engineering workers, with a new estate in the 1960s and early 1970s. Dishley was heavily developed in the 1970s, and Grange Park was started in 2006.
Extra bedrooms and student lets
Loughborough University says several areas of the town have become very popular with students, and Charnwood introduced an Article 4 Direction covering the whole town in February 2012. It means planning consent is needed to rent a house to three or more unrelated tenants. If you want a partition to add a bedroom so a house can be let to sharers, speak to Charnwood about planning first; building the wall is the simple part.
Letting to sharers also brings stricter fire safety standards, which can dictate the board, the doors and the layout. If the new bedroom is for your own family, there is no change of use, though the usual building regulations points on escape windows and ventilation still apply.
Walls in no-fines concrete houses
Among Thorpe Acre's 1950s homes are 100 dwellings built of no-fines concrete. No-fines concrete is made with coarse aggregate and no sand, so it is full of small voids. That matters when a new partition meets an outside wall, because ordinary wall plugs can fail to grip. The answer is fixings designed for porous or hollow masonry, placed in solid areas where possible. The rest of the frame is fixed to the floor and to ceiling joists as normal, then boarded and skimmed. If you are not sure how your house was built, mention its age when you get in touch and we will check the walls when we come to look.
Conservation areas and the next step
Charnwood has eight conservation areas in Loughborough, including Ashby Road, Queen's Park, Shelthorpe and Victoria Street. Being in one doesn't usually affect an internal stud wall, as the rules are aimed at the outside of buildings, but a listed house needs consent for internal changes. Any new sockets or switches go to a qualified electrician while the frame is open.
To talk about a partition in Loughborough, ring 07877 353120 or use the enquiry form. We work seven days a week, 7am to 5pm.
