Soldato
- Joined
- 26 Aug 2003
- Posts
- 24,262
Hi all,
So all signs point to our house purchase going through. One of our (my) main draws for the house was a reasonably large garage, or space to build one.
This is what we're dealing with, garage-wise:
From front:
From the back:
The metal workshop is fairly sound but the roof isn't great. It's also as ugly as sin. I'm going to use it immediately to store tools, pushbikes, an engine & gearbox etc, but the plan is to pull it down and use that space and some of the space in front of it to build a garage/workshop.
The aim is to be able to store at least one car and be able to work on it inside the garage for most jobs. I would like to be able to store two cars and have workshop space. I've worked out that I have a 5 x 10m space to work with for the building itself.
With a budget of up to £10k I have decided (and I may be wrong but I don't think I am) that breezeblock and brick construction is way out of my budget, which leaves me with concrete prefab and timber as my options. I'm currently leaning towards timber but unsure they will be able to build a big enough building.
I think the timber garages are hugely more attractive than concrete prefabs, and have an advantage in terms of natural insulation, handling condensation, and being able to screw into for fitting cabinets etc. They're also roughly similar price-wise to concrete. Concrete seems more permanent in a way but when you look at older concrete garages they look like **** and it would need considerable work to insulate. I feel like a timber framed garage would be decent to start and could also be insulated, and it would be much easier for me to insulate myself.
Has anyone had a prefab concrete or timber garage built? If so who did you use and are you happy with it?
I'm looking at Chart Garages for timber, as well as quick-garden, and Nucrete and a few others for prefabs.
I want power to the garage but the bomb-shelter looking thing in the garden has an antenna on top of it so I'm assuming they've run power out there already.
I'll need a concrete slab put down regardless of what I choose, currently thining I can dig out and do the shuttering myself, but for such a large slab I think I want to get the concrete pumped in, as up to 50msq done in a cement mixer is going to be a really heavy day, especially considering I've never done it.
Planning wise, I believe it will be covered under permitted development. The paved area is right up against the curtilage of the property and ideally I would like to have it up against the fence. This means a roof height at the ridge of 2.5m which I think is plenty. The only reason I would need it higher is engine swaps and a two/four post lift - I'm in the middle of an engine swap right now but happy to work outside for it. No plans for a lift.
If we build 2m within the border we can go higher but I feel it would eat into the garden space too much, with not enough advantage. I've read people talking about flammable (timber) buildings not being allowed too close to the property border but haven't found any proof of this in planning articles.
Long post... but basically I'm after opinions and experience from people who've done similar and how they found it. Can anyone help out?
Hoping that in time this will turn into an interesting build thread but of course first of all the purchase has to go through and I'm sure a ton of more important jobs will turn up and jump the queue if it does go through!
Chers
So all signs point to our house purchase going through. One of our (my) main draws for the house was a reasonably large garage, or space to build one.
This is what we're dealing with, garage-wise:
From front:
From the back:
The metal workshop is fairly sound but the roof isn't great. It's also as ugly as sin. I'm going to use it immediately to store tools, pushbikes, an engine & gearbox etc, but the plan is to pull it down and use that space and some of the space in front of it to build a garage/workshop.
The aim is to be able to store at least one car and be able to work on it inside the garage for most jobs. I would like to be able to store two cars and have workshop space. I've worked out that I have a 5 x 10m space to work with for the building itself.
With a budget of up to £10k I have decided (and I may be wrong but I don't think I am) that breezeblock and brick construction is way out of my budget, which leaves me with concrete prefab and timber as my options. I'm currently leaning towards timber but unsure they will be able to build a big enough building.
I think the timber garages are hugely more attractive than concrete prefabs, and have an advantage in terms of natural insulation, handling condensation, and being able to screw into for fitting cabinets etc. They're also roughly similar price-wise to concrete. Concrete seems more permanent in a way but when you look at older concrete garages they look like **** and it would need considerable work to insulate. I feel like a timber framed garage would be decent to start and could also be insulated, and it would be much easier for me to insulate myself.
Has anyone had a prefab concrete or timber garage built? If so who did you use and are you happy with it?
I'm looking at Chart Garages for timber, as well as quick-garden, and Nucrete and a few others for prefabs.
I want power to the garage but the bomb-shelter looking thing in the garden has an antenna on top of it so I'm assuming they've run power out there already.
I'll need a concrete slab put down regardless of what I choose, currently thining I can dig out and do the shuttering myself, but for such a large slab I think I want to get the concrete pumped in, as up to 50msq done in a cement mixer is going to be a really heavy day, especially considering I've never done it.
Planning wise, I believe it will be covered under permitted development. The paved area is right up against the curtilage of the property and ideally I would like to have it up against the fence. This means a roof height at the ridge of 2.5m which I think is plenty. The only reason I would need it higher is engine swaps and a two/four post lift - I'm in the middle of an engine swap right now but happy to work outside for it. No plans for a lift.
If we build 2m within the border we can go higher but I feel it would eat into the garden space too much, with not enough advantage. I've read people talking about flammable (timber) buildings not being allowed too close to the property border but haven't found any proof of this in planning articles.
Long post... but basically I'm after opinions and experience from people who've done similar and how they found it. Can anyone help out?
Hoping that in time this will turn into an interesting build thread but of course first of all the purchase has to go through and I'm sure a ton of more important jobs will turn up and jump the queue if it does go through!
Chers