Oak frame garage build
Discussion
Well it's been a long time coming but today is the beginning of my garage build, so thought I'd start a thread 
I first started thinking about doing this back in summer 2017 and looked into a modified 'Winchester' 3-bay garage from Oakwrights. I applied fro pre-application advice from the local planning office early last year. Unfortunately they suggested it was just too large, and I ended up having to scale down my ideas with a smaller standard size 'Gloucester' 3-bay, but with a large central dormer. This was considered more acceptable by the planning office, so I put in for planning permission last summer.
It was finally granted in September!
So this is what I had in mind:
There will be two garage bays, one of which will have a raised ceiling to accommodate two cars on a 4-post lift (I don't actually have two E-types, they're examples of what size car will fit
). The remaining bay will be a workshop area. The whole building will be habitable spec with underfloor heating in the slab.
Upstairs accommodation will be accessed from an internal staircase (separated from the garage by fire door and appropriately partitioned as per building regs). The bedroom will be above the bay with the raised ceiling, so will be a pretty compact space - cosy anyway!
On the site was a very dilapidated old shed...
Which I demolished over the Christmas break - fortunately the weather was great! Most of it was stacked up as future firewood. The stuff inside (which was all that was holding it up!) was mostly scrap and either dumped or relocated. Pug 406 went for scrap - pity really was a decent enough car but with a worn out clutch and various other age related problems wasn't worth spending any money on. Had been sitting for 3 years anyway...
Leaving the concrete slab to be broken up - time to hire a suitable tool!
Made short work of it over a weekend:
I left the last bit of slab as it has some of the heavy stuff on it that I'm not sure what to do with and it's well clear of the build site anyway. Will break it up later on, but might be quite handy to have a solid surface to put stuff on during the build.
Also had to dig out a load of old leylandii stumps which had been cut down some 15 years ago. Fortunately they were mostly rotten and didn't need to hire a stump grinder or anything - just a spade, axe and determination!
So that brings things up to date - my builder started marking out today and brought over some hardware...
Looks like the weather will be unseasonably good this week so hope to get the footings dug for the first building inspector visit. Fingers crossed that he accepts a standard 1m footing depth...!
I first started thinking about doing this back in summer 2017 and looked into a modified 'Winchester' 3-bay garage from Oakwrights. I applied fro pre-application advice from the local planning office early last year. Unfortunately they suggested it was just too large, and I ended up having to scale down my ideas with a smaller standard size 'Gloucester' 3-bay, but with a large central dormer. This was considered more acceptable by the planning office, so I put in for planning permission last summer.
It was finally granted in September!
So this is what I had in mind:
There will be two garage bays, one of which will have a raised ceiling to accommodate two cars on a 4-post lift (I don't actually have two E-types, they're examples of what size car will fit
). The remaining bay will be a workshop area. The whole building will be habitable spec with underfloor heating in the slab.Upstairs accommodation will be accessed from an internal staircase (separated from the garage by fire door and appropriately partitioned as per building regs). The bedroom will be above the bay with the raised ceiling, so will be a pretty compact space - cosy anyway!
On the site was a very dilapidated old shed...
Which I demolished over the Christmas break - fortunately the weather was great! Most of it was stacked up as future firewood. The stuff inside (which was all that was holding it up!) was mostly scrap and either dumped or relocated. Pug 406 went for scrap - pity really was a decent enough car but with a worn out clutch and various other age related problems wasn't worth spending any money on. Had been sitting for 3 years anyway...
Leaving the concrete slab to be broken up - time to hire a suitable tool!
Made short work of it over a weekend:
I left the last bit of slab as it has some of the heavy stuff on it that I'm not sure what to do with and it's well clear of the build site anyway. Will break it up later on, but might be quite handy to have a solid surface to put stuff on during the build.
Also had to dig out a load of old leylandii stumps which had been cut down some 15 years ago. Fortunately they were mostly rotten and didn't need to hire a stump grinder or anything - just a spade, axe and determination!
So that brings things up to date - my builder started marking out today and brought over some hardware...
Looks like the weather will be unseasonably good this week so hope to get the footings dug for the first building inspector visit. Fingers crossed that he accepts a standard 1m footing depth...!
)Well the ground works should take 3-4 weeks and Oakwrights are scheduled for May. Should take them about a week to assemble and roof it. The rest will be down to me... including all doors and casement windows, insulation, underfloor heating, electrics, plumbing, plaster boarding, decorating etc. I will be working part time for 6 months from April (3 day week) so will have some time to make progress over the summer, at least until the money runs out!
AJLintern said:
Well the ground works should take 3-4 weeks and Oakwrights are scheduled for May. Should take them about a week to assemble and roof it. The rest will be down to me... including all doors and casement windows, insulation, underfloor heating, electrics, plumbing, plaster boarding, decorating etc. I will be working part time for 6 months from April (3 day week) so will have some time to make progress over the summer, at least until the money runs out!
Sounds good, definitely a lot of work ahead for you then but the end result will be well worth it I'm sure.Yes good experience with Oakwrights, nice people to work with. I have been through the planning process before back in 2013 when I wanted to build an oak frame house, but the neighbours objected and it was refused and also at appeal! They argued it would 'set a precedent for future development'. However since then a 40 unit housing estate has sprung up on the old farmyard on the other side of our neighbours - wasn't much they could do about that! Fortunately for us their place nicely obscures our view of said housing development... 
Anyway, I digress. So having been frustrated by the whole planning experience previously I decided to let Oakwrights sort it via their local planning consultants (Mid west planning) - well worth the ~£500 it cost. Fortunately the neighbours didn't object - in fact there were no comments on the application at all! With a bit of tweaking to the skylights and position relative to the main house on the plot it was granted
Anyway, I digress. So having been frustrated by the whole planning experience previously I decided to let Oakwrights sort it via their local planning consultants (Mid west planning) - well worth the ~£500 it cost. Fortunately the neighbours didn't object - in fact there were no comments on the application at all! With a bit of tweaking to the skylights and position relative to the main house on the plot it was granted
Well the ground conditions are quite variable around here. In the village it's quite stony, up the road there are sand deposits and here there is Kimmeridge clay mixed with stones. The water table is also quite high, though after a fairly dry winter I'm hoping that won't be as bad as it could be.
Very interested how this will go, as one day its something we could consider for our build plot, all be it nothing more than a pipe dream at the moment.
What is the reason for going with a timber frame rather than a more 'conventional' brick and blockwork wall? Speed of build? Cost?
Daniel
What is the reason for going with a timber frame rather than a more 'conventional' brick and blockwork wall? Speed of build? Cost?
AJLintern said:
The dimensions are 9.7m x 6.3m (~32' x 20'), the bays are 3m between the posts. Total floor area where headroom is >1.5m is about 87sqm, so about the size of the average UK house apparently
Good size that. What size was the original planning application for?Daniel
I've always liked the idea of an oak frame building, other building methods would likely be a fair bit cheaper! Speed of construction is an advantage though.
I originally wanted an extended section with a catslide roof at the rear for the workshop so I could have all three bays free to park in. There are some pics in a previous thread we posted on ( Rough costs - Triple garage with living accommodation above)
The 'Winchester' is 1m taller than the 'Gloucester' giving a lot more full headroom space upstairs, but the council didn't like. They also didn't like the extended part at the rear... or the Velux balcony skylight I wanted to fit!
But I'm content enough with what I eventually got permission for - and will cost less!
I originally wanted an extended section with a catslide roof at the rear for the workshop so I could have all three bays free to park in. There are some pics in a previous thread we posted on ( Rough costs - Triple garage with living accommodation above)
The 'Winchester' is 1m taller than the 'Gloucester' giving a lot more full headroom space upstairs, but the council didn't like. They also didn't like the extended part at the rear... or the Velux balcony skylight I wanted to fit!
But I'm content enough with what I eventually got permission for - and will cost less!
AJLintern said:
I've always liked the idea of an oak frame building, other building methods would likely be a fair bit cheaper! Speed of construction is an advantage though.
I originally wanted an extended section with a catslide roof at the rear for the workshop so I could have all three bays free to park in. There are some pics in a previous thread we posted on ( Rough costs - Triple garage with living accommodation above)
The 'Winchester' is 1m taller than the 'Gloucester' giving a lot more full headroom space upstairs, but the council didn't like. They also didn't like the extended part at the rear... or the Velux balcony skylight I wanted to fit!
But I'm content enough with what I eventually got permission for - and will cost less!
Fair enough, they do look nice.I originally wanted an extended section with a catslide roof at the rear for the workshop so I could have all three bays free to park in. There are some pics in a previous thread we posted on ( Rough costs - Triple garage with living accommodation above)
The 'Winchester' is 1m taller than the 'Gloucester' giving a lot more full headroom space upstairs, but the council didn't like. They also didn't like the extended part at the rear... or the Velux balcony skylight I wanted to fit!
But I'm content enough with what I eventually got permission for - and will cost less!
Yes I do now recall that previous thread.
Daniel
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