Hi everyone, I recently got planning for a shepherd hut to use as a welfare cabin on my small plant nursery, and will also be renting it out for 28 days a year under the planning rule for Hollidays. After looking at Shepherd huts for sale online, I soon discovered that the one my wife would be happy with was over £40k, whenever my wife points to something that is expensive in the shops I always say 'I could make that'. This is the first time I actually decided to take the plunge and go for it, and so far it's been an eye opening experience, and more expensive than I first expected with the cost of materials going up by the day. Overall I have really been enjoying it, and haven't chopped my fingers off yet with my dads saws. The worst I had was falling off a ladder and twisting my ankle. I've learnt so many skills while building the hut and it's given me a lot of confidence to look into the possibility of building my own home one day. I was determined to do everything myself, but decided I should get a professional electrician, as it could be dangerous if I got it wrong, I have also decided to get a plumber to install the LPG gas boiler for safety reasons.
The hut is a standard wooden framed building insulated with sheep wool (treated for moths) and internally cladded in Tulip wood reed and bead cladding, externally I have added a breathable membrane, added treated roof battens vertically and then used flat head stianless steel annular ring nails to hold the Siberian larch feather edge cladding in place. The roof beams are made of Tulip wood and treated with two coats of osmo oil and then I will be fixing a corrugated roof to the top. The windows are hardwood double glazed and the door is a composite stable door. The flooring which I have recently finished is laminate flooring by quickstep which is water proof.
I am at the point where I need to put the drain pipes and soil stack in place and connect the toilet shower and two sinks, I also need to do all the plumbing water pipes, which I thought I'd use push fit flexi pipe for. I have recently joined the forum as I really need some advice on the best way to do the drains and plumbing. I have a water well on site that feeds into a holding tank and has a gravity fed booster pump to get the water pressure to 2bar and a domestic sewage treatment plant that the 110mm drain pipes will run to.
I'm looking forward to getting some advice and hopefully doing lots more DIY projects without killing myself
Jonny