Iceverge

Let us know how you get on.

I'm not sure I understand. The vertical stanctions I have in my head as orange. With the main load coming from the inside (cattle/digger) I was biasing the reinforcement (red) towards the outside as this was where I saw as the most tension . Not at all. What point did I lose you?

There's a version with a smaller workshop. i made some minor layout changes too.

That's as close as i could shoehorn in a house that met the the requirements of your workshop but it leaves the south garden very small and the middle of the house would be quite dark inside.

Realistically I think you're not going to be successful in moving the house forwards to break the streetline or get any closer to your neighbours boundary. These principles are pretty well established. With this and the workshop constraints you've set the house will be either smaller than you want or darker inside than you'd like. Compromise will have to be made somewhere I fear. Personally I'd change my workshop requirements or shape but it's up to you.

Is it a prefab or can you adjust it to suit?

Ok, cool. I got something right at least, just need to figure out access to the workshop...... Any comments/questions on the layout? Are the dimension of the workshop rigid or is there any flexibility to adjust?

In the meantime here's my attempt based on what I thought the layout was. 3 bed and an office/snug. kitchen diner and lounge, utility and stairs included 1 family bath and one walk through dressing room and ensuite. I've made sure there's an external wall on all bathrooms. There's options for cross ventilation on all rooms bar the snug for cooling. The roof should be a straightforward enough affair, no dormers. Just 2 valleys. I've made the external walls a realistic 450mm wide and internals 150mm. Nothing is getting built in 2025 with skinny walls, they simply cannot deliver the required performance economically.

I've got the wrong end of the stick so. Can you tell me clearly what way is north please. Label it on your diagram. Too many designers seem to forget all about the giant fireball in the sky , provider of all life on earth and it's effect on a building.

Ok, I've reread your post a few times and had a quick go at what I think the layout is assuming a 20x8m footprint from your description. I assume that the main restriction is the 17m at the front of the house rather than the 3m at the rear? Presumably to keep the façade in line with the neighbours? I've had a complete stab in the dark re the workshop area and haven't even tried place the wooden shack. How far from getting it right am I ?

That's a better pic of the said stub wall.

Thanks for the input folks. It's a couple of hundred metres from the nearest houses / public road and human occupancy will be for strawing. I would say 15-30 mins per day. I had planned on tying it into the floor with A393 mesh, maybe in an "L shape" not sure if this counts as free standing. It will also tounge into the groove in the stanctions ( old railway track by the way from the Cork Dublin line I was told) Yes it's still quite ricketey. I'm adding more bracing again today. I'll keep going until I'm happy. I didn't mention but the stanctions are set in concrete to approx 700-1000mm deep so it's not quite so bad as it would be if they were just on base plates. Don't I know it! Having seen a shutter let go is no fun. Noted but there may not be enough width. I had planned on a 160mm wall on the long side with a single mesh biased towards the outside . Maybe a 50/110mm split. I will have a 200mm wall to the short side. Again maybe a 60/140mm split as all the pushing force on the wall will be from the inside. Both in my head. The concrete walls between the stanctions will resist racking under compression. The flanges of the stanctions will stop the concrete walls pushing in and out. I'm surprised you say this. I have seen block walls fail under very little pressure from animals (think a dozen 600kg bullocks taking fright) . Equally I will need to use the backhoe to clean the shed out. It would simple drive straight through a block wall if I got it wrong. If you look to the right of the picture with the backhoe there is a stub wall approx 450mm high and 150mm wide with some 252 or 393 mesh in it under the feed barriers. I push silage against it with the backhoe and thus far it's held up well. Thanks again for the input.

Lots of this going on. I'm working it out as I go. I'm going to add some to the low side too. I'm planning on pouring mass concrete walls to about 1800mm high along the long low side and the short side nearest to the camera on the lower picture. Above these I will most lightly add Yorkshire boarding for ventilation. The long side near the digger I think I'll pour a low wall, maybe 400mm.and the other side will be open. I'm very much working on "does it look right" and "give it a push and if dissatisfied add more bracing" methodology. It's more substantial than most sheds I've seen locally but of course that's no guarantee. You mentioned earlier about barn conversions. I think this should be a mandatory lesson to anyone undertaking one on the fly by night farmer engineering that occurs.

I'm self building a small cattle shed at them moment. I laughed out loud at this. 5mm per m is about as accurate as I could manage. I then got bored of using ratchet straps to straighten my stanctions so I gave them a shove of the backhoe. Nothing lines up properly in the real world and I've been using clamps and threaded bar to pull and cajole every bracket into place. I wouldn't like to do it on a skyscraper but I dare say it might happen more than I realise.

They must be eating something or have found a comfortable living arrangement with you. Can you narrow anything down?

Heat pumps aren't a good fit when you require a very high power heating source. How do you use your house? Do you live at home all day or are happy to heat the house when I occupies or do you intermittent heat it?

I'm not a fan of jack and Jill bathrooms. There's nicer ways to do it like having a bathroom and bedroom in their own mini corridor with or without a door.

I might have a go if I get a chance. Couple of questions. What's the approx total budget between now and moving in? Where is south on the site? Are you proximate to any other houses or are there any nice views you'd like to take in?

Just swap out the old rattly bathroom extractor for one of these. I have one in my office. The only thing that's wrong with them is that they're too cheap. If they cost 10 times as much people would think they were excellent.

Welcome, welcome. It's a nice bunch in here, hope we can help. You should have some proper continuous ventilation. A couple of dMEV fans would be cheap and tick the box. People often forget that these old houses had a fire going 20hrs per day pulling fresh air through the house. Trickle vents may not be the only option. You could have wall or ceiling vents.

----furiously rereads post.---------- Nope, 75m service cavity to get below 0.16W/m2K. I would prefer 220mm and 50mm service cavity as it is nail gun friendly but as we're starting with 175mm rafters we're stuck.

If you must use PIR put it outside the roof and diligently tape the OSB as an airtight layer. Far better to have all timbers inside the insulation for long term durability. etc. This is also a very easy way to make a room in roof airtight if you return a membrane to the inner wall surface through a double sandwiched wall plate.

I assume that you are thinking about PIR between the rafters. Don't! To hard to fit, too wasteful, shrinks and falls out, bad in fire, bad for noise etc etc etc.... I assume you have 175mm rafters at 600cc? Full fill, use 75mm insulated service cavity with mineral wool.

As per Daves missive above I'm not a big fan of balconies etc projecting from a wall. I'd much prefer to have it as a completely stand alone structure not in contact with the building. To this end I would. 1. Initially add horizontal support under the balcony maybe 500mm from the wall. Acro props under a plank and some cross bracing. 2. Cut the joist ends from the wall with a saber saw at an angle to avoid the joist brackets. 3. Remove the ledger plate bolted to the wall. This may be tricky as the fixings look rotten. You could get a hole saw and an accurate depth gauge to "just about" cut the thickness of the joist around the screws and then break it off the wall with a pry bar and then remove the screws with a mole grips or something. 4. Add a couple of vertical post supports and a horizontal beam under the deck to replace the wall ledger. Keep them at least 150mm from the wall. Add appropriate cross and knee bracing to stop it swaying. 5. Give the whole thing a couple of really good doses of wood preservative. Especially the joist ends nearest to the wall where they were getting wet.

Boroscope from the top of the cavity might be an option if it's not filled with insulation. I'd be slow to do too much SDS drilling if there wasn't a lintel. It may make the situation worse. Here's a random one from Amazon to give the idea.