jen and mark Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 Hi Guys, new to site as we are about to convert a steel barn to residential. Its very rural with no services (should be happening in 12 weeks) and winter coming! We will be living in a static so if anyone has any tips, please let us know! Cheers jen and mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BotusBuild Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 Welcome. Tip 1. Create something outside the door to the static van where the muddy stuff (wellies etc) will stay ? Tip 2. Be ready for decisions Tip 3. Be ready for changes to your plans (they are just that, plans, and plans change) Tip 4. Get your deep breathing and counting to 10 perfected. Patience is a real virtue ? Other tips will appear as you continue to engage with the other forum members. Good luck with the build Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 If you can, set up the washing machine etc in a temporary utility room in the barn. A WM running in a caravan has to be seen to be believed!!!! Best thing we did with ours was fit a wood burning stove in it. It burned almost continuously from November to March over the winter with the "beast from the east" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jen and mark Posted October 21, 2021 Author Share Posted October 21, 2021 Thanks guys, great advice. We set up a utility shed for the washing machine and TD - better insulated than the static! Just praying for a mild winter ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 Welcome Once you have power on site, consider a cheap A2AHP to keep it warm. Something like this. https://www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/p/tf-12000ch/telefunken-tf12000ch-air-conditioner-air-conditioner Then you can tell m how easy it is fit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jen and mark Posted October 21, 2021 Author Share Posted October 21, 2021 Wow - something we hadn't thought of. We currently have double glazing and central heating plus a fan heater in the lounge so hoping we will be warm enough - lots of requests for onesies and fleece PJs for Christmas just in case! Luckily there are plenty of sloes in the hedges around the field so Sloe gin may help with the cold come January ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 Welcome. I'm sure someone said it was very helpful to build a "skirt" (of osb maybe?) around the lower edge of the static caravan to stop the wind whistling through underneath. Helps keep things a little warmer and reduces the chance of pipes freezing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jen and mark Posted October 21, 2021 Author Share Posted October 21, 2021 Cheers Jack - good idea. The thing is, do we spend the money on the static or the build - materials are a nightmare! - But stopping the wind maybe more important come winter. Maybe pick up some cheap (??) seconds PIR to stick underneath maybe a better option? We have lagged all the pipes everywhere we could think of so fingers crossed we have ticked that box! Thanks for the advice ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jen and mark Posted October 21, 2021 Author Share Posted October 21, 2021 Just had a walk round the 'statique' and noticed all the floor vents - what do we do? Cover them up in winter and run a dehumidifier? Its blowing a gale through them and its not even too cold yet ? Any advice would be appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 11 minutes ago, jen and mark said: The thing is, do we spend the money on the static or the build - materials are a nightmare! - But stopping the wind maybe more important come winter. Maybe pick up some cheap (??) seconds PIR to stick underneath maybe a better option? No idea, sorry. I just remember one or two posters from a few years back saying how big a difference this made. @ProDave, were you one of the people who did this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 14 minutes ago, jen and mark said: The thing is, do we spend the money on the static or the build - materials are a nightmare Yes. You need to make it as comfortable as possible. You will be in it for years. Boxing in the underneath of a van is simple. All you are trying to do is stop air movement. So can be as simple as thick plastic sheeting or really posh insulated panels. The trouble with just a heater is that it may well raise the temperature, but you are only heating the air that is already in there. This lowers the relative humidity. Trouble is, with a caravans poor thermal insulation, as soon as the temperature drops a bit, condensation forms. It is this that causes a problem. So using a cheap A2AHP, with an adjustable vent behind it, will allow fresh air (lower absolute humidity usually) in, and heating at a much lower cost. Hot water I would just use a cylinder set to a high temp. All I had in the static I lived in 40 years ago when I was a poor student (25 quid a week including electricity at Rockley Sands Caravan Park). Mine had a tiny bath in it as well, no shower though. Was great, until the Falklands War started, then the Marine Base got really busy and noisy. I can tell you that if a helicopter, or a Harrier, flies low over a 28 foot static van, the roof bows in, and shakes the van more than any washing machine, or amorous students. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epsilonGreedy Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 26 minutes ago, jen and mark said: We currently have double glazing and central heating plus a fan heater in the lounge so hoping we will be warm enough - lots of requests for onesies and fleece PJs for Christmas just in case! Third winter for us, a sheepskin blanket is our winter favourite. At this time of year we can save £50 on the monthly heating bill using a portable electric heater. In December and January we burn through three to four 47kg bottles a month keeping the whole static warm via radiator gas centre heating. Best leave the vents to do their job namely keeping you alive with oxygen. Some of ours were blocked by the previous owner but there are just two of us and we have removed the gas fireplace, which is a calculated risk I am comfortable with. You will aclimatise, getting up in the morning to 10 degrees seems normal now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jen and mark Posted October 21, 2021 Author Share Posted October 21, 2021 Great advice! We are on the flight path for RAF Brize Norton and they have been very active (not sure if we should be worried?!?) One flew past the other day and I thought the barn had collapsed ?. We have been living in the caravan for a few weeks now and my rose tinted glasses are starting to fog over now the weather is changing - it will be our luck we will have a winter like 2010 and several 'beasts from the east' to follow. Steamy tea, have you used a cheap A2AHP? At that price I may ask Mr W. for this for Christmas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jen and mark Posted October 21, 2021 Author Share Posted October 21, 2021 5 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said: Best leave the vents to do their job namely keeping you alive with oxygen If the build doesn't kill us first ?. We will leave the vents and hope to be in here for no more than 2 winters - best intentions and all that! Sheepskin blanket on order and a good roll of DPM to cover the underside of the 'statique'! I will try and encourage Mr W to take time off the barn and box in the van - strange question but we have enough room to put a row of straw bales around the underside of the van - would this be a mistake? Hopefully the wet winters we have would mitigate fire risk and may provide a good nesting site for mice instead of the utility shed? Seriously, are mice an issue in statics? I love animals but dont want to live with anymore animals than the kids! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 Did this thread have a time warp? There we were in October 2020 discussing @jen and mark about to move into their statique. And here we are a year later in Oct 2021 sounding like they are just about to move in. Am I confused? Have you been in the 'van for a year or did things get delayed? Yes I did clad the skirt of mine with timber, insulated under the floor and insulated the pipes. Then we spent the year of the "beast from the East" in ours and late one night the water froze. Cue half an hour lying on my back under the 'van in a blizzard with a hairdryer thawing the frozen pipe before it burst. Caused because a mouse had eaten about a foot long section of the pipe insulation so that bit was exposed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 (edited) 27 minutes ago, jen and mark said: We are on the flight path for RAF Brize Norton So was my school, a couple of miles away. In 1976 I think it was, Concorde was doing some low altitude 'sound' test. That was nosier than the 6AM daily flight of the VC10. Still down here it it tends to be helicopters out of Culdrose, they also do training flights in jets as well. Whenever I hear a helicopter, The Rolling Stones' Paint It Black comes into my mine and I think they must be going off to devastate Goldsithney or Perranuthnoe. Penzance now has a heliport again, but they are just dropping emmets on the Isles of Scilly Edited October 21, 2021 by SteamyTea 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jen and mark Posted October 21, 2021 Author Share Posted October 21, 2021 Major delays @ProDave - only got in in summer! Don't even go there - the 'static arrived and the neighbour had hysterics. Then there was a delay with the road closure for the sewers etc. We hadn't planned on the issues we came up against before we even started building! Not to mention material shortages and price increases. Cheers for the advice though - we are very rural and the field mice are often showing up on our wildlife cams. Did you take any further mouse action after your pipe lagging incident? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 Yes, we made sure there was always a bowl of rat poison under the 'van. They never got into the 'van so not a direct bother to us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epsilonGreedy Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 29 minutes ago, jen and mark said: Seriously, are mice an issue in statics? I love animals but dont want to live with anymore animals than the kids! We are also rural, no problem with mice. I skirted my static with 11mm osb wood chip sheets and put some extra effort into creating a drip tray along the top to prevent rain running down inside the skirt. A solid framed skirt helps stabilize the static during winter storms. Do you have hardcore footpaths outside? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jen and mark Posted October 22, 2021 Author Share Posted October 22, 2021 Yes - full hardcore drive and large pad under van so covered with that one. Like this idea - 19 hours ago, epsilonGreedy said: A solid framed skirt helps stabilize the static during winter storms. Cheers for the info Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LA3222 Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 I too am a van dweller, 32ft x 10ft, 2 berth with missus, 2 kids and 2 cats. 2.5 yrs in now, summers are far far worse than winter. It's easy to get warm in a van, nigh on impossible to cool the thing down, apart from that it's easy, just like a small flat tbh. I built a lean to next to mine, got a tall fridge freezer in, washing machine and tumble dryer as well as shelves and drawers for extra storage. I'd recommend spending a little money to do the same, it will make a massive difference to van life, cost me about £600 in materials. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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