Hi everyone!

 

At the start of the process - we have bought a dilapidated house that we would like to demolish and rebuild.

Main constraint is the plot is 12.5m wide. Dan Wood want 1.5m either side for scaffolding, which restricts what we can do a lot. I was hoping for 1.5m one side (for access) and minimal the other, say 0.5m, which leaves us a 10.5m wide house (other half really wants 3 windows wide!).

Most self builds seem to be on large plots so plenty of room, does anyone have any experience of a more constrained plot or are all timber frame builders going to need external scaffolding?

Would anyone be able to make do with say 1m width of scaffolding either side? (or less)

I'd rather not end up having to do brick and block.

 

Many thanks!

I have done quite a few small infill plots.  You may be able to go down to 3 boards wide, so 750mm.

Well we are going DanWood and were asked for 2.0m width for scaffolding and "work space". Having got close to delivery their site guys seem to be more flexible and "can do". They are looking to use 1.0m scaffolding down one side as it's going to be tight for that and the crane. I recall seeing the Yorkshire Grand Designs "The Street" showing a DanWood on one of the plots, which were all very narrow. There couldn't have been more than 1.0m to the boundary on either side and they managed there!

 

I think you may struggle to get any trades, TF or traditional to work at height without a decent scaffold for access.

 

PS Danwood render so need to keep the scaffold off the walls.

You will also need to allow a space between the house and scaffolding 1000 is very tight 

What is either side?  If no immediate building, is is possible to ask one or both of the neighbours for permission to stand one row of the legs of the scaffold in their gardens?

16 minutes ago, ProDave said:

What is either side?  If no immediate building, is is possible to ask one or both of the neighbours for permission to stand one row of the legs of the scaffold in their gardens?

1 - Car port built to the boundary. Not in good repair, I don't know them yet but it might be reasonable that they would trade scaffolding for a new or repaired car port - thanks.

2 - bungalow about 0.5m from boundary.

The bungalow 0.5m from boundary might allow scope to stand scaffold legs there with permission of course.

 

But do you really want a house that wide on that plot?  I would consider a narrower and deeper house preserving decent access to the back garden on at least one side.  Having the only parking in front of the house is a red line for me, no possibility of garage or car port.

2 minutes ago, ProDave said:

The bungalow 0.5m from boundary might allow scope to stand scaffold legs there with permission of course.

 

But do you really want a house that wide on that plot?  I would consider a narrower and deeper house preserving decent access to the back garden on at least one side.  Having the only parking in front of the house is a red line for me, no possibility of garage or car port.

The problem with a deeper house is:

1 - i expect side windows (certainly at 1st floor) to be a problem for planning permission, which limits the practical depth.

2 - 10m back we have a 2m high slope, i think it would be better/cheaper not to go beyond that - and again, planning might be harder as will start to overlook neighbours gardens (due to height differential).

 

Its essentially a city centre plot, so parking in front is the norm for the street, much as we would prefer otherwise and many of the existing houses are 1m apart in places.

But i would like as decent access as i can, which means going as close to the boundary on one side as possible in order to make more space at the other.

 

3 hours ago, Ed_ said:

Would anyone be able to make do with say 1m width of scaffolding either side? (or less)

I've done many a building at 1m from a boundary, due to this being significant for fire resistance. To do this it needs either 600mm wide scaffold towers or to be  built in scaffolding tube. These then need to be tied to the structure for stability.

It's much harder to work in that space, including getting materials in, but with the price of land, it's an option 

With a 2m slope have you thought about an upside down house? First floor living space that extends further out back on top of the 2m slope with bedroom the ground floor?

On 09/02/2024 at 17:44, Thorfun said:

With a 2m slope have you thought about an upside down house? First floor living space that extends further out back on top of the 2m slope with bedroom the ground floor?

Should have been clearer, it's a down slope.

 

Thought about a basement, but seems like a headache on a constrained site. I have no idea whether continuing the ground floor beyond the edge of the slope is easy or hard?

My instinct is for beam and block as the slope can stay put.

The void may be usable as a small store, accessed from outside. Or as a big store for long thin things.

15 minutes ago, Ed_ said:

Should have been clearer, it's a down slope.

 

Thought about a basement, but seems like a headache on a constrained site. I have no idea whether continuing the ground floor beyond the edge of the slope is easy or hard?

A structural engineer can work that out for you

On 09/02/2024 at 17:44, Thorfun said:

With a 2m slope have you thought about an upside down house?

We have a 3m slope building an upside down house with 5m doors on a floating patio at the rear.  We originally thought about building a first floor overhanging by digging into the slope but with a timber frame it’s as cost effective to extend the foot print. We had to float the patio to allow airflow around the building.   
 

our architect told us that it would be really expensive and said a cantilever would be cheaper  but dealing directly with the SE and TF company we got to a cheap solution (including sacking the architect). 
 

So what I’m saying is don’t assume you can’t cheaply build on a tricky site.  Engage a good SE.  

On 09/02/2024 at 13:37, Mr Punter said:

I have done quite a few small infill plots.  

Do you have a page somewhere that shows photos of these?  I'd be very interested as it's something I am looking to get into.

Edited February 11, 20242 yr by Square Feet

6 hours ago, Square Feet said:

Do you have a page somewhere that shows photos of these?  I'd be very interested as it's something I am looking to get into.

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We did it with 2 board scaffold both sides although to be fair we did agree with the footpaths officer to  put 1 leg of the scaffold on the footpath in exchange for resurfacing the footpath - we still left it 2m wide.