How much space for storage & welfare on site? Minimum?

[Dreadnaught]

What is the minimum hard-standing area needed to build a small two-bed Bungalow?  "How long is a piece of string" but some advice for the clueless would be useful?

 

I have a cramped site in my sights. It has a drive for storage, site office, parking and everything else needed. No other space is available. The drive is about 8m x 8m.

 

Is 8m x 8m enough?

Edited March 28, 2018 by Dreadnaught

[ProDave]

Can you squeeze that 8M to 9M?

 

A small static caravan such as the one we have 28ft by 10ft (8.5 metres by 3 metres) might fit and would provide all your needs.

 

You can get smaller static 'vans but they are not so common.  An old (and hence cheap) large twin axle touring 'van might be a better bet.

[ToughButterCup]

2 hours ago, Dreadnaught said:

[...]

Is 8m x 8m enough?

 

Its what you have.  Making the best of it is the trick. 

 

I have a reasonable site with lots of 'space' which I cannot use. But one side of the site  I have  about 8 meters for storage space.

So I found some stillage cages and bought about 10 or so. Made some shelving out of scrap.  Got some scrap corrugated sheets and made some roofing for it.

That means I can stack light-weight stuff on the top shelf and heavy things on the bottom.  Ladders can be stored on the tin roof.  Doubles the storage volume, but much more importantly, I can easily see where stuff is.

[Dreadnaught]

Thank you @recoveringacademic and @ProDave.

 

Could I broaden the discussion a little.

 

My level knowledge is really very basic. As someone who has never even visited a building site, I realise that I don't even know what the space is for (!). I have heard of the need of a site office. I have heard people mention tea, cake and biscuits, HSE, eye washing, a first aid kit, and a toilet but that's about it. 

 

Why would someone need an 9m long static caravan like @ProDave?

 

What is "storage and welfare" for a self build site? If anyone's currently got a site, perhaps you can list a few of the things.

 

Most grateful for any help.

[lizzie]

9 minutes ago, Dreadnaught said:

storage and welfare"

I think storage is self explatory. Welfare is the toilet and hand washing. I didnt have a site office. We build the garage first and that serves as office and storage, got a fridge and a kettle in there along with first aid kit.  Other than that just a portaloo with hand wash facilities. I didnt need or want a caravan on site.

Edited March 28, 2018 by lizzie

[Visti]

As Caravans are highly recommended on the site too. Works for welfare. Combine with a 10ft container for storage and you're good.

 

If you're like me an a caravan is off limits, you can get 20ft and 25ft containers that will serve both as welfare and as storage. A bare-bones a container is about £1.5k, which you can then line with some basic insulation and plywood to make it comfortable. Only issue is then installing anything as you'll have to cut into the skin, which you may or may not have the skills/tools to do (I dont!). Alternative is to buy 2nd hand units off ebay or get one built for you. Unfortunately none of that is cheap!

https://www.shippingcontainersuk.com/brands/shipping_containers.php

http://www.groundhog.co.uk/index.php

 

As @lizzie mentioned, getting a garage or shed built out quick is a good way to get welfare and storage sorted. Two birds, one stone.

[ProDave]

4 hours ago, Dreadnaught said:

Why would someone need an 9m long static caravan like

@ProDave?.

Because for the last year i has been what we call "home" And for that use our 28 ft 'van is at the smaller end of the scale, but we bought it for it's unusual room layout.

 

 

 

[Dreadnaught]

4 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Because for the last year i has been what we call "home"

 

Thanks @ProDave. Do you mean you stay in it overnight? And by day it serves the site and all comers?

[epsilonGreedy]

1 minute ago, Dreadnaught said:

 

Thanks @ProDave. Do you mean you stay in it overnight? And by day it serves the site and all comers?

 

I think the static caravan is his principal residence now that his other house is rented out. I will be using the Mrs Prodave story to inspire my OH.

[Dreadnaught]

Just now, epsilonGreedy said:

I think the static caravan is his principal residence now that his other house is rented out.

Wow, now that's inspirational food-for-thought. Time to search this site for more about when it is allowable to live in your site office.

[Jeremy Harris]

5 hours ago, lizzie said:

I think storage is self explatory. Welfare is the toilet and hand washing. I didnt have a site office. We build the garage first and that serves as office and storage, got a fridge and a kettle in there along with first aid kit.  Other than that just a portaloo with hand wash facilities. I didnt need or want a caravan on site.

 

We did the same and it's perfectly legal and adequate.  In fact the garage didn't get used, as the house shell was up very quickly and so that was used.  Before that, we just had a portaloo with hand washing facilities, plus a 25 litre container of drinking water and the ground works blokes had lunch etc in the cab of their diggers/truck.  I found that around 80% of the people I had on site preferred to sit in their van to have a break anyway, even when the house was almost complete and I'd put folding chairs, a makeshift table and tea and coffee making facilities in there.

 

I did have a first aid kit on hand, plus a plastic box full of spare PPE (no one used it) and a laminated sign with the phone numbers and addresses (with directions) for the local GP, dentist, shop, A&E etc.

[Dreadnaught]

2 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

In fact the garage didn't get used, as the house shell was up very quickly and so that was used.

 

Oh interesting. I am aiming for a timber frame, which I hear can go up fast. So on this basis, all with else written in this thread, my mind is being put at ease. Thank you all.

[Temp]

If you had loads of space you would have a full size container and a small office/wc. The storage container is essential for first fix items like pipe, electric cable, windows and tools that might be on site before the building is secure.

 

My builder told me he never uses an insulated or heated office because he said it encourages people to sit around drinking tea in winter..

 

I think the key thing is can you park a container and static van on the drive and still get a lorry with crane offload past it to the house? Heavy vehicles coming and going may churn up that side of the driveway, perhaps requiring hardcore to repair. So make sure you won't want that area to be a flower bed later. eg Put any temporary road where the final road is going so you don't have to rip up hardcore later. 

 

If the drains and other services are going down the driveway perhaps put those in early on then put the storage container/office on top?

Edited March 28, 2018 by Temp

[epsilonGreedy]

16 minutes ago, Dreadnaught said:

Oh interesting. I am aiming for a timber frame, which I hear can go up fast. So on this basis, all with else written in this thread, my mind is being put at ease. Thank you all.

 

 

I am following progress on a single build new my home, no site office or portaloo, just a pair of brickies who have got the walls to 10ft now. There are diverse degrees of regulatory conformance out there in the real world with fencing, signage and a portaloo seeming to be the consensus minimums.

[ProDave]

3 hours ago, Dreadnaught said:

 

Thanks @ProDave. Do you mean you stay in it overnight? And by day it serves the site and all comers?

We have been living in the 'van since last April, so just coming up to a year. Our old house is now rented out.

 

It's only me working on the build now.

 

Site office and laundry is in the part built house.

 

If you are planning on living on site it's normal to include temporary planning permission for the static 'van on your planning application and you pay band A council tax for it.  Though we negotiated that the static 'van can remain after the build for use as a workshop and studio (not for habitational use once the house is complete)

[lizzie]

3 hours ago, Dreadnaught said:

Oh interesting. I am aiming for a timber frame, which I hear can go up fast. So on this basis, all with else written in this thread, my mind is being put at ease. Thank you all.

Mine is a timber frame. It went up in a few days but from there to watertight took months. The frame bit is quick but the rest............ its almost 2 years since we started and circa 9 months since the timber frame went up.  We chose timber frame because we thought it was quick?

[Alexphd1]

What do you actually need? We dont have anything on site but we have done 90% of the build ourselves and live less than 10 minutes walk away. any trades we have on site either sit in their vans for tea or go home for lunch. 

[mvincentd]

 There will always be a way.   Look at houses built on ultra high cost land like sandbanks ..... The built units literally occupy every square inch of the plot!

 Your solution will be specific to your plot and the nature of your build.

 I could easily have put a caravan on my site ..... but couldn’t have removed it once the house was built.

 I originally saw my driveway as a plentiful area...... but then discovered I needed 95% of it to squeeze a crane onto  at regular intervals.

 Do look out for potential trip ups and get an experienced set of eyes to take a look ( A builder who understands the build system you are using).

[Alexphd1]

For our build secure storage wether on site or off site was biggest priority. We have bought a lot of big ticket stuff off the internet, saved a fortune but take up a lot of space! For the rest of the stuff plastic Slates, wood,  velux, garage door etc we have bought from TP and used them as a store. If a velux gets damaged it's better to be damaged in a build merchants than lying 3 months on site! 

Edited March 29, 2018 by Alexphd1

[Dreadnaught]

4 minutes ago, Alexphd1 said:

We have bought a lot of big ticket stuff off the internet

 

If you don't mind, would you be able to give a few illustrative examples? I too am fan of using the internet save money, so I expect I will be doing this, but at the moment I am finding hard to imagine what I might buy and store. At a guess, might it be items like white goods for the kitchen, porcelain items for the bathrooms? Is that along the right lines?

Edited March 29, 2018 by Dreadnaught

[Alexphd1]

2x Ashp less than 1k each. 12x solar thermal £900. 24 rolls of roof shield £50 each. Wolf oven warming drawer. Meile extractor. Ufh equipment. Mvhr unit. Endless list all the above was from eBay. Also drainage pipes a lot cheaper from online suppliers. 

[ToughButterCup]

20 hours ago, Dreadnaught said:

[...]

My level knowledge is really very basic. As someone who has never even visited a building site, I realise that I don't even know what the space is for (!). I have heard of the need of a site office.

[...]

 

I deliberately went round local building sites and watched carefully.

 

I saw everything from excellence (Network Rail sites) to utter, dangerous confusion. Now Debbie asks if, on driving past a worksite site, I want to stop and look. Occasionally I do. And I always learn something. 

I went into several sites armed other hard hat and hi viz and asked the Site Agent if I could photograph the Kwikstage so I could teach myself how to organise it well. Got the odd strange look, but frankly, it's worth it. All the agents asked agreed to me spending time just looking at how the sites were organised. 

A few were really interested in our self build. There's loads of good will for self-builders. 

(Except within sight of the build, where there's a surfeit  of jealousy)