New Garage/Workshop Build

[landyawd]

Hello all,

After a little advice......

I am about to embark on a a new garage build to house my offroader and my 90.

The Plan:

5m wide by 6m deep. Single large door (most likely a roller door). Concrete block construction with tiled pitched roof.

Here is the possible problem. To avoid the dreded planning permission (i say dreded as it confuses the hell out of me and looks expensive), i need to keep the overall heiight under 2.5m. With a pitched roof the ridge height will be around 2.1m, its going to be a really shallow pitch to the roof but doable i think.

 

So my question, what kind of internal height do your workshops have? 

Has anyone recently got planning permission for a similar build with a taller roof? If so can you recommend an architect to take care of the drawings im based i the south east(UK)?

do you think 5m wide is big enough to sit 2 90's side by side and have enough room to park get out etc....?

Any internal/external pictures of your garages and workshops would be great I need some inspiration!

 

Thanks in advance peoples.

[Bowie69]

I think the 2.5m bit is the eaves height, the ridge can be higher, 3.5m maybe? 

I'd re-read it as what you have written above doesn't sound right.

[landyawd]

Hi Bowie,

thats what i thought but because im within 1m of the boundary the maximum overall height has too be under 2.5m. Crazy but i guess the rules are there for a reason.

If i could place it further from the boundary i would be ok but thats not an option at the moment....

[landyawd]

Another option would be to drop the floor height? But im unsure of the rules on that. Luckily its on a hill so drainage should not be an issue

[daveturnbull]

That pitch will never work. Assuming you run the ridge down the length of the garage, that gives the shortest distance to the walls as 2.5m (in reality will be more to allow for small overhang). Height wise you will need at least 2.1 to get a 2" lifted 90 in, so to stay within the 2.5m ridge height that allows 0.4m of roof. Dust off your trig knowledge, and that will give you a pitch of 9 degrees, which is a lot less that most 'low pitch' tiles, which are all around 15 degrees.

None of that accounts for the additional thickness of the roof structure / tiles etc... so in reality I think a flat roof is your only option if you want to stay less than 2.5m high.

[landyawd]

Thanks Dave i thought this might be the case, I am no builder i can do cars and offroaders but not constructing buildings. So thank you for the advice it kind of confirms my fears that planning consent in one for or another might be required to get a decent height.

[FridgeFreezer]

Might be some useful stuff in my garage build thread which had to be tall enough for t'ambulance but under the ~3.5m height for planning. Photos start on Page 4. Door fitting is Page 5.

Ended up going flat roof, done properly they're fine for a garage and you gain much clearance. You'll see I gained ambulance-height ceiling but actually dropped the roof height externally.

Used a roller sectional door - they're similar price to roller shutter but require ~150mm headroom (or less) and are insulated, also feel a bit more solid & secure to me. Fitted it DIY, wasn't hard. Electric opener is worth every penny.

If you PM me your e-mail I can send you our planning application files - did it myself online using Autocad but the planners will take hand-drawn to scale for basic things like a garage, it's getting the details right that's important.

 

Before:

 

After:

 

Some insulation has gone up since then, and the old pillars have been cut back by half.

 

 

[landyawd]

FridgeFreezer,

That looks fanatstic, im going sit down with a cup of tea and read through your thread later tonight. Just had a flick through and the door is fantastic looks really smart. Probably a much better option for me as it will keep the weight down, i know some of the roller doors are heavy, yet your sectional dooor looks a lot better!

I have dropped you a PM. Thanks again

[Arjan]

Can't comment on UK as I live on the other side...

We have just finished the build of an ABRI for the horses (13x5.5x3,5 mtrs.) and the building permit took 36 hours to arrive.

For the workshop (9x11x4 mtrs.) we want to include a 4 poster ramp. Having LR's many times on them I know that 4 mtrs. is the minimum. Pits don't work for me - apart from all the fumes, groundwater etc.

Make the building as big & high as you can afford - Workshops are never too big..

Bon Courage !

 

[supaimpy]

Make sure you get more height than  i have

or your project will end up rolling on rims

[Cynic-al]

Mine is 4m wide by 8.2m for a single car. It's a nice size as you can walk all around it with the doors open and have a bench and tool storage at the back. Mine is a very low roof with a very shallow pitch for the same reasons as you. Snow is a concern and if I was doing it again I would go to the trouble of planning. I've done it for other things and I knew my neighbours would object which is why I was so against it. If your going for 2 cars you could put some uprights down the middle. However mine is wooden, if your going to the cost of blocks I would do it right first time. Plus a higher roof makes jacking much easier and it means you can use a lift etc.

I got a pair of matching new canopy doors free so put one on my house garage and one on my workshop.  Very restrictive on height and width, but with the cb aerial off the lifted range rover with Toyota axles and 35" tyres could be driven in. Given my time again I would go barn doors or roller. Big rollers can rattle in the wind and be a bit annoying but I'm sure you won't suffer that. 

Don't forget to run conduit and water pipes before you pour the floor and think about how your going to get rid of rain water. 

[geoffbeaumont]

A decent domestic roller doesn't rattle in the wind (just creaks a bit like any garage door). They're noisier going up and down than a sectional door, though still not bad    (a good sectional door is not far off silent). I would imagine industrial ones are a different matter - noise suppression probably isn't a major requirement for most uses.

The main advantage of a roller door is that it doesn't take up ceiling space like every other type of vertical opening door (space which could otherwise be used for lights, loft access, ladder storage, etc.). However as fridge said they need more vertical space, typically around 300mm above the door opening, whereas a sectional door needs only enough space to run back across the ceiling (never measured how much that is, maybe 50mm?), other than where the motor housing is for most designs. If minimising the height of the building is your primary concern then sectional is the way to go.

One thing I would say - don't underestimate the amount of storage space you'll gain with a pitched roof, especially if you loft  board it - admittedly only for light items unless you're prepared to sink serious money into  a structural floor.

[qwakers]

ive just done this.

 

2.5m high was pushing it for me, i needed 2.5m internal height and really would have liked more. the only way of doing this was to break a few rules..

 

i had a chat with the building controller and he said the only reason anyone would ever get a tape measure out would be if there is a complaint. building control dont care as long as its within reason.

 

so i built it to 2.8m. basically don't make it obviously overheight and put a flat roof on and you will get a decent amount of room inside. the building controller is there to help you not make your life difficult. apply for building consent pay the fee submit the plot outline (many websites online that will help you check the building control gov website) and you will get a letter or email with consent to build with the phone number for the building control dept in your areal. ring it when you want the site inspected (1st inspection when you've dug the foundations) and bounce questions off the guy. thats what he's paid for lol.

 

whilst is ok to call building control out when theres noone on site its advisable to be there when he comes as if somethings not quitre right he'll tell you exactly what to do to fix it.

 

 

all in all it wasnt hard and i got it done all right with no previous experience.

 

outline plan for planning permission...

 

foundations dug (dad playing with digger)

foundation base poured and foundation block arrived and ready

 

foundations down and floor poured (not a mixer lorry in sight...)

 

walls going up

roof

fiberglassed

 

doors

floor painted

 

walls tanked. (single skin makes it dry inside)

electrics

lights

done!

 

only took about 6 months of evenings and weekends...

 

Edited November 19, 2016 by qwakers

[zardos]

So I went with a prefab garage with Pent roof of corrugated sheet roofing. These have a very shallow pitch enabling me to stay under 2.5m but still get 2.25 usable height.
The most restricting factor was the door which had to be barn doors at 2.25m because there was no room for a roller shutter or up and over.
I was able to get my external roll caged lifted 90 on 35" tires in it.
The lowest part of the Pent design is over the work bench area at the back of the garage and if the landrover is parked nose first over the much lower bonnet.

[FridgeFreezer]

I added some planning detail to my garage build thread as I was e-mailing landyawd the full package.

Qwakers build looks good - we cheated and got builders in as we were doing an extension at the same time and we had the money rather than the spare time.

[landyawd]

Thanks for the info all.

Fridge freezer and Qwakers there is some really useful info there I cannot thank you both enough.

i will keep you posted on progress once I get some plans put together.

looking at what you have all said I will be going down the planning permission route at least there won't be as many compromises with height and general size of the workshop.

[Paddy]

2 points you might consider. 

If you go for a flat roof look at fibre glass.  Longer life, easy diy repair.

Include a pit, down side is yer mates will wont to use it more than you!

[The Badger]

Not sure if this is after the fact, but one thing to remember when making any building is that ideally you do need some point of moisture control barrier / breather membrane somewhere. Ideally you put the breather membrane (Just google it and look at pictures) between the external of the walls/roof and the cladding/facade/non breathable water proof layer.

So in the case of roofs, the steel/tiles sits on top of the non permeable side of the breather, ideally with a batten gap. The reason for this breather membrane is moisture needs to escape through the roof from the inside, this will come up through the concrete floor (unless you have put plastic underneath), or in through the breather blocks/bricks and from things in the room. If there is no membrane then the moisture will get stuck between the top of the roof structure and the water proof layer, and condensation will form, and or then rot in most cases.

Hight wise, you are bang on to keep below 2.5 meters, you can go as high at 3 meters to the eaves, and 4 meters to the apex usually, but if you are within 2 meters of a boundary you have to stay below 2.5 within those 2 meters.

Looks good, wish I own a house so I could build and LR cave.

[Igol]

I had to keep mine down to the 2.5m limit due to the boundary issue, though it may be (ahem) a bit over, depends on where you measure it from - we live on a hill.

PITA neighbour complained to council as she didn't like the new structure, quite why the falling down aluminium one was better I don't know?  Letter arrives from planning asking me about height which I give the right answer for including mentioning the none combustible boundary wall within 1m so they know I have done my research.  Thumbs up from the council and jobs a good in.

It is a shallow pitch but its been up for about 4 four years and the only water ingress was via the blocks on the outer wall where the neighbour dumped a load of kitchen work top against the garage in the passage that created a little trap that wouldn't dry out and water seeped through.  In the intervening years I'd discovered that the 'communal' passageway was actually ours and the neighbours only had right of access over it.  Needless to say her carp was returned to her and the garage is nice and dry again.