# Building my (little) shop in a National Park - Part1



## graham-xrf (Jul 22, 2021)

*It moved on from being a "garden shed"*
For me, a major saga. I have, of course, taken some pictures, and some day, I may try to stitch together the time lapse video. I admit right up front that this is more than a backyard workshop. It is a tax deductable, VAT recoverable, CAD design and development facility (with a view)! Also, it will just happen to have a (new) mill, and a (not so new) lathe, plus various other electronics and science-related stuff lurking within. Fully insulated, with power, water,  and 3 network cables (just in case), it could so easily be misused as a hideout/man cave, whatever. There will, of course, be real design consultancy undertaken, but I was thinking into the future.

*The Rules - the Rules!*
In UK, adding an outbuilding in the rear of a property can be done without planning permission provided certain rules are observed. A bigger place may be sought, which comes with an expensive and awkward planning permission adventure, which most of us want to avoid. BUT .. things get kinda picky when one is in a National Park / Listed Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty / Conservation Area of Special Scientific Interest. Where I am, it might be more than one of those, and could easily ultimately be all three!

We start with the raw site..



The advice was _not_ to get involved with extra planning permissions. It was going to be tough enough to build acceptably in a National Park, and generally, for these, planning permission beyond the guidelines is normally refused, and contested. One cannot just put any old shed. It had to "in keeping" with the other buildings, and properties, and of appropriate durable quality. There have been cases of "restorations" deliberately contrived to shortly become derelict, as a way to more expansive replacement. This all besides that the neighbors would have a say if they thought what I got up to would affect their property values. 

*1.* It is limited to *20* square metres.  (Think about *18' x 12'*) By many folk's norms, that is "small". It ends up as a useful space. I console myself that Quinn Dunki, and ClickSpring also have spaces way smaller than most may think. Quinn has to move a car out before she can start making chips! It is true that I will have to be tidy, and manage the space carefully. There is loft storage for long stuff, with access from outside, and also an internal hatch.

*2.* It is allowed to be up to *4m* high, with eaves up to *2.5m*, so long as it is* 2m* or more from the boundary.

*3.* If closer, but still more than 1m, the total height can only be 2.5m. Hardly more than a potting shed! I did not even consider this option.

*4.* Must not be to the front, nor to the side, be at least 20m from the main building, and not cover more than 50% of the space external to the main building.

*5 *It must not he "_habitable_"! That means it must not have facilities (like say a toilet) that would make it rentable as a dwelling.

We had no clear idea of the actual boundary. It turns out, a boundary is where the owner and a neighbor agree it shall be. My neighbor said "put up the building, and the boundary will then be two-and-a-bit metres from it". Great to have nice neighbors!




So we proceed to dig up the place. The lady of the house said that it should be surrounded with paving, instead of stepping straight out onto sometimes soggy land.
Here we go!  ..





Yep - there was that "OMG - What have I done?" moment.




Doing this kinda stuff has disrupted much of the rest of what I get into, not least, the whole COVID thing has had an impact. It was stop - start, with exceptionally long lead times for some stuff.

More on this soon..


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## rabler (Jul 22, 2021)

Looks like the start to a nice set up.

Looks like it is fairly close to the house, but I've always leaned toward fiber optic when going between buildings.  Less issues with EMI (think lightning).  Pre-terminated fiber isn't that expensive, but you do put a little bit of money into transceivers.

Are you going to do anything as far as heating/cooling?


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## graham-xrf (Jul 22, 2021)

rabler said:


> Looks like the start to a nice set up.
> 
> Looks like it is fairly close to the house, but I've always leaned toward fiber optic when going between buildings.  Less issues with EMI (think lightning).  Pre-terminated fiber isn't that expensive, but you do put a little bit of money into transceivers.
> 
> Are you going to do anything as far as heating/cooling?


The perspective is a bit skewed, but you are right. The distance to the main house is about 28m to 30m, depending which corner.

I do have 80Mbit/sec fibre-optic in the main house, and the router hub has a spare socket 
I am sure I will be OK. If I put a WiFi hub on the end of it, in the loft, it will probably work over the whole yard.

The ply wall covers over the insulation can be taken off, and thicker insulation panels added if the need arises. I plan a 1.5m square E-Glass+ coils solar heat assist placed behind to the South, as part of a 3-tube dessicated air conditioning, and to go part way to a heating system in winter. I freely admit that I have not yet decided on all that stuff yet. I was just making sure there was very complete insulation. Under the floor is 50mm of it. There are two plastics. One was under the original pour. Over that is a regulation thick red membrane, apparently to stop radioactive  Radon gas! 
I plan installing PV panels on the south side of the pitched roof. They would provide enough kW for a regular air conditioner fitted into the East gable, but I was giving consideration to a more experimental thing, just because I have been watching this - although my version would not be an ugly pile of tubes outside.






Then we have, related to this, the explanation from Keith Wakeham (Titanlabs.com) , and an unobstructed diagram, which I attached..






.. or of course, I could just install a regular cube heat engine in the East wall.

As for heating, I consider everything from a cental little woodburner through to a solar assisted PV powered gadget, or maybe just install a propane tank and a flue. As I say, there is a whole lot I should have thought through.

The project has progressed a bit now, and I will shortly have more pictures.


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## Janderso (Jul 22, 2021)

That thing is built like a brick poop house


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## Aukai (Jul 22, 2021)

It's awesome


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## NCjeeper (Jul 22, 2021)

Pretty cool building. Gorgeous soil.


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## extropic (Jul 22, 2021)

I had a six month temporary assignment to England and your pictures have me reminiscing about the finest "vacation" of my life.

Everything is looking great from here.

Watching.


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## jwmay (Jul 22, 2021)

I really like that!


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## graham-xrf (Jul 22, 2021)

Janderso said:


> That thing is built like a brick poop house


According to the authorities, that's the one thing it is not allowed to be


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## hman (Jul 22, 2021)

First off, CONGRATULATIONS!!!! That looks like a fantastic structure!


graham-xrf said:


> We had no clear idea of the actual boundary. It turns out, a boundary is where the owner and a neighbor agree it shall be. My neighbor said "put up the building, and the boundary will then be two-and-a-bit metres from it". Great to have nice neighbors!


Indeed!  I'm sure that building regulations are MUCH stricter in the UK than almost anywhere here in the US.  Very happy to hear that you were able to navigate through all the hurdles.  Good neighbors are a blessing.


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