Planning permission granted this week, but think I’ll actually just continue on this thread to keep it all in one placeNo rest for the wicked
Thanks. Yeah, just waiting on the planning application to go through…although I’ve started the groundwork already. Will probably start a fresh thread on that.
So the plan is for a detached garage/outbuilding to go in the ‘dead’ space where our shed lived. I call it a dead space as the angle of the house means you can’t see the area from the house windows, and the front/side garden where the driveway will be is again to the side of the property where we never currently look or pass by. Old photo from 2013 of the space:
I’ve got loads of building materials left over from the extension, as I over ordered on a lot of things due to a combination of over-estimating and also sometimes purposefully over ordering because the lead times for building materials was so long during Covid times. I also had old windows I’d removed, and a couple of doors (including a bi-fold) that I’d bought but not used for the extension.
Therefore I was looking to build a garage on the cheap, but doing the maths once you factor in the foundations (which around here must be piled), it was never going to be cheap cheap! I also decided early on that I wanted the building to be able to be converted for other uses in the future if needed, so it would be built to current regs for insulation, etc.
A very kind forum member, who I won’t name (but is welcome to claim their work if the wish) did me the following design :
Basically a double garage which is 6.1 x 6.3m externally, with a pitched room which will allow me to install a 2-post car lift inside once complete.
Another kind member also did the location plan for me for the PP but I can’t seem to upload that at the minute.
I’d already had the idea for the garage while the extension was ongoing, which allowed me to do some very valuable prep work while the house was apart. Mainly this was running a 16mm twin and earth cable through the ceilings from the consumer unit (fuse box) to a terminal block outside. I’d also branched off a water pipe from the system and taken that outside. I had then run and armoured cable (also 16mm) and a blue MDPE water pipe under the new deck and to the location of the garage - pictures of that in the deck build above but also dome more details below.
Special ‘Hockey stick’ mdpe pipe cored through wall with insulation around it for frost protection. On the inside i connected a stopcock that as 15mm copper on one side to mdpe on the other.
That hockey stick pipe then goes inside an ‘insuduct’ with more insulation inside it to get you below ground. The brown thing in the picture which will get painted grey eventually. That’s followed by some regular ducting with insulation (which is surprisingly expensive) to get below the required 750mm depth. The underground 110m showing is to the soakaway for the extension which needed rejigging to fit around the new water pipe.
Electric cable and water pipe runs, I offset them to either side of my trench if either needed to be accessed in the future.
I also had to think about waste water as I wanted a sink in the garage, so inspection chamber (manhole) installed and run backward to the existing manhole.
And I broke into the existing 70s manhole to connect - so much concrete to dig out to create which was all very hard and in a difficult/ confined space!
Cutting the new channel.
Done, and cleaned. Pic below taken from other side, so the left connection is the new one (you can see the different coloured haunching concrete)
And finally more insulation where the water pipe will go into the garage. On this side it’ll come straight through the floor internally.
I also had to put a second soakaway in the garden. Thankfully there was enough space to hit the minimum distances from buildings/boundaries. Forgot to take many pictures of this:
The problem with all the groundworks is that once you’re done you cover it all back over again and don’t have much (visually) to show for your efforts
BC came out and signed off the sewage stuff and the soakaway. Interestingly they were not bothered about the electric cables or the water pipe - said it wasn’t their remit. I do remember at the start of the extension build that I found all the sewage / draining some of the most daunting parts to do, but it felt like a doddle this time round.
Costs so far:
Building control application £370
Planning Permission £328
Soakaway £260
Electrical cables £280
Water piping, insuduct, etc £300
Manholes x2, underground sewage pipes - all leftovers
So approx spend so far = £1.5k garage, £118.5k overall.
Thanks for following along
