Barn

[oldclaypaws]

My barn will be finished within a month.

The tedious bit was finalising a design, the planning application and finding the right supplier. The planning was a bit nerve racking as my whole project and future income hinged on it, so I was careful to have several discussions with the chap who I knew would take the decision and consequently I knew before applying it was very likely to go through OK. I eventually settled on an agricultural contractor who's widely used by local farmers, he's efficient, competitive and I've seen his finished buildings.

I opted for a building that was likely to be as big as I'd need rather than compromising on size, and these buildings tend to go in multiples of 15ft. My originally envisaged 20 x 40 therefore grew into a quite chunky 30 x 45. Its not cheap, but will be a great facility. It incorporates an area to be used for shelter as well as a large parted vented but weatherproof and secure open main area for timber and plant. The whole steel frame is hot dipped galvanized and the exterior will be double clad timber. The floor will be reinforced concrete. The doors are metal and without detailing my measures taken, it will be very secure.

The roof maxes out at around 18 feet at the ridge, is fibre cement, and that prevents condensation creating 'artificial rain' on the inside, as happens with steel roofs. It'll be well lit with plenty of skylights so will have good natural light inside, even without any windows. I pitched the roof at 22.5 degrees and the main part faces due South in the middle of the clearing, so I can put off grid solar panels on the top.

We've had a few delays due to the weather and the contractor having problems with other huge buildings he's doing taking longer than he thought, but its now rattling along nicely. The foundation pads, uprights, roof steel and purlins were done in just two days.

[oldclaypaws]

[The Barrowers]

Looking Good and Large

[oldclaypaws]

I'm pleased with the progress. Floor will go down this week with luck.

It needs to be large to accommodate the tractor, wheel arch, sawmill and a large amount of drying stacked oak. Chunky bits may take 3 or 4 years to dry, unless I devise some sort of drying kiln. This will be my full time business, I have up to 700 cubic metres of mature oak to play with, although only enough (about 60%) is being carefully & selectively thinned a few trees at a time to get it from a dense oak plantation back to a healthier and more diverse standards and coppice regime.

I'd stress I'm in the rather unique position of not losing any woodland to put the barn up. What's underneath four feet down in this area is 50 year old squashed general refuse, capped off with 1,000 tons of pink quarry waste (see pic) , spread over 1/3rd of an acre. No large trees can ever grow on it as they can't root in it, but its very solid and well drained so its a great place for a barn and parking. You can see where we've dug it out its solid hardcore, like a road foundation. I'm redistributing 40 tons of it to bridge a hollow and restore an old road up a bank to the upper part of the wood linking to an overgrown ride which shows on the old maps.

[oldclaypaws]

[Wendelspanswick]

Looking good, and expensive!
The frame is all done on my barn and I am back to block walling but the end is in sight, thank goodness.

[oldclaypaws]

Considering that its as big as some village halls and that the price for the whole thing is considerably less than the typical price of a modest family car or a new 2 berth caravan, I think its good value. It'll be a focal place for my business with no rent or rates, and we can chill out there too, so I'm pretty chuffed. Its a great facility to have.

I calculated the cost divided by the time span I intend to use it over, and it works out at less than £9 a week ! That's only a couple of quid more than Somerset Council charge for renting a single car garage. Bargain !

[ballibeg]

Looks great. Have you given security some thought?

[oldclaypaws]

Thanks Ballibeg, does look good, doesn't it? After it had set I found this woman stuck in the middle. I would chip her out but don't want to spoil the nice new smooth surface.

Yes, I've thought about security. You have to expect a degree of 'curiosity' but I'm taking sensible measures. The most nicked things are power tools and batteries, these won't be left there and anyone who wanted to take timber or plant would need a large lorry, lifting gear and more time that they'll have available before being jumped on.

Its a good location from the point of view of security, we get little passing traffic. I'm not revealing the location online and my sales won't be from the site, so few toe-rags will know about it. I'll be stopping there myself all daytime and often overnight, so anyone coming on site has a chance of encountering me and the two massive dogs.

Our home is close by and there are simple affordable remote systems to alert you by message to a phone if trespassers are detected, so I can alert the police and be there myself in a very short time.

It'll be likely to happen but is likely to be more stressful and counter productive for the perpetrators than me. Not going to lose sleep over it but being sensibly cautious.

[Wendelspanswick]

I am in a similar position with regards to security. Make it as difficult as possible to gain entry while alerting you to the attempt and only keeping onsite items of little value or too big to carry off.
Also sensible to not keep flammable liquids onsite and to have as little combustible material about to dissuade pryo's.
Our ground floor will have a reinforced concrete wall faced with stone and the upper floor will be box profile sheeting faced with timber cladding.