Anyone experienced with extra large workshop builds in a UK garden?

[xavierx6]

Hi everyone,

I require a very large home workshop.
I have found a potential house with a 40x160ft rear garden (plus front garden)

I would be wanting to build a very large workshop in the region of 30x100foot to the rear of the garden, which of course would require both planning and building regs

Before I go any further, I was wondering if anyone has experience with extra large workshops?

Are there any planning restrictions that would stop me from being able to achieve such a thing (or would planning departments take a negative view on such a large building in a residential garden)

I basically wanted to find out if anyone has had experience in getting such a thing approved, or am I wasting my time even thinking about it?

Thanks in advance for your help

 

[Adam W.]

Phone them up and ask, it's the only way you'll get a relevant reply to your area.

 

[akirk]

30x100 foot is a 3,000 sqft building - that is vast... bigger than most residential properties... and will completely dominate the garden / surroundings.
If I were a neighbour I would be objecting very strongly on the basis that you would be devaluing my house considerably!
Is it possible to have a residential plot with an outbuilding that size - yes, I know of a bungalow (on a bigger plot though) with an agricultural barn in the garden - but it is probably quite historic (though a modern building now), so I suspect it came from an era of easier planning decisions.

The other issue is usage - the usual expectation for anything in the grounds of a residential building is that it is incidental to the use of the main building (home workshop yes, large industrial unit no! I would expect you to need a change of use to industrial not residential and would have thought that unlikely... it may well be the use not the size of building that is the biggest issue...

best bet would be to find a planning consultant - planning departments are now notoriously unhelpful and would probably tell you to submit before they will comment, a planning consultant would know the likelihood of your getting something through planning...

 

[Blackswanwood]

The answer to your question is “it depends”. Is it for hobby or business use? Will it fit in without impacting anyone else? Is it proportionate to the house? etc etc. As the previous replies have said you need to either talk to a Planning Officer (not always that easy) or get professional advice.

 

[doctor Bob]

I think there will be objections and I seriously doubt planning will pass it.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

As others have said, the best way is to check with the Local Planning Authority.

I think it's highly unlikely that something that large would be considered "domestic" (!), in any situation in England/Wales. If the site is in a Conservation Area or a National Park, forget it. If there is an Article 4 Direction in place (the LPA should be able to say), or if there are restrictive covenants (visible via the Land Registry, if the land ownership is already registered) - again, forget it.

Your best bet is perhaps to find an agricultural/equine property and use agriculture as a justification i.e. a barn-type structure.

Are you aware of the changes to the Permitted Development rules which allow retail/business premises to be (partially or fully) converted to domestic use? Acquiring a business unit - with scope to convert part to domestic - might be another route.

 

[Cabinetman]

I thought my workshop was quite large enough for me to rattle around in at 40‘ x 15‘ sometimes it’s a little long and thin, but yours is going to be ten and a half times the size! You say it’s a home workshop, what do you plan to do in there, Flying Scotsman rebuild? Or maybe you know something we don’t and it’s Xavier's Ark

 

[Farmer Giles]

I built a 26m x 6m part-stone barn on two storeys that contains my 20m x 6m workshop upstairs. It's on a smallholding but still needed planning. I knew it would be difficult to get planning so I paid a planning consultant to apply, she used to work for the council and knew exactly how to word everything, just enough, not too much to open up to other questions. My neighbours were astounded that planning went through first time. I did get one crazy planning restriction that I had to consent to, but I didn't comply and nobody has ever checked.

They wanted me to put a stone roof on the steel frame building to "blend in with all the other barns in the area". None of the other barns have stone roofs as it costs a fortune and weighs a load, about a tonne for every 5 sq metres if memory serves me correctly, it would have double the steel costs and probably trebled the overall cost of the building.

 

[Dabop]

30 x 100ft- thats a warehouse....
in metres thats 9 x 30m....

I have a farm shed here thats slightly smaller- 9x25m (4 bays, so yours would be a 5 bay equivalent of mine... another 'door' longer in other words...)
But mines on 30 acres....
big difference....
To give you an idea of the size we are talking about...
(under construction- 3 'hibays' and the fourth is a 'lowbay leanto' ie my workshop eventually)


overhead drone shot... yours would be the same depth but extend past the watertank on the right- ie that tank would be inside your shed... (the white ute is a Toyota Hilux for scale- you could 'squeeze' 4 per bay in at a pinch- so yours could hold 20 against mine holding 16 of them....)

That's a BIG shed..... especially for a relatively small backyard- most of the yard would be inside the shed!!!
(remember that the shed is only 10ft narrower than the yard so my back wall right on one side fence line- and you would struggle to open both front doors on the hilux in that pic without hitting the other side fence- and with my lefthand wall hard up against the fenceline at the back, that caravan would pretty much be at the back wall of your house....)

Chances of approval- buckleys imho

 

[TRITON]

I was wondering if anyone has experience with extra large workshops?

Only in our dreams

 

[Peri]

Only in our dreams

Normally just after I've thrown away another 2 quid on the Euromillions.

 

[paulrbarnard]

If it is in a residential area I think you are irresponsible for even considering it. You would, quite rightly, be the pariah of the neighbourhood. If it was suggested in my area I would be objecting, petitioning and generally raising mayhem about it.

 

[RichardG]

You need to find a farm with a suitable barn or a large barn with a smaller house/piggery/stable that you convert into a house. Alternatively you may be able to find a property that backs onto an industrial estate.

 

[Adam W.]

If it is in a residential area I think you are irresponsible for even considering it. You would, quite rightly, be the pariah of the neighbourhood. If it was suggested in my area I would be objecting, petitioning and generally raising mayhem about it.

I've got a nice pitchfork and spare flaming torch if you want it.

Although seeings you're from Shepton you could go to Pilton and get your supplies there, it'll be closer and Eavis has probably got some discarded ones going cheap.

 

[highwood122]

Hi everyone,

I require a very large home workshop.
I have found a potential house with a 40x160ft rear garden (plus front garden)

I would be wanting to build a very large workshop in the region of 30x100foot to the rear of the garden, which of course would require both planning and building regs

Before I go any further, I was wondering if anyone has experience with extra large workshops?

Are there any planning restrictions that would stop me from being able to achieve such a thing (or would planning departments take a negative view on such a large building in a residential garden)

I basically wanted to find out if anyone has had experience in getting such a thing approved, or am I wasting my time even thinking about it?

Thanks in advance for your help

hi, my local planners said the wokshop was not in proportion with the bungalow, so i made the bungalow higher and longer which was part of my long term plan anyway. result

 

[highwood122]

hi, my local planners said the wokshop was not in proportion with the bungalow, so i made the bungalow higher and longer which was part of my long term plan anyway. result

 

[shed9]

I have found a potential house with a 40x160ft rear garden (plus front garden)
I would be wanting to build a very large workshop in the region of 30x100foot to the rear of the garden, which of course would require both planning and building regs

That's at least 47% of the rear curtilage.

I require a very large home workshop.

3000 sq ft is not a large home workshop, that's a commercial venture. As others have pointed out this is irresponsible in the context of the neighbours (assuming there are any of course) and probably needs something more commercial than domestic in setting.

Don't be put off by the comments, you asked and people answered honestly. Welcome to the forum (genuinely).

 

[Peterm1000]

This is clearly a pretty crazy idea, but unless you live in a house with some kind of restrictive covenant, you can cover up to half of the land around your house with outbuildings providing they are not more than 2.5m high with a flat roof and 4 metres with a pitched roof - whatever the neighbours think. However, I think you are going to struggle to get a building 9 metres wide to have a suitable roof pitch to pass building regs AND stay under 4 metres.

 

[giantbeat]

have you considered, just renting an actual workshop lol...

 

[LJM]

have you considered, just renting an actual workshop lol...

indeed! Rare is the house that gains value through most of the garden being consumed by a massive shed... it probably makes more financial sense to rent a real workshop. Or buy one.