Barn Conversion to workshop

[Tonytygwyn]

Good Morning,

Iv'e been lurking on this website for sometime and I've looked at many a workshop build thread with some jealousy, but finally I have the opportunity to build my own workshop.

I was made redundant at the end of last year and since then I've got married and moved house twice and now find myself in South Wales overlooking the Towy Valley with a barn ripe for conversion into a woodworking shop.

My redundancy is funding the the workshop build and I hope to run a small business creating furniture from this workshop in the near future.

The barn is single storey, stone built, and measuring 18m x 5m.

The Barn is one of 2 barns and a farm house that are being renovated/modified. A Planning application have been submitted to the Breacon Beacons National Park for all three, but as I'm not yet altering the external appearance of the barn which will house the workshop work has commenced.

After the planning discussions with the architect it was decided to house the Biomass boiler (this will heat all three buildings) in the end of my workshop. there is some urgency to get this Barn at least water tight and the boiler commissioned by the first of October to qualify for the RHI scheme before the next drop in rates. With this space given up to the Plant room for the boiler the workshop space has shrunk to 11.5m x 5m.

I started work a few months ago but was only told about the October 1st deadline 2 weeks ago so its now a massive rush to get the barn finished.

Here are some pictures of current progress. (picture heavy)

Before work started

After Removal of internal render

Digging out old cow shed floor only a foot deep in places

Nearly all removed

In with a micro digger to remove soil

Resulting waste piles

It was at this point it was decided to put the biomass boiler in the barn and due to the size of the boiler, tank and pellet silo the dividing wall had to come down
so the roof has to come off to allow the removal of the wall.

wall gone and sunny for a change

new block peer wall to separate the 2 areas workshop and plant room.

new drain installed for toilet in workshop

missed a few photos of the hardcore being installed. I hired a mini red rhino crusher to recycle all the concrete removed and most of this went back in over 250mm of hardcore and then binding. temporary roof installed to try and keep concrete dry.

DMP, insulation installed ready for new slab to be installed

More photos coming soon.

 

[stewart]

That looks like a great space!

 

[Charlie Woody]

Sounds a great project. Look forward to watching progress. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Claymore]

Looks like a lovely place Tony......I'm sure all your hard work will pay off in the long run but looks like your going to be very busy! don't ya just love planning offices?.
You are in lovely place so don't forget to enjoy yourself and surroundings as its quite easy for the build to make a dream into a nightmare
Cheers and have fun
Brian

 

[Paul200]

You are in lovely place so don't forget to enjoy yourself and surroundings as its quite easy for the build to make a dream into a nightmare
Cheers and have fun
Brian

So true. We're in a similar position here in Scotland - living in a beautiful spot but with masses of work to do. We try to make a point of having a day off every now and then but it's so easy to get bogged down in the work.

That's an amazing space! Hope it all works out for you Tony and, as Brian said, remember to have fun!

Cheers

Paul

 

[Tonytygwyn]

Thanks for your reply's I'm having fun with the build... even when it rains on the day of the concrete pour and for three days solid after.

Current situation

Need to get the whole roof off strip all old timber fascias and soffits, install new wall plate and timber lintels over 6 openings and 8 oak pads to support new king post Trusses being installed a week tomorrow.

Concrete after pour 100mm in the workshop (under floor heating and self leaving screed to be installed later)
Over 150mm in the plant room to support the 1500ltr tank and pellet silo.

current progress on roof removal. Decided to re-roof and have new trusses as the barn is riddled with wood worm.

A roof ladder arrives tomorrow to remove tiles along the ridge...

 

[Tonytygwyn]

I'm still working on stripping the roof, my its tedious work.. I'm breaking at least 1 in 10 so will need to get some replacements from the salvage yard.

At least I have a nice view from up there

I have interrupted the roof stripping by fitting some new oak pads for the truss feet to sit on
the trusses are going to be douglas fir raised collar king post in construction, I had the intention of making these myself but because of the tight deadline a framing company is making them and are due to fit them on Tuesday.... better get all the prep work done.

also new holes for the filling pipes for the pellet silo

nearly finished stripping the slates....

 

[Woodchips2]

Good luck with the rebuild and well done for all your recycling =D>

Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences especially when you are up against deadlines =D> =D>

Regards Keith

 

[pcb1962]

That's a lovely workshop space. Have you thought about putting some windows in the new roof? You can never have enough daylight in the workshop.

 

[custard]

My redundancy is funding the the workshop build and I hope to run a small business creating furniture from this workshop in the near future.

Good luck Tony, I really hope it works out for you. I'm a full time furniture maker operating out of a similarly sized workshop. It's not the workshop that wins the business, nor the tools and equipment, it's all about finding the customers willing to pay for original designs and quality work. I've got my fingers crossed that you can locate those customers and get your designs in front of them.

 

[Tonytygwyn]

To answer your questions.... Yes I agree finding work will be the hardest part of starting the new business especially when I've moved into a new area and I don't have a large network of family and friends to do networking. My wife is local so I will rely on her to spread the word. I do have some family work to start me off and I'm also looking at placing some work in a local shop which is run by a cooperative by local craft people, and I have some more ideas to get my products known.

Regarding windows I do have plans to add roof lights in the barn but as they are a planing constraint they will be added later when planning is approved (see attached)
there have been some changes since the plans were submitted the new layout is marked in red. I'm also thinking that we will not have the roof light in the new W.C. as it has a window. I'm also thinking of moving the roof lights from the north face and having 2 roof lights in-between each truss on the south facing roof. (the compass arrow is wrong on the plan its opposite to the way its pointing)

 

[Max Power]

That's a great looking build. I often stay at The Plough in Llandeillo when I'm down that way , staying there Tuesday night in fact, lov ly food. .

 

[heimlaga]

This looks very good!
I like the way you recykle as much as possible and make use of an old building. I also like that you do a lot of work yourself.

However....if this is going to be a small business I don't really understand why you would spend money and valuable space on a WC out in the workshop. My experience is that the basis for a profitable small business is keeping costs down. Investing in quality where investments are needed and cutting out all superficial costs.
A wooden outdoor privy built against the wall would be a lot cheaper to build and use and perfectly good enough for a workplace.....at least in my part of the world.

 

[tomf]

If you don't mind me asking, how much did you hire your concrete crusher for?
The rates I have had seem ridiculous for what they are.

 

[Tonytygwyn]

Some progress has been made...

I had to dig a trench for an insulated pipe to link the 2 barns I hit shale just below the tarmac so it was hard going to get the required depth.

Also the timber framers arrived to install the trusses.
1st truss

2nd truss

3rd truss

4th truss with purlins

 

[Paul200]

Wow! That's looking really good. And quickly

 

[Tonytygwyn]

It has taken a couple of days of hair pulling to get a square-ish frame to fit wonky walls. I've spent some time consolidating the walls and repairing the walls where needed. I've finally managed to make a start on the rafters, which have to be individually measured which has made it more time consuming than I thought. I'm learning as I go so it is taking twice as long.

Not sure if anyone has any tips to speed things up?

I was hoping to re-use the timbers over the gable ends but it seems that the new roof has a slightly lower pitch than the old roof so these will have to been changed/modified.

current progress

 

[Trigs]

Awesome, I'm mega jealous of that space. Good luck with it

 

[Tonytygwyn]

The weather has been nice so I've been able to crack on with the rafters... both sides are now complete still need to trim one side to length and decide on weather to fit fascia's and soffits or to have the rafters exposed like an open eave. I have one day to make the barn water tight as a very expensive boiler is arriving from Austria on Thursday. this is the current situation.

 

[markblue777]

Looking lovely, Wish I had a space even half that size for a workshop. Nice progress so far, keep up the updates.
Cheers
Mark