building a house, on a tight budget

[multi power]

MP you need to look at this in conjunction with "taking over" your parents farm.

Carmarthenshire County Council are much more likely to Grant Planning Permission in a Rural Location (Outside the areas designated for housing in their Structure Plan) if you demonstrate:

1. A need - If taking over the farm, and your parents still occupied the farmhouse you can argue that you need accommodation for you and your family.
2. You need to live on the farm - Attending to Cattle Calving at all hours of the day and night.

Carmarthenshire County Council also have a policy, that Redundant Farm Buildings can be converted to residential use.
If there are Stone Buildings, old cowsheds or barns etc., on the farm, it will be easier to obtain planning to convert these, than a new build. They do allow extensions "in keeping with the original buildings".

At the end of the day, (and providing it is done properly using traditional materials) you will have a much more valuable property.

Someone mentioned, floor insulation. Several new builds and conversions in Carmarthenshire, have used hundreds if not thousands of glass bottles under the floor to provide the insulation.

IANTO

thats pretty much the approach im taking

prefare to build new as cheaper, also stone buildings are in a poor location n would need spending on alterations to yard etc, also very dangurous for my son

 

[suffolksmallholder]

I like the concept of glass bottles particularly if you have them on site. I wonder how deep they would have to be to compete with 6" of modern sheet insulation?
SS

 

[suffolksmallholder]

@ multi power
Have you considered a straw bale house? Looking around here at the many Hesstons littering the fields you'd have it up to roof in a morning!
SS

 

[multi power]

@ multi power
Have you considered a straw bale house? Looking around here at the many Hesstons littering the fields you'd have it up to roof in a morning!
SS

not too sure on the straw bale idea, fire? vermin?

 

[roscoe erf]

@ multi power
Have you considered a straw bale house? Looking around here at the many Hesstons littering the fields you'd have it up to roof in a morning!
SS

@ multi power
Have you considered a straw bale house? Looking around here at the many Hesstons littering the fields you'd have it up to roof in a morning!
SS

thats not as crazy as it first sounds http://www.balewatch.com/ hey @Forage Trader might have some new leads for you

 

[suffolksmallholder]

There's a site, as usual from the USA, but there's some sense in it. The main issues are to do with vermin. I would think that if you planned and executed the project in an orderly fashion you would have little problems. The render/daub/covering that finishes the structure will secure you against fire. I will see if I can find the file in my 'pooters memory. It did make interesting reading though.
My fathers late friend who was into all that sort of thing had a straw bale house built and very nice it is too. He was always one to put his money where his mouth was as he set up C A T in Machynlleth!
SS

 

[Hilly]

No because we looked at them in great detail and seeing the materials used decided against it, as you said in another post" nothing decent is ever built cheap"

They are not cheaper, they are not better than trad build but they are not worse either they are just different, the materials are suitable for purpose and will last as long as a trad built house.

 

[IANTO]

There are few Alternative houses very close to you.

Might be worth taking a look.

http://lammas.org.uk/

http://quietearth.org.uk/intro.htm

IANTO

 

[rob1]

They are not cheaper, they are not better than trad build but they are not worse either they are just different, the materials are suitable for purpose and will last as long as a trad built house.

We will have to agree to disagree on that, the size of timber is far too small to last and the ones that use stirling board and battens to make joists are just a pile of sh!t IMO, just because they pass a structural test when new does not mean they will in two hundred years, now if you are talking oak frame now that is a different idea.

 

[multi power]

They are not cheaper, they are not better than trad build but they are not worse either they are just different, the materials are suitable for purpose and will last as long as a trad built house.

i like different

 

[suffolksmallholder]

I helped build a mud brick house in Tasmania. @rob1 if these were left in the rain they'd wash away! The idea of an alternative style house takes in the whole, so in the mud brick house the eaves overhang by 3' minimum. If you went with current building regs you'd end up with a pile of mud.......Horses for courses. A 200 year old house has had some considerable amount of remedial/maintenance work just to keep the walls standing!
SS

 

[rob1]

I helped build a mud brick house in Tasmania. @rob1 if these were left in the rain they'd wash away! The idea of an alternative style house takes in the whole, so in the mud brick house the eaves overhang by 3' minimum. If you went with current building regs you'd end up with a pile of mud.......Horses for courses.
SS

Yes dont think a mud house would last too long but cheap and available materials, but the point I'm trying to make is the timber size is potentially a weakness compared to brick and block, I dont have a problem with anyone building one if they realise the dangers of damp etc they bring, just would not ever consider one myself

 

[suffolksmallholder]

Being a qualified and experienced 'bricky' I look at all the alternatives as this is how I have made 50% of my living since I was 22.

 

[suffolksmallholder]

@rob1 The oldest pize or rammed earth house in the southern hemisphere is in Campbell town Tasmania and it is a startling structure and creeping into its double century. The main walls are purely mud. The upper structure is braced with tie rods to stop the walls leaning outwards. To date the owners have had no structural worries except to keep the rain out.....pah mud.....!!
SS

 

[suffolksmallholder]

The other startling thing about this site (Sorry, off topic...) were the magnificent Elm trees in the front paddock, all the way from England. Now just a memory here...
Most of these homesteads were convict built and the owners either had them built using local materials or they were shipped in kit form from England, right down to the nails and door latches, so when I was lucky enough to be shown round it was like looking in a Wickes/Do-it-all catalogue but nearly 200 years old and perfectly preserved!
SS

 

[IANTO]

I like the concept of glass bottles particularly if you have them on site. I wonder how deep they would have to be to compete with 6" of modern sheet insulation?
SS

This might help: http://ezinearticles.com/?Recycled-Bottle-and-Concrete-Insulation&id=4872336

There a programme on S4C probably years ago, about a New Build near Llandeilo.

They put down a layer of Sand and then laid bottles about an inch apart in rows. The alternating in direction every other row.

Poured concrete on top, to give a 2inch layer, then put down a polystyrene to clip the underfloor heating onto. then another 2 inches of concrete.

Apparently the bottles gave added insulation and used less concrete.

Can't remember where the vapour barrier went. Either under the sand or below the polystyrene sheets.

IANTO

 

[furrowedbrow]

The render/daub/covering that finishes the structure will secure you against fire.

With a straw build it's critical that Lime render is used because it allows the straw to breath.

 

[suffolksmallholder]

@rob1. Here's your mud house! c 1823 so 190 years old I was simply amazed at the scale of the place and the workmanship. http://www.heritagesheep.org.au/news/092010.pdf
I was helping put a mud brick extension onto this property, funded by the Tasmanian Education Dept. http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosesimages/9250136633/
SS

PS. I liked the tin roof effect so much that I'm copying here in Suffolk. ss

 

[Shetlandsheep]

Mid/cob built houses in UK need very deep overhangs and also mostly they have a substantial brick or stone base up to knee height. As said, lime required for breath ability.

With the base of stone or brick and the overhang they can and do last 00s of years.

 

[Juggler]

Farm up the road from me seems to be doing ok for himself keeping at last count 7 static caravans housing some pretty dubious characters, no planning involved. How does that work? Running a trailer park for people who want to dissapear off the radar cash in hand and two fingers to anyone who questions it...