My man cave build - UK edition
 

Inspired by rfuerst911sc's thread and reading about other Pelican building projects I thought I'd start my own UK edition

To set the scene my house is in a small rural village at the cheap end of the Cotswolds which is a designated Area of Outstanding Beauty in the middle of central England

My house is in a 'Conservation Area', Local authorities can designate an area of special architectural or historic interest whose character or appearance is worth protecting or enhancing which means approval for building developments is harder to get.

First step is to submit plans to my local planning authority. Drawings consist of all elevations and floor plans as the house is and then same again but showing the proposed changes. These have to be approved first by the village council and then by the local authority.

First attempt was rejected :( a porch entrance to an office above the garage was visible form one elevation and they didn't like how it looked. The planning officer was very helpful and suggested a few alterations to make it acceptable for approval.

2nd attempt they were approved, always one to make an opportunity from a set back I made a few changes to my man cave part of the layout that will make it far better than I had ever envisaged :) Thank you Mr Planner, much appreciated.

This is my house before work started,
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530483872.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530483982.jpg

Late 18th C, constructed from local Hornton stone (much darker than the light Cotswold stone), 2ft thick walls, roof was originally thatched but now has moss covered concrete tiles from the 70's. Bought in 1996 in a very poor condition and lovingly restored over many years.

I am glad I could inspire you with your plan for your UK man cave :D Subscribed and interested in how you do it on your side of the pond . SmileWavy

Moi aussi.

What is that white pipe running on the outside to above the top window? At first I thought wastewater but it can't be because it's coming from above the floor level on the top storey...

Is it electrical?

Probably retrofit outdoor plumbing.

Some type of gutter? Conduit for A/C copper?

Beeeeaaaautiful home sir!

Neat old house Capt!
Is that a flood line a couple of feet up from the ground?
Places that old have seen a lot.
Is your shop going in the structure behind the house?

Your turn around from the initial rejection is an inspiration.
I'm working on a zoning change process myself.

You sure do have a neat auto / toy museum there in Cotswold, very folksy and down home. Nice contrast to the modern mega museums.

Will be following you progress with interest.

Cheers Richard

Atmospheric vent.
Should be a good thread!

daepp, thanks

The lovely white pipe period feature from the 70's is for the bathroom/toilet waste water, it's that tall to let it vent above the top window

tevake, thanks, no flood line but a splash line from the road, the stone is quite soft so over time the splashing erodes the stone.

Thanks for asking, my shop has two parts to it, first part is located in Mrs Ahab's gardening shed but I'm hoping she will sub-let me some work space :D

My man shed, I mean Mrs Ahab's gardening shed - UK edition was started end of last year so I'll quickly give you a guided tour of its construction

First job was to level the driveway, this also served to keep the shed roof height down to a height the planners were happy with.

3 guys and a 3 ton dumper, 9 ton dumper and 3 ton digger turned up and within 5 hours had finished and removed 92 tons of earth :eek:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530653562.jpg

No foundations but a concrete slab, I shuttered it up, fitted a damp proof membrane, then 200mm centre steel mesh and between my wife, the builder and I we moved 200 wheel barrow loads of concrete.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530654465.jpg

Gratuitous pick of the lovely cement mixer truck driving delivery lady, me not feeling too sporty afterwards
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530654103.jpg

I've worked hard over the years so feel I've earned myself a lovely warm shed to hide away from the cold, damp British winters so we didn't scrimp on the wall construction.

Inner coarse is 4" concrete block, outer coarse is combination of another 4" concrete block covered in oak weather boarding or 4" Hornton stone to match my house with 4" air gap partially filled with 2" polyurethane foil backed insulation sheet
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530655108.jpg

Great thread!!!

It looks like a great tool shed/man cave. Well done. It is also great to see the old UK houses. Love that part of the country.:)

Awesome house and project! Just a few KM from my where my family has ancient history and a namesake chapel and manor house still stand.

I should have given you a call when I was in Oxford back in April. Cotswold isnt too far away. I will be back around this time next year.

Great project !!

Excellent! Love the English country side, not least the old villages and gardens. Always reminds me of Midsomer Murders.
In the first pic to the left - would that be an Araucaria/Monkey Puzzle tree? Yes, I am a tree-nut. :)

Nice!
Why blocks instead of just wood stud walls?
That's my 93 4Runner! How did it get to England?

Beautiful home!

One of the many things I love about the English countryside is that they apparently have a rule that a pub must be within walking distance of every home in the village. I have frequented many! Hmm, now that I think about it, perhaps the rule is they must be within staggering distance to home!

Please keep sharing pictures.

Seahawk, recycled sixtie, thanks

Ayles, thanks, where did your family have history?

Skytrooper, I'll still be here, hopefully near the end of 2nd phase of fitting out the interior

livi, yes it is a monkey puzzle tree but I've never seen any Costwold Gibbon's swinging from the branches

911 rod, thanks, wood stud walls aren't used much, I've gone block work as the far end will be finished in a natural render ie sand/cement skimmed over the blockwork and end you can see in the photo will be stone faced

mreid, thanks, we actually bought the house at an auction in our local pub, it was just habitable, most expensive night out of my life but worth every penny.

My old family home was diagonally opposite a pub :D

As the shed is just the encore I'll blast through a few more pics,

Blockwork all finished, ridge beam is a steel I-section and softwood roof joists fitted
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530732116.jpg

Roof done, tiles are reclaimed Welsh slate tiles, ridge tiles are reclaimed handmade Victorian blue clay, the roof it quite a shallow pitch so needed a long overlapping tile and also chosen to compliment the style of neighboring properties keeping the planners happy
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530732433.jpg

I get a lot of enjoyment from hunting and finding those special bits to try and give the 'been built for ever' look to match the rest of my house. Oak beam is one of those, it was a little too thick so I had it band sawn and then I notched the back out as it sits on and hides an off the shelf pressed steel lintel ;)

The stone is quarried in a neighbouring village and chopped to size 1/4 mile from my house. The type of stone is called Hornton or Iron Stone, only available across a narrow band of the UK

This style of stone is called 'randoms', slightly courser and less finished than cut to thickness stone and is a perfect match to the rest of my house. We used a mix of 3", 4", 5" and 6" wide courses, again to match the house. One of the restrictions I have to adhere to while building in a conservation area is a 1m2 stone sample panel needs to be approved by the planners before I could start building. The colour/style of stone, mortar colour/joint thickness all have to be in keeping with the area, I'm using a builder from my village so there were no problems gaining approval.

Window cills are cut Hornton stone, windows will be recessed 6" from the external wall, again to keep the planner happy but I also like the depth it adds to the look

The large stones on the corners are called quoins, these are decorative and add some reinforcing to the corners. These stones are from the back wall of an old farm cow shed on a local estate called Great Tew. Don't think there are many cow sheds left as they are being converted into multi-million homes for folk like the Beckham's and Harry and Meg :)
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530733436.jpg

Thanks for the details. Its very interesting to see how things work elsewhere, not to mention the tools/equipment/methods. I really enjoy building and design, thanks for sharing.

Shot you a pm captain!

To my eye you have done very well with the details to match your house and the surrounding buildings. That curved beam looks of a bygone era. And the mixed stones and those large corner stones look like a genuine stacked stone structure, great looking roof too, nicely done

I'm wondering what that short lower floor is intended for? I'd imagine that the powers that be imposed height limits that dictates those dimensions. You could probably park some of the cars you work on in there 😃

It's only the fresher color of the stone that's a clue to the newness of the building, that won't take long to mature.
You are going to indeed end up with a nice snug place to hang in. Wood heat?

Cheers Richard

Wow Captain, what a great build. I just love the attention to detail and combining modern building methods and materials while keeping the look period-correct. Like well set-up backdated 911.... :)

As a concrete contractor, I'm overflowing with questions - I hope you don't mind?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530815174.jpg

Regarding the slab, you mentioned "no foundations." By that do you mean that you poured no footings? Here that slab would have at least a 12" X 12" solid concrete footing, both to carry the building's weight and to secure it to the soil to prevent any lateral movement. Are those non-issues there? Perhaps I'm just unaware of the construction methods incorporated in your design - always a possibility!

And when it comes to wheeling all that mud, are trailer pumps not a thing in the UK? Here we'd hire a guy and a pump for about $300 US. You are the MAN for wheeling that much concrete!

PS love the moss-covered roof!

Inside the red circle, is that a structural piece of steel, or some form of flashing to keep moisture off the beautiful beam that went beneath it? Is there an I-beam in there anywhere carrying the weight above the opening?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530815816.jpg

Can you describe what we're seeing inside the blue circles? In California we are concerned with seismic activity that would cause a wall to shear or snap during an earthquake. Is that not a concern whatsoever in Cotswald, or is it that we're just not seeing where the shear strength comes from. (As a reminder, I'm no structural engineer, and I've never poured a yard of concrete outside of So Cal, so that's my only basis for reference.)


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530816024.jpg

I, too, cannot wait to hear what this is for. Kayaks? Building materials like lumber?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530816162.jpg

Again, love the build, and I really appreciate you sharing it with us!

^^^

A) Big ass pizza oven
B) Just to make the front look like a face
c) Not sure yet, but will think of something

Vincent Vega, thanks, I'm a details man too so glad you're finding it interesting

tevake, in the UK we don't enjoy the acreage you guys have with your houses so I've had to get imaginative. Height restrictions and the cost of digging a basement meant full height wasn't an option. The shed will be a 'do it all shed', welding, carbon fibre, gardening, spray shop, woodworking, engine building etc etc so I've added the space to store away tools, equipment, bits and bobs that are not needed for the project of the moment.

daepp, please ask away, correct no footings, I'm on very solid ground, if I dig down about another foot I hit rock, the slab is steel reinforced and very solid, I'm sure I could drag the whole thing if I don't like where it's positioned,

The steel beam is called a 'catnic lintel', it's folded galvanized structural steel beam

The hollow block is a temporary support to stop the steel lintel from tipping while the inner blockwork is built up. There is about a 6" wide support each end from the blockwork and stone.

We have no seismic, avalanche, wild fire or tsunami codes to adhere to but I'd gladly build to them if I could live by a Californian beach :)

911rod, after living in Italy for 7yrs a pizza oven is on my to do list

Now for the floor, as we went a block 9" higher to allow enough crawl space on my under floor storage area I had to scrimp a few inches here and there to keep the roof height to the original approved plans.

The floor joists were 2" x 9" but I cut them down to 6", this felt a bit bouncy so I screwed and glued an additional 2" x 4" to stiffen it all up as I plan to fit out quite a lot of stuff. Also had to add a couple of steps up from the outside door, these won't rob any floor space as I'll have work benches each side of the door.
The crap street wall art, won't be going on the wall, only grabbed it from work for the plywood sheeting :D
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530825789.jpg

I'm too old for cold tootsies so the floor has 6" of high performance thermal insulation boards between the joists
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530825917.jpg

The floor has 1/2" ply screwed on the lower side and the topside will have 2 layers of 1/2" ply screwed and glued with staggered joints. A bit overkill but as the finished flooring will be porcelain floor tiles I don't want any squeeks or cracked joints. Hole to the right will be a hatch to access the underfloor storage area
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530826065.jpg

View at the opposite end to the end with the :( stone face, shows the natural render finish and a concrete area for a heating oil tank and work shop air compressor
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530826481.jpg

This will be my last post about the shed for a while, even though it is unfinished I ran out of time and needed the space to empty all the crap out of my garage in preparation for it's demolition so I could start of the 2nd bigger part of my man cave build.

To secure the shed I knocked up and fitted some temporary plywood windows, making good use of my street art boards and recycled the garage side door.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1531091477.jpg

Now for the meaty part of my man cave build :D

Our house like many in our hood doesn't have concrete foundations like new house builds but is built right on the ground or most likely in our case on rock. The walls are 2ft thick so the load is spread over a big enough area we don't suffer from subsidence.

If we were to build on top of our garage building control would want use to underpin which is both costly and time consuming.

So we made the decision to demolish the garage, this required planning approval which was straight forward as we are not changing the foot print and reusing the stone but added a 6 week delay while our application went through the planning system.

A before picture, for scale the building is 26.5ft x 16.5ft or in new money 8m x 5m, note the outline of an original door, the road was lower and people smaller back then ;)
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1531093352.jpg

First job was to strip the roof tiles, didn't take Mrs Ahab and I long, I made up a shoot form old boards and a ladder. I ripped them off the roof and she stacked them around the yard to reuse on the new roof, took us a weekend of hard work to remove 4500 concrete tiles
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1531093065.jpg

As the garage is just built form stone and mud, same as our house, demolition was mostly by bare hands and the occasional hammer and chisel. This stage took a couple of part time weeks and full on weekends to get to this stage. Mrs. Ahab has to take most credit as I was sat in an AC'd office during the week ;)
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1531094056.jpg

Here is a good view of a section through the walls, outer and inner course of stone work with loose rubble in the middle, good enough for the last +200 years and would have been good for another 200 years
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1531094366.jpg

Next post will bring progress up to date.

What a spectacular piece of work.

Appreciate the historic and architectural learning.

Yeah, that's some real DIY demo you are doing there. Let's hear a cheer for Mrs Ahab, what a trouper!

Nice look at the original building. Stone and mud you say, amazing. Stone masonry clearly goes way back in that area. And still is being done very well. Those cut corner stone facia are great.

Sure hope those old beams can be reused, thems some cool old timbers.
Are you going to be reusing the old stone also?

Thanks for sharing your cool project with us.

Cheers Richard

Wow. For years I’ve might have misunderstood the term “man cave”. To date; maybe I’ve only experienced the “man-hole”. My friends places are crap!

This is an amazing project!

So enjoying your unbuild/build - thanks for sharing Cap'n!

My man cave build - UK edition
 

It is cool to see how it was built, and how well it is doing after 200 years. There is nothing in this area 200 years old except some trees. We have a couple of buildings from the late 1800s but not one from before 1860.
Those builders of your barn knew what they were doing and I bet not one computer was used to design it! [emoji6]

Cool project. Thanks for sharing.

So cool, please do keep up with the updates.

Haha - same here on the Left Coast. Oldest building we've got are usually the Missions, which were built in the last decade of 1700's - first decade of the 1800's. Not sure any of them have not fallen in earthquake here or there, but most have been preserved somewhat. I can't think of a single residential dwelling here that is 200 years old!

astrochex, pleased your learning, I've learnt a lot myself on PPOT forum so will keep the historic architectural stuff coming, this is so not what I do for a living so I'm enjoying learning too
tevake, my resume lists 'Extreme DIY' as one of my hobbies :cool: Mrs Ahab is my guardian angel http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat1.gif, year ago last weekend I was dead for 10 minutes, her first time CPR skills gave me a 2nd shot of living and I'm loving life!
Old beams will be used as fire wood, roof was only held up by the woodworms holding hands. Got plenty of old oak beam p0rn to show later. Most of the stone will be reused but I need to chop the width down.

daepp, will have some concrete p0rn for you soon, should have 425 cubic feet being delivered end of this week

onewhippedpup, thanks, will keep the updates coming as last week was my first week fulltime on the project. I quit my easy desk job designing race cars to be a self unemployed builder until my money runs out or I have the roof on, whichever comes first :D

GH85Carrera, thanks for reading,
Old is relative, when you guys were signing your deceleration of independence my house was probably being built, when Columbus discovered America my old family home was probably being built, there is a pub near my house which has been an inn since 947AD C.947AD - The Porch House and in the next village to me some dudes built a stone circle around 3800-3500BC The Rollright Stones

My poor truck took a bump when a bit of the garage wall fell on it, no real damage done, just has a little extra patina on one door ;)
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1531173982.jpg

Going, going, nearly gone, last dumpster or in the UK we call it a skip ready for collection (the thing parked to the right of my truck :D), that makes a total of 42 tons of wall infill/rubble taken down and moved by hand
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1531174310.jpg

Holy smokes - 425 yards is a huge pour. Please tell me you've got a pump lined up??

Per the Capt'ns post

That is just basically two 10 yard trucks.. I cant imagine a homeowner ordering 425 CY of concrete...On some of my jobs we do 1100 cy/day.. trucks coming a few mins apart all day long..

Looks like a satisfying build!

I was fascinated by the history in Northern England when I was there 25 years ago.

Spent everyday visiting pubs and the 2nd thing I would ask the barkeep was how old is this place.

pm sent, cheers, Guy

Great shot of the exterior wall. It always impresses me how older structures just keep going. Engineering docs? Bah, just add some stone and keep going! :)

I thought I uncovered some cool old bits during reno here, my house is from the 40's. Little did I know. Cool thread.