Extending my garage

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leew2

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13 Dec 2008
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Location
Lincolnshire
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United Kingdom
Having outgrown my existing garage I am building an extension for it. I've been thinking about doing this for several years but have only now taken the plunge and started building.
As the combined floor area of the existing garage and the extension is about 42m^2 which is over 30m^2 I am having to build it to building regs. A few weeks ago I applied for something called a building notice, this is one of two ways to get building regs approval, the other way is by doing a 'full plans' submission which is usually used for larger projects while the building notice can be used for small simple projects such as extensions.

The first major job was to clear the site, I dismantled an old wooden shed and removed the slabs it was sat on, we then had to remove a pear tree. For this I first cut off all the branches before digging around the trunk, cutting as many roots as possible and then yanking it out.
[GALLERY=media, 26906][/GALLERY]

Next job was to dig the footings, The building inspector insisted I dig to 4 feet deep (the existing garage was about 18" and had not moved in 80 years) so to make things a bit quicker and easier getting though the very hard clay sub soil I hired a Takeuchi TB016 digger from a local plant hire firm which was £300 for 4 days hire. I had always wanted a play with a digger since I was a little kid and now was my chance to do so. It was delivered on a trailer and the guy delivering it gave me a demonstration of how to operate it, I had done some prior research on operating a digger thus had a good idea of what the various controls did. It took me about an hour or so to get used to using it.
[GALLERY=media, 26907][/GALLERY] [GALLERY=media, 26908][/GALLERY]
I also hired a Thwates skip loader to take the spoil to the skips in the street of which I filled 4 6 yard skips with spoil.
Once dug the building inspector had to see my hole before I then filled the trenches with 6 cubic meters of readymix

[GALLERY=media, 26909][/GALLERY] [GALLERY=media, 26910][/GALLERY]
 
Any updates. I'm hoping to do the same thing myself.

btw, where in Lincolnshire are you. I'm in Grimsby.

thanks
Paul.
 
Yep, I've done some more building and am now getting close to finishing. Due to severe weather in December very little building took place for about 6 weeks before the weather was suitable to resume.

Anyway after filling the trench fill footings I laid 6 courses of Class B engineering bricks and 2 courses of breeze blocks on the inner leaf. To make the job easier I bought a 'bricky tool', a plastic tray which you place on top of the wall to lay a nice even mortar bed, well worth the £35 or so it cost. It also came with a template to help butter the ends of the bricks but I found it easier to just butter the bricks manually without the template.

[GALLERY=media, 31554][/GALLERY]

Once I had built up the walls to DPC level I ordered 8 tonnes (!!) of MOT hardcore which I then had to barrow around by hand and tip into the space between the walls, I spread it out into 3 layers about 50mm thick for a total thickness of 150mm, I compacted each later with a whacker plate from S&H plant hire (same place as I got the digger from). After the hardcore I placed a 20mm thick layer of sand blinding and then laid a DPM.

Next I ordered 4 M^3 of readymix floor concrete. I hired the thwaites 1 tonne dumper from S&H again to aid in placing the concrete. to make sure the concrete was level I cut a plank to just fit between the walls and then nailed extra pieces of wood to the ends so that with it sat accross the walls the bottom of the plank was at the finished floor level. As my dad drove the dumper and poured the concrete myself with a few mates grafted in spread it out and tamped it level with the board, afterwards I finished it with a float trowel, working from a plank placed between the walls which has given a resonably level (but not perfect, there is about 10mm veration, but good enough for a garage floor).

[GALLERY=media, 31555][/GALLERY]
 
Nice work, thanks for the updates. I have just had a letter from the council saying i need to apply for planning permission, as its over 2.5m in height next to a boundary wall. Its nearly identical to yours.

Do you have an estimate of final cost. I was quoted 5.5k to add 3m to the end of the garage.
 
I am building it with a flat roof in order to be under 2.5m thus planning permission is not required. I confirmed this at a meeting with the council. I've not yet calculated the final cost but I would estimate about £6.5k total for the materials, skip hire and plant hire for the 4.6x6.5m extension. Bear in mind that this is built to quite a high specification with an insulated cavity wall, 120cm thick floor, and a GRP flat roof which should last for 30+ years, a basic garage will be single skin thus cheaper.
 
leew2 said:
I am building it with a flat roof in order to be under 2.5m thus planning permission is not required. I confirmed this at a meeting with the council. I've not yet calculated the final cost but I would estimate about £6.5k total for the materials, skip hire and plant hire for the 4.6x6.5m extension. Bear in mind that this is built to quite a high specification with an insulated cavity wall, 120cm thick floor, and a GRP flat roof which should last for 30+ years, a basic garage will be single skin thus cheaper.
Click to expand...

At 4.6 x 6.5 thats quite an extension. What do you intend to use it for.
 
Mostly for welding and also some composites work which is why I am using a cavity wall with CWI as I will need to heat it and maintain it at 20c or higher for optimal curing of resins.
 
Today I made a start on installing a lintel between the existing and the extension. First I made 3 holes in the wall to accomodate 3 needles which I then supported in place with 6 acrows.
[GALLERY=media, 31847][/GALLERY]

Once the acrows were firmly in place, I broke out a slot to accomodate a catnic type lintel.
[GALLERY=media, 31848][/GALLERY]

I have set the lintel in place but did not have time to properly brick it in which I will be finishing off tommorrow.
 
It really annoys me when building control acts like this and dont use common sense when viewing. Did he bother to look at the ground conditions? Were there trees present?
If it was for suitable ground bearing conditions you could get him to witness a CBR test. A Clegg hammer is easy to use cant remember how much to hire but would be cheaper than a excavator and dumper I would imagine.
 
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