New music space - or 'A long list of compromises'

[blinddrew]

Yes on piles (@1m intervals), the floor is in four 1m wide strips that lock together. No crane involved, just a couple of burly guys and a flat-bed transit. I would have got some more photos but every time I took a break from my desk it didn't seem to be a good moment. Sods law and all that.

[dave.king1]

How many beers were involved in payment for humping that lot in

[blinddrew]

All I'm going to say is that we're currently within budget...

[McCreed]

I would have got some more photos but every time I took a break from my desk it didn't seem to be a good moment.

Ah, I see. So it's not a DIY thing. You have contractors doing the build?

[blinddrew]

God yes! The prep was enough for me. I've got a technical background and I'm ok with my hands but I'm no builder. It's basically a pre-fab unit.

[McCreed]

I did two in-home conversions for studios and it is a lot of work! (and that was hiring someone to frame the walls)

[blinddrew]

Yeah, my first approach was to look at a proper concrete base and a room-within-a-room approach. However the council put a kybosh on the concrete base which then scuppered using my builder friend to get something custom built at a reasonable price. As soon as I was dealing with an elevated base on piles I realised it was going to be a specialist job, and hence specialist builders.
But if you want a bit more of a description of what you see there...
The overall shape is 4.2m x 4.2m including a little 0.5m porch/step across the front. This gives me internal dimensions of 4m x 3.5m (before the acoustic boards) which keeps me within the permitted development regulations, means I don't need building regs approval and means it can be built close enough to the boundary.
There are four boards 1m wide that are 80mm thick polyurethane insulation with a couple of layers of steel plate. These lock together and are laid on a series of concrete piles on a 1m grid. (extra row at the front at a 0.5m spacing for the front wall). Each pile was about half a meter deep and the holes were about 30cm wide. They've got a kind of capstone resting on top of the concrete pour and they're levelled off by a series of thin 'slates' of varying thickness to make sure there's no gaps between the floor and the piles. The edges are then finished with steel wrapping strips that go around the sides. The porch bit on the front is obviously as less robust structure as that's not doing the same job. The boards currently resting on top will be the roof, rotate through 90 degrees... Again, steel backed polyurethane.

[McCreed]

Interesting stuff, and I can certainly appreciate avoiding the development application process. It would 2022 before the first shovel-full of dirt was dug!
Good on ya. Can't wait to see the walls & roof go up.

[blinddrew]

et voila
Main build day 1:

Panels coming in


Bolt together


Walls!


Doors going in


Roof!


Cladding and step


End of build day 1

[PJSprog]

Wow! Now, that's some seriously quick building.