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How It All Started

"It was getting dark and he was bored.

The newspaper laid on the edge of a leather chair, slightly crumpled where the previous reader had thumbed through the pages. A Sunday afternoon and bored. He gathered up the newspaper and realigned the pages so he could start reading anything he may have missed the first time.

The property section was always an area of interest, gazing at the homes of others, concentrating on the adverts showing pictures of the inside of kitchens and bedrooms. Advertised in the top corner of page 31 was an opportunity to convert a building, well a barn actually, most people like to think of the old buildings as barns. He thought about the picture, a derelict looking old building probably from the early nineteenth century.

He wondered how he could convert it, what would it look like and how hard could it be?

The television was full of programs showing magnificent building projects, their challenges and pitfalls. He stood from a matching leather chair, folded the well used paper and laid it on the floor. That was nearly three years ago as he typed the first chapter of 'The Barn Project'".

That person was me, Richard Penny and both my wife, Sarah and I would like to offer our experiences and advice within this guide for you. We will cover the products we used as well as situations that, when looking back, we may have handled differently.

Introduction

The picture of the barn was carefully cut from the used newspaper and shortly afterwards, we arranged for a viewing with the agent. Trying to visualise a derelict building as your home required some out of the box thinking.

We were used to a modern home and the surroundings it had to offer; the carpets, white painted doors, flat ceilings and painted mdf. The barn would have to be different, we thought, very different.

What would it cost?

Would it be worth it?

Although very difficult to estimate all costs, systematically we tried to visualise the entire build speeded up over a few minutes, writing down everything that popped into our heads, starting at creating the footings and finishing at painting the walls.

Homework was needed to establish how many and how much of everything was needed. Although we were able to claim any VAT we spent back, and this in itself was a separate area that we needed to look at, we decided not to take this into consideration. We also added a further 10% for a contingency fund as you will always forget something. In our case, the

scaffolding, all of it! A cost we could not get around.

Whilst running PENNYS of Wetherby, we decided to embark on the project wearing numerous hats including project manager, quantity surveyor, labourer and many more.

Naivety about the whole building process was, looking back on the build, a blessing in disguise.

The barn was purchased in March 2007 and the initial consensus was to clear the site of rubble, debris and other materials we did not need.

We approached the build with the opinion of, why pay someone to work when we can carry it out ourselves? Through experience, this was not always the case. Who else would hire a digger at £250 per day without a qualified driver?

It was toys for the boys, sitting in the large yellow machine faced with various levers, switches, dials and pedals, having no idea of

their purpose or function.

The learning process was high, it had to be. With a clear canvas to work from, we were ready to start.

The barn was purchased with planning permission and a set of rough drawings showing the footprint and internal layout.

There were no real planning restrictions; it wasn't't in a conservation area although any materials we used had to be in keeping or similar to that previously used. Items such as bricks, roof tiles and windows would need to be passed by the local council.

We had no architect, structural engineer, or surveyor and had little experience in the building trade.

We needed some professional help to get the ball rolling and we found a local architect who was willing to provide us some detailed drawings.

These were needed for building control, detailing items such as installation, footings and U-values and a set of working drawings showing dimensions, roof sections and more detailed work for the trades we may sub contract.

The barn would be approximately twenty meters long and nearly six metres wide, with an additional wheelhouse and small out building.

We decided on our internal layout by considering which rooms would be used most, the distance between them and direction of any sunlight. We had no long term plans for the build but took into account the design for any possible buyer in the future.

We decided on three double bedrooms upstairs two with en-suite facilities and downstairs encompassed a large hallway/dining area, huge family kitchen, lounge, conservatory, downstairs toilet and study. The study could also be separated as an annexe with its own en-suite as well.

The original plans showed four bedrooms upstairs but sacrificed the double height opening the entrance hall needed. The revised plans show our initial layout, but as the build developed, the internal walls changed as it's very difficult to visualise dimensions on paper.

Other changes included the relocation of the triple garage. Its original position would have spoilt our south facing views and so it was positioned against the west facing boundary.

We had heard nightmare stories regarding planning and various constraints applied to materials and other items but our experiences were the opposite. Although we had only had the barn for a few weeks, the need to organise your space and time became very apparent.

You need to have a clear understanding of the tasks ahead. Our thoughts were to ask advice where needed and try to learn as much as we could. If the job was not cost effective, too challenging or it needs professional qualifications, we left it to the experts.

The Clear Up

We had to dig the floor to a depth where a replacement layer of hardcore and concrete would create a raft like structure at the required
height for the two storey build. We were not allowed to increase the height of the original build and it proved difficult, at the time, to learn about wall plates, depths of floor, the amount of insulation required and other dimensions to allow us sufficient headroom on both levels.

With the levels calculated, the whole team, well, Sarah and I, got to work. The barn contained some old wooden boxes, a rotten staircase and several old tractor parts completely beyond use. The barn was actually home to dozens of pigeons and its plain to say, it felt like grime busters from the television. We decided to hire a small mini digger and dumper to speed the process up. Now feeling like 'proper' builders we progressed with the build quickly stripping the inside to create a bare shell from which to work. It was towards the end of March 2007 and the weather was average for the time of year. We seemed to progress well as a team, myself controlling the new toy and Sarah struggling with the rear wheel steering of the dumper.

Suddenly, above the noise of the engines, Sarah shouted "Snake, I've found a snake!". Being the typical man, I thought she may have stumbled across a larger than average worm and decided to investigate. Sarah seemed serious, so now armed with pick axe and a rescued dustbin lid, progressed slowly towards the creature. Sure enough, a small snake laid there tasting the air with its forked tongue. I changed what seemed slightly exaggerated weapons to a spade and clean container. We guided the snake carefully into its temporary home and later had it identified as a common grass snake by a local pet shop. They kept it in for observation and would release it later when the weather got better.

Whilst clearing the barn, we unearthed some clay floor bricks and these were put to one side to be reused later on. It had taken just over two weeks to fully clear the barn, remove the subsoil and create a cavern like opening ready for the concrete slab. The amount of work needed to clear the inside of the barn was more than we expected. For a team of labours, no problem, but Sarah and I, well, me really, wanted to look back and say, we did this!

We knew the earth floor had to be removed but were unsure how or what to replace it with. We enlisted the help of a structural engineer. He was on hand to provide advice on the sub floor, its design and makeup, any timber beams we wanted to introduce and the roof structure in its entirety. We were advised to dig a couple of trial holes near the base of the building to establish if there were any footings. From this information we could decide whether underpinning was necessary and the condition of the ground beneath. We found approximately 800 mm of footings or existing brickwork continuing below the ground and this was sufficient not to underpin, a costly exercise we didn't really want.

It was the Saturday night of Easter 2007 when we received a call from York's Fire Brigade. We were fortunate to live only seven miles away but the time it took to reach the barn seemed to take forever. We had been told 'your barn has collapsed and it needs attention now!" We had no idea as to the extent of the damage or how much, if any, of the barn remained. We arrived at the barn entrance to blue flashing lights and 'do not cross' blue tape used at police incidents.

Also present were the council, as a bridle way ran alongside the drive and firemen using thermal imaging equipment to search for possible bodies under the rubble. Nobody knew if children had been on site and the gable end looked very unsteady.

Two weeks of work destroyed in a few seconds.

It was established that the collapse was due to some rotten timber at the end of the tie beams on two of the trusses. This timber was resting on the wall plate and in turn supported the roof. When this gave way, the downward momentum of the falling roof fell upon the south facing wall, pushing it to the ground. Looking optimistically, only half of the barn had collapsed. No roof, although we would have had to replace this anyway, no walls and everything to remove again.

The Build

The walls would have to be rebuilt and as the barn was built using a rare 2" handmade reclaim brick, the decision was made to integrate a new, but old looking, brick we had previously designed and had manufactured especially for PENNYS.

Bricklaying was one of those trades that are made to look easy but isn't. We employed John, a local bricky and I laboured alongside him. The brick match was good and coupled with using a lime based mortar the result would be more than acceptable. The walls were gradually rebuilt and window openings positioned accordingly.

The same bricks had to be used on the 'wheelhouse' as this section of the building contained no footings and a complete rebuild was necessary.

The 'wheelhouse' was to become the kitchen; a single storey with vaulted ceiling. Having now mastered using the mini digger, I calculated the footprint of the eight sided kitchen and dug the footings after a very amenable and friendly conversation with our local building inspector.

After ordering the sand, lime, cement, insulation, blocks and our very own 2" handmade bricks, we started the building aspect of this conversion. Two months had passed and it seemed that we hadn't got anywhere. As we were at the barn most days, we just didn't see the progress we had made.

The month of April had seen some transformation with the barn. After the collapse, we re-cleaned the site and installed the internal drainage. The pipes were laid to accommodate 3 upstairs toilets (2 en-suite) and the downstairs cloakroom off the main hallway.

These were laid at an incline of 1:40 to ensure all waste water ran into the inspection chamber located outside. This was a long job as we had to core drill 4 holes through 350mm of brickwork and due to the angle of the hole and its location, the four holes took over 5 hours to complete. A 1200 gauge (300 micro) damp proof membrane or visqueen barrier was laid over the now sandy floor and was seated into the deepened trench around the perimeter of the barn for the inner skin of blockwork.

Looking back at the first picture we took, we could see the progress and were ahead of schedule and actually under budget. The blockwork was started, together with internal exposed brickwork we intended to have in various areas around the barn.

After raking in help from two of our staff and our trusted bricky John, we ordered 22 cubic meters of C35 concrete. All of which had to be laid in one afternoon! Having never done this before, the learning curve was steep but worth it. With wheelbarrows at the ready and a good system in place, the concrete flowed and made a tremendous difference to the whole feel of the barn.

It was June 2007 and it had got to the 'are we getting anywhere' stage. It was true to say that all the hard work in preparing the ground, footings and drains were not appreciated as most of this was now covered.

By October and although on budget, the project had slowed significantly due to bad weather and other business commitments. As previously mentioned, the forgotten cost for scaffolding raised its head when John asked if we still wanted a 2 storey building. At this stage we also needed to think about the roof and structural oak beams.

The Roof

The barn required exposed oak beams and roof trusses. Although the building was not an oak frame, the central galleried landing and ground floor internal walls were to have a variety of air dried oak beams.

These would create a variety of interesting features and where necessary would be supporting the first floor and roof. The aim was to eliminate the use of RSJs and calculations were made to ensure the size of oak beams used were up to the job. Within the barn were nine full king post trusses covering four different roof levels and span widths from 3m to 8m.

A further five large oak timbers were strategically placed to hold the first floor and smaller upright beams creating doorways and dividing walls. The timber used was air dried oak and as the name suggests, had been air drying for a number of years to mature the oak allowing the large amount of moisture within the beams to dry. Any further shrinkage would then be kept to a minimum when placed within a heated building.

Although air dried oak is harder to work, we hand crafted the trusses and timber beams at our workshop in Wetherby and delivered these using a local haulier.
The oak timbers were installed using a hired digger and me shouting words of wisdom through the driving rain to my inexperienced wife trying to learn the mass of controls in front of her. Using slings and chains, the oaks were eventually located on keystones and levelled throughout, not easy when you're trying to manipulate five meter beams through a three meter wide opening!

The build continued upwards and now fully scaffolded throughout, our attention was on the five main oak king post trusses for the main section of the barn but there comes a time in every build where all the planning in the world can be upturned in a very small space of time.

It was late on in the year and it was time to remove the old tiles and roof timbers. Sat on the roof, we decided these were not worth salvaging and the easiest way to get them to ground level was to throw them straight down. To paint a picture, all block work was already laid and the soil pipes were upright like small chimneys.

Some tiles would break when removing them and caused small pieces to remain behind. I picked up a small irregular piece of tile and casually tossed it in the air to follow the path of hundreds of previous tiles I had thrown before. It proceeded to fall short of its destination and landed on the top rim of a soil pipe over 6 metres in height. The tile then ricocheted its way down the inside of the pipe landing at the bottom of a 90 degree bend and under 450mm of solid concrete. This was impossible to remove and the entire internal soil pipe structure had to be rerouted!

RSJ Covers or canoes as we like to call them are used for those areas where you need to disguise rerouted soil pipes caused by a broken tile or other unsightly items for example, RSJ's. We were able to manufacture some to match the already installed beams as the timber and character are the same. We made a two sided one to position where the ceiling met the wall and a three sided cover to house a soil pipe running vertically against an internal wall

Finally, a new roof was fitted using a mixture of weathered clay pantiles on the main barn and office areas and a contrasting blue slate on the kitchen and conservatory. The mix was in keeping with the original building. Matching ridge tiles were used and a clever invisible join was used for the hips on the kitchen roof. With a roof now on, this gave us a shelter within which we could plan the internal part of the barn project.

Alongside the build we had permission to build a detached triple garage situated at right angles to the build. Some authentic reclaimed bricks were used for this and made an ideal storage area for materials to be used later.

Nothing can really prepare you for the unexpected.

A family of swallows decided to roost on the top of one our new trusses in the landing. It was interesting seeing them build their new home within ours.

Doors & Windows

The windows were manufactured using kiln dried European oak and were delivered unfinished and unglazed. The glazing units were provided separately.

The aim was to fume the windows, a process to naturally darken the timber, coat the windows with 3 coats of ultra violet (UV) oil so that the natural beauty of the wood stayed visible and then glaze them prior to installing.

We had a total of thirteen windows and five doors and there comes a time when initial enthusiasm soon fades and oiling the windows was a chore. Another piece of advice would be to offset your time against cost and have any windows pre-oiled or lacquered and glazed prior to delivery.The window openings were created as the build went up using softwood templates. These templates were removed and measured for the window sizes. We were using handmade bricks and the dimensions we took for the window openings varied slightly. To cut a long story short, we would have definitely had the windows to hand as the build progressed.

The installation of windows provided both a secure building and impressive transformation. Our new windows were now oiled and protected from the elements. Not! We were familiar with different finishing products and talked at length to several manufacturers about the durability and quality of their products.

So far we have tried three of the best and nothing seems to work. The barn faces due south and unless a high level of regular maintenance was kept up with, the oil seemed to deteriorate and the natural oak colour would 'grey off'.

We are currently sat on the fence between letting the timber naturally weather, turn grey and create its own character, knowing they won't rot for many years and painting them with a high micro porous neutral coloured paint.

The beauty of the oak would still remain inside but we are not sure at this stage on the exterior. Our internal oak doors are a mix of ledged and braced doors and a deluxe double sided 50mm thick planked door.

Thinking back, there are many things we would consider doing differently. As we only lived a few miles away, the decision not to hire a storage container for tools, cement and other items and the absence
of a toilet may not have been the best idea at the time. Another piece of advice would be to hardcore a standing area for deliveries and materials to be stored.

When the insulation was delivered, the driver had access to a "moffett mounty", a detachable forklift on the back of his vehicle, and said he could travel across the bog laden driveway to the garages. After an hour, I decided to rescue the driver by bringing in help from the local farmer. I raced down the road to the farm to ask for help, only to be met by the farmer finishing delivering a calf!

Help arrived and both forklift and driver were left unhurt, unlike the driver of our breeze blocks who managed to snap the pivot point on the rear of his artic vehicle causing the blocks, his crane and himself sprawled on the roadside!

As the barn had vaulted ceilings both on the ground and first floor, the decision was made to have under floor heating downstairs and conventional radiators upstairs. The barn was open plan and the added advantage of no radiators was appealing. The system was to be run on oil as the village had no mains gas and this in turn would heat the 500 linear metres of water pipes downstairs.

We understood that different floor coverings would allow different heat transfers and therefore all natural materials would be used.

Insulation

Insulating the barn was a technical nightmare deciding on Kingspan or Tri-Iso, the difference in price against the time to install. All advantages and disadvantages were calculated and we decided to work with Kingspan. Their brochure says "Cutting should be carried out either by using a fine toothed saw, or by scoring with a sharp knife, snapping the board over a straight edge and then cutting the facing on the other side". Believe me, the saw works better.

We bought hundreds of square meters of Kingspan; more than the total area of bricks and roof tiles combined! We had 50mm in the walls, 100mm in the ceilings and 70mm in the floors. The floors and walls were easier to install as there was little cutting involved. The vaulted ceilings were both awkward and difficult. The aim was to insulate between the common rafters, the diagonal pieces of timber the roofing battens are nailed to, with a neat, snug fit.

The rafters were set at 400mm centres cutting the Kingspan exactly was frustrating. As the fit was made from the underneath, if the board was cut too wide the board would not fit, too little and it would fall out.

More words of wisdom were muffled by the mask you had to use due to the dust this produced and looking rather silly in swimming goggles, the perfect aid to stop small debris pieces landing in your eyes.

Under Floor Heating (UFH)

In the kitchen we had large format, 900mm by 600mm, tumbled marble flags and to compliment these in the hallway, aged black sandstone nicely calibrated to 20mm in
thickness.

In the conservatory we were undecided but in the office and lounge, we used our Colonial engineered oak floor to add a touch of quality to the barn.

.

All these materials would work well with UFH and these materials were ordered well in advance to being needed.

To date, we were working from a concrete

sub-floor some 180mm below the finished

floor level (FFL).

The professionals were brought in and a team of 6 proceeded to install the insulation, tape down a visqueen barrier, lay and clip all the pipe work and pump over ten cubic metres of Lafarge Gyvlon Calcium Sulphate floor screed to a smooth finish.

The process took two days and transformed the barn completely. We left the floor to cure for seven days and then slowly turned on the UFH at a low temperature. Gradually the screed dried showing the x-ray like appearance of the pipes as these dried first.

Although more expensive than a sand and cement mix, the product provided a perfect smooth finish with no cracking and completed in a fraction of the time.

First Fix

Sarah and I erected the stud walls upstairs as both plumber and electrician battled for supremacy over which joist to apply their pipes and wires.

With the stud walls up, the added trade of the plasterers was introduced. Some more advice, ensure all components are right before plastering.

I made the 'man' decision to self install a multi room audio/visual system. Again, toys for the boys, big telly, xbox 360, sub woofers and high definition.

Stepping over the electrician, I routed half a mile of cables through the first floor joists to different points throughout the barn to accommodate speakers, keypads and other goodies yet to arrive from the suppliers.

Bathrooms

With a weather proof building now complete, the first fix of plumbing and electrics could take place. So many decisions. How many sockets? What taps are you having? Where do you want them? And the dreaded question, are you sure?

Homework, homework, homework! Decide on your layouts of switches, sockets and taps. Should you get

a good plumber and/or electrician, hang on to them. They can give advice but remember it is your home and it will be, as in our case, wishing the taps were positioned a little to the right because of the door of the shower tray.

Our barn is long, nearly a hundred feet and together with no loft space, due to each bedroom having a vaulted ceiling, this caused a problem with the hot water. We had no header tank and so a pressurised hot water system was introduced located in the centrally positioned downstairs toilet.

Although we would be heating the water within the pipe from the tank to the taps, the beauty of been able to count to 4 and step into a hot shower and not waiting an eternity for hot water to emerge from a tap is great!

Staircase

The staircase was built by Oak By Design and was not as easy as it first seemed, in fact the whole process was quite difficult.

This was a very time consuming exercise and although we saved some money, the calculations, manufacturing and installation were a logistical nightmare. I remember someone asking 'where are the matches' and 'we could always use the chainsaw!"

Its nice to create your own staircase in the materials you know best and as we have stated all along, the learning process was high.

The design changed several times because of the landing layout and floor levels and you need to get this right as it was the main focal point in the entrance.

Kitchen

The old wheelhouse now created the gathering point of most homes; the kitchen. With nearly sixty square meters to fill, the centre piece would be a large hand painted centre-island completed with a fumed, two inch thick, character oak top. One half was to have a traditional oak carcasses and door fronts, granite worktops and range cooker. The other half would accommodate a matching oak table and chairs for our everyday dining.

After receiving quotations that exceeded our telephone number, the challenge was on to find a like for like kitchen for a reduced cost. Calls were made to manufacturers and importers to ascertain prices and quality if we sourced direct.

We eventually located suppliers for the worktops, carcasses, door fronts, appliances and installers and although coordinating everyone was sometimes difficult, the saving of over £15,000 was worth the effort!

The ceiling of the barn is a talking point with a staggering amount of oak creating an umbrella like structure from underneath. Some more oak was needed to offset the kingpost truss in the centre of the kitchen and an ingenious plan was to create a cosmetic truss on the wall above the range cooker. A three sided oak cover would create the tie beam and in turn would cleverly disguise the extraction system that we had to route horizontally to an outside wall over four meters away. A built in dishwasher and fridge freezer were added and granite worktops called Labrador Antique completed the picture.

Wicker baskets for additional storage.

On the cooker run, we have a matching pair of wicker baskets on the right and an oak wine on the left.

The centre island with pan drawers and LED lights.

The blue matches the blue in the granite worktops. The centre island is painted with an oak top, this was to apply a contrast to the rest of the kitchen.

The sink run with built in dishwasher

The sink run encorporates a double belfast sink, Franke taps and built it dishwasher. The far side of this run has a fridge freezer creating thefamous triangle needed for a working kitchen.

Close up of the granite worktops.

With so many colours of granite to choose, we decided on a complimentary colour to the oak with hints of brown and tans. In the light, this granite, Labrador Antique, has sparkles of light blue flecks.

Lattice doors either side of the extraction unit

We thought a nice feature would be to create some texture in the kitchen by introducing 2 pairs of lattice oak doors.

One view of the kitchen.

This pictures shows a centre island PENNYS manufactured. It has a profiled top and measures 3000mm x 1500mm by 50mm.

The units are hand painted to offset the oak and granite worktops in the rest of the kitchen.

Flooring Materials

We used a mix of natural materials compatible with under-floor heating (UFH). The engineered oak floors were laid towards the end of the build as we wanted to ensure all 'wet' trades had been completed.

We understood that all our timber products could react with moisture and therefore some acclimatisation was needed.

Pictured here we have a brushed and fumed oak floor in both lounge and study and a very hard to find calibrated and tumbled black sandstone flag.

If you have any questions or wish to source this material, please don't hesitate to ask.

Whats Left To Do?

Here are some artisic pictures showing the before and after of the barn project. We moved in to the barn in September 2009 as we had agreed a let on our current property earlier on in the year. Time creeps up on you and the move happened whether we were ready or not.

The barn needs personalising with pictures and other possessions and the homely feel still needs to be finalised. We are still getting used to the space, high ceilings and natural materials and items still need finishing.

Don't get me wrong, we're not living in a caravan; we have a great kitchen, relaxing lounge and character bedrooms. We have some doors yet to hang, skirting board to attach and still a decision is to be made on the conservatory floor.

Some of the speakers that arrived for the multiple room audio experience are still in boxes and the garden resembles some uninhabitable place in the middle of Papua New Guinea.

Whilst balancing time between the business and the barn, we aim to slowly finish the internal parts over the coming months.

Would We Do It Again?

This question can only be answered when all the experiences you have gathered over the years are looked at with both a critical and business eye. There are always areas of a build that could have been completed quicker, better or differently. Times when you shout obscenities at inanimate objects because its late, dark or you're getting cold. Sometimes all three! There are times when the apparent simplicity of a job can be hindered by small minor irritations.

An example would be attempting to lay the felt for the roof. A simple matter of unrolling the felt and nailing roofing battens onto the felt into the rafter below. A less windy day would have been a good idea, tackling the now sail like material and using every available limb we had to hold it in place.

If you're not a decision maker, maybe a self build is not for you. You will make hundreds if not thousands of decisions over a building project, some good and some bad. It's a learning curve for those not experienced in the building trade, but looking back, the best advice we could give is, be prepared, think ahead and forward plan as much as you can.

Concentrate on what you are good at or enjoy. You may be a good organiser of people, excel in calculating quantities or have a trade you can bring to the build. Certain tasks can boost your enthusiasm as you create an immediate effect whilst some tasks are mundane and seem never ending.

On the whole, the build had been frustrating, enjoyable and fulfilling. This was a big project, bigger than we anticipated. Fortunately, anything else we may tackle in the future should be easier and the experience gained has been second to none. As long as you are prepared to dedicate all your attention on such a project, we would highly recommend starting your own self build.

Building your own home, organising the trades and calculating costs was, looking back a worthwhile experience, one that we would do again, although differently. We don't regret the build although there were times when relationships were stretched and tempers were frayed.

Would we do it again? Yes, in a heartbeat. You will remember the good things as the bad simply fade away. If you get the opportunity, take it, you won't regret it.