June Update – Weeks 11-12

Two weeks of exceptionally good weather went largely unnoticed by David & Paul who were inside the whole time preparing the barn for the floor slab to be laid. This involved setting the soil pipes in concrete, inserting the grey-water drainage and the air-vent beneath the wood-burning stove location.

David also took delivery of 16 tonnes of hardcore forming the base of the floor slab followed by a 25mm layer of sand blinding. The most difficult stage was cutting and fitting the damp proof membrane (bright blue in the photo) which covers the whole floor and the bottom half of the walls.

We were joined on site at the weekend by David (brother) and Chris, and between us added another 3 courses of concrete blocks on the retaining wall- we are nearly there! A much deserved beer was had in front of the England game luckily being shown in the local pub.

June Update – Weeks 9-10

Finally we have finished the underpinning, thankfully we didn’t have to unpin the whole barn as the south gable wall has to be rebuilt and as part of that the wall will have proper foundations.

Work on the retaining wall has also progressed and we finally reached the opposite boundary line 24 meters away where we have laid blocks in a curve round the top corner of the barn. The wall will eventually reach a maximum height of 2.2m with double skin thickness along half the wall.


Now the underpinning is finished, attention can turn to laying the concrete floor so David hired a laser level to measure the floor to ceilings heights and hence the depth to prepare to.

May Update – Weeks 7-8

As David and Paul gradually excavated around the top end of the barn they came across an obstacle which got the better of them: a huge stump of a Horse Chestnut tree, having hacked at it with chin saws and the small digger they finally admitted defeat and called the heavies in. John, a local contractor with 30 years of digger experience, was brought in with his huge digger and had the stump out in 5 minutes! While he was on site he also levelled out the garden for us.

Another mile stone in the project was reached when the septic tank was installed and the trench dug for the soil pipe at the carefully calculated recommended fall, we really don’t want to have to deal with soil pipe blockages.

May Update - Weeks 5-6

Underpinning has been moving forward with earnest, it is a fairly slow job as each pin has to be excavated by hand as the digger may have dislodged the unsupported wall. A few pins are causing problems due to large boulders at the base of the walls dropping as the hole expands underneath.

Once the hole is dug and the wooden shuttering is in place on the front, the concrete is poured in and left to set overnight before a firm mix of concrete is used to fill the gap between the pin and the underneath of the wall.

On the fine days and as a break from the backbreaking underpinning, two more footings for the retaining wall were laid with steels in place. Our structural engineer, Clive Hudson, seemed very impressed on his inspection.



We also have some new arrivals, in the form of 4 blackbird chicks, nesting in the barn. Lets hope they have flown before work on the wall starts!

April Update - Weeks 3-4

Work on the retaining wall has started, the first concrete footing have been laid with steels in place tying the blocks to the foundations. Following a delivery of 500 concrete blocks two courses of the wall have been laid. Each block weighs 25kg and steels run through every block vertically and in long lengths horizontally between courses. The hollow blocks are then filled with concrete, setting the steels in place; we are building a wall here that will last for centuries!



My brother, David, kindly volunteered his services for a weekend and with his help the first section of the wall is now about 5 courses high.






Within the last week, David and Paul attempted their first few pins having lowered the inside ground level to approximately 750mm below the bottom of the walls.

April Update – Weeks 1-2


The first two weeks on site were hampered with appalling wet weather (unavoidable in Wales!) but never the less David took delivery of a small digger and dump truck and started excavating earth from around the top end of the barn. Being set on a hillside half of the top gable end is set into the hill so we are cutting into the slope revealing more of the barn and creating a level site around the whole building.



A large part of the initial ground works involves constructing a retaining wall to hold back the hillside and more importantly to channel surface water away into a storm drain.

David and Paul also removed all the internal stone walls and the hay loft and also lowered the ground level inside the barn by over a meter. One of my jobs was to carry the heaps of hay to outside, not a great job for a hay-fever sufferer!




One of the most important jobs in the first week was to dig a trench to get the spring water underground to site, so we now have water available on site.

April 2006

Finally David started on site, it almost felt like he was leaving to go to University again, packing up the car with boxes of ‘barn paperwork’, study books for his MBA course and bulk purchases of pasta, baked beans and Soreen!
We are very lucky to be able to employ the services of Paul, a very able carpenter with experience in ground works, site work and most importantly oak framing. He will be working with David full time on site.

March 2006

We finally completed on the purchase and ventured down again to see what we had let ourselves in for; luckily we both still felt a huge buzz of excitement when we saw it again. So we now own a heap of rubble with planning permission for a three bedroom home, but standing inside we could see the potential even on a dark and dismal day.


There are essentially 3 approaches to renovating an old building:
1. Find a project manager/contractor who will run the whole project from start to finish and will deliver a completed building. This is the most expensive route as the project manager typically charges 10-15% of the total project cost for his services and they have little incentive to keep your costs down.
2. Project manage the renovation yourself finding trades people to do work as required. This route has the disadvantage of being more stressful and may be slower than the first approach.
3. Do most of the work yourself; it is perfectly feasible to lay a concrete floor, install a septic tank or create a window opening if you know what you are doing. This will be much less costly but you could end up with a less than professional job.

We are probably adopting a combination of the last two approaches with David as he project manager being based on site throughout the project. We will try and do much of the labour intensive work ourselves and only employ trade people on jobs which require specific skills.

You may ask what I will be doing throughout the project; well apart from keeping an income coming in and lending a hand as a labourer at the weekends, I will be ensuring the conversion preserves some sense of the previous use a barn after it as been renovated. Not only is it difficult to look at the large empty and visualise how the space will be used but we also had to consider the style question: do we preserve the ‘centuries old’ feeling or adopt a modern interior which can be beautiful if carefully though out. Either way we wanted to endure as much of the original materials were re-used; the original oak roof trusses have aged beautifully and could make interesting wooden staircases/features. We also uncovered huge flag stones underneath the mountains of earth and hay which we hope to integrate within the build. Overall we hope to achieve a spacious peaceful interior that offers respite from the hectic chaotic outside world.

In the month prior to starting on site David researched construction methods, materials, equipment and fine tuning his very detailed Gant chart and budget. I spent the month trawling through magazines and reading books to achieve a clearer picture of how the finished space should look.

We calculated the whole project will take approximately 12 months to complete with September 2006 being the target for a wind and water-tight building.

The initial considerations for the conversion were structural stability, services and overall design.

Structural stability – being a barn, the walls are not built on foundation so in order to add a first floor, the barn would have to be underpinned, a tedious labour intensive job.

Services – the barn will be fed from a spring further up the hill which will be filtered on route to the tap. We are lucky to not be too far away from a source of electricity which will be routed underground to the barn. Mains gas is not an option in this location so the heating will rely on oil. We investigated the possibility of geothermal central heating which uses the subterranean heat from the earth to heat the property. The significant cost running cost is that of the electric pump which is need to raise the temperature, thus if the cost of electricity goes up, the whole system becomes expensive to run. We have chosen to adopt under floor heating based on an oil burning boiler which improves the energy efficiency of a building. Ideally we would like to make the barn as eco as possible so are investigating the use of solar panels and windmill electricity generation.

Design – We had a local architect recommended to us who has been very helpful in redesigning the internal layout of the barn. We are restricted to the window openings as set out in the approved planning application drawings unless we resubmit a revised scheme which can be a very lengthy uncertain process.

November 2005



After months of monitoring websites and pestering local estate agents we found this centuries old welsh stone 56’ x 20’ barn located just outside Llanwrtyd Wells, the smallest town in Britain. The barn is in an idyllic spot overlooking the Irfon Valley between the Cambrian Mountains and the Mynydd Epynt.

Background

Almost 2 years ago we both realised we were getting caught in the hectic South-East commuter bubble which doesn’t really contribute to a healthy lifestyle, so we decided to look for a rural retreat where we could indulge in all the outdoor activities we both love. David was also looking for a change in direction towards project management so a barn conversion offered the hands on experience and challenge he sought.

The hunt started and very soon we narrowed down the search to the Brecon Beacons and surrounding areas.