thought i ask you crazy guys as you may have considered the same...

im thinking of buying a new house, its a 3 storey 3 bed but its effectively a semi, and with it being built now, it has tiny rooms for the money...

so, im considering the building of a single storey room in the garden...

anyone know anything about planning permission?

anyone know anything about likely costs for the building?

could i just link power from the garage?

could i buy a prebuilt building and cement it in? would this get round plannin permission?

anyone know any builders?

cheers for any info guys

Mike

I think it depends on your local council but in Hampshire , if the building is less than 50 cubic metres you don't need permission. This probably means in practise that permission is automatic rather than you don't even have to tell themI was going to add an extension to my house and it was a single storey. This was going to cost somewhere between £12000 and £16000 with a builder doing it all.

[analogueaddict]

Hi Mike,

I was where you are today about 5 years ago. Delapidated garage on the brink off falling down, choice of housing the car in a nice new garage, or housing my expanding Hi Fi system in a nice soundproofed room? No contest really!

I cannot tell you about planning permission where you live, but as I already had a free standing structure in my garden which had been put in when the house was built, and the new structure was going to be within 10 % of all it's dimensions, and none of the neighbours had a problem with that, I had no problems.

You mentioned putting hte power in, well here's a tip. DON'T PATCH IT INTO THE GARAGE!!! Way bad idea! Now if I was doing what you're doing I'd take a look at where the power comes into the house. You will see a set of tails coming off the meter and to your distribution board. Now you want to take your power right off those tails. It really shouldn't go through the the circuit breakers on your panel for the rest of the house. What you do is run a monster of a power cable to your new room, put a totally dedicated panel in the room with MCB's in, and run a separate earth using a ground rod. Now what you have there is a very pure power supply and you'll avoid a huge amount of noise which travels on the mains supply. I did this from the outset and I'm glad I did. In the whole scheme of things it won't add to your costs too much and it will pay you back many times over in years to come. On the mains subject, take the number of plugs you think you'll need, double it and add 10%. the you should have enough. try to use MK none switched sockets, switches will degrade mains quality and you will hear it, not immediately, but over the years those switches will affect the sound.

In terms of building materials, use concrete block, not pre fabbed concrete, it really does sound awful and you'll make a rod for your own back with maintenance problems and sonic problems. If I were you I'd go with a solid floor, not a suspended one, as a solid one makes installing solid equipment tables and spiking speakers solidly to the floor that much easier. Suspended floors are notorious for causing problems with bass frequencise and transmitting vibrations to the equipment which then feeds back and --- makes a mess of the sound.

Finally keep the building looking as stealth as possible and fit extremely good locks, prefereable hooking into the house burglar alarm as well. We sadly don't live in a perfect world and there are those who have no respect for personal belongings.

I hope this helps. If there ias anything at all I can do to assist further please let me know.

Regards and best wishes,

Dave

[ReTrO]

I'll try to remmeber to find out who we use at wokr for supplying and fitting sound insulation boards etc.

It's a compnay based in High Wycombe, Bucks, but they will supply anwhere in the country.

Buzz me an email and i'll get some info sorted for you.

Last time I heard Dawson's in Bournemouth were doing some distribution for them down on the South coast.

[Tim Cooper]

Hi Mike,

With regards to planning permission/building regulations:

1,The building must be 5 meters from the main dwelling.
2,The building must not take up more than half of your garden.
3,The building must no higher than 10 feet with a flat roof or 12ft with a pitched roof.
4,The building CAN be built right up to your boundary if it is built from brick OR within 1 meter if built from other materials.
5,The building is used for domestic use only & not used as a dwelling.

I Told the council it was a games room & they wanted a basic sketch of the proposed building.

These are the guidelines set out by Basildon council in Essex but as far as i'm aware they are standard for most councils,the exceptions i think are for conservation areas or green belt.

My building cost approx 6k with all the first fixing (footings, bricks, blocks plaster roof etc) all done by myself except the brick laying plaster work & the felt flat roof.

The advantage i have over people who have their cinema's in their homes,is that i can have as LOUD as i want at ANY time it's the absolute dogs doo-dahs,if you get the chance go for it you won't regret it.

Contact me here or by email if you need advice blah blah.

Hope it helps

Tim

Thanks for all the advice and info guys, i had forgot to check this thread so apologies if i appeared ungrateful!

Situation has changed slightly, i currently live in a 3 bed semi alone since my other half moved out, i was going to buy a new house (get rid of memories, have more space for cinema etc), however, i decided id go back to my parents, they have a big 5 bedroom house so i shouldnt bump into them too much, i get home cooking and it enables me to buy a porsche :P

i digress (that how its spelt?), anyway, they currently have a sun lounge, it runs the length of the width of the lounge, so its about 22' x 8', the plan now is to dig the garden back and extend the exisiting wall out 4-5 feet, put up a new wall along the length and put a solid rough on, budget for this will be about 10-14k so i hope i have enough.

I think i can get round the planning permission as the room already exists

sounds complex i know, just hope it isnt too complex.

I have issues, such as the current sun lounge being almost all glass and the lounge joining it via a large glass area that runs the length of it, id change these for double glazed units (they just had the windows done so would use the same guy).

It would purely be an evening room

Thanks for all the info

Mike