converting outbuilding into office

[pantsman]

I want to convert an outbuilding into an office and am quite experienced/ capable of DIY but am unsure on a few points.

1. As there is no dampproof course or cavity what membrane product do I use between wall and studs?

1. What do you do where the screws penetrate the membrane?

1. What fasteners do you use, stainless steel?
2. Floor is currently bricks and want to lay wooden floor, again what membrane do I use? It's uneven so not sure whether to lay battens with insulation inbetween or pour concrete and stud on top?

1. what thickness cellotex do I need for walls and floor?

1. How do I overlap wall membrane with floor membrane?

would appreciate any advice on these points, also I am gonna run a new Elec supply in from street any ideas on cost . thanks!

[Dave Liquorice]

As Harry says may well be easier to demolish and start again. The "change of use" will require planning permission anyway.

Very much depends on required trench length and who digs it. But don't expect much is any change from =A31000 as a rough ball park figure.

[Nightjar]

If you use Celotex to line the walls, none, as it does everything you need. You can download data / instruction sheets from the Celotex site:

2. What do you do where the screws penetrate the membrane?

I would use self-levelling compound over the bricks, then lay a damp proof membrane (DPM), which you can buy in large rolls. Then follow the Celotex instructions for floors.

Depends upon the insulation values you want. Again, the information is on the Celotex site.

Run the DPM up the walls far enough to be above the DPC in the walls, then fit the Celotex over the DPM.

Too many variables to give an accurate idea, but it won't be cheap.

Colin Bignell

[Harry Davis]

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Not necessarily. You won't necessarily need to involve building control either, if the floor area is smaller than 30 sq m, not even if you build from scratch.

Have a look here:

[Andy Burns]

[Nightjar]

the enjoyment of the dwellinghouse', which does not, strictly speaking, include use as an office. So, if he draws attention to what he is doing by knocking down an existing building and putting up a new one, or the use is such that it impacts on the neighbourhood, say by increased traffic, he may well need to get permission for change of use. Different areas have different approaches to offices at home.

In practice, a lot of people have an office at home without getting a change of use and with nobody being any the wiser. It is possible to submit a Certificate of Proposed Use or Development to discover whether the Local Authority considers the construction of an office in the garden as permitted development without going for full planning permission, although, if they say it is not, you are then more or less committed to going through with planning permission.

Colin Bignell

[David WE Roberts]

I think it used to hinge on if the sole use was for a business. We looked into the issue of home offices many years ago and at the time you could claim expenses for the heart, light, electricity, rates etc. but only if it was a business premises not domestic. Not worth the hassle and complication of having one room in the house reclassified..

So really the OP needs to tell us how big the current building is, what its previous (or current) use is, and if the future use is as a Home Office/Garden Room/Workshop or if it is intended to be a solely commercial premises. Also if it is in the curtilage of a domestic property, which would lend weight to it being a domestic outbuilding.

[Harry Davis]

Nightjar wrote in news: [e-mail]:

This is true.

Or just email them informally. I asked my local council whether if I built a building in my garden to house my personal library they'd consider the usage to be "incidental to enjoyment of the dwellinghouse", and they said yes, sure, no problem.

Harry

[Peter Johnson]

In the days when GPs worked from a surgery that part of their residence they would claim the expenses for it then get upset when they came to sell the property and had to pay capital gains tax on the surgery.