Converting old stone building to house

Icelandicseige

Hi folks,
We are toying with idea of converting an old stone building to a one bedroom studio.

The walls are 2ft thick and seemingly In good enough order. the roof is old galvanised sheets and with old timber. Basically would need a new roof to make it habitable i feel.
Would be easy enough to get water and electricity as regards sewage could you hook up to an existing septic tank? Has anyone done a job like this before that can give details and show pictures? Pros and cons? Thanks.

The part time boy

Do u have water and power near by . If so how near

_Brian

I know someone who converted the stone barn at their parents house into similar. For roof he used Bangor slates, haven't been in it but I've been told it's a great job.
Used existing septic tank as parents house, power comes from their house too.

Actually now he has gotten married, family and taken over the farm his parents moved out to the converted barn and he renovated the home house, I've been in that and he did a stunning job, just stunning.

Who2

Your basically left with the walls. They will more than likely need pointing and new heads over the windows and doors . They are a pure tramp to damp proof and insulate properly. Financially they will cost more as the walls are one of the cheaper aspects of a house but if it's for the feel of it then go for it, but don't underestimate the extra costs with working on such a project.

Panjandrums

This post has been deleted.

TalkingBull

Icelandicseige wrote: »

Hi folks,
We are toying with idea of converting an old stone building to a one bedroom studio.

The walls are 2ft thick and seemingly In good enough order. the roof is old galvanised sheets and with old timber. Basically would need a new roof to make it habitable i feel.
Would be easy enough to get water and electricity as regards sewage could you hook up to an existing septic tank? Has anyone done a job like this before that can give details and show pictures? Pros and cons? Thanks.

sounds like a pure money trap
knock it and build a modern well insulated studio/home

Justjens

Converted a stableyard in the 90's.

Drylined by building a 4" block wall inside with insulation, concrete ring beam to hold it all together. As it's two stories used an RSJ under the ridge as the collar ties would be too high to hold the roof up, and I didn't want dirty big purlins half way up the ceilings.

Salvaged slates off other buildings for the front, begged, borrowed and stole 24x12 Kilaloe slates for the back.

Took about 10 years......:eek:

Have loads of old fashioned photos of the work in progress, this is what part of it looks like now:

Grueller

That character cannot be re created. Well done justjens. Lovely job.

kk.man

Grueller wrote: »

That character cannot be re created. Well done justjens. Lovely job.

+1

i know u know

I am currently converting an old stone barn and cottage. Its no easy task. Its a labour of love and you'll need a lot of patients. I hired a local man to help me with the renovations he was fantastic at his job.

Had to strip off old tin roof so it just left me with the exterior walls as I knocked down all interior walls so I could start from scratch. We roofed it and chizzled of nearly a foot deep of plaster to reveal the original stone work which I repointed. Knocked out gaps in the walls and fitted triple glazed windows on the back. And teak windows to the front. New front and back doors put in. Gap had to be knocked out for back door. I had to take out the foundation and put in a new one as there was rising damp and I barrowed in the stone layed dpc and insulation and got a company in that pumps in concerte they used laser levels it pumps it evenly on the floor it was like a big hose pipe. I fitted velux to the roof to convert an upstairs and I have the upstairs floor down, but not the finished floor. Have just started putting up the lats for drylining.I have water and electric connected to the out houses but it can be connected to my conversion. I reroofed all outhouses and am in the middle of repointing their stone. I have to put in a septic tank.

TopTec

i know u know wrote: »

I am currently converting an old stone barn and cottage.

Pics?

TT

Gravelly

A neighbour of mine did this with an old cattle shed - converted it into a one bed house for his mother. He injected a chemical damp course, and put in underfloor heating. The engineer told him the walls weren't strong enough to hold a slate roof (would have been forced outwards) and rather than go the route of rsj's and reinforcing, he put on steel sheeting that looks like slates - you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. Lovely house and loads of character.

Suckler

I'd look in to external insulation.

Grueller

Suckler wrote: »

I'd look in to external insulation.

This a great job but would you lose the character of the building by covering it up?

i know u know

Grueller wrote:

This a great job but would you lose the character of the building by covering it up?

I looked in to that as I have a stone building and you lose the stone work on the outside. So iv opted to go for internal insulation

Justjens

The nature of stables means there is not great depth, I had 16' before drylining, but they tend to be long so there is an abundance of outside walls to insulate compared to a normal building. I also have a door out of every room to the outside!

Underfloor heating was not around in my time so I've a couple of wood stoves backing up an oil system.

The advantage of thick walls is that it was lovely and cool during the heat in June, the inside temperature will peak naturally in about September/October and then it's time to start applying heat from Halloween on because if the temperature drops too low inside it's hard to get it comfortable again. If you keep it warm there is great 'heat soak' come Jan/Feb.

I used 2L2 as insulation (in essence foil backed bubblewrap!), and it's also a damp course once taped together, we hung it from the tops of the existing walls before drylining.

Removed some internal walls but any that were kept were taken down to ceiling height, then set a reinforced concrete bridge from front to back walls that also served as foundations for the block walls on top (also gave added space upstairs).

There are no soffits or facias as the walls are capped with flagstones/copingstones with the pressure treared wallplate set in the ringbeam and the 30" bottom slates run out over the ringbeam/copingstones. The original walls are set with a fall to make the gutters look like they run level, don't see that on too many new builds!

April '91



I've plenty more pictures for the brave hearted!

mikeybrennan

TBH if all you have are the 4 walls it's simpler too knock it

GrasstoMilk

We're at one ATM. Slow job but loving every bit of it.
We put in a steel structure inside to take out the inside wall to make bottom floor open plan.
A roof has to go on now and windows and doors then and she's water proof.
Haven't decided on wether to insulate inside or not. Home house has the very same walls and is cold but when the heating is on it's very snug and the walls tend to hold the heat for a few days. Thinking either an aga or a backboiler stove for heating. It won't take much to heat it
There was oak heads inside so all them had be replaced. Slow job. Get one done in a day. A lot of the slate will fall out even though it's braced. Takes a while to build it back up.

If you're doing the work yourself it can be done quite reasonable

Who2

Suckler wrote: »

I'd look in to external insulation.

Old stone buildings need to breathe. External insulation destroys them. Even with internal you need to leave a space between it and the walls. There's a cable can be put around to help with rising damp that keeps a low current running through it that seems to work well.