Living in a shed

[graham_h]

Any thoughts on this ?
Has anyone here done it or considering doing it ?
The pics below are an example of what we're considering.
Local bloke does this for a living. Pics are his place.
Front shed for living, rear shed for work. Looks ideal.

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Have considered it several times, but the wife is the only thing stopping me from doing it.

[Cam]

There is a thread around somewhere on this.. had heaps of info.. When I have some time spare I will see if I can dig it up..

[GasoLane]

It can be done but is very dependant on the local council.

I know someone who wanted to live in a caravan and then a shed whilst he built his house on the same block. The local council said no.... something to do with health and sanitation.

Of course if the council don't know......

[Dave_Obsession]

My cousin has turned a massive shed on his work property into a half-garage / half-house...built a couple of rooms himself and also got a large caravan...gutted it and did it up from scratch...has worked out really well for him!

[graham_h]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

It can be done but is very dependant on the local council.

I know someone who wanted to live in a caravan and then a shed whilst he built his house on the same block. The local council said no.... something to do with health and sanitation.

Of course if the council don't know......

Good points...but I guess as this local bloke has done it he'll know what's up.
I'm getting his details soon so I'll have a chat with him and cost it out.

[XP6]

Yes I'll be doing it while the house gets built, but I dont have a tiny house block its general farming land and my shed will have full amenitys

[The Yeti]

Why not?

a house is just a box, whats the difference? if its well fitted out / appinted it can be just as compfortable as any house

[Jim Goose]

There are plenty of "kit" type homes which are simply converted sheds.
As has been said it depends on council bylaws.

Would be easy to build, but because its all basically roof cladding would need insulation everywhere and aircon would be a must? in order for it not to turn into a sweat box.

I have seen a few of those barn type sheds around townsville built into homes as well.

[JG65TE]

My brother lives in a shed. (think its a class 3). It's a.massive slab that's fully roofed. When he wants a new room, he unscrews a wall, slaps some speedy frame up and bingo a new room. He lives in Katherine, nt. From what he tells me it has to be classed as livable shed. hence the class 3

[mik]

wow that`s a cool shed(pic), actually i thought about a small brick factory years ago, a diesel mechanic owned it/ lived out of it, it was a bit of a dungeon really, but it had enough space for about 5 prime movers, nothing flash like that though.

[XP6]

JG65TE, Cat3 is for cyclonic areas I think

[FPV+fteT3]

Ian Hedley from off road racing fame owns an engineering business in Singleton doing work for Hunter valley mines he is a millionaire his home is one of these type setups he has dinner then opens a door to the workshop and into the race cars. His workshop/home is a multi level affair with sauna and spa etc very nice far removed from a typical shed however its all green cliplock on the outside.

[BPXR6T]

I just got back to the burbs after living in a shed for 2 and a half years. A real shed as in a garage on a country property with solar power, composting toilet, and makeshift shower. As far as sanitation is concerned the council gave approval for the composting toilet. Yep, there was a permit for that. We had lined the shed and it was great insulation wise but we had heaps of problems with the mouse plague. Mice nested in the walls and no matter what we tried we couldn't keep them out. It got unlivable in the end after mice died in the walls. The smell was so thick you could taste them in the air. I remember waking up with four live mice on me one morning. I was always waking up with spiders and even snake beside my bed once.

I still have a reflex action from spotting and instantly killing anything that moves. If you saw it you had to go for it instantly because if it got away it was at some point going to end up on you at night. Nowadays if I see a mark on the carpet out the corner of my eye I still just about jump up after it.

Living in the shed was a losing battle. The mice won in the end and I pretty much walked away with the shirt on my back. The mice got the rest when I was away in the city. The locust plague was eventful too. I was probably living way rougher than you're planning though. Living in the shed was great. The mice, spiders, millipedes, and locusts not so great.

[graham_h]

Yeah thats kind of the idea.......... have the workshop directly attached to the living area. Get a couple of hoists in there

[graham_h]

Done right it should be easy enough to keep vermin out I reckon

[BPXR6T]

Originally Posted by BPXR6T

I just got back to the burbs after living in a shed for 2 and a half years. A real shed as in a garage on a country property with solar power, composting toilet, and makeshift shower. As far as sanitation is concerned the council gave approval for the composting toilet. Yep, there was a permit for that. We had lined the shed and it was great insulation wise but we had heaps of problems with the mouse plague. Mice nested in the walls and no matter what we tried we couldn't keep them out. It got unlivable in the end after mice died in the walls. The smell was so thick you could taste them in the air. I remember waking up with four live mice on me one morning. I was always waking up with spiders and even snake beside my bed once.

I still have a reflex action from spotting and instantly killing anything that moves. If you saw it you had to go for it instantly because if it got away it was at some point going to end up on you at night. Nowadays if I see a mark on the carpet out the corner of my eye I still just about jump up after it.

Living in the shed was a losing battle. The mice won in the end and I pretty much walked away with the shirt on my back. The mice got the rest when I was away in the city. The locust plague was eventful too. I was probably living way rougher than you're planning though. Living in the shed was great. The mice, spiders, millipedes, and locusts not so great.

Oh, and my advice. If you want to live in a shed whilst building then think about getting a caravan or site office instead. You can get great ones with kitchen and bathroom for about $6000. I considered this before leaving the country.

[TheSneakiness]

Originally Posted by XP6

JG65TE, Cat3 is for cyclonic areas I think

Just to clarify, what was meant by class 3 is in regards to the BSA building codes, class 3 is for other living buildings that do not fit into class 1 or class 2.

[graham_h]

Ranbuild have some great looking kits for about 50k

[TheSneakiness]

You'll find that $50k would only get you the shed portion of the home, especially one that size in the pic above.

[graham_h]

Originally Posted by Rapid_Axe

You'll find that $50k would only get you the shed portion of the home, especially one that size in the pic above.

Oh for sure... i reckon it's all doable for under 200k..close to $150k if things aren't too flash

[rancidpunx]

^thats gotta be way more than 50k lol (edit: beaten to it)

We looked into living in a shed after buying somewhere rural and then eventually building a house. Most councils are clamping down on it at the moment. You will need better part of 100k for a shed (4-5 bays) and make it liveable to a council standard. Thicker concrete slabs, lined walls, full bathroom and kitchen, studier framework on the shed itself. It all adds up. The other thing to remember is that once you have your class 3 dwelling on your piece of land many councils will then make you jump through hoops to build another, ie a house.

[BPXR6T]

My place was noisy as all **** when it rained too. All that tin. My place was a big open space with mezzanine floor. Couldn't hear someone two feet away yelling when it really got raining.

[TheSneakiness]

[HTML][/HTML]

Originally Posted by graham_h

Oh for sure... i reckon it's all doable for under 200k..close to $150k if things aren't too flash

I did quote a barn house for someone a while back and the frame alone was $35,000 at trade price, so add GST and markup, still close to $50k and that was about 3 years ago.

[Jim Goose]

Originally Posted by BPXR6T

I just got back to the burbs after living in a shed for 2 and a half years. A real shed as in a garage on a country property with solar power, composting toilet, and makeshift shower. As far as sanitation is concerned the council gave approval for the composting toilet. Yep, there was a permit for that. We had lined the shed and it was great insulation wise but we had heaps of problems with the mouse plague. Mice nested in the walls and no matter what we tried we couldn't keep them out. It got unlivable in the end after mice died in the walls. The smell was so thick you could taste them in the air. I remember waking up with four live mice on me one morning. I was always waking up with spiders and even snake beside my bed once.

I still have a reflex action from spotting and instantly killing anything that moves. If you saw it you had to go for it instantly because if it got away it was at some point going to end up on you at night. Nowadays if I see a mark on the carpet out the corner of my eye I still just about jump up after it.

Living in the shed was a losing battle. The mice won in the end and I pretty much walked away with the shirt on my back. The mice got the rest when I was away in the city. The locust plague was eventful too. I was probably living way rougher than you're planning though. Living in the shed was great. The mice, spiders, millipedes, and locusts not so great.

I think (and correct me if im wrong) that a "shed" normally would have the wall panels over hanging the slab so that the corrigations were all open for vermin to get in.

A "house" built using a steel type shed would need the wall panels on top of the slab so that none of the corrigations would be "open".

[302 XC]

People need to define a shed or a house
Living in a steel framed , corrogated external lined, class 10 (house slab)building is not a shed
Living in a steel framed dwelling ,is that a steel framed dwelling
You can build something to a similar design to a shed but its a dwelling for humans
The main problem people have , and ive looked very heavily into this, is the price for most of these shed kits, are for a shed based slab,so goin to a dwelling classed slab escalates the overall cost
The shed design and structure for a shed is usually a simple portal frame, top hat and some tin , thats a shed
Steel framed portal framed house, usually have studed framed walls, more cost, internal lined, more cost
Im mid way threw the design stakes, and hopefully costruction of a steel framed house design,with external corrogated walls,alot easier to maintain and look after than wood,or cladding
Council do have regulations regarding living in vans while building,and its due to health issues as mentioned,and even some councils will charge you some fee , if they let you live on your own property in your caravan

[XR6Naranja]

Well I basically have 3 stories haha, oh btw didn't read all comments, not in a reading mood lol.

I lived in a house in the NT that was made of the same stuff, roof and walls, insulated and all, tiled floors, was fine, was about as hot as any other house really, but did have aircons anyway as we liked the cool and it's extremely hot anyway, tiles stayed relatively cool, only problem which isn't all that much is the expanding metal and at night when it cools and contracts again, makes a little bit of noise I suppose.

My brother also owned a little shed that he rented out, was the same really, cool on the inside as any other house was, but cheaper then every other house..

But finally to put a bad spin on it, both of those houses were build by my father who runs a building company and has been building for quite some time, meaning the house was build to a high quality.

I was working with my brother on a house near Lismore (Northern NSW) and we were putting insulation in the walls, mind you isn't that hard at all since all the framing easily holds it once cut into shape, he kept pointing out all these shortcuts and missed spots and things that were out of line, because those who build the kit sheds who are hired from the kit company don't seem to give a stuff about doing it right, no offence to anyone who does, I believe it was a Ranbuild shed, basically the same as what you posted.

So if you do look at getting one, expect to see screws drilled up through the roof and not sealed, beams not aligned correctly out of laziness, screws not even holding anything and not removed out of laziness, shortcuts and other things, it's a pity, because they have such potential.

None of it's welded either, so if you're in a danger area for high winds you might think twice.

As a reply to other posts, I don't believe I had any problems with rain, but we did have a ceiling as well, not just a roof, insulation then some panels over it.

Never had a problem with mice and other stuff, only roaches and spiders that crawled under the door, but in saying that, you wouldn't be buying an ACTUAL shed.


EDIT:

You could also think about this, my other brother bought a house, it was half built, only a frame which was extended from a portable apartment or whatever they are.

Copying the pattern the from portable he was able to incorporate it into the house but while still having a kitchen, bedroom, toilet and small lounge room to stay in.

All windows and other things were second hand, he's turned it into quite a good place that would actually suit as a beach house, for a quarter of the price.

Now that the house is built, it now suits as a complete bedroom, personal toilet, walk in closet, and computer room.

[graham_h]

It's really all about the $$ too...... can't say that I want a $600,000 mortgage round our neck until we snuff it

[XR6Naranja]

Originally Posted by graham_h

It's really all about the $$ too...... can't say that I want a $600,000 mortgage round our neck until we snuff it

Yeah, you have a lot of positives with building a shed as a house, but a lot of mess around to do it right.

[NickyN]

Hmm....just a thought here, is lightning something to be worried about?