Those of you who have started looking for a plot for your self-build project will know that finding the right one in your chosen area involves a lot of time and effort and not a few disappointments. This explains why those who have a sizeable garden and like the area that they live in use part of their garden for their self-build project.

This is how Steve McGlasson and his wife came to self-build. Moving to a village in Northamptonshire some six years ago they extended their bungalow both outwards and upwards. The house was still not the home they were looking for and so decided the only way to achieve exactly what they wanted was to build their own four-bedroom house in the back garden.

Obtaining planning permission hit a snag when the council objected to the proposal because the plot was just outside of the village boundary. However, the case was argued, including the fact that a new development of houses had been built adjacent to the plot in the six years they had been there. With the backing of the parish council, the planning department approved the plans without having to go through the appeal procedure. Access to the site had to be improved by buying small sections of the neighbouring gardens to increase the width of the drive, which is very steep.

Steve is managing the project and doing much of the work himself. He has employed a builder to work full time and is sourcing sub contractors as and when needed. As a plumber, he will obviously be carrying out that side of the build and employing tradesmen that he knows to be reputable. In fact, the same builder and carpenter also undertook the conversion work on his bungalow. The site itself is gently sloping and needed only a few small trees removed in way of clearance. The foundations are 1,000mm deep in sandy soil and of poured concrete. The concrete needed to be pumped due to the steep driveway accessing the site.

Traditional construction is being used, with 65mm of dry thermal insulation between skins. The floor is of beam and block with blockwork interior walls on the ground floor. A batch of 20,000 Baggeridge Arizona bricks for the outer skin was bought that are slightly darker than the usual colour. This gives the house an ‘aged’ appearance fitting to the village, compared to the new, brighter red bricked development adjacent.

The sitting room, situated to the rear overlooking the back garden, features an open fireplace. The chimney was originally fitted with an 8“ flue which is suitable for gas, but Steve also wanted provision made for a solid fuel fire. This meant enlarging the chimney by scraping some of the rear block faces away to accommodate the 11” flue required for solid fuel fires.

A condensing boiler is planned for the central heating, which will be underfloor on the ground floor and radiators on the first. Provision has been made for the underfloor heating to be extended into a conservatory if required at a later date. “I would prefer to fit a condensing boiler because they are now the most economical form of heating and seem to have improved in reliability considerably since the first models were on the market,” said Steve. The remainder of the plumbing work includes two ensuite bedrooms and a downstairs toilet.

To the front of the house foundations have been laid for a two-car garage, again to be faced with Baggeridge Amazon bricks. The back garden has been cleared, it had a layer of topsoil and now just awaits grass seed for the lawn. A new fence has also been erected. This is because the rear of the plot backs onto a playing field and is to discourage children from using the site as a playground and so avoid potential accidents.

“So far with the build the only real snag we have met is the electricity supply which has had to be rerouted via the playing field to the back of the house rather than use the original supply which came from the front. The difference in cost between the two sources was £2,000, so it made good sense to take the rerouting option”, commented Steve.

To date, the build has reached just below roof height and it is hoped that the roof will be on during March 2002. There is no real time limit to this build and Steve has some further work to carry out on their converted bungalow such as building a garage, surfacing the driveway and some landscaping before it is put on the market.