Incorporate granny flat into new house

Hi, we are planning our build and would like to incorporate an attached (under the same roof) granny flat to rent out in the short term and house family in down the track - if you have done this with your build and wouldn’t mind sharing I’d love to see a photos or link to the builder/design you used - we’ve been researching lots but haven’t found a design we’re happy with as we are not willing to sacrifice too much of our house to include the flat,
Thanks in advance!

So you’ll need a kitchen, lounge, bedroom & ensuite as a minimum, and seperate access (especially if renting to strangers). Dining can be done at island bench.

As a minimum you’d want at least 50m2 of floor space.

You say you’re not willing to sacrifice too much of your house to include the flat, how is it even remotely possible not to? You either sacrifice space or build larger.

My cousin and husband actually did this and my Aunty lives with them self contained under the same roof, I’m not sure if she has separate access, pretty sure she doesn’t.

She’s up one end of the house which is closed off with the above amenities but in a much larger area than the 50m2 minimum suggestion above. It was done as a renovation. Great setup but only achieved by more floor space as they also have 2 kids at home so needed to keep the existing 3 bedrooms, bathroom, powder room and Master/ensuite.

Just a thought ... and it depends on finances & the size/shape of the land ... but if you're having strangers in the granny flat for a few years initially you might want to look at whether it's possible to have a separate building. The rules vary from council to council, but it may be easier to get passed that way with some councils ... you can install a sheltered walkway between dwellings if you want the buildings joined in future.

It also might be easier to get passed if you don't do it as a granny-flat for the initial build, but then you get a separate DA for conversion to a granny-flat AFTER you get your occupation certificate. I'm not saying this is true where you are, but it might be worth investigating.

Also, unsure if you've at all started looking at builders, but a lot of the project guys are offering a wide range of standard designs which include granny flats.

We are about to start a custom build with attached granny flat. Have you researched the rules and requirements relating to GF in your council? For example in our design the walls and door between the GF and main house need to be fire rated (relevant to the suggestion above of converting an existing build into a GF). The max floor area allowed is 60m2. We are also required to have a outdoor area of 24m2 allocated to the GF.

We are also in the early stages of building a new custom home with granny flat.
After talking with our builder and architect they have agreed that an attached granny flat is cheaper than not, however we will have a carport separating them. The ruling in our council is 60m2 or 20% of the size of the main home, so we are going for approx 70m2, we don’t have the outdoor requirement that hillsbuild has (interesting to know where you’re building hillsbuild), so best to get all your information from council before you start.
Many if the project builders (in Sydney anyway) have lots of granny flat options!)

Thanks everyone, when I mean ‘not willing to sacrifice too much house’ I’m meaning that we’re happy to make the overall dwelling bigger to incorporate the g/f into the build. Size isn’t too much of an issue however privacy is (we’ve got a 700m, 18m frontage block.) We just don’t want someone living in a separate g/f in the backyard and would rather it be hidden into the build of the house with seperate entrance and as much privacy as possible - We’re thinking a custom build might have to be an option as we’ve gone through all the project home builders we know of and haven’t found a design we could live with yet.
Thanks for the tips re council regs, our allows for a max 60m2 g/f and there’s a min requirement for outside space also and fire rated walls (which we’d get anyways)

gogo65 - We’re in the Hills Shire in Sydney. What about you?

Hi Hillsbuilds,
Central Coast NSW

Hi hillsbuilds, we are also building in the Hills Shire, interesting about the outdoor space requirement you mention, Ive been to council twice and that hasn’t been mentioned, although we are building on a 5600m2 block, so we have plenty of open space...
Who are you building with?

gogo65 - how lovely to have such a large site! That might be why the issue of min outdoor space for GF didn’t come up! We’ve got a suburban 800m2. Anyway here’s a link, scroll down to Site Plan for that condition.

https://www.thehills.nsw.gov.au/files/s ... llings.pdf

Thanks for link!
We are zoned RU2 (rural landscape), so maybe that’s the difference, we originally thought we had a 60sqm restriction but council showed me the clause that allows 20% of the size of main dwelling (architect also confirmed).
We are selling our current home which we built 6 years ago on a 700m2 lot. We were spoilt with a 1500sqm block in castle hill prior to building in Kellyville, so we’ve been on the hunt for a small acreage for about 2 years.
Are you building attached or detached?
We are still waiting for our first draft of plans but builder has said better (cheaper!) to be attached so will attach via a carport.

gogo65 - ours is a KDRB, with attached GF. My parents built the original house 25 years ago with Allworth.

I’m hoping to start a thread when demolition takes place, but we’ve hit many delays. Worst was waiting 3 months for Sydney Water to sort out an error on their hydra drawings. Currently waiting for CC. It’s almost like waiting for the first trimester to be over before announcing a pregnancy!

Kylie15 - sorry for hijacking your thread! We looked at volume builders too and decided to go the architect/custom build route as things like orientation and passive design principles are important to us. Pricier of course but we get a house designed specifically for our family’s needs.

Hillsbuild, maybe we will be building at a similar time....
We have chosen a small custom builder that specialises in acreage homes in the hills area, also looking to make the most of the north facing back yard and bush views.
Im hoping we can start in the new year and be in by Christmas 2019...we will see.
Ill also start a thread when I have my first concept plans in my hot little hands.
Who are you building with?

Kylie,
Happy to share our plans when we get them....
There is some great ideas out there.
If there is something you like post it up here and I’m sure there will be lots of feedback.

Lol, NO gogo65! We started the design process in dec 2016. Council approval early this year, hoping to start demo in the next couple of weeks, ie way before the new year! If we are further delayed till then I’ll just curl up into a ball on the floor right now.

We’ve selected our builder and they’ve actually done quite a bit of prelim work for us already, however we haven’t formally signed with them, so I don’t want to mention them by name yet.

Oops sorry Hillsbuilds, don’t want to upset you!!
Let’s hope you’ll be sitting in your new home before I have site commencement!

I am looking at building an attached granny flat but worried about the noise between shared walls.

Builder has recommended a Boral Fire rated wall product and claimed the acoustics dampening between the two walls will be similar to double brick. Can anyone comment that this is the case? Obviously double brick wall between main house and granny flat will be very expensive.

Thanks.

I believe that you must have a fire rated wall between main house and granny flat, regardless. Certainly the case in NSW