Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Jul 06, 2009 4:41 am Hi everyone, We are a young family (2 kids more to come!) looking to purchase a 5 acre rural block country NSW and were trying to find the most affordable way to live on the property. We are unable to build the "dream house" at this stage but were hoping to build a 18x9 colourbond shed and fit out half for living. Council said that we can apply to have bathroom facilities but we anr not really allowed to deck out as a permanenet residence (i.e. kitchen/bedrooms). It appears that standard sheds are not up to"dwelling standard". Has anyone had experience with this? Is there any way to reinforce a colourbond shed/garage so it would meet building standards and basix re: insulation etc? How much would that cost? I have considered applying for a dual occupancy and building a small kit granny flat but we still have to build shed anyway and I thought this might be too costly? Any advice would be greatly appreciated... Re: Building s "shed" house? Is it legal? 2Jul 06, 2009 7:52 am check out this thread. it also includes a few pics of different peoples Shed homes. It may depends on your council and exactly what your land is zoned as. Different councils and perhaps states have different rules. Good luck. http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=15275&hilit=living+shed Re: Building s "shed" house? Is it legal? 3Jul 06, 2009 6:16 pm Many thanks, very useful info. We are going for it! Re: Building s "shed" house? Is it legal? 4Jul 06, 2009 6:59 pm Hi Firsttimer We are in a rural area in QLD and I know a lot of people who lived in their shed for many years, but I heard that a lot of Councils recently decided to restrict the number of years that you can do that. Somebody told me that it is down to 10 years now but you really have to find out yourself. I would suggest that you talk to the locals because quite often they know exactly what the possibilities and NO Go areas are in regard to Council's rules. cheers Re: Building s "shed" house? Is it legal? 5Jul 07, 2009 6:26 am Thanks Annelies, Had another chat to council and seems you can live in a shed (with some modifications to slab and upgrade to structure... cost ???) provided you agree to pull out kitchen and laundry facilities when main house is built (to avoid dual occupancy issues). All this needs to be specified in DA, with the shed being stage 1 of build and the house stage 2. They discourage doing this as a lot of people get too comfy and never get around to building the house...they didn't mention time limits so will have to check that out! So much to learn, so little time! Cheers Re: Building s "shed" house? Is it legal? 6Jul 21, 2009 11:57 pm I believe it depends on the council. In the shire I work in its not allowed. In the shire we plan to build in its allowed but has some restrictions. by the way when you approach the council dont call it a shed. It just happens to be a steel structured residence, the building dept. bloke I know said it will make a difference Apparently it is allowed but the structure must comply with class 1 building regulations. What that amount to is instead of a $10,000 shed it'll cost about $30,000 once you added the thicker concrete pad, insulation, windows, two doors, kitchen, laundy, bathroom, etc, etc to meet the regs. There may be loop hole, its possible to get permission to live onsite in a caravan, then you build a huge shed and "store" the caravan in the shed Time limits to the caravan is one year. Class 1 residence (shed) is unlimited. Re: Building s "shed" house? Is it legal? 7Jul 22, 2009 4:12 pm Hi We have a weekender @ Gloucester NSW on 4ac we have a building permit on the land what we done was to build a shed 9mtr x 12mtr and class it as a farm shed so we still have the building permit Cheers Glenn Thanks. Yeh ideally that would have been good, but have progressed too far now. Hoping some well placed internal walls fixed up into the battens will provide some… 2 5859 Hi, I am sheeting the inside of a 5.7 x 8m shed with gyprock. Unfortunately the shed wasn't designed for internal cladding but I have been framing it up as strongly as… 0 3721 DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair I'm in WA and our sandy soils make drainage a bit easier but this is what I'd be doing. Dig down to your footings and let the wall dry out. Clean it all well by brushing… 1 6201 |