[SmallWelshBarn]

Feeling rather excited starting construction of a 3 bay open fronted barn in green oak. I have picked out the trees from an ancient woodland that had to be thinned for management. The biggest tree came from a castle in Northern Wales. Its going to be 12x5m sitting on a reinforced slab.On the back side we have put in reinforced pillars as my plan is to have a deck at the back of the building a bit like the forth picture I can then use it for storage. I an also going to Cantilever out from the first floor to provide a further decked area in to the forest. The back pitch is going to be more mansard to provide better head hight for storage.

[Justin]

Always dreamed of building my own timber framed cottage, will be following this with interest.

[Olly398]

Looks superb already, can you share your foundation prep / buildup?

[SmallWelshBarn]

Looks superb already, can you share your foundation prep / buildup?

I had a professional contractor do the foundations. The land is predominately build up ground with a bank a drop of to the rear of the building. So we dug down at the rear on the bank side to virgin ground then went down further half meter. The trench had rebar inserted and premix was poured in to it to make a solid wall. Rebar was also left exposed to tie in to the slab raft.
The slab is reenforced as well.
We have stopped the milling and framing till January. Here are some pictures and video of some of the work.
All the carpenter is done using traditional peg and joints and traditional framing methods. The pictures show one bay so far I have completed two and one more to do.

This video shows the mill working. Ignore the lack of Audio for part of it I forgot to turn on the mic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F9YEqxHYMA&t=43s

This video gives an explanation of some of the carpentry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzn4x-Fp5yw

[chrismahon]

They are still constructing some houses using oak framework over here- saw one going up in the Dordogne. I was told that green oak, whilst easy to work, does shrink a lot and that has to be allowed for. Whether that will be a problem in Wales I don't know, but here the humidity can get very low. The particular chap I was told about put a new upstairs floor in his house and found that the oak beams shrank so much they nearly dropped out of the wall sockets. Something to watch out for perhaps SWB.

[SmallWelshBarn]

Shrinkage has been allowed in all the calculations.

[SmallWelshBarn]

Finally almost finished my oak framed barn. Just have galvanised gutters to fix to the front glass to go in one gable end. I also want to add a covered deck at the rear to give extra storage for hay which will also give extra insulation.
We clad the sides and rear in larch which I now regret and am probably going to remove and do in oak to match the front.
It was an interesting experience building my first project. Its a beautiful tactile building and I love the upper section with the cruck blades.

[landroverroy]

Wow - that is really amazing.

[SmallWelshBarn]

Thank you landroverroy. Out of interest what landrover do you have ?

[pharnorth]

Fantastic. Well done.

[Justin]

That's a fabulous achievement, well done indeed.

[Victorian Farmer]

Very nice job loved the cutting the big logs .I build one  in 2010 using second hand beams metal roof it's 3 houses wide and 20 long it takes all the stock .wood burner setties for lambing

[winkhound]

I think we maybe almost neighbours if that is your property. Very new to the area so would be great to meet you.

[landroverroy]

Thank you landroverroy. Out of interest what landrover do you have ?

I only have conventional buildings. Our first being a 2nd hand ex poultry building - 25' x 85' but only 12' high, so too low for modern machinery. Our next we built a lot higher - 15' - which are much more useable.


But I love yours of traditional materials and construction.  It must give you so much pleasure and sense of achievement.

[hnima]

Is that a barn or a house?!

Did you need planing permission or was it built under permitted development?