Author: |Posted: 10:42 am on 27/07/09
Category: DIY & Self Build, Property Development
When you find a dream site for your project there are a whole lot of things you have to do immediately and simultaneously. Which is impossible of course but if you are determined you will manage it somehow. One thing is talk to your local council roads department.
Our site is along a single track road which goes over a little old hump back bridge and through a narrow gap between two farm buildings. It’s a very quiet road and we are concerned neither to cause any damage nor nuisance with our construction work or our subsequent visitors. The roads department was mercifully unconcerned about us adding maybe 30 cars per day to the traffic on the road, perhaps because it currently averages 2 cars per hour, sometimes 6 at rush hour.
That left the very serious subject of ‘access’. Don’t think just because you have an existing entrance to your site that it will be suitable. Regulations cover the design of access off a public road. We had to find a position where approaching traffic could see our access, and we could see them, from 150m in each direction.
On a very cold day in March I assembled on site our architect, civil engineer, environmental consultant and the head of the roads department (Tech Services).
We walked up and down trying to figure out where to put the new access track. In true Highland fashion, pelting horizontal hail started as people commented from their various professional perspectives. In the teeth of the gale, our architect paced out the 150m sight lines to show his proposed position would work and then driving freezing sleet hastened our agreement that a handy tree marked the centre of suitable proposed access. We retreated to warm cars and flasks of coffee and I considered how such permanent marks upon the surface of the land can sometimes be decided so rapidly.
Don’t let anyone leave until you have marked on a plan what you just agreed whilst shouting in a winter storm and if there is no handy tree, do remember to put in posts to mark positions. (It’s a young tree, hopefully we can relocate it successfully).
Author: |Posted: 2:44 pm on 11/06/09
Category: DIY & Self Build, Property Development
So here I am trying to get Planning Permission to build an eco-lodge in a remote Scottish glen. One of the first things I had to do was carry out vital Percolation Tests.
Percolation tests make sense. They are a clearly measurable test that your soil is suitable for a septic tank soakaway. If the water soaks away too quickly, it fails. If the water soaks away too slowly, it fails.
So on a fabulous sunny day last September, I found myself fitting a 5 gallon container of water into my old-hippy-round-the-world-trip rucksack and heaving it onto my back. I trudged across several acres of land (impassable by vehicle due to the presence of close-packed tree stumps and logs), emptied the water into a little hole and returned to repeat the exercise several more times.
In the Scottish Highlands (your area may be different – ask Building Control or Planning) you have to dig a 1 meter deep hole (needs chap with digger who is based far away and never available). Then at the bottom of that you dig a smaller hole as precisely 300mm cubed as you can get it (but don’t be silly about it, it’s a hole in the ground not a maths exam). Then you fill it full of water to 250mm deep and time how long it takes to soak away. If the water disappears too soon or too slowly, I hope you have budgeted for the chap with the digger to return and try elsewhere on your site. Some of mine passed, some failed…
Last summer, unlike the rest of Britain, the North West Scottish Highlands had 6 weeks of unbroken sunshine and all the little burns I was relying on were barely a trickle. This is how I learned that water is very heavy to carry any distance. It was a sobering moment when I reflected upon my (completely fake) connection with all the millions of women across the world who have carried water throughout history. There and then I decided my eco-lodge would support Water Aid. There and then I started to wonder what would happen to my water supply if we had another drought in the ‘wettest’ part of Britain. So that’s why the biggest question about your site has to be: Where is the water going to come from?
Find out more about Escape Lodge and The Highland Township Project at www.escapelodge.com .
Author: |Posted: 11:23 am on 11/06/09
Category: DIY & Self Build, Property Development, expert advice
Since I decided to try to build an eco-lodge in a wild and beautiful part of the Scottish Highlands I’ve found out that lots of other people have their own variation on this dream, maybe an outdoor activity centre, yoga retreat or self-sufficient commune.
My crazy plan is for Escape Lodge, an informal self-catering guest house where guests are immersed in nature and the landscape. With optional activities to suit both active and passive guests we will aim to provide an escape from busy stressful lives. The activities include working on the land and using ancient craft skills to construct some traditional Scottish thatched stone houses – hence I had to find enough land to fit everything in.
Whatever your dream project, it seems building a house with lots of accommodation, social space and – of course – acres of LAND is a splendid plan. All you need is the site… and the planning permission.
There is a rule to this game – your land must be far from mains gas, electricity, water, roads, builders’ merchants and anyone with a decently big digger.
I have finally found my suitably impossible site and am preparing to apply for planning permission. I have some experiences I’d like to share in case you find yourself in similar circumstances because there is no handbook for this one. (You think there is but there isn’t!)
Escape Lodge is a good deal more demanding, and will be used differently from, a domestic house and it is an interesting challenge to remain ‘low-impact’ in every aspect of the project. We have a burn (stream) which we hope to use for Hydro-electric generation but we are also investigating mains electricity connection and supply-back to the grid. We are deciding on wood-fuel boilers and most importantly trying to work out how much water we will need from the burn and how much to store. The journey starts with finding out if the soil can cope with sewage runoff.
Water and drainage matter more than your grandest design and if you haven’t sorted them out your planning permission is not going to happen. Next blog: carrying out percolation tests.
Find out more about Escape Lodge and The Highland Township Project at http://www.escapelodge.com/
