Planning a barn conversion

[sumi]

We're much more relaxed about stuff like that here. Which is not always a good thing! With the lack of available houses for our booming population most people make do and use whatever resources they have available to build "houses", like this guy:

That little structure is locally known as a "shack" and yep, those are (were) road signs!

 

[HayZee518]

Well, then, I was unaware that the dwelling was in Africa. That changes the entire scope of things. We can't apply the US codes to this building. I'd have to go searching for African building requirements. For instance, what is the common voltage for dwellings? Is it 220 volts like in the UK? Looking at some of your pictures, what sort of wind will that flimsy roof bear? From what I can see there are four roof trusses with a purlin horizontal to the trusses and tin laid on top of that. I think you are in the wrong forum.

 

[sumi]

I apologise, I should've mentioned that I am not in the US. Since most of the members here know me from the other sites I didn't think to mention it.

Our voltage is similar to the UK, yes. As for building requirements, as I mentioned before it is a grey area and differs from town to town, especially the enforcement of said requirements! We do plan to stick to whatever requirements is set in our area though.

The roofs sheets are about 0.5 inch thick and made from fibre cement, I don't know if you are familiar with it? And it is quite secure, we checked it out already We do not have hurricane winds in our part of the world, but being so close to the sea we do have a fair amount of wind and it hasn't caused any problems yet.

Well, I'm sorry you feel that way. I have put this thread in the "Off topic" section as my intention was simply to share our project with whoever is interested in following our story, comment, offer advice and have the occasional laugh or cry with us. I am aware that the way we do things here are different from the way you do things there. If you are interested in seeing how we do things here though, stick around. There's more to come...

 

[canesisters]

I'm sticking around. This promises to be quite enlightening - as well as entertaining and informative.
What part of Africa are you in? Over here, we are quite used to seeing pictures of 'the plains and grasslands' but the picture you first posted looks much like any farmland/pasture around here.
(tons more questions to come, I'm sure)

 

[sumi]

Thanks, Canesisters. It looks like it's going to be entertaining for sure! LOL We're in South Africa. And we have hot, semi-dessert regions, grassy veld (you can see a bit of that in the shack pic above), parts that are wet and green almost like rainforest and about everything in-between. If you have questions, shoot them over I don't mind!

 

[HayZee518]

I looked into stuff relating to south africa pertaining to codes. It's really up to the jurisdiction where you live about what's permitted and what's not. I checked out the electrical and it is 220 but at 50 cycle? how primitive. why 50 cycle?
the color coding for wires is hot is brown, earth ground is yellow with a green stripe and neutral is blue.

 

[sumi]

We have problems with electricity supply and demand, with the demand growing and the supply not. We are actually encouraged to use as little electricity as possible, so any upgrades in the electricity department is unlikely for the foreseeable future. We are satisfied with what we do have though, it's better than nothing!

 

[Judy1]

How interesting!

"Relaxed" building codes could be quite an advantage over the complex stuff we sometimes deal with in the US. Additional challenges, yes, but advantages as well.

 

[sumi]

Hi Judy! Nice to see you over here
You know, I was thinking about this today. With the relaxed laws (and lack of enforcement) in this country, some things can be a challenge, let's face it, but there are also so many benefits. Take livestock, for or example. We kept chickens on a few of our properties, we raised and slaughtered animals for our own consumption on our farm and it was just... allowed. I was shocked when I joined BackYardChickens.com and read about the laws and ordinances regarding chickens and that they are not allowed in so many towns! We take it for granted that we can keep them here. We have so much more freedom here, which is not always a good thing! LOL But it does make certain things so much easier.

 

[Judy1]

There is such a thing as too many laws, I think.

I don't think I've ever lived where they weren't allowed, I'm thankful to say, and I'd certainly like to see a lot of those laws against chickens repealed. (Yes, I have a few chickens, folks.) I see they are even allowed in Chicago, the only "big city" I've ever lived in, although slaughter isn't.

I see you started this thread about a month ago. Any progress yet?