Knob Farm Housing project involved the conversion of some late 18th early 19th century farm buildings into 3 attractive executive properties close to Carsington Reservoir in Derbyshire.
The buildings were in quite a rundown condition and our first involvement was to inspect and produce a structural report on the condition for Building Regulations compliance.
The Architect wanted to make the most out of the original height of the open vaulted ceilings and we managed to design plywood diaphragms to prevent roof spread applying forces to the wall plate and in turn the walls. Steel frames were integrated to provide both supports to the new upper floors as well as lateral support to the walls.
Exposed new oak purlins were used to replace the original construction but integrated with the original king and queen post trusses which were strengthened with steel plates in keeping with the design to recycle these features.
The design also required the construction of a subterranean room under the entrance wall way, the design was undertaken with reinforced concrete walls and roof and tied into the original masonry retaining walls which were given a drained condition and justified to the local authority without serious strengthening works.
The external areas required crib lock walls to be constructed to retain the sand based ground which interim retained the highway; we provided structural designs as well as general arrangements for construction.
In addition to our design brief we also organised the supply of all the oak beams and the manufacture and erection of the two oak framed carports.