Dear Jonno
I have a 9m x 25m steel shed on my property, which I would like to turn into a home. I would like to have the following rooms of these approximate sizes: a 36m2 lounge, 21m2 dining room, 30m2 main bedroom, 23m2 second bedroom, 12m2 third bedroom, two 8m2 bathrooms, 4m2 guest toilet, 36m2 study, 25m2 kitchen, and 12m2 scullery. Although these are the room sizes we would like, it will obviously depend on what can be fitted into the space. The lounge and dining- room areas can be open-plan.
I look forward to your suggestions as well as guidelines on how to finish the shed’s windows and doors.
Regards
Reg
Dear Reg
Thanks for the brief on converting your shed to a new home. While the room sizes are reasonably attainable, passages and wall thicknesses also come into play. A further factor in positioning the walls and windows would be the installation of vertical steel stanchions, from floor to roof height. In usual shed construction, these support stanchions are 4,5m to 6m in height and are spaced 4m to 6m apart. As your shed is 25m in length, I’ve estimated that the stanchions will have to be placed at 5m intervals.
The rooms and their sizes are shown taking this into account. The external wall will be built with cavity brickwork and envelope the steel stanchions. These can be built up to about 3m, with the rest of the wall up to roof height, (about 4,5m). The remaining 1,5m wall can be over-clad with fibre cement boarding.
The ceiling can be suspended horizontally from the steel roofing trusses over all the internal rooms. Doing this will create a void ceiling area beneath the steel roof that will temper thermal transmission to the room below. With a higher stanchion height and steeper roof pitch, you can even create an attic area.
The layout shown above can be flipped from left to right and orientated as you choose to accommodate the view, the approach or the sunlight.
Please let me have any further thoughts or suggestions and I will adjust the layout accordingly.
Best regards
Jonno
