HIGH POINT:
“I really enjoyed landscaping the site after the house was built and seeing how it all pulled together as a whole. I like the fact that I've got a house and garden which was designed exactly to suit my lifestyle, but which is flexible enough to suit anyone who might want to move here in the future.”
granny flat or a teenager’s den. I was keen to create spaces that could be multi-functional.” The site includes 26 trees with protection
orders on them so Charlie had to make sure they would not be affected by the build – including an unusual five-stem holly tree right in the middle of the land. Charlie off-set the house so that most of the
garden – with the protected trees – remained to the left of it, leaving him a band of land to the right of the house for a decked terrace, hot tub and boundary planting. The build began with the excavation of the
site. It was estimated that around 300 tons of soil would have to be moved off-site to create the base for the foundations, but the calculation was way off the mark. “In the end we had to remove 1,600 tons,”
says Charlie. “There was a conveyor belt of five wide-load wagons taking away the soil and it cost £20,000 just to dig out the area for the foundations, clear the site and get the footings in. It was a bit of stinger. That first phase took a
CHARLIE SAYS HE “DIDN’T HOLD BACK” – EVERY ROOM IN THE HOUSE WAS DECORATED TO SUIT HIS TASTES
month from start to finish.” The logistics of the site were also challenging.
There is a figure of eight drive around the neigh- bouring houses and Charlie had to ensure that there was access for local residents at all times. “I was in touch with the neighbours at each stage to make sure they were happy,” says Charlie. “After all, I was going to be living next to them – I didn’t want to cause any upsets. When there are lorries coming and going and a big crane on-site you have to consider the impact they might have on other people” Charlie wanted the back of the house to be
set right against the sheer side of the hill, so the area was dug out as far back as possible and a retaining wall built in a U-shape to form a wall that would shore up the land and form the back of the property. The wall is about 45ft wide to the back and extended into walls at right angles that form the basement area. They are built of three-skin con- crete reinforced with steel bars, and tanked to make them waterproof.
Continued on page 23... selfbuilder & homemaker
www.sbhonline.co.uk
I always build to the highest spec, but when you manage your own build you can fine tune things as you go along and stay in control of every aspect of the process –Charlie Walker
21
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68