How to assess a barn conversion
Build It’s heritage buildings expert Alan Tierney presents the key ways to establish if a barn could become your dream home
Alan Tierney reveals what you need to know to identify an agricultural structure’s true potential
Abarn conversion can present the opportunity to create a spectacular home with lots of character and large, airy spaces. But remember that these are non-standard buildings in locations that often are not adapted for convenient living and typically have a long history of agricultural use, abuse and neglect. Careful selection and assessment are essential before committing to a project, so over the course of this feature I’m breaking down the key considerations when checking if a barn conversion is viable.
Listed buildings
A fundamental consideration will be whether the barn is listed. If it is there will be considerable restrictions on how you can alter or adapt it for conversion into living accommodation. Usually the biggest issues with listed barns are the potential for new window openings, which tend to be very limited to start with. Another is the ability to extend the building to provide extra, or more flexible, space.
There are three grades of listing:
I, II* and II. The type will have an impact on what you will be allowed to do to the structure. A grade I listed barn will never be given consent for conversion; grade II* would have limited potential and severe restrictions; grade II listed barns are often converted, but potential will depend greatly on the nature of the building, why it is listed, its condition and past alterations.
It’s not always as easy as you might expect to know if a barn is listed. It might be included in the listing of the associated farmhouse as a curtilage structure. Unfortunately the law in this area can be difficult to interpret.
Protected areas
Barns are very often in protected regions, such as national parks, conservation areas or areas of outstanding natural beauty. These all have restrictions on development, which vary according to the nature of protection and local policy. It looks as though the proposed changes to planning legislation will retain, or even increase, these restrictions.
You also need to be aware of whether the barn is near to any of
these protected ‘assets’. If your plans would impact their setting then that would be a material consideration in any planning decision.
Location
Barns are often in inconvenient locations. Whether that’s in a very isolated field, away from roads and utilities, or in the middle of a rather busy and active farmyard.
Assess whether there is/can be suitable access. Is this dedicated or will it be shared with heavy farm vehicles? Will you still be able to get to the building in poor weather conditions? Is there safe, usable outside space to suit your needs?
Is the site connected to utilities and, if not, is it practical to make connections? How much will that cost? Is there potential for all or part of the provision to be off-grid? Would that suit your requirements?
Check how far the site is from local amenities, too. If something that you ideally wanted to be nearby isn’t, then would you make a compromise – and how is that likely to change over time (perhaps with children or advancing age)? Does that have a potential impact on end value?
All of the above factors will have a bearing on whether it is suitable for conversion and if the finished home would work for you and your household’s living requirements.
Design potential
Not all barns lend themselves to conversion. They were designed for specific agricultural purposes, so the size, layout or form of construction might be incompatible with domestic use. Furthermore, your specific accommodation needs and aspirations might not fit with the potential of a particular building.
As a starting point your design should seek to retain as much of the original building as possible. There are a number of reasons for this. The most fundamental is that the essence of a barn conversion is to create a home within a building that is still recognisable as a barn. If you lose the sense of it, you lose the whole point.
Barns are almost always to some degree historic buildings (listed or not). Retaining that history is an important obligation – if it’s listed it will be a requirement. There’s also a strong sustainability argument for retaining what is there rather than replacing. Unless the building is in a really bad condition, careful and well
informed retention and repair is likely to be much more cost-effective than wholesale replacement.
It’s essential for the barn to be capable of accommodating your requirements for comfortable living in terms of space (inside and out), layout and facilities. Your starting point will be balancing two sets of criteria: the potential of the building and your requirements. Of course, there will have to be some level of compromise between the two. The building is likely to be less flexible than you, so most of the adjusting will have to be on your side. At this stage it can be very tempting to be seduced by the dream of the project and lose focus on what you need to achieve. Too many compromises on either side will lead to an unsatisfactory home. If your needs don’t fit with the building, it’s not the right one for you.
Structure
Agricultural buildings were not usually built with living accommodation in mind. Although, some were originally houses that were later downgraded and isolated barns occasionally had ancillary accommodation. They were built for hard work so generally have a substantial basic structure; indeed, some monastic tithe barns are known to be amongst the finest buildings in the country. In most cases, any structural issues will be due to a long life rather than poor construction.
As agriculture has changed over the centuries, barns have had to adapt. Resulting changes to these structures can have a significant impact on their integrity. Even if it is fine as it stands, altered load paths – particularly in timber frames – might have implications for any changes you want to make during the conversion.
The ultimate outcome of changes to farming has been that many old barns have no practical purpose today. On the one hand this has made a large number available for potential conversion; but on the other, it has removed any incentive for proper care and maintenance. Few farmers can afford to look after fragile historic buildings that have no economic function. Unfortunately, the result of
this is an increasing amount of decay and deterioration to many barns.
Farmers’ repairs are notorious – generally bodged alterations to the structure of the building to keep it going for another season. However, these features are often remarkably serviceable and, if they are able to be retained, will last indefinitely, adding some interesting and quirky character to the finished conversion. Others amount to no more than a bit of timber tied up with baling twine and must be treated with caution.
Professional assessment
All of the factors discussed so far mean that a thorough understanding of the barn’s structure is vital before committing yourself to a purchase. Nasty surprises later on can be expensive and might well prevent you from doing what you plan.
It should be obvious that a standard survey won’t be sufficient. At the minimum you will need a detailed assessment by a specialist historic building surveyor and might well need to engage a structural engineer at this stage. It’s essential that they are familiar with this type of building. It’s just as important for them to be able to recognise what is sound as what is not. Advisors without the right experience will tend to be very defensive and specify far more intervention than is necessary.
This can lead to the removal of unacceptable amounts of perfectly good fabric, unnecessary expense and a very compromised result. It could also cause you to miss out on a perfectly viable opportunity.