Synthetic slates in pewter grey

Introducing Tapco imitation roof tiles – a great alternative to natural slate. Made from a recyclable blend of polypropylene and dolomite limestone the tiles are BBA certified and come with a 50 year guarantee. The numerous moulds ensure a unique random authentic look, just like real slate. They have excellent weathering characteristics and will not crack or curl and are UV stable which means the colour will not fade.

Tapco tiles are lightweight – 12 kgs per square metre, making them an ideal roofing system for log cabins with a roof pitch of 14 degrees upwards. They are easily cut with a fine toothed saw or disc cutter and are fixed to a battened roof with hammer and nails or a nail gun. The slates are marked with nailing and overlap marks and horizontal spacers making them easy to install.

A Keops log cabin with Tapco imitation slate roof tiles

Grab a copy of this weekend’s  “Express & Sunday Express” newspapers and you could win this wonderful Lugarde Leonie summerhouse worth £2,800. Measuring 2.5 metres in diameter this elegant octagonal garden building will look great in your garden. All you have to do is answer a simple question -

Q. In which year was the Beatles hit song Here comes the sun released?

• 1969
• 1964
• 1975

Win this fabulous Lugarde summerhouse

The Leonie features a glass door and two large windows, wooden floor, felt shingles in a choice of colour and either a decorative roof ball in chrome or brass or a weathercock or witch. The summerhouse is delivered in natural pine wood so you can use your imagination and paint it any colour of your choosing. For full specification visit our Lugarde Garden Buildings website. You can also request a brochure if you’re unlucky enough not to win!

Competition details and how to enter will be in the Express/Star newspapers April 28/29 2012.

£126k beach hut

Photo credit Denisons Estate Agents

Room for four...but no toilet!

Alternatively, you could choose a superb ‘Beach Hut’ from Keops and at just £3,085 you’ll still have lots of change from £126k! Ok, so your garden probably won’t have the great sea views but you could always get yourself some play sand and a kids paddling pool. Happy days!

'The Sanderlings' cabin from Keops

There are eight shed categories into which you can enter your pride and joy -

• Normal Shed
• Eco Shed
• Garden office
• Cabin/summerhouse
• Workshop studio
• Pub shed
• Tardis
• Unique

Dates are still to be finalised and so are the prizes! In the meantime, you can check out the competition so far at Readersheds.co.uk

Jon - Winner of Shed of the Year 2011, having a cup of tea!

Double gold winner Mary

Back in October last year, you may remember we built a fabulous log cabin to house triathlete Mary’s endless pool. Since then Mary’s training and hard work in the pool has really paid off resulting in double gold in the triathlon world championships in Beijing, China.

Mary took first place for her age group in the ITU Aquathlon World Championships taking just 43 minutes to complete a 2.5k run, a 1k swim and second 2.5k run. She won her second gold for the sprint triathlon – a 750m swim, 21.6k cycle and 5k run with a time of 1:22;24.

Congratulations, Mary!

Martin Goodall is a specialist planning lawyer with Keystone Law of 53 Davies Street, London W1K 5JH  (020 7152 6550).  His regular planning law blog can be read at http://planninglawblog.blogspot.com

“The argument is raging around some unwelcome development being carried on by someone’s neighbour in their back garden, and they were wondering what if anything they could do about it.

The subject of what development or other works a householder can and cannot carry out on their own property would take a book in itself and, if I can ever find the time to do so, I might well write just such a book. In the meantime, however, and looking at it from the point of view of the concerned neighbour, it may be helpful if I mention some of the constraints on householder developments.

I should stress that I am confining this note to free-standing buildings within the ‘curtilage’ which are permitted by Class E in Part 1 of the Second Schedule to the General Permitted Development Order (the ‘GPDO’), so these remarks do not apply to extensions and alterations of the house itself.

Perhaps the most important constraint on Permitted Development within this Class of Part 1 in the GPDO is the purpose for which the outbuilding is being erected. The wording of the Order is quite restrictive; it only permits the erection of such a building if it is “required for a purpose incidental to the enjoyment of the dwellinghouse as such”. The term ‘incidental’ as used here has been held to exclude purposes which are part of the primary residential use of the property, so a free-standing building to provide extra sleeping accommodation, extra living space, and/or a kitchen, etc. are not permitted by this part of the GPDO.

There is, however, one weakness in this rule. Provided the original purpose of the extra building was purely incidental to the enjoyment of the dwellinghouse, its later use as primary (but not separate) residential accommodation is not prevented. In order to demonstrate that the outbuilding had originally been erected for a strictly incidental purpose, I suggest that it would be necessary to show that it was actually used for that purpose when first built, and for some time thereafter. How long this period would have to be has never been settled, but I suggest that it would need to be for several months at the very least, if not a year or more.

So if a neighbour thinks that any building is being erected for a purpose which is not strictly incidental to the use of the house but is intended for some primary residential purpose, they should draw this to the attention of the local Council’s enforcement officer. Whether the Council will do anything about it is another matter, but certainly nothing will happen if they are not alerted to the situation.

The nature of the property or the area in which it is located may also affect the right to build within its ‘curtilage’. So, for example, if the house is a Listed Building, there is no right to develop within its curtilage at all. If the house is within a World Heritage Site, a National Park, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, or the Broads (which are all formal planning designations), the development permitted by Class E is limited to no more than 10 square metres in area if it is situated more than 20 metres from any wall of the house. Furthermore, in these areas, and also within a Conservation Area, the development must not be built at the side of the house.

Apart from these specific restrictions, there is a general limit on such development, which prohibits building on more than 50% of the total area of the curtilage (excluding the ground area of the original house), and no part of the building must be positioned forward of the principal elevation of the original house. The building must not have more than one storey, and its height must not exceed 4 metres in the case of a building with a dual-pitched roof, or 2.5 metres if it is within 2 metres of the boundary of the property. In any other case, the height must not exceed 3 metres, and the height of the eaves of the building (in all cases) must not exceed 2.5 metres.

This note is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to the subject, but was written in order briefly to explain the limitations on the outbuildings which can be built as permitted development under Class E of Part 1.

Anyone can apply for planning permission for larger buildings on their property, but the usual development management criteria would apply in such a case, and neighbours may object if they consider that the proposed development will adversely affect them.”

Martin also goes on to say,

“This issue really is a legal anomaly, and is one of the many aspects of planning law which lay people must find confusing, frustrating and even infuriating.  It can be a hidden trap for householders, who may not appreciate that there are limits as to the purpose for which a newly constructed outbuilding can be used, although in time that restriction will in fact disappear (subject to the outbuilding not being used as a separate dwelling).  Incidentally, there is judicial authority which (by analogy) supports the proposition that the initial use of the building for strictly ‘incidental’ purposes would have to be more than a merely token use, and would have to continue for some months (it has been suggested possibly for more than a year) before the outbuilding can then be used for primary residential purposes, such as additional sleeping accommodation, etc.  On the other hand, I dare say that many people get by simply by obeying the Eleventh Commandment (“Thou shalt not be found out.”) – if no-one complains, the planners will never know about it; it is only if you have jealous or resentful neighbours that you may have a problem.  The moral is to keep on good terms with your neighbours, and to keep them informed of your intentions and get their agreement or support for what you want to build if at all possible. Trouble is much more likely to arise where neighbours are taken by surprise by development next-door.”

© Martin Goodall.  This information is the view of the author Martin Goodall and is not a definitive source of legal information.

An absolute bargain

That’s right folks, this slightly used garden shed is up for grabs – get bidding quickly, you don’t want to miss out on this one! Click here for the full info.

A word of caution – we would advise viewing the shed before bidding as descriptions are not always accurate.

“Just to let you know that my first GP2 test went fantastically well. I was p5 and the car is just incredible. After such a good performance its clear that RSF will put me into the series in preparation for F1 in 2013.”

2011 GP2 Series Testing. Jerez, Spain. Thursday 29th October 2011.

The story so far…
James Calado is a prime British motor racing talent who is rated by many of the sport’s top pundits as a Formula 1 star of the future.

In 2011 he raced in GP3 with the crack French Lotus ART squad and ended the year as Vice-Champion. The immensely tough formula – along with GP2 – is a one-make support series for F1 in Europe.

Both are designed to pit the world’s best up-and-coming drivers against one another in readiness for the step up to the pinnacle of motorsport.

In a tightly-fought 16-race season that produced 11 different winners from the 30-strong grid, he secured six podium finishes, including one win, one pole position and two fastest laps.

The race record – including his innate ability to develop a front-running car – impressed both Lotus ART and many of the movers and shakers in the F1 paddock.

Future F1 star

Since graduating from karts to single-seaters in 2008, he has competed in 103 races racking up a total of 20 wins, 41 podiums, 20 pole positions and 20 fastest laps.

His impressive CV includes Vice-Championships in British Formula 3 International and Formula Renault UK.

He now aspires to graduate to GP2 in 2012 with Lotus ART, the most successful team in both GP2 and GP3.

Keops in a Place by the Sea

When shown a house with a large but very overgrown garden with an assortment of ramshackle sheds, her advice is to whip out the brochure and suggest they stick five log cabins on site with en suite bedrooms. She quite rightly points out that not only do Keops offer a huge choice with many options but our prices are very reasonable too!

If you’d like to see our old brochure in its starring role, you can see the Place by the Sea episode on YouTube – just fast forward to around 16 minutes in.

Alternatively if you’d like a copy of our lovely shiny new brochure click here to request your copy.

Floating cabin in Powell Lake

How would you like to live in this fabulous floating cabin? Margy and Wayne Lutz were committed city dwellers until they bought their floating cabin on Powell Lake, British Columbia in 2006. The two storey cabin measures 20 x 21 feet and sits on top of a cedar log floating raft measuring 40 x 40 feet. There are a couple more floating platforms which house the log store and Margy’s vegetable garden. The ground floor is mostly living space with two small bedrooms upstairs and they have recently added a bathroom extension with a compost toilet.

Margy and Wayne live in the cabin for 75% of the year and love watching the changing seasons on the lake. You can read much more about their fascinating life on the floating cabin on their Powell River Books Blog

It’s a bit like our Keops Duck Kennel but on a much larger scale!