Man Cave, Block or Timber?

[El Barto]

Hi all, I have moved to a house that used to have a steel framed/tin clad workshop mounted on a concrete slab. The slab measures just over 12x8 metres and is well over 18 inches thick, seen from the edges I can expose.

I have had a couple of different builders round for some advice, ball park quotes etc but they all want to go for a timber framed building with maybe one or two block courses on the slab.

Personally I would prefer a full block construction with traditional tiled roof on trusses. My longer term goal is to convert it to a dwelling, albeit a guest annexe/holiday let.

I see two options, the block and render build may be too much for the slab, or a timber "log lap"? construction with more than likely a shorter life expectancy - I stand to be corrected here...

What does everyone think, I appreciate there may be a risk with breaking the slab with over a thousand blocks added to the edges, even if I allow say 500mm from the edge, but the timber solution has me less confident of seeing me into retirement.

Cheers in advance.

 

[JohnD]

If the edges are 18" thick I would guess it is probably a thickened edge slab, intended to support walls.

Not my risk, though.

a relation had a large outbuilding rebuilt after a fire, and the timber quotes were higher than rendered block (it was too big for a prefab)

 

[El Barto]

Thanks Dave, coincidentally I had another local chap take a look today and he was talking about a combination of both, so a few courses of blocks, timber frame and cladded upper section then the original idea of trusses and tiles. Still not clear on the benefits other than speed of construction.
Hey-Ho I'll keep the updates and some pics as things take shape.

 

[MR M - DT]

18" is plenty for blocks.

 

[El Barto]

18" is plenty for blocks.

Thanks for the comment, so up to 2.4 metres to the eaves?

So decision is made, block construction but also need to understand the best place for the damp proof course, between the slab and first blocks or one block up, will there be any moisture seepage through the first block course if I do it the second way?

Then I'm thinking timber frame and insulation layer internally, skinned with ply.