How we successfully connected a barn style kit home to an original house to extend the space

This project, northwest of the Shoalhaven River in NSW, showcases just how easy it can be to extend your living space using a barn-style kit home.

The Southern Highlands has become a popular region in NSW for couples and families to settle and make a homestead. Despite land size being larger than urban blocks in major cities, local residents in the region are still looking at innovative ways to enhance their living space.

In this case, a contemporary barn-style kit home was designed and constructed to adjoin the client’s existing freestanding 3-bedroom single-level house. The project was completed in consultation with a builder, certifier, and professional installers, demonstrating how kit homes can offer an efficient solution for expanding living areas without extensive renovations.

Thanks to the knowledgeable team at Greenspan, an adjoining atrium formed an essential yet seamless connection between the main dwelling and the kit cabin. Featuring a fully functional kitchen, living room and dining area, the Cedarspan kit home shed added an extra 60m² of space while also extending onto 10.8 × 1.87m elevated verandah decking. 

The Cedarspan 30C60 house kit, measuring 10.8 x 5.6m, boasts a 35° pitch Cathedral roof – a classic rural barn shed home feature that provides uninterrupted ceiling space throughout, fulfilling the customer’s vision.

The barn’s Colorbond® roof in Woodland Grey is highly durable in all kinds of weather while the board and batten cladding is known to be extremely robust to suit Australian conditions.

Featuring 2.4m high internal walls, the entire structure was constructed on an elevated timber floor system complete with piers and concrete pads to meet the floor level of the existing house.

The client chose powder-coated windows and doors with white architraves and painted the exterior cladding in dark grey for a modern look. With the addition of decking and landscaping, the flat-pack cabin was completed with a high-end architectural aesthetic.

To comply with local council, site plans, floor plans, elevation plans and drawings were supplied to the client to form part of the development application. To meet necessary development consent conditions they were subsequently modified as needed. A BASIX certificate was issued for energy and water efficiency fittings, insulation and glazing; items within the barn-style kit home that were customised specifically to meet council requirements. 

Overall, the project ran smoothly, from initial consultation through to design, planning application, delivery and installation. Given Greenspan’s extensive experience in manufacturing prefab cabins – almost 50 years, in fact – no stone was left unturned and yet another beautiful Cedarspan cabin was successfully created.

It’s fast and easy to get your own personalisable, backyard cabana, garden room or shed with a PreCrafted building from Greenspan.