What we build
Farm buildings, stores and dairy units
Laikipia and Meru are farming counties, and a working farm needs buildings that earn their keep. Grain and input stores, dairy units, machinery sheds, workshops and staff housing.
Built for what actually happens in them
A store that a lorry cannot back into is a store that costs money every week. So is a dairy floor that does not drain, or a workshop with a door too narrow for the tractor.
We ask how the building is used before we draw it. Where the vehicles come from, what gets carried by hand, where water goes when the floor is washed and what happens when it rains for a fortnight.
- Floors laid to fall, with drainage that can be cleaned
- Openings sized for the machinery you actually own
- Ventilation, because stored produce and livestock both need it
- Roof water harvested rather than dumped at the wall
Questions we get asked
- Do farm buildings need county approval?
- Usually yes, though the requirements are lighter than for a dwelling. Larger structures and anything involving livestock effluent or water abstraction attract more scrutiny. We check with the county before we start.
Also worth reading
Annexes, DSQ and staff housing
The building that goes up second is usually the one nobody planned for. A DSQ, a granny flat for parents, a home office or housing for farm staff, all built on a plot that already has a house on it.
Renovations and extensions
Half the calls we get are not about a new house. They are about a house that needs more room, a house that was built badly, or a house that ran out of money at roof level and has been sitting open for two years.
Planning farm buildings?
Tell us the plot and roughly what you have in mind. We will come and look, then give you an itemised figure and a programme.