Quote:
Originally Posted by flick
Hi everyone,
I am about to embark on building my own ROR obs and I'm currently in the planning stage. I'm planning an obs room with 1 pier and a warm room with 1 desk and shelving for storage of astronomy gear.
The dream, before looking into council approval, was a 3mx6m concrete slab with the entire roof rolling back over a water tank behind the slab. Half obs, half warm room/storage.
Since looking into it I have discovered that I can only get away with 10m2 structure without council approval. So my questions are:
1/ Does the land directly underneath the posts that will support the roof in the rolled off position count as the structure? I'm hoping if I place a watertank there then they won't count that part as structure if I am unlucky enough to get audited.
2/What does everybody register their structure as? I am awaiting a call back from a private certifier, I was planning on calling it a shed.
3/ For those that got their obs certified, did you need to get plans drawn up?
4/ Does anybody have any links to helpful resources for the build? I have run through most of the threads on this forum (some amazing structures there!) and I also have John Hicks "Building a roll-off roof observatory" book on the way to help.
Thanks for the help! I'll be sure to post some progress pictures once a shovel hits the dirt.
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Probably a bit late to the conversation Stefan, but for what it's worth, you need to maintain 900mm from a side boundary to meet fire separation requirements under the National Construction Code. That being said, local authorities and the Queensland Development Code have additional setback requirements - generally for a normal suburban block, minimum side boundary setbacks are 1.5m for structures up to 4.5m high, and 2m for structure 4.5m and above. Closer than this, and you'd need to apply for a siting variation/relaxation from your local council, which normally involves getting your neighbours to sign off that they're OK with it. As stated by others, anything under 10m is probably do-able without approval, but anything larger than this will require approval through a certifier, who will normally require both architectural plans and structural engineering for the slab/footings/framing. If it is a kit structure, the manufacturer would normally provide the relevant documentation required for approval. A structure like a shed/observatory would be classed as a 10a non-habitable structure (shed, carport, garage, etc). I'm not sure if the certifier needs to call it a specific name, or just a generic "Class 10a Structure" on any approval you may want to get, that way you can use it for whatever non-habitable purpose you want. Good luck!