Outbuildings on your plot in Batumi

We build outbuildings on plots in Batumi for a specific job: a store for garden tools, a workshop, a pump room for the borehole with a water heater and filters, a log store, or a shed for everything that shouldn't be kept in the house. The job decides the floor, the heating, the water and drainage, the number of sockets and the ventilation. So first we agree what will be stored and what will be running inside, and only then choose the material.

Which outbuildings we build and how they differ

A single 3×4 m building often combines a storeroom and a pump room. Then we separate the technical part with a partition and a door: the pump needs a dry, warm corner with a floor drain, and a lawnmower with a can of petrol has no business next to its electrics.

What we build with: block, frame or a prefabricated cabin

We build an outbuilding in block when it has to last as long as the house and look of a piece with it: the same facade, the same roof. Aerated concrete or pumice blocks are rendered on the outside. For an unheated shed foam concrete blocks will also do, if the batch comes with test reports: where they are appropriate and what they need is explained on the page about foam concrete buildings.

A framed outbuilding of steel sections or timber, clad in profiled metal sheeting or sandwich panels, goes up twice as fast and costs noticeably less. By the sea metal cladding will need inspecting, and a timber frame has to be kept off the ground. A prefabricated cabin made of insulated panels arrives ready-made, and a truck-mounted crane sets it on prepared foundations in a single day. It works as a site cabin during construction, a storeroom or a security hut, but the crane truck has to be able to reach the spot where it will stand.

Foundations and floor

Under a block outbuilding we lay a shallow strip foundation or a slab, and under a frame or a cabin more often concrete piers or screw piles, depending on the ground. We set the floor level higher than the yard: on a low-lying plot water stands for hours after a downpour, and a shed level with the ground collects it inside. There is waterproofing under the floor, and at the door a gentle ramp instead of a high threshold, so that you can wheel in a barrow or a lawnmower.

In a pump room or plant room the floor is concrete, with a fall towards a floor drain. The water heater's relief valve drips as the water heats up, and flushing a filter also produces water, which has to go into a drain, not under the wall. If there is nowhere to connect a floor drain, we make a sump from which the water is pumped out.

Pump room, water heater and plant room

With a surface pump, we put the pump room closer to the well or borehole: the shorter the suction line, the more reliably the pump draws water. If the pump is submersible and sits in the borehole itself, the pump room holds the pressure tank, the controls and the filters, and there is more freedom in choosing its location. We assemble the equipment with a pressure gauge and valves, so that any part of it can be removed without draining the whole system.

Which water filters you need is decided from an analysis of the borehole water. A surface pump can be heard, so we turn the door of the building away from the bedrooms and the guest terrace.

An electric water heater in a separate building frees up space in the house, but the hot water then has to be run along an insulated pipe, and over a long run it has time to cool. A gas boiler is put there only with the agreement of the gas company: the gas company connects the gas, and we don't touch the gas pipe. If the house stands empty in winter, the pump room is drained before you leave, following the procedure for seasonal winterising.

Workshop and storeroom: lighting, sockets, ventilation

A workshop with a saw, planer or welder needs a circuit with spare capacity, so we size the cable from the house for the most powerful tool together with the lighting, and put a small consumer unit with circuit breakers and an RCD by the entrance. Sockets above the workbench go at worktop height, in several groups, so that the saw and the vacuum cleaner don't trip the lighting. If the machines are three-phase, we check in advance whether the house supply has three phases: adding them later takes longer than laying the cable.

An uninsulated metal building drips from the ceiling: at night the profiled sheet cools down, moist air condenses on it in drops, and they fall onto the workbench and the shelves. So we use profiled sheeting with an anti-condensation layer on the underside or insulate the walls and roof, and in any outbuilding we put an air inlet low down and an extract under the roof. In a workshop where things are sanded and painted, we add an extractor fan, and the insulation is non-combustible mineral wool.

Log store

In Batumi's humid air firewood dries slowly, and a load delivered in autumn is often still damp by winter. So it is convenient to divide a log store into two bays: in one the new load dries, and from the other you take last year's wood. We put it in a well-ventilated spot, with the long side across the wind, and make the widest roof overhang on the side driving rain comes from.

We don't build a log store against the wall of the house or the bathhouse: a woodpile by a chimney or a window is dangerous if a spark flies, and it also keeps damp and insects against the wall. We choose a spot by the bathhouse or the barbecue so that the firewood is a few steps away but out of reach of the fire.

Where to put an outbuilding and what documents you need

We put an outbuilding where it is easy to reach with a wheelbarrow and to run a cable to, but where it doesn't block the view from the house or stand in the path of water coming down the slope. A shed or workshop may need only a notification, or it may need a permit: this is decided by the class of structure, which is covered in detail on the page about construction in Batumi. We take the setback from the neighbour's fence and from the building line from the registry extract and the zoning rules, and these questions are handled by our architect and our partner lawyer.

How much outbuildings on a plot cost in Batumi

A turnkey 3×4 m block outbuilding costs from 18,600 to 24,000 ₾. The price includes the foundations and floor, the walls, the roof, a door and a window, the exterior finish, lighting and sockets, and a shell like this works as a storeroom, workshop or pump room. A framed building of the same size in steel or timber, clad in profiled metal sheeting or sandwich panels, costs from 10,800 ₾. An insulated prefabricated cabin also costs from 10,800 ₾, plus delivery by truck-mounted crane and installation, from 1,740 to 3,000 ₾.

Pump room equipment is priced separately: the pump, pressure tank, filters and pipework cost from 5,700 to 8,400 ₾. Also priced separately are the cable run from the house, from 69 ₾ per linear metre in a trench, water and drainage, shelving and interior finishing. A heated pump room and a workshop with a high-capacity circuit cost more; a frame instead of masonry costs less. From photos of the spot and a description of what you need, we'll send a preliminary estimate within 24 hours on business days, and the final cost is set on the basis of the design, after a visit to the plot and once the estimate is agreed.