"Moderninsing" barn - who should I ask first?

[zunetunes]

Our house (c1890's we think -could be earlier) is built onto an earlier smallish barn of unknown age. It has had all sorts of changes over the years - holes knocked in walls with inadequate wooden lintels, doorways blocked up, floor levels changed, re roofed at a guess 30 years ago etc.
We're considering what to do with it:
leave it as a junk area
upgrade it to a camping barn
upgrade it to a garden room
upgrade it to holiday let
knock through from the house to use it as living area
turn it into a granny flat
Loads of options but we need to know what is viable. If all the above are nonstarters (apart from leaving it as junk area) we don't want to have spent a load of unnecesary money finding out!
So, the question is, who to ask first - builder? surveyor? architect? local planning office? uncle tom cobbly?

 

[Penners]

It depends what your question is.

If you want to know what you can do with the building from a layout and usage point-of-view, ask an architect.

If you want to know whether the building is structurally up to the job that you want it to do, ask a structural engineer.

If you want to know whether you'd be allowed to change the use of the barn into domestic living space, ask your planning department (if you're listed, ask the Conservation Officer).

 

[middi]

Good pointers from Penners.

Finally, it must be you to decide how best can the " barn " serve your purpose and, initially, work on that option.