Self Building two in North Wiltshire

Another decent week.  Is this all being done on a price?  Looks like it will be a high one!

Yes this is a fixed price Groundworks plus drainage contract with a specialist contractor. We have been talking to the contractor for over 5 years, at that point we were going to go with Weber Haus (the Euro put paid to that idea!) and he does a lot of the GW for all the German OSM's. Weber Haus have used him for 10 years plus and would not use anyone else. He is happy and able to work to the tolerance the Germans ask for (about 5mm!) and comes highly recommended. This for him is not a big job - hate to see bigger. So yes we are paying top dollar, and I am sure we could have gone cheaper (or DIY!!!! ) but the quality  and knowledge is absolutely top notch. I heard some advice at one of the shows that was 'work with the best possible people you can afford' - we can just about afford this and so far he is proving to be the best. As a fixed price contract, as long as you dont have hard deadlines, it doesn't matter if there are weather delays, but as you can see they are cracking on.

 

Also worth considering that we would  likely have been on really deep trench fill foundations (or piles and ringbeam) for a more traditional foundation design; expensive  and a pile of unknown risk. Raft foundations btw dont work well on sloped sites! (for some reason MBC declined to offer their brilliant raft foundation solution). Building the way we have adds some cost but takes a lot of the risk out (if you dig that deep!!!) and gives us two houses on the plot and lots of additional basement space. The rule of thumb is that the basement floor space will cost you per m2 'about the same' as the upper floors - but you get the foundations as a bi product. So then its down to how much space you want and can afford. Given we had a height restriction of no more than the existing bungalow we couldn't go upwards, which left outwards or downwards. Outwards wouldn't have allowed two houses on the plot easily due to planning and site restrictions (we tried!). So we went downwards, which works well with the sloped site. Certainly not the route for everyone, or for a cost sensitive DIY build (I couldn't imagine doing this as a DIY or even PM + Subcontract project like so many brave souls on this board seem to do), but as with all self-build you get to choose exactly what route you want to go down (or 'choose your brand of insanity'). Though were that route takes you is a different story........As they say 'its a journey'.

Great to read this - I'm just planning the GW & foundations for our project at the moment so it is super helpful! Will look at movie as soon as I get to a bigger screen than my mobile! Mine is a replacement for a 1930s house also built on a slope. Current house has no damp (good free-draining compacted sand/sandstone), so like you, feels like the new ways of working are adding in a lot of cost for marginal benefit - all helps the economy go round I suppose!