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I used to find most customers had a beer budget but champagne taste, you need to knock them into line very quickly. I then did a reappraisal of my business and found customers with a champagne budget, loads better.

That is quite literally the Buck Rogers of sinks. Do you have any more info on it's constuction? One big trough?

Here are some other hopefully useful tips that can save you money without reducing the quality of your build. 1. put together a complete material list for the whole house and then add a resonable contingency - you can then send out this list to all your potential material suppliers, but sometimes you may need to separate out types of materials for specialist supplier - e.g. timber only merchant versus masonry. 2. When calculating materials, don't just go by lengths and area. Why? Because if you walk into a builders merchant and say you need 647 meters of 47x175 c24 carcassing, they'll likely chuck a load of timbers the same length, like 4.8 or 6 meters. This can end up really inefficient for your build and more expensive as sometimes longer length timber can be more expensive than the shorter ones per meter. Instead I suggest you sit down with a spreadsheet and calculate the lengths you need for each part of your build, including noggins etc. So for example, if you're building an intermediate floor at 400 centres with a span of 3.2 meters, a 3.6 meter length will give you the span and the noggin (you can see the potential wastage here if you're working with 4.8 or 6 meter lengths. You'll end up with something like a list of 32 @ 3.6m, 24 @ 4.8m, 28 @ 6m. Same thing with the flooring - lay it all out across the building rather than simply taking the square meter figure, you'll get a more accurate number of boards. 3. You draw down on the material list as your build progesses at that agree price. Sometimes the price may change simply due to timescale but you have a better starting point for that negotiation. It's time consuming but will save you money and will reduce waste. I filled less than half an 8 yard skip for the entire superstructure of the build and I've used thousands of meters of timber. And where we are skips cost a lot of money too! I completely agree with other comments about buying plant and machinery where you can. I bought a digger and small dumper and within a few months calculated than if I'd hired the same stuff it would have cost 3k more. I also sympathise with your frustration about estimating build costs. Neither my wife nor I could fathom this inability of anyone in the construction industry we spoke to to be able to predict the outcome build costs. Now I understand a bit more, it's in part due to the dysfunctional and inefficient way the UK construction industry works, including I think a signficant portion of the professionals associated with the industry. I've found that those per square meter figures are pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things and it seems costing is more down to licking the index finger and sticking it up there in the wind - but as has already been meantioned it's also down the building design, site location, specification etc. etc.. One things that caused us trouble was that finding local builders with the experience of working with the materials we chose were non-existent so suitable builders would have to travel some way which has a big impact of cost. With our build we'd assumed we could squeeze it in at about £1200/m2 but local prices meant we'd more likely be looking at around the 2k/m2 if not more ( we had one quote that was 2k/m2 to shell only!). If I get it in at the price I think I can manage, I will have build it myself for about 900 and that will likely include many sacrifices along the way in terms of spec.

What do you want to include in the costs? Do you have all the tools you are likely to need. Could easily spend several thousand if you need a lot to do it yourself. Are you going to use an architect for planning or building control. Are you going to include the cost of say a 100m2 terrace paved with Welsh slate. There are so many variables I don't think it is a good way of budgeting. On Buildhub you are comparing people who do it for a living with people who have never done it before with people on their fifth self build. Unfortunately you are not comparing apples with apples using cost/m2.

Interesting developments in the last week. While trying to figure out a way forward for my build as cheaply as possible I discovered a company that does SIPs and has just finished a slight larger house for a LOT less than the tender prices that shut me down last year (€375k). So my job this month is to crunch the numbers again, get a more formal quote from them and see if this is a runner. As always there are three factors I've to balance: Architects fees - the crowd I used before are brilliant but very expensive. I've a different Architect doing an analysis to see what he would charge to take over. Also the builder has their own Architect I'll approach to see if I can use them instead. Kit Home - There are two companies who work together and seem to deliver you a turnkey house - just move in the furniture. I'm a bit dubious how they do this for such a good price so will visit one of their builds if possible. I know they use PVC for windows and soffit/fascia so will see what spec of ASHP and MVHR they use and if these are of the cheaper variety or not once they return a spec I can look at. Bank - ah, the bank! Build cost + Arch fees + 10% contingency - I'll get funded max 80% (as a second time buyer) of this or 80% of the projected value of the finished house, whichever is less. I can see some creative accounting coming on here...! Plus my old house has to sell for enough to get me the equity I need - this is attached to the site (side garden) so need to sell before I draw down new mortgage. The builder uses SIPs, nothing against them, should work fine. I've a budget of €260K and their initial guesstimate was €275K so not far off. A more accurate quote is on the way and I'll see how much this goes up (!). Like the build triangle (quality, price, speed / good-quick-cheap) I've three legs that need to all function to get this over the line: Valuation of finished house based on location, spec and current market value - house prices are holding / still going up slightly so ok there so far. I need a good valuation though, got €350K last year but hope for detached I'll get a little more. Builders price for 2021 build - I'll have to pick apart the spec a bit and see what I can live with and what I might have to change but if I can get a decent fabric it might just work. The things I'd like to do might not be possible as this is right on my budget but at least it's a hands off build for the money, so I won't be working double jobs trying to do as much myself as possible. Architect - haven't found one willing to work with me yet, two turned me down, one is thinking about it and the original Architects are bloody expensive. Will see how this goes....I could pay them out of pocket but if their costs go into the costings submitted to the bank I have to prove I can afford them up front, probably looking at 20K just for them with all the reg required in ROI now. Anyway, should know more in a week but will line up other options in the meantime in case. Wish this post was about the build already but if this happens it's going to happen quick and I'm certain this is the best shot I'll get at it for a good while. One day I'll be sticking photos of the build up there and updating everyone as each stage goes up.

I went for a Blanco 1.5 with the half bit centralised as I wasn’t a fan of the type that was offset.

Just found this for anyone interested in a Buck Rogers sink: https://www.stainlessdirectuk.com/product/zen10-1100-options/

Barkeepers Friend powder is great on stainless steel sinks. Especially cheap ones from Wickes.....like I've got.....

We have a Caple 3415 sink. https://www.caple.co.uk/products/sinks-taps-2/sinks/stainless-steel-sinks/mode3415/ Small side to drain things into if you have a bowl of water already run. Fairly small kitchen sink though as not planning on washing up in the kitchen very often. Takes up less worktop space. Perfect size for what we need it for. Larger sink (Ikea) in the utility room for large oven trays and muddy trainers and handwashing. No photos in-situ as I would have to clean it first!

This was changed to two years, sect 35a building act 1984

Not forgetting loaded! ?

As recommended above we got an online estimator for our build. It was offered by our Builders Merchant (Ridgeons then and now part of Huws Gray) and they refunded the cost of it after we ordered a certain amount of stuff from them. It has been very useful especially as it comes in two formats. One is alphabetical and the other is in order of build. This version is so useful because we can see that once the materials start to be used for one part of the build you just look down the list and order the next lot of materials. For instance we are at the bricking up stage so the next materials on the list after bricks and blocks is Roof Trusses, then the felt and batten and fascias then the tiles. We have made a friend of a salesman at our local builders merchant. He warns us when certain materials need more notice than others due to shortages. He also knows the local tradesmen and will, when he can, recommend one. Another thing to do is, when a tradesman starts work, get chatting about the next stage and ask him/her for recommendations for the next trade needed. We have been so lucky with this as, probably the best bricklayer in the world, when working opposite us, asked if we were building a bungalow. When we answered in the affirmative he offered to quote. He does not want to work on houses anymore due to his age. He then recommended roofers and told us which ones to avoid. They have come to quote and have, in turn, recommended carpenters, scaffolders and solar panel installers/electricians that they trust to work with. Many of these people do not need to advertise and so are hard to find. We are not too far ahead of you due to finding a 4 inch water main slap bang underneath our proposed build when we were digging the foundations. It is illegal to build over them and so we had to pay to have it moved. There is a thread on here about the trials and tribulations.

Some pictures of my house on this thread - page 2.

just checked my 13th edition and he still has the model house for price references but the Case Study is his own self-build. I'd suggest the 13th edition (or latest) is always best to get for the few pounds saved by buying a second hand version

That olive will be fine. They come in different forms and brass or copper. This is what I do, right or wrong! -Clean the pipe well with wire wool. -Push pipe in -Smear of Jet Blue Plus where the pipe enters the fitting -Push olive into seat on fitting -Smear of Jet Blue Plus over the olive -Nut it up If the pipes clean up well you could use a Hep2O push fit for ease.

we were also advised to store hay / straw in ours, which we did as we need it anyway. odd what the LPA will fall for, anyone who knew about horses would have spotted straight away that was what it was used for, tie rings, chewed doors, secure room (used for tack), showjumps (covered by tarp), but luckily none of this was spotted. I thought we had removed everything, but it wasn't until we cleared it that I noticed these sort of things.

Show us then!!! ? I love seeing what others have done.

The house builders bible does a good chapter on this. When you build, you're paying for walls to enclose a space, more wall more cost. A 10m square encloses 100m2 of area for 40m of wall. A 20x5 rectangle encloses the same area for 50m of wall. The wall/space ratio gets worse when you have L shaped buildings etc. Following the same logic, two stories is more efficient than one. Gable end walls allow rooms in roof etc. Expanses of glass look nice on plan but are expensive, drive up the cost of the rest of the fabric (has to compensate for the less efficient insulation) and can lead to overheating in summer. Good design can give you equivalent light and views but for less glass - e.g. we have some very neat vertical & horizontal slot windows.

Also depends on your location in the UK and proximity to decent trades. You’re in East Anglia, so you won’t be too affected by the development bubbles in areas like the North West and South East driving up labour prices, but may be restricted on the trades you can get - taking a “traditional” route of brick and block and widening the cavity to 175mm for better insulation levels; aiming for MVHR and semi passiv but doing the airtight detail yourself; using an attic truss but getting deeper rafters for lots of insulation; all things that wouldn’t be an issue for a set of traditional builders but would mean you get the upgraded fabric but without big additional costs.

I completely understand what you're saying. It's just trying to gauge what others that have done it think we might achieve with the description I gave above. I'm trying to estimate within a wide parameter, perhaps really the question I'm looking to answer is if it's a risk that we might exceed £2000/m2, or if there's a chance to build for around £1500/m2, which it looks like we probably can. I know a lot of this will rely on us being smart, we are bound to win some and lose some, but it's the average I'm worried about.

Line Out is a fixed level output. you would use that with a proper surround sound system that has it's own volume control. Using the headphone out, the level is variable using the tv's own volume control on it's own remote control. Hint: I use a sky remote control to operate my tv as that can be programmed to control the tv AND the surround sound system so I can do everything with one remote rather than 2 or more.

Yep I’ve got 9 and 12 here and it’s just price changes by the looks of it (and fixing the awful index...!!) so buying the latest would be good value if he’s brought it up to date. @Mrsrc what stage of plans are you at ..? Would be worth spending £200 on getting the whole lot costed by one of the online estimators and then you have a starting point for understanding what you’re asking for pricing for. It’s about £100 plus VAT and will give you a reasonable idea of what to expect. Just use it as a guide to start with, and you can search out the best pricing yourself if you have the time to do this. That is where you save the most money ..!! It is also worth understanding what materials come in what quantities - right the way up to what a “lorry load” looks like. I’ve seen people buy 20 bags limestone (MoT1) in bulk bags for £35 a bag, when a 16t tipper was £14/t or less than half the price. Same with blocks and bricks, if you have space then taking a full artic load of 22 packs can be cheaper than by the pack from the BM. Lots to consider but also there is lots of help here if you ask - everyone has been in the first build boat before !

Use standard board everywhere unless it’s in a wet/damp room and then use Moisture Resistant board (usually green). Your top skim for boards is 3mm of either board finish or multi finish plaster.

That's something I just do not understand. Our system supply runs at 30% all the time and is not audible even with my ear next to the vent. The extract runs at 45% all the time and is audible but only in those rooms with an extract vent. I fitted an attenuator to the supply side but didn't to the extract side as I didn't think it was worth it, but with hindsight I might have fitted one. I wouldn't dream of reducing the ventilation at night.

One thing I did notice is your batons are out of date now A gypliner system will give you far better soundproofing and is much quicker to install Also you could leave the plaster in place if you didn’t fancy knocking it all off

Hello Marcel, I have stayed in a few nice guest houses that have had MVHR installed (new builds and retro-fits) and when staying at these places I tend to take my trusty CO2 monitor just to see how things preform. With me and the wife sleeping in these rooms we have found that at the start of the night when we haven't been in the room for ages the ppm start off at about 500. Then pretty soon once we have nodded off to sleep the ppm raise up to just under the 1,000 ppm mark and hover around there till breakfast time. When I spoke to the owners though they did say they ran their systems at 20% or even at 10% capacity overnight to keep the noise levels down when sleeping, which I did furrow my brows a little at ? I've just fitted a single-room MVHR fan into our main bathroom as an interim measure until the time is right to do a deep refurb on my own place. I'm not too impressed with the single-room MVHR so far but it's only been 5 nights and maybe I'm expecting to much for a £300 fan but I feel my own thread brewing ? Best of luck with it all, DD.

Pick up a copy of the house builders bible. Should give you a good understanding of what’s required. (other books are available)

My first self build plot was alongside an experienced self-builder. He looked after me and I learned from him. He was about two weeks in front of me. Recoveringbuilder is quite right - you need a great deal of committment. Any of your family members in the building trade - if so talk to them.

Labour Labour Labour Without any doubt We also bought materials at good prices Where we could Kept the professional fees down to a minimum We where very lucky with Conections All in the same place 750 810 1150 Though other costs where going to be high 750 tons of much to move and pay for leveling the site prior to starting Tree roots meant deep foundation 100 cube of concrete plus B&B Planners insisting on more than thirty sash windows My wife choosing the most expensive Italian floor tiles (160 m2) and 17 on a German Kitchen Saved four k fitting it myself My wife and myself slated the roofs We returned just over a thousand warped slates If we had brought someone in They would have chucked these off the scaffold No chance of taking them back for a refund No one will look after your money better than yourself

Yes, ignore your neighbour ..!! What he is describing is poor construction practices not the issue with heavy tiles - that could happen on any roof if you only loaded one side of the trusses. The whole point you load out a roof in it entirety and do both sides at the same time (even if just loading out not laying ) it to keep the weight on the roof even as it goes up.

18,000 tiles? Sounds like rather a lot...60 tiles per sq metere laid at a 4 - 4.5 inch gauge (a tighter gauge with a shallower pitch). The manufacturer should specify the weight of the tiles, with that its possible to work how much weight is roughly exerted through each rafter (or truss) and per meter of wall plate depending on your desired measurement. I would have thought its only worth worrying about the weight of the tiles your buying if you had a shallow pitch and no truss.

Hi Duece22 It would be worth posting a loft plan. I'm wondering why the steels are in tandem? For the self builder who is doing a one off project then maybe it's worth looking at the bigger picture. You may on first appearance have say an 20 -30% extra steel weight. Take a self build rate for beams / UC sections with not a lot of holes, welding (shot blasted and primed) at £ 3000.00 per tonne delivered (Westen Isles excluded!) to be on the safe side. While the steel may seem heavy they can be simple to install. If in a rural area your local farmer will come with a telehandler and lift them in for you. If you are DIY hands on then you can lift them with a chain hoist, or just lift one end a little bit at a time .. story for another day. UCs (often called column sections) are mainly intended to carry vertical loads, thus they are more squat.. they have a thicker web than a UB ..universal beam that is mainly intended to carry bending forces.. like a floor joist. However, you often see them used where you need to try and keep the floor thickness down say. Yes, you have a heavier steel section which costs a bit more as it is heavier. They key here is to not make it too complex. Yes, you may save on steel weight if you look to value engineer just the steel but as you make it more complex you reduce you options on the amount of contractors that are able to take the job on, or they add an uplift which more than offsets the steel savings. Duece, depending on your loft layout you could introduce a steel newal post at the stairs.. but the stairs look like a key feature... almost free standing and making a statement. Also that post and other load bearing walls would need foundations. If you take skilled labour at £ 900.00 to 1100.00 a week you can see how a contactor who may be pricing will just say... This is the 10th job I have priced that this week, I'll add a "couple of grand" to cover me.. as the beams now are slim, fancy connections and so on. I know it seems rough but go for simple stupid. You could look at designing the roof / loft so that you hang the structure below from it. This is technique used often.. but it adds complexity and introduces buildability issues that your local builder may be less familiar with. All the best.

Do you need the inline volume control? If not just grab a couple of 3.5mm jack to jack cables and ditch that thing. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zerist-Braided-Premium-Auxiliary-Smartphones/dp/B07SZT58P1

@SuperJohnG I must confess to not reading all the maths in great detail, but it looks to me like the heat loss numbers aren't too far out. The house ground floor area isn't too different to mine and the construction is comparible, and so is the heat loss. I too agree with @SteamyTea that the infitration losses dominate at least in the model. This is why the inside of my house is beginning to look like a very untidy satellite factory. The model is of heat loss. If you aim to just service this loss, then there's no scope in the system to change the temperature of the house at anything other than a snails pace. Imagine the house at say 18 degrees, and you want it at 20 when it is at your worst case design temperature, then the heat input will mostly be offsetting the losses and not acting to change the temperature. My rule of thumb was to double the energy required to hold a steady temperature in the worst expected case, so in your case something of the order of 8kW. I should point out that my "as designed" SAP calculation says will boil everyone in the house unless it's like Siberia outside. I remain unconvinced of this.

This was the notice I put up removing the implied right to access to our site by the council: Notice removal of implied rights - blanked.pdf This is an excerpt from the VOA guidance that may be useful: Excerpt from Valuation Office Agency guidance.pdf And these are some examples of case law regarding when a building becomes a rateable hereditamant (which is has to be before it can go on the list): Porter vs Trustees of Gladman Sipps.pdf RGM vs Speight.pdf

All done - just need to keep cars off it until we get the entrances paved next week. Then I can render wall, hang gates, plant hedge, turf front etc... I keep telling myself that we’re almost done ?

@Russdl - I’ll step out at this point and let the master of over engineering comment as I’m sure he could knock you something up or do something for you in CAD to far exceed the requirements ... @Onoff are you there ..??

? Thanks @PeterW I always like to find complicated solutions to simple problems so that is way too straight forward for me, aside from that, it doesn't seem to do the 90° turn that I'll need. And no little shelve underneath for spare filters - or something.

Most decent 90o bends are 2x 45’s back to back in one piece.

You clearly have the advantage of serial scaled projects. I approached our build in the same way that I would have approached projects I used to manage in a large firm, which mirros exactly what you suggest. However, I've found that if you're building a one-off, which suppliers easily sniff out in discussions, they may not give two hoots what they've previously quoted (unless you buy within the quote window). My architect warned about this - as an architect he got better responses from some companies than I did because they're after the repeat business. For example, I've had several suppliers hike their prices when I came to ordering. I often wonder whether they do this because they know you're committed at that point. Here are some examples: Insulation: price for ground floor wall insulation originally quoted at just over £42/square meter for the full system at order the proforma invoice came to £71/square meter (maybe they were hoping I wouldn't notice). The company refused to negotiate. Roof cover : Original price at just 4300, wanted over 12000 at order then reduced is to just over 8k Windows: went from 22k to 29k even with significant reduction in glazed area as we had to reduce this due 'overglazing.' I've also experienced the wonderful tactic of the builders merchants to give you a good welcome discount only to follow up with awful prices worse than the local diy centres. And be warned if you want something not on your initial materials list you'll have to haggle for each item. That's not to say I haven't managed some major discounts by finding the right supplier and doing the negotiation. Even tricks like not buying throught a supplier's website but instead picking up the phone to speak to someone - many times I've received discounts of up to 30-50% on the web price. Now that I've got some building experience under my belt, when reps ask me I always tell them I'm a developer rather than self-builder. I've even registered a new domain name so I have an email that looks like a company. As I'm self employed, it's also allowed me to order direct from suppliers who don't deal direct with the public. This can save some pretty pennies too. All in all, I've found it to be like one big hustle and not surpised so many trades simply use Wickes and B&Q.

A farmer around here had a barn that hadn't been used for agricultural purposes on the dates required for Part Q. So he took the modern door off put a straw bale in the entrance took a picture and said it had been used for storing fertilizer. It's now been converted to offices.

Hi Alan. I'm in county Durham too. I'm a complete novice so you may regret making yourself known to me! ? ?

The temptation to hit someone when they ask 'when are you moving in' is getting stronger by the day. Its all about hours. We need more. Its great when bits get done and you never have to go back to them! I might even do a blog when its done - a sort of retro one...