Leaderboard

After so much stress for so long, I'd forgotten what it felt like to enjoy this self build. I've not felt joy in it since the first day of raising the frame. After more than a year I felt it again and am compelled to post. It isn't done, but I can see it'll eventually be a home.

Found this on our land when working one day. Originally it was paved over to create an area to operate the hand pump of which you can see the wall attachment in the last photo. After quite a bit of uncovering the paving (soil and debris) I realised I was standing on top of a large hole!! The suction tube was still in the hole and I managed to get it out by lifting and wedging in the wall as I withdrew it. I have now continued the wall up and will fit this piece of metal grid when I have shaped it. It is a lovely thing and is about 6/7 metres deep.

That's a bit like saying "in 1890 my site was a saw mill, Can I re open the saw mill?" The answer would be no, it has since had a change of use to dwelling. And I think the "replacement dwelling" rule requires there still to be a dwelling to replace, not some lines on an old map. But it is of interesting to look at all the old maps and see what was there before. There cannot be much land that has never had something on it.

Try MPC Services in Heanor for the treatment tank. Not much you need a consultant for tbh - water flows down hill, and it need to go somewhere ... shouldn’t be difficult to DIY.

Thanks all Solid wood due to us wanting a continuous seam of wood from floor through to the stairs. We got wind of a timberyard that specialises in reclaimed wood via some other fellow self-builders. Very affordable approach to our desire for a natural floor upstairs. Cost less than engineered wood even. Went to see them and by chance saw some ash offcuts they had from another job. Near perfect match for the windows and just the right amount of pattern in it. Did a 180 and went for new wood rather than reclaimed as a consequence. Exceeded budget, but worth it. Polish team (UK resident) and ash imported from there too. Some of the best trades I've had period.

For us Planning Services - water, electricity Access Site clearance Foundation/Drainage Ground floor Walls Trusses Windows Roof Insulation External skin 1st fix Outside painting Plasterboard Taping/filing Stove Stairs Internal Painting Flooring/skirting, doors Treatment tank/landscaping Kitchen/Bathroom I work on a subcontractor basis and supply materials. Not a tradesmen or that good at DIY. Just done labouring, painting and fairy easy jobs. I have very little interested in m2 cost just to keen to keep my overall monthly mortgage/utility cost to a minimum. As @SuperJohnG mentioned first step for you is to go on Amazon and buy the home builders bible. I keep a blog here that documents the different stages.

I got mine from my local Buildbase - cheaper than any internet price remarkably! I have an account so maybe that helps.

I run a plastering company I dot and dabbed my build I would say 95% of my internal business Is D&D or metal frame 20 years ago it was the other way round Up and till recently we would wet plaster communal areas in schools and offices Many in projection plaster But now there is several types of high impact boards that will do a better job Wet plaster will take longer to dry out and cost more But some still want it We have recently competed a synagogue in North Manchester Using sand lime Its down to choice

Someone's cast-off shower made its way above my garage sink, does the job.

Yes Jewsons do cash sales. I only opened a trade account with them when they started charging for delivery for orders under £100 to non account holders. They do self builder accounts, you don't have to be a tradesman.

Jewsons, but other merchants stock them. Actually they don't stock them, they get them to order. Don't go to the "bathroom showrooms" they will charge you about twice as much.

Multipanel is one make you will find recommended here, it is the one I am using. I have applied them over old but sound tiles before, but it is probably better to strip the tiles off. you want to be really really sure they are sound if you do over sheet.

There is a concept of a particular use being abandoned. In the context of a derelict house it has to be pretty far gone before that happens but near us there is an old farmhouse thats derelict but still exists, still has most of its roof. The planners have previously said that if the owner wanted to bring it back into use then planning permission would be required because they considered use as a dwelling had been abandoned. They made no comment on the likelihood of it being granted.

It is a hotly debated topic on what is and is not included in the magic /m^2 price. Unfortunately you will not find a reasonable resolution to it., some people include plot, services etc. when others don't My advice is to read read read on here and you will find some answers and get a better feeling for it. However to give you an idea, I have excluded plot costs, utilities and all professional fees, architect etc. My budgeted build costs projection is basically to go from bare plot to a fully finished house ready to move in (building only , not including landscaping or acess). I'm south of Glasgow, aiming at 1200/m^2. I will be a mid-high quality standard build. Supply and erect from a kit company and then project manage myself with local subcontractors and do a good portion of some work myself such as all the plumbing, help with first fix electrics (possibly do my own insulted raft). That's my budget plus I have 10% contingency allowed on top. If i don't build for that then something has went wrong. Complexity (house shape) and finish standard and build route play a large part. If you can do lots of work yourself, then cost comes down. The housebuilders bible is a good book to read, (edition 13 out now). One thing to note that everything is linked to the 'triangle' TIME / QUALITY / COST. You can have any two of the three but not all. E.g I can be cheap and high quality, but its going to take a long time. or It can be High quality and done quick its going to be expensive. If you are in Scotland I would say the figure sin the homebuilding and renovating self build cost calculator work well for a starting point (Google it). But you can be anywhere from 1000/m^2 (Lots of your own time and effort) up to 2200/m^2 (main contractor full build). Enjoy learning.

If its his chimney and his aerial it looks like your gutters and fascia and maybe foundations might be on his side. Just a thought, but how are you going to proceed if you say no, don't attach to my wall and he then says, ok get your gutters and fascia off my land and btw, you cannot discharge your roof water onto my land either!? So be 100% sure that your extension is on your land only before you start. Either way at some point you'll want to be in his yard to paint your render. You have no overlooking issue thanks to your extension.

Ok, from my point of view from the water industry. We'd always avoid doing this. And you'd never have the water pipe in the same bedding material as the sewer, especially below. The scenario is that a leak in the waste system could enter the water pipe if it were at the same level or lower and in the same bedding material as the waste pipe. (This scenario can easily happen if you have a leaking pipe and low pressure or no water event, when the hydrostatic pressure in the ground is greater than in the pipe) This has happened in public water supplies and lead to serious health incidents. You will need to bury your water pipe at about 900mm deep. See what the invert requirements are for your waste and take it from there. If the water pipe is more than 400mm (100mm bedding for each service separated with clay) deeper than than the required depth for the water pipe, you'll be fine.

I think @nod build is exceptional. I am expecting to complete for £1000 per square metre. Many end up with higher figures than that. It all depends how much you are prepared to do yourself.

Hiya @Russell griffiths , This is the stuff they were using, probably a larger 20mm diameter to bring the water over to the stacked bathrooms on one side of the house, and 16mm it out from there. I think that's the Italian manufacturer at the start of the text He crimped on these fittings using something that looked like the jaws of life.....some Hilti device, looked very cool Hopefully this guy is doing it right. @Nickfromwales ...so it looks like I have 16mm going to all my bathroom fittings, since absolutely all the plumbing stuff came in from Poland , I hope it all mates up, but I will ask the plumber just to be sure...I hope the polish purchasing doesn't come back to bite me

But not PD?

The local farmer here got permission to double the size of the footprint of his farmhouse because he found a 1930s map showing a much larger dwelling on the site.

No. The ex building will not affect your PD rights.

In planning they always refer to the "original house" as it stood in 1960 or thereabouts, so an 1870 map won't help. Even if you can prove it was there in 1960 it wouldn't help as it's gone now! Why not build within your domestic curtilage? You would need to prove that your proposed outbuilding falls within the curtilage of the domestic dwelling. If its on agricultural land you are allowed to build agricultural buildings to a certain extent if you have sufficient land.

Does the chimney stack serve your property only and is the TV aerial mast yours?

Had loads of offcuts and blocks leftover the manufacturer was talking about perfect calculations at the start but when the building started, the builder didn't do it exactly the way they had calculated which meant they had to send on a good few more bails of blocks. All the leftovers got thrown in a skip, there were metal ties in my blocks which makes it had to recycle apparently. I think AMVIC might take back some of the blocks for recycling. The builder told me the recycled EPS blocks break much easier then one's using new beads.

lift the floorboard sheets up on the scaffolding the day before otherwise you will start the job knackered. 60m2 of floor = about 1.2 tons of 22m Caberdek. Once the first section of floor is laid, lift the next 10 boards up to floor height and rest them on two saw or hop-up stools because it is better to lift each board to be laid from a height of 2 feet. One great tip from my carpenter was to stick some ducktape around the tapered neck of the glue bottle to catch glue dribbles running down the outside of the bottle. Posi joists were relatively easy to lever up onto the scaffolding with two people, one lifts from the ground while the other pulls from staging until 50% of the joist weight is beyond the pivot point of the scaffolding handrail. The 5" wide, 5.6m long joists were tougher. Finally, and the most subtle tip I learned, is how the align the first row of boards. These must be perfectly straight or even have a slight concave shape in the direction of lay because if there is any hint of a convex curve this be cause ever larger gaps as that convex curve grows as it radiates out with each additional row of boards.

See page 7 and 42 in here.. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/830643/190910_Tech_Guide_for_publishing.pdf Page 7 says.. Page 42 say planning permission is needed if.. So assuming the front of the house is the principle elevation. Then the garage would not need planning permission if built now. It might be in front of a side elevation that faces a road but it's not in front of the principle elevation and that's what matters. However in the past I think a house could have more than one principle elevation. So it might have needed planning permission back then.

Oooh! So the gate is solely access to their property? Didn’t realise and thought there was some kind of shared or dual access to each property. Tbh, the additional photo is probably irrelevant anyway. Just wait and see if they decide to proceed with the works in the future and contact the Council as and when that happens.

Your best best would be in the Huntly or Keith areas, near the A96 approx midway between Aberdeen - Inverness. Plots approx £40k and the folk up there are really nice. I see there’s a plot with PP at Gartly for oo £18k! Aberdeenshire Council are very good to deal with planning wise and Moray are too from what I have learned, When the A96 is duelled prices will go up. Would avoid the Buchan coast though roads connection not great and weather not as good on the coast. I’m saying this assuming you don’t know the area, apologies if you do. The North East of Scotland has a lot to offer as does the Highlands.

Bare steel barb £650 tonne fabricated cages £750 tonne.

I'm assuming your house is the cream rendered bit. If your land genuinely goes up to your neighbour's gate then no part of your property overhangs his land and you actually own a narrow strip of land underneath the gutters of the extension, but I think you would be wise to take a few measurements and be 100% certain that no part of your extension overhangs his property before you get into a dispute.

It's often recommended not using RAID for the CCTV. You'd have to be very unlucky to have the drive go just as someone is breaking in. Another benefit of the segregated volumes is you can use something like WD Purple drive(s) for the CCTV which are designed for continuous write duty cycle. I very nearly went for a Synology 1019+ with 5 bays, so I'd have 4 for RAID10 and one for CCTV. In the end I realized my existing linux box RAID was just fine and not worth the cost of replacing. (Also CCTV licenses for Synology are pricy). I tried an Amthal dedicated NVR but the UI is super clumky and poor remote access so gave up on that. Now settled on a Windows 10 NUC running BlueIris. I'm not yet entirely at home with it, but it's widely supported for HA integrations and extensive power user options so I reckon I'll grow into it.

I would not build a "fireplace" I much prefer the look of a free standing stove, just on a hearth, and a twin wall flue pipe. Choose the right stove and it does not even need to be a constructional hearth.

I’ve done similar and even buried the metal framed IBCs but not for 10 cubic metres of storage. I think a pair of septic tanks would be quicker.

If it was me I would consider taking out the suspended floor at the front as well so all is insulated ground bearing. No more rot.

May it rest is peace. Best of luck.

Ok. We’re getting somewhere ?. Agreed. Any last thoughts folks before this becomes read-only? ?. “Say now, or forever hold my piece.......” @zoothorn, good luck with moving forward. . Keep your chin up and your ? together ?.