Zak S

Based on the feedback I have been reading I have come with a plan for one of my project which I will be looking to sell after completion to provide funding for my own selfbuild dream house to live in. I will be extremely thankful if you could critically look at the attached drawings and provide feedback and advice. The property is a 1930 Semi in conservation area so not if we will get the dormer roof extension permission but the main purpose of the side dormer is to use it as a negotiation tool with planners. The ground floor rear bifold door and windows will be replaced by two sets of sliding doors. Currently the boiler (Vaillant ECOtec 928 integrated with tank) is on the upstairs bathroom and I dont want to move it to save cost but this will be replaced with similar but more uptodate product available. The objective is to add maximum value and keep the cost to the lowest possible. I will appoint individual trades etc to achieve this. Looking forward to the great advice which people in this forum always provide. Thanks in advance. 20220215_074006.PDF Screenshot_20220215-073833_Acrobat for Samsung.PDF

For 15k I would expect building regs included. Probably it's the regional difference. The numbers I quoted were for Staffordshire. Yes the building regs and 3D externals renders included. I had three quotes and they all came between £6k and £16k. Not sure if application to satisfy planning conditions are ever included. Need to check though.

My guess would be something around 5-8k including the building regs. Anything more will be hard pill to swallow at least for me. I agreed 15k+ with mine and had a quote of 6k as well but the feedback on 6k was that guy simply draws what he is asked rather than adding true value. I know not my place to answer the above but just wanna be proved wrong.

This is grand design kind of design and very pretty and modern but would it fit on the road and get planners approval easily and to everyone's taste, I am not sure about it as neither I dont know the road nor I know the personal preference of @Indy I.e. traditional/moderns etc. I know if you are even closer to conservation kind of area you would struggle as know a similar case. That front porch in OP is a quite overpowering and the too be honest comparatively I liked the original design and the recent update has made it worse. Why is that huge porch required. If you remove it you could alternate the roof design and designer will have more flexibility in respect of the front facade. If the porch has been recommended by the architect, I would suggest seriously consider the design approach and as other have suggested create a pinterest board with respect to design you like. For a project costing £1m or more as OP suggested, please dont rush the design phase. That's a key phase. The comments here have been brutal but given the amount of money OP is going to spend the thinking/designer need a good shakeup.

@Indy similar to your original design I noticed some where

Hi @Gus Potter I had written to my GI survey company as to the possibility of softer ground below hard ground asking what safeguards were in place to reduce the risk of aforementioned issue. They came back with the following. what are the view in respect of accepting their comments/going for desktop study/reinviting them for few other boreholes after demolition. Quote from GI as follows: The risk of softer ground below the borehole termination depth is considered to be extremely low, with the cementation of the sands indicating the beginning of the Sidmouth Mudstone Formation, part of the Mercia Mudstone parent bedrock group from c.7.5m, with the bedrock formation for this area, based on British Geological data for the site, being indicated to be in excess of 150m thickness. As to safeguards of no softer ground below the final borehole depths, with any investigation there is a cut-off point where further progress cannot be practicably achieved with the equipment on site without risk to the drilling rig/samplers, etc. Given an SPT value of 45 is generally sufficient to undertake the pile design, a 'refusal' N value of 50 was adopted in the quote, as strata with values above this level when using conventional bottom driven piles are generally sufficient to prevent pile penetrate much beyond this point/level. The direct standard penetration tests confirm increasingly competent ground from c.7.5m depth with very dense/strong strata at termination levels. The probe test in BH3 also confirms the continual increases in strength of the apparent weathered sandstone with depth. Final blow counts of 73 and 111 were recorded indicating very competent ground with a bearing capacity of >750Kn/m2, this value incorporating a minimum factor of safety of 2.5, or, the ground at refusal depth in the boreholes can take a load in excess of 15T/m2, with anticipate loads from piles being considerably lower than 500kN/m2. If the above still does not give you the confidence regarding the ground and you want/need to prove the competent strata continues even deeper than the termination depth of the existing boreholes this will need to be done either; after demolition is undertaken to allow access to the rear garden area or; using the drilling rig we are in the process of purchasing and which was only delivered to the UK last week and which we will be collecting this week, the rig being specifically designed for limited access site having an access width requirement of 800mm, as well as the ability to dynamically drill and rotary core/open hole into bedrock which has until now not been possible as all available rotary hire rigs need >1.5m width access.

Not sure why planner would appose a classic design unless you live in the conservation area. Some time every property in the road is unique so easier to get permission. But if there is strict adherence to certain design feature due to conservation area etc then even your glass porch might struggle. But having said all that you know the road well and what's on there. PS: roof design and balcony something should be reconsidered. I have not ever seen such a roof.

This is high risk especially for strong spices used in curries when cooking in the open plan living area? The guys at very upmarket kitchen showroom mentioned this subject to cooking styles in the house. I would definitely consult on this as last thing you would want the smell across the house via MVHR. Though all depends on the cooking styles employed in the household. I have open plan living area which we dont use other than to have dinners. For me personally need for separate living room is hard to ignore.

Given you have plant room I am suspecting you will have MVHR. Someone told me that open plan kitchen and MvHr might not work and gave me the idea of scullery (smaller dirty kitchen) and a larder in addition to open plan show-off kitchen especially if you cook curries /stories etc regularly. This might not apply to you.

People here certainly dont flower their feedback and sometime this is exactly what we need. That garage structure is too big in the context of the house. One stand alone double garage set bit away from the house would be ok. The georgian design is better definitely and timeless. I have seen few houses recently built with glass porch nearby and a georgian house built in 2008. One of the house (first pic) is very similar to yours though their width of the main building is 12m and the roof is much simpler and seem nicer. Flat in the middle and pitched ok the sides and this gives you much better space in the loft and look nice or compared to what your architect has drawn. All photos attached just for a your information and comparison purpose. I will suggest going to Golden Triangle Beaconsfield (last pic) for a drive/walk for inspiration. There are some YouTube videos of those properties as well. There you can see classier design winning by greater margin and people pay premium for them. Looking back at the design for the the rear of the house I am not sure about the balcony unless you have grand views (even then). I would also suggest showing the plans to a local estate agent and getting their opinion as to how to maximise the value from the design.

Think you can attach a garage on the left hand side as additional building to the front?

@Iceverge looks very classy!

Thanks. Nice plan. Though I have been noting comments on another thread about balconies. They would make sense if you have great views to enjoy (base on Escape to the country show -shropshire episode ). Jewson costing seems quite reasonable. I am not sure if this would be achievable via turn key builder in Surrey. Are you project managing yourself or appoint one builder to oversee all? Yes, my own project will be similar though my plot could allow me 21m width. I will need to send brief to the architect yet so at early stage compared to yours.

Thanks. Can i please ask the sqm if the property?

Great thanks. Did you get a quote from QS?

Hi. Have you tried https://www.estimators-online.com/pricelist#.YenEgLfLedN I have been told they charge around £135.00 and will cost up the plans though I have not tried. I totally disagree with 3500 per sqm. Someone would try to milk it at that price fairly easily. There are people who have built their houses for 1200-1500. In west midlands I had a quote for a builder and he is turn key builder. He quoted 1600 -1700. Surely London cant be that more expensive. I would suggest trying the above link or QS but please note that QS has some fat built into it just incase.

For a similar design, I am currently paying side and rear extension to 1930s BTL semi c2.5k including building regs. Whereas much more for the self build. I just don't get why it would take c1m to build. That's surely is wrong or miscalculated or the plot is in very expensive place like Chelsea or Mayfair. @IndyIndy has it been costed via QS? Where is the main spend if you dont mind me asking.

Some great discussion points here which no doubt be useful for the brief I need to put together for the architect for my own project. Given @Indy is demoslihing the house and rebuilding it I can understand the desire to maximise the floor space as floor space is equal to value is most cases. However, the layout out seems to standard out of the box new build house (similar to what a developers would do). You can add the wow factor by internal fitout but the the way the internal layout is set out I am not sure if its wow enough in the design. The trend these days seems to be of vaulted ceilings in the hall to create galleries in the hall landing and loft. This is what my architect mentioned to me. @ETC design seems to take this into account plus there is lot more light end clever use of space and light to create circulation space though personally, I am not a big fan of side. But the property width is a limiting factor. I would say OPs design is standard value for money and hence easier to resell but lack the vision that an Architect would have if designing his own house to live in it for longer term (so pretty in line with what others have said).

It is a self managed project to build a house for own use c500-600sqm. Demolish existing banglow and simply build a new one to live in myself hopefully.

Thanks all. @PeterW in a situation where a ground workers company (multi national size) insist there should be someone else a principle contractor and not them and only then they would take on the job; is there a way around it? Or must I find a different groundwork company in this instance? They have not yet been asked if they can act as principal contractor for that phase and that no body else would be around.

Thanks for all extremely helpful comments. I suppose if I can keep the trades separate then do I need to worry about the title of 'Principal Contractor'? My understanding is that I would be acting as one implicity, but for the title of Principal Contractor there might be implications (as noted in the comments above). I have asked for a quote for someone to act as principal designer but they told me for a selfbuild residential ik the absence this role would fall on the architect unless they explicitly refuse this role. My understanding is that if I get someone for this role then it would be easier to manage the responsibilities of the principle contractor (as long as trades are kept separate). Yes this makes sense inline with comments from others. Would definitely do this. I am assuming this would be in the form of a consultation. How best to engage this? Just search locally? Do I still need this I ended up going with Principal Designer (depending on the quote)? What is the likely cost of the HS adviser? What is the output I would find useful from this engagement? Thanks.

Hi. I need some help to understand the role of principle designer. My understanding is that they must be appointed and they undertake a role to ensure health and safety aspect of the project. Is that correct. The reason I am asking this is ground working company who I have approached said they only deal with main principle contractor to ensure HS. Now if I am project managing myself the am I the principle contractor and where does the role principle designer fit in there. How can I meet legal duty for health and safety of the site. Any idea about the cost of principle designer. Thanks.

Hi. Just making it a bit visual using an example of renovation as to what could be done and the costing and value impact. Below is the picture of a refurbishment of a two story house (before and after) which was done to a very high standard with c40% extension. It costed between c300-400k in 2015. It recently sold generating c175k in profits. But the original house would also have increased in value by c150k in terms of just house price inflation. So not significant profit on refurbishment if you take the inflation out. May be a bit of loss in today's prices. So if doing refurbishment to a high/decent standard it might not cost significantly less than new house build hence new build should be serious option. Plus for both either new build or refurbishment, possibility of generous profit if you are doing first project is quite small hence as others said simplicity and getting the design right is the key plus a state of mind that you are doing it to live in it rather than as a property developer would certainly help in terms of getting expectation realistic.

Thanks. Members here have said quite correctly to pay greater thinking time if existing building can be salvaged. With 1960 build being extended at the rear, one side and bit on the front, I will only be left with one wall and some internal walls. In order to get the UFH I will have to do bit of work on flooring as well. If costings only allows one and half storey then I will be certainly keen to extend/remodel but costing allows traditional jouse building then I need to seriously consider the cost differential between rebuild and extend back and up and remodel. Speaking with SE just the discussion of the plans/option would help declutter the thinking so I need to seriously consider that. Very valid points. I will speak with my existing GI company to see given they have done the site visit if they can provide the desktop study. They are based on Yorkshire and I am in west midlands so someone local might be better. Yes definitely keen to always learn something new. I will explore various options. May be give Bham central library a visit and see what resource I can find on the area in the form of maps and previous studies. Issue is I have found some desktop studies but the ground condition seem much better there. This was just an image from a quote provided by Soilution and confirmed what you had said. It not a link to a document.

This was sent by one of the company as history/background of the site along with their quote which was the highest c7k for SI and hence I did not choose them but they provided some history if the site. I suppose a desktop study is lot more detailed. Is it worth asking the GI company who did the SI for desktop study or should this be independently sourced?