epsilonGreedy

I am looking into a similar project, are you sure 3 bricks high is enough? Seven is the typical recommendation for timber garages.

Noted I will find the official minimum radius. i am guessing a one meter radius bend would be ok.

Western Power, the plot is in north Lincolnshire.

I am considering laying a conduit for a mains 240 volt cable while the foul drain is open. The exact location of the public road mains hookup is not established but I can guess it will be within 4m of the foul drain connection. Is it possible to pull a mains supply cable through 25 meters of buried conduit?

While walking around my green field plot with a builder, on the next door plot a brickie was working solo. Mid conversation the petrol powered mixer coughed and my builder chappie span around alert for potential trouble. Do cement mixers have a reputation for mangling humans?

The insulation finish at the window apertures is only a bit worse than the reference build I snoop around after the building team has knocked off for the day. That is a one-off executive house under build for a small time local builder to be sold on completion.

Doh, while developing my convoluted multi-phase plan I had overlooked that building the garage following a completed BC signed off house would exclude the garage costs from a VAT refund. One less thing to juggle, your reply means I must focus on Option-3, who knows providing the main house is squeaky clean from a BC standards point of view maybe the inspector will overlook the missing garage roof if I say there is a global shortage of welsh slate.

If you were my sister I would advise: Get to a weather tight shell by hook or crook. Distance yourself from this builder asap. Leave some money aside for landscaping the plot to a minimal standard even if this means some external doors or windows are blanked off with osb sheet. Spruce up and de clutter your main house by staging for sale. Then give yourself a complete mental holiday from the whole concept of selfbuild and head off for a few weeks while your house is on the market. When the house sale proceeds are banked, live offsite for 3 months as independent trades prepare your self build for minimal viable habitation. Move in then inch your build toward building control completion at a relaxing rate by employing trades on small < 7 day delivery targets and sacking those who fail. In general terms I think you have become too dependent on social bonding with your builder and he has taken advantage of this interpersonal dynamic. I saw the same thing happen with a close family member when she undertook a self build at a similar stage of life. Her main builder cost her £100k and half way through that build other family members wanted to lynch the guy. The most peculiar outcome is that the said family member still considered the builder as a new best friend even when the scope of the financial injury had become apparent. She viewed the builder as a mutual victim of circumstances.

My plot has detailed planning permission for a detached house and a detached garage. I doubt I can afford to build the garage prior to the VAT reclaim at the end of main house build. The welsh slate hip roof, conservation requirement for the garage (7.2 x 5.6 external wall plan) is the biggest ££ ticket item in the garage build. I think my options are: Submit application number one for the main house with no reference to the garage, build it and reclaim the VAT. Then start a second BC application cycle for the garage, or. Submit application number one for both the main house and garage. Dig and fill foundations for both buildings, then request the garage is excluded as a mid build variation and complete just the main house for the VAT refund. Then build the garage. Muddle through doing the absolute minimum to get the garage signed off with the main build. As per option 1 but then subsequently build a 30% smaller garage just under the 30 sqm permitted rights rule. If I go for option 1 will I be stung for double BC application and inspection costs or would the costs for the garage be scaled down in some way? Is there a danger that for option 2 the inspector would object saying it is not possible to approve foundations originally created as part of the main house build. In the case of option 3 would I get sign off if the garage had a temporary roof of the cheapest corrugated material that obviously transgressed conservation material stipulations. My thinking here is that I would hopefully bank the VAT refund before the legal wheels of the planning office issue some prohibition notice.

Good to know. Is anyone aware of possible penalty costs should a bumbling amateur need multiple goes at submitting an acceptable set of build specifications? I have already noted that my local Local Authority BC office warns of extra costs for builds that amble along a slow rate, I think they charge extra after 12 months.

How much flexibility is there in the BC inspection process for varying construction specifics mid-build and hence after initial submission of building control drawings? Some specifics examples that could apply in my case: Switching from roof trusses to a cut roof. Switching from a basic beam and block floor to a more elaborate insulated floor design using inter beam insulation blocks. Raising dpc by two bricks. Eliminate the hallway and drop the stairs directly into the sitting room (bit of a stretch case this one ).

Yes except I asked for a minor tweak to an internal wall which involved opening up an internal glazed double door aperture just a tad. Did you use any public domain info as sources for this initiative? I have book marked a link to the @JSHarris diy building control docs but not had a look yet. I hope that engineering specifications and diagrams provided by external suppliers for ground and first floors plus the roof trusses will suffice for some of the BC application requirements.

Who else will loan you £300,000 unsecured for a house?

I am a novice self builder but it seems to me that the original good intentions between you and your builder to deliver a specific house at a fixed price incrementally eroded to a point where you are just paying a weekly appearance fee to the builder for no target deliverables. The latest vocalized positive sentiments just expressed by you and the builder will not solve the underlying problem. You need to get hardnosed with this guy who is letting you down, set verifiable targets and pay when delivered. Is your build weather tight?

No the original architect was commissioned by the plot seller and is reputed to be the high price guy in my locality. I will give him a call. I hope to complete without a mortgage.

This surprises me Dave, I had you down as the determined near to 100 percent diy self builder. Some here have done their own building control diagrams and applications. Another paid £500 for a technical draftsman to knock his diagrams into shape. Was there some engineering complexity with your house design that would have made a £3600 Building Control spec good value for money?

Just got my first quote from an architect to bring a detailed approved planning permission design up to Building Control diagram standards, £3,600 plus VAT plus another £2000 if I want an architects certificate. This is for a two story brick and block 1500 sq ft house. I have heard about the concept of "as built" for energy performance design certification, can this be extended to the whole building? Edit: The prompt for my question was the reference to Building Control application option 2 at the following link. It sounds like a documentation lite route with further clarifications provided mid build. https://www.northampton.gov.uk/info/200011/building-control/1694/building-control-guidance---make-a-building-regulation-application/1

Would hosing down the road surface at the expected HGV turning points reduce risk of road damage?

Is this a school homework assignment? If not consider that the design will likely cost £750,000 including the plot but the market value will be substantially less due to the strange room layout.

90% of the time such conditions are enforced voluntarily because most people do not want to experience aggro from a branch of government. For the rest the planning department will decide where to allocate their enforcement time. Anyhow we are into hypotheticals, you are assuming the planning office does not act and that your premix concrete delivery wagon took a tight turn on a hot dry day and chewed up the finished road.

No. Planning enforcement exists to uphold the interests of the community, you should not expect the Council to pursue a matter on behalf of your commercial interests. Your case does not sound hopeless but it will take a trained legal mind to demonstrate that the planning condition and the 3-month contract clause can be combined in your favour to create a legal basis to threaten the seller.

I believe the preferred entrance to my house will be via the rear door due to the arrangement of the drive and location of the parking lot on the property. Internal routes within the house mean the rear door qualifies for wheelchair access and also a route to the downstairs toilet. External ground gradients around the front door mean it would be an expensive pain in the neck to build an m-spec ramp to the front door. Will I get Building Control sign off if only the rear door features an external access ramp?

I agree the OP should not rely on Council enforcement to solve this problem, however: The existence of the 3 month clause which makes reference to the final substantially completed house, creates an expectation with all parties that final road surfacing occurs towards the end of the development. There is a clear planning office mandated condition for final surfacing to happen after completion of the final house. Now all that is needed to wrap this up in favour of the OP is a clause in the contract worded something like, "the seller warrants to the purchaser that he/she/it will implement, adhere to and comply with all planning conditions required by the Council".

And also for the benefit of my swmbo, please label the trenches in the photo as "Newly poured wet concrete". She was worried that your rainwater flooded trenches were a portent for our self build.

It could be argued the clause declares a 3 month window during which the seller is obligated to finish the road.