recoveringbuilder

We had to have a speed survey done for the two plots we have outline planning for, it had to be done BEFORE they would grant permission, it’s a 60mph rural road, they put these tubes down across the road at two locations for a fortnight although it was meant to be a week, we were given the results although they meant very little to us and the architect even admitted he knew very little about them however they did seem to go in our favour as it was deemed that none of the traffic was actually going at the maximum speed probably because of a hill and two bends, we got the pp as they relaxed the splay.it cost us £500

Because we got the erection of the timber frame the whole thing was zero rated so saved us forking out around 17k in vat, we still have our reclaim to do yet for the materials

We did our take offs as soon as we got our plans and sent out to various bms for pricing, once we were getting ready to start we were approached by a couple of them and we told them their prices were too high, one company sent in their rep who slashed their original quote and continued to do so through out the build even for things we had priced online, we opened a cash account with them so everything was paid before delivery and we were the only ones who could use the account

I wouldn’t agree with your thought on it being a good bit cheaper, this is our second one and a half storey because that’s what planners want here and with all the different angles inside and out and dormer windows etc they take a lot more work hence a lot more money than if you were just building straight up to the second floor, it took our builders a full month cutting and shaping insulation and plaster board whereas it would have been much simpler had the walls and ceilings been straight, a two storey is not something I’ve ever considered fighting the planners for.

It’s a Samsung French door fridge freezer , more or less totally silent,only time I’ve heard it is if I get up through the night and go into kitchen for a drink and you can hear a very faint noise from it when the house is totally silent

Our last house had kitchen/dining/ family room all in one although we also had a separate lounge and a dining room but tbh we never used them apart from Xmas time so I wouldn’t worry about it, the fridge freezer and dishwasher we have now are so silent you never hear them, dishwasher in particular I forget I’ve got it on till the bleeper goes to say it’s finished!

Yes I’ve definitely seen one like it as I had considered it but that was a couple of years ago and I had every catalogue ever produced I think so can’t remember the details ?

Hi, exciting times, is this a timber frame house, looks similar to one I remember looking at although can’t remember what firm

We used volumetric and it was cheaper than all the other quotes we had for readymix

It looks like you’ve made the first error- paying him anything upfront, decent builders won’t ask for upfront payments and if he is a small firm it would have been better if you had suggested that you would buy materials yourself if he didn’t have the ability to get them, most builders have credit accounts with builders merchants where they can get the materials and not need to pay for them right away, that way he could have asked you for staged payments and had the cash in from you in time to pay his bill, don’t know anything about your other queries but no doubt someone who does will be along shortly

Ours wasn’t dirty just very dusty, just hoovered it all up then used the sbr applied straight

We haven’t yet had this done and have been told we need to do it before the EPC , actually thought the architect had someone who he used but unfortunately not so I need to phone around tomorrow, can anyone tell me how much I should be paying for this?

So my next question is, have any of you bought a plot which needed trees removed and did you have to pay for this yourselves?

A bit like when I was an estate agent there was an area that I worked in that there was no stamp duty on the houses bought in that area.

How do you find out these things @Ferdinand?! I did wonder at there being no mention of how they came about finding the plot! however it was interesting to see the lodge being built off site then put back together again, a project for monied people though.

That’s what our house is, two upstairs are both the same with dressing room and en-suite and two downstairs, one with en-suite and the other has the main bathroom next to it.

If I was you I’d keep a close eye on your local councils planning website, where we are they update it weekly with all the new applicants and I’d bet a lot of them are not actually going to build just trying to get planning to sell on.

Did anyone see impossible builds last night, couple building a large cabin in the woods, it came all ready, built by a company in Cumbria and delivered to site in two halves! It was on wheels because of planning regs, very interesting but cost £280k!

Well bins got delivered today, black one as well although I’d said I’d get one elsewhere, I will now await a bill for it and then take it from there!

I phoned last week to get bins and although they give you the recycling ones I was told I’d need to pay £60 for the black bin!!

A bungalow won’t cost you half what a two storey would, bungalows end up more expensive as you still have roof, foundations etc and probably a bigger footprint than a two storey

This is something we have toyed with the idea of doing, how long do you expect it to take to get your initial outlay back?

I’ve spoken to solicitor about this but heard nothing back from him or my prospective buyer, here are the trees in question

Do you have your TF ordered? A lot of TF companies have a waiting list, we waited 8 weeks for ours.are you getting the company to erect to wind and water tight? Tradesmen are notoriously bad at getting back to you, once we discovered we couldn’t afford a turnkey with the builders we originally looked at we thought we might employ the individual trades but after speaking to a few then sending over our plans we never heard back from ANY of them which led us to employing a smaller building firm to do a lot of the work on a labour only basis which enabled us to source all materials at best price and they were quite happy with this as it saved them the initial outlay, this went okay on the whole although eventually they lost interest and we had to get another joiner to finish, we were just interested in getting a firm to do the bulk of the work, block work, roofing, rendering etc to get it to a good stage and it didn’t matter too much that they eventually left before we were finished. We had previously self built and took it all in hand ourselves but it wasn’t easy getting the trades in and keeping them there and hubby and SIL learned a lot of new trades through having to!

Funnily enough my mother couldn’t wire a plug, my father died when I was 21 and on visiting my mother a short time later I found she had bought something which required a plug, she said I’ll need to get your brother to put the plug on, she was totally amazed and somewhat unsure when I said I would do it!