recoveringbuilder

Ours is done in 32mm right into the house

We approached several independent companies when we first got the quote as tbh we just couldn’t afford the £25k they were quoting, most weren’t interested in doing the job and the one company that were interested could obviously only do the digging and laying of cables, still needed SP to do connections etc , we could have brought it down to just under £20k which was still out of budget, I can imagine how you’re feeling, we were beside ourselves wondering what to do, many sleepless nights were had until I got up one Sunday morning ready to challenge them! The email I wrote to them that day started off a chain of events at 9am the next morning which culminated in me dealing directly with one of their top men, I was like a dog with a bone and they knew it! After I eventually won and the project manager came out to see us we asked him if he knew the history which he didn’t, once we told him what had happened he said ‘ you know they do this all the time- extortionate prices but people usually just pay up, good for you challenging it!’

the £4.5k we ended up paying was for everything, @WagasSP did all the work and provided everything!

Our tf is all done with double acoustic boards which I couldn’t quite get my head round at the time but my do they work! If I shout to my hubby in another room he can’t hear me and it’s not him turning a deaf ear, if I am outside the lounge and he speaks to me I can’t hear him either!

I believe the length of the staircase will be determined by the pitch which can be no more than 42 degrees

We fought SP energy for 3 months about this, we had a quote for just under £25k and other than being able to get someone else to do the digging there seemed to be no way round it as the cable required was £10k, we too looked at other ways of powering the house but everything led us to a lot of money. we eventually won the fight and paid £4.5k, I’ve written about this all on here before but quite willing to share if you haven’t already seen it

Well done! We had much the same situation, refused first time around but after a visit to the local councillor and resubmitting it went through no problem, we had an architect do the initial work but at the end of the day it was us who secured the pp, the councillors are The ones to get on side

‘Our company is set up to provide a full technical service assisting with drawings and designs, U-Values, SAP Ratings, Energy Performance Certification, Passive Design and can incorporate innovative ecological construction methods to achieve all building standard requirements.’ I lifted this from their website @eandg would need to look at our paperwork for U-values on our kit and tbh I don’t understand these things that’s hubbys side of things, we had our own SE who they were quite happy to liaise with and he wasn’t the easiest of people!

We have just almost finished our house which was from Claymore timber frame inFife. We met the two brothers who run the firm at the Homebuilding show, at the time we had our plans and gave them to several kit suppliers that day. Scot frame and Fleming homes never got back to us despite having the plans, claymore got it priced up within about 6 weeks and another two firms which I now can’t remember the names of didn’t get in touch until we had actually started! Claymore did their utmost to deliver when we wanted it even although they were extremely busy they managed to get it to us a fortnight before what they had originally said, there was loads of stuff (wood , insulation etc) left over and anything we were short of was supplied without question, they even personally delivered nails that we needed. We had looked originally at a kit from ptarmigan homes however architect drew up plans for us as there were several things that we would have wanted changed anyway and we ended up with a kit that had far better spec and finishings( all oak including staircase) for the same price as we would have paid for the off the peg one, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Claymore.

We originally were going with danwood , had spoken to the rep several times and had plans sent to us, last communication we had with them was when we wanted to see a house that had already been built and they were going to organise this for us, that was two years ago and we never heard from them again.

In our last house we had a hang on the wall smeg gas fire, we had a 55m2 kitchen/family room and really only wanted this as a back up for power cuts ( we had a wb in another room) and for chilly summer nights when we’d turned the ufh off. Hubby wasn’t keen on the idea but it proved to be great and could lift the temperature a good 2 degrees, using it only a couple of hours morning and night it only went through about 30kg of propane a year. We were told at the weekend that the government are planning a tax on wood burners

When we built our first house the brickies put a silver coin in the cement on the first course of bricks

I would be very wary of telling them they could do it whenever suits them but for that you want rock bottom prices, seems to me it would invite them to take it on, squeeze it in between jobs, like say ‘oh we’ve got a couple of days next week with nothing doing let’s get that one done , quick as we can cos there’s no money in it but it saves us being idle ‘then you’re inviting trouble, remember, the ground works, foundation and drains form a big part of the build (in my opinion) and if these aren’t done correctly it would only lead to more trouble along the line, I have no doubt you will be able to manage the build since you obviously have the time but it’s not always easy to get tradesmen to work in tandem with each other in fact in my experience they usually create problems out of the least thing and blame each other! we have done 3builds now and the first one 20 odd years ago we had no experience whatsoever, I still sometimes think to myself how the hell did we ever manage that and what made us think we could!

Our architect had a build cost worked out right from the get go, don’t know if it’s different elsewhere but he needed to do this as the building warrant cost is calculated on the cost of the build, so he could give us a ballpark figure as soon as he had the initial drawings done, before it went into planning and I have to say he wasn’t a million miles away other than us upgrading things.The SE was engaged right away so that we could apply for building warrant as soon as planning was passed and he would have everything ready.as for a QS our son in law is one but we never felt the need for his services as we were quite happy working things out ourselves with a bit of input from builders and we don’t have anything left over other than plumbing materials as we left it to the plumber to calculate and he was an ass where calculations were concerned!

I remember being told years ago when we did our first that once you get to the third house you’ll get it just right!

Our kit included all the above and insulation, flooring, breather membrane, all windows and doors (internal and external) all finishing materials, wardrobes, staircase even all screws and nails. We decided to go this way as we knew exactly what the price would be for all these materials, we were able to choose everything the same as we would have had we bought them separately and it made budgeting a lot easier as we knew all this was covered. The house we built previously was stick built and keeping control of the budget was impossible as the joiners couldn’t give us exact amounts of what would be needed and there was always something else that had been omitted, it also used up a lot of time sourcing materials at best price. If we were ever going to do it again it would definitely be a kit.

Looks like it will be a nice project, we considered putting an upstairs in our old cottage and hubby thought it would be better to put a whole new roof on , factory made then craned on, unfortunately I didn’t have the vision and preferred to start from scratch with a new build!

Have you tried claymore timber frame in fife, ours came from there , very good spec, and 20k cheaper than the joiners we were going to get to build on site

Should be doable if you’re careful, we’re nearly finished (just some outside work to do) a268m2 build which should come in about 270k

Welcome, exciting time as it always is at the start of a build, you’ll get plenty of information and advice on this forum,hope all goes well for you.

I wonder if there’s a whistling noise coming from it that only the dog can hear, ours had that to start with, very faint but the cats could hear it!

He may be quite happy to do labour only, saves him having to put out any money on materials before you have given him any cash, it would also be better for you as you can shop around for best prices and get the vat back, we did this with our builder, we made a list of materials we would need and sent it to 5 different builders merchants asking for best price however one of the merchants who had been one of the most expensive sent in their rep who we told their quote had been too expensive and he slashed the prices and they ended up being the cheapest and getting all our business.

Mice can climb up rough surfaces! I remember years ago our cat playing with a mouse (as they do before they go in for the kill) and the cat let it go for a second and the mouse ran up our roughcast house wall right up to the eaves, I couldn’t quite believe it!

Your structural engineer wouldn’t take on the role, it would have to be the architect

This happened to us, we split the land belonging the cottage we had bought, we only lost 5k , we’d paid 250k for cottage and 2acres , we sold 18 months later retaining half the land which we’d got planning on and realised 245k so it doesn’t mean because you’re keeping some of the ground that you’re going to sell the house your in at a big loss. Anyway what I started off going to say here was that we put our plans out to tender with a local company to do the full job, we nearly fell off our chairs when the price came in at £350k , not including oak finishings or staircase and only allowing £8k for a kitchen, tiling only to showers and splash back, the plot had been valued at 125k so there was a total of £475k which the house would never be worth, however we have built the house, we do have an oak staircase and finishings , we have a bespoke kitchen and when we finish off the garden, drive etc we will be in line to have spent around £270k so just over £1k a square metre, it can be done if you’re very careful and we haven’t done a lot of the hard graft just bits and pieces and the drains.