morgan_22

Yes we are planning to live there for a while. Fair point but we would prefer to have an extra guest bedroom just in case we did have guests over or we were to ever rent a room to help with costs. If we were to sell I think we would try to sell as a 4 bed (by turning the downstairs snug into a bedroom) even though the living space would be on the small end for a 4 bed house. Thanks!

Yes, 2 car parking spaces will be sufficent for a 3 bed dwelling as we are in a suburban area. The plan was to have a tall gate & fencing to give us plenty of privacy to use the front garden. No it doesn't comply as an accessible shower room but this is not a necessity as we only need space for a small downstairs WC & shower. That's a good point regarding the roof lights as they will only be used to flood the landing/staircase with light so i'll definitely move them higher towards the ridge. I doubt we'll be able to reduce the pitch of the stairs as i'd like to keep the staircase area as compact as possible to retain the small upstairs study space. Thanks!

I've had a play around with the layout & spaces in the last week, we decided to change the layout to fit two small dbl bedrooms instead of one large dbl bedroom on the first floor as this would increase the value of the finished house. Attached the updated plans & elevation drawings for your comment! (Apologies for turning this post into a design discussion on a cost & estimating forum) PL03 - PROPOSED ELEVATIONS.pdf PL02 - PROPOSED PLANS.pdf

Thanks for the comment! Will have a re-think regarding the entrance layout & kitchen (and maybe the overall layout). Regarding the budget, what figure would you think would be more realistic? We are currently in the feasibility stage and at the moment we are struggling to see how building would be cheaper than buying a small house & renovating, even though house prices are at an all time high.

The Living / Dining / Kitchen area layout was a real headache to design as i tried to maximise each space without creating any wasted space. I might have a rethink with regard to the lobby & what you see when you enter the front door as your points are very valid. Please have a go yourself if you have the time. We currently have 1200mm between the peninsula & wall cabinets so that should allow sufficient space to allow someone to walk through when a cabinet or oven door is open. Yes, we'll need a beam to span where the ground floor steps out and a post & small beam at the corner between the sliding doors & full height window. I was thinking of using a CLT/Glulam ridge beam (budget depending!) but splitting it into 3 and making sure there's a solid wall below is a good idea. Very helpful reply, thanks!

To tell you the truth I haven't looked into the different electrical heating possibilities as of yet but if a normal UVC would work out cheaper to install & run with the PV then I'll probably get one. Yes I'm currently in the process of re-jigging the downstairs shower room layout around to make the third bedroom/snug a bit bigger and give more storage space in the plant/utility room.

I've tried to keep it as square & simple as possible without making it look like a box with a roof on top! 1. Ok I'll work the cubic meterage out & alter my estimation to suit. 2. Yes the amount of glazing is quite low as I've kept the amount of NW & NE facing glazing to a minimum so hopefully I have over estimated a bit on the glazing. 4. PV is one of the optional extras at the minute but as we are going for all electric heating & DHW a PV array could be very economical with the way energy prices are going. 6. Will increase staircase. The utility will just be a large plant room / corridor (1.8m long x 1.8m wide) with floor to ceiling cupboards to hide the MVHR & washing machine, this job could be done on the cheap as we have a few carpenters in the family. The kitchen will be a howdens/stock kitchen with standard appliances as I would much rather spend £25k extra on the building envelope than on a designer kitchen, but I will increase my estimate as it is a bit low. Will increase plasterboard & skim finish estimate as to tell you the truth I had no idea how much it would cost! The kit includes all wall and roof structure, insulation, internal & external sheathing boards and airtight membrane & taping. Yes I'll be managing the project & subcontractors myself as I have experience in the industry. Very helpful comment, thanks!

Yes prices have gone through the roof in the last few years! Hopefully costs will start to settle in the next year or so as they say that the best time to self-build is in a recession when there isn't much work about for local builders. This is also a relatively flat site, but as said earlier it's small & awkward which won't help the costs.

Very helpful thanks! I'm hoping to do most of the site clearance & excavating myself as we have a fair few members of the family with building experience that will be able to lend a hand but will still need to cart away & dispose the waste which will come at a cost (unless I can find a local farmer that'll take it). Can i ask what was your builds total floor area and where was it located? One of the main parts of the brief was to keep the design as simple to keep costs under control and all this feedback is very useful. I think the best way forward will be to start getting approx quotes from local tradesmen & companies to try and get a realistic estimation of the costs as we're still working off planning drawings.

Thanks for the feedback! Could you possibly be more specific? i.e. where do you think i'm way off with the estimates. The only quote I've had so far is for the timber structure (inc. delivery, erection, cellulose insulation, airtight taping) which came to around £67.5k from a well respected timber framing company.

Yes, the foundation cost was hard to estimate as we haven't had any quotes or had a soil investigation to see what the ground conditions are. Can I ask what your G floor area was for your build?

Hi all, Me and my partner are currently in the process of buying a plot situated in West Wales to build our first home. I am an architectural technician and she's an accountant so the plan is to manage the whole design & build process ourselves to keep the costs under control as we are on a fairly tight budget. I'm hoping to build to passive levels if financially viable. The plot is quite narrow & oddly shaped but is large enough for us to build a decent sized first home and it's in a good urban location so service connection costs should be relatively affordable. The perimeter & shape of the house will need to be retained (as shown on dwg PL02) due to a number of conditions so changing the shape & external size will not be possible. Please see attached (hopefully) the proposed design drawings & cost estimation spreadsheet. Any feedback or suggestions regarding the cost estimation (if I've missed anything) & proposed design will be much appreciated! Thanks! Cost Estimation 31 08 22.pdf PL02 - PROPOSED PLANS.pdf PL03 - PROPOSED ELEVATIONS.pdf