sunflower

Our foundations are going to be reasonably straightforward (famous last words!!) 100 m/sq house. Site with a v mild slope, currently a field. Clay soil. Hoping to do beam and block. We're looking to buy an excavator for this, which it will also be super useful at our equestrian centre. Can anyone advise, will a mini excavator (1.5 ton or thereabouts) be far too small for the job? Do we need to consider a bigger excavator, say 3 tons? Grateful for any opinions, thank you

Thank you, super helpful people! 🙏

Ok great, sounds like an extension lead will be more than sufficient

We’re going to be building our house 50m away from an existing farm shed that has electricity already. Can anyone advise if running a heavy duty extension lead from the existing barn will be good enough to supply the building site? (For power tools I guess, and whatever else the construction workers need? It’s going to be a SIPs & oak frame build) Or would we be better putting in the new supply first, and setting up some kind of temporary connection to it? (This is my husband’s opinion but it sounds like overkill to me!) Very grateful for anyone’s experience/advice! Thank you :)

We haven't quite found out how we're going to fund it yet! 🤔🤣 We're very determined though, we'll be doing about 50% of the build ourselves and know it will take years, but both my husband and I are stubborn and don't like to compromise! There's an awful lot of work up ahead of us 😬!

We've got pp to build an oak frame home in Sussex. Currently scratching our heads figuring out the best way to fund it! The is a belated hello as i have already asked a couple of questions and had brilliant responses. Very interested to hear from any other Oak Frame nuts like us, who are hoping to do lots of the build themselves?

Thanks guys!

Thank you, that's very encouraging and worth investigating! We have an ag-tie, but it's very vague (not specifically connected to a particular industry or business) so I hope they might consider us. I will contact them!

We're currently looking at various different routes to financing our self build. One thing is for certain is, we need to save up for some more deposit before we apply for a mortgage. In the mean time, we'd quite like to start some of the ground works & foundations (we own the land and already live on site in a caravan, so this is doable) But, my concern is that a lender might not lending on a project that's already started? Does anyone have experience of this? Thanks so much for your help

Forgive my ignorance, google hasn't been super helpful so far... What does a 'building completion certificate' have to have? Is it possible to see an example of one somewhere? As I understand it, completion certificates are crucial for showing Mortgage companies that your build is 'finished' (so you can receive final stage payments, then move to new better mortgage rates) Our problem is that although most of the house will be finished in 12 months, it will take us a couple more years to achieve the fully finished, fancy-pants spec we'd like on kitchens, bathrooms, flooring etc. We can borrow enough on the mortgage to fund the bulk of the build, but will have to earn-and-spend for the finer details, or rely on remortgaging later on (during this time we won't need to live in the house, so from our point of view it won't 'need' a kitchen for example) What i'd like to understand, is how 'unfinished' a building can be, but still be classed as 'complete'! Does that makes sense?! Grateful for any advice, thank you

This is terrifically helpful, thank you!

Thanks guys, very helpful

Can anyone assist - we recently gained planning permission for an 'Equestrian Worker's Dwelling' at our equestrian business. The house will be our family home, and the land is privately owned (not by our company) Our builder thinks we're not eligible for VAT reclaim as it's a 'worker's dwelling' - might anyone have experience of this and be able to help us clarify? Thanks so much for your help

Ok, that sounds good, thank you. How did you go about organising the council tax - did you get in touch with the council proactively, or did they send someone to assess?

We’ve just got permission to build our first home on the site of our equestrian business (I’m still in shock!) 😮 We’d like to live on site while building, but we’re not sure if you need additional permission to do so - it would probably be in a static caravan for several years. Can anyone share experience of living in temporary accommodation on site, while building? Any advice/thoughts appreciated, thank you