Bitpipe

You may be asked 'if you have them' but may not be asked to produce them (my experience). We moved from an Ecology Self Build mge to a high st one while the house was still not signed off due to some external landscaping details. That said, it looked completely finished. Ultimately, your new lender will need the house surveyed to confirm the valuation you are borrowing against so it will all hinge on your LTV and what the surveyor thinks.

We positioned a kitchen MVHR extract in-between the ovens and the hob (they are opposite each other), plus a recirculating hood with grease and carbon filter. There is another MVHR extract in corner of kitchen, conveniently located over the toaster in which I burn bread with alarming regularity. Agree that if there is some really smelly cooking going on, the kitchen window gets opened on tilt. All seems to work fine.

Remember you will need an asbestos survey before any reputable contractor will touch your demolition job and if any is found, it needs to be removed by a specialist before the general demo work starts. You may get lucky and have some material that is salvageable or even sellable but decide quick and just bin if no interest or immediate use. Don't be tempted to story stuff on site 'just incase' as it will inevitably get in the way of the build and just get damaged. We had 1500 unused imperial bricks from the original 1950's build but we could not get anyone to take them, even for free. Kept getting moved around site and each time the pile would diminish as they got lost, broken etc. Still have a few left in a pile at the back. I did manage to salvage some 5m joists from the single story garage and they came in handy for a few jobs, now forming raised beds in the back garden.

Many demolition orders from the LA forbid burning on site, ours did for sure. I stripped out as much copper etc as I could and took to the scrap merchant myself, was only about £100 in the end so not really worth the effort. The demo crew spent a day ripping out all the wood and it went into a large skip. Then the machine pulled he house apart from top to bottom, roofing and flooring timbers went into the same skip. They picked out any remaining metal for salvage and the rest went into a series of 20t trucks off to be crushed. Was less than a week for a 165m3 2 storey brick house. We bought in a few trucks of crush later and there was all sorts of crap in it, taps, wood, cables etc.

You can have two at the cost of the third, take your pick We did TF, looked seriously at ICF (contractor, not DIY) and what swung it for us as novices was the amount of progress we would get on the build using a single TF contractor plus the high quality of passive detail (insulation & airtightness) built in that package. We did not use MBC's foundation system as we had a basement but that would have been another decider as they take responsibility for that as well as the frame - which is peace of mind both from a practical point of view (A fits onto B) but also the passive detailing. As the frames were factory built, we were able to have the windows pre-ordered and arriving on site within a week of the frame being complete externally. Once they were installed and taped to the internal airtight layer we were able to get the exterior cladding on and the roof (which was felted and battened by MBC) and roof lights completed all within about 6 weeks of commencement. MBC then return to pump the insulation and do the airtightness test. When the frame was complete we had all internal stud walls, floor decks and temp stairs which meant we could crack on with first fix within weeks. We also experienced a big difference between TF vendors, mostly to do with the degree of interior stuff walling, insulation and sundries like cranage, welfare, safety systems etc. So TF wins for speed and quality (assuming you have a quality crew) but the cost is higher. However you need to offset that against how long you want to wait to start 1st fix and eventually move in.

The gas connection is heavily subsidised - only cost me a few hundred pounds. Disconnecting the previous gas supply before demolition cost £1500 and was a 20 min job for the contractors!

My understanding has always been that the per m2 build cost is everything to build once plot and permissions are in hand (so does not include architect, SE etc.) divided by the gross internal footprint (however you choose to calculate that). Some include services and major enabling groundworks (inc. demolition) as part of the plot costs as a difficult plot (e.g. slope or ex industrial) could be cheaper than a level clean site ready to start work. As you've correctly assumed, you don't want to skimp on the fundamental fabric and similar things that will be deep inside your build and therefore very expensive to upgrade later (these things are ironically usually inexpensive to do at that time, e.g. insulation, cabling, ducting etc). The things that are easy to upgrade later tend to be visible items i.e. pretty much anything that is second fix (kitchen, appliances, sanity-ware, light fittings etc... even flooring or doors). Ironically these are normally the higher individual cost items at the time.

It happens in life outside the build - should have said this, should have done that etc. To get philosophical for a moment, you can't change the past so little point worrying about it (spilt milk etc). But you can learn from it. In this case, I'd suck it up but make it VERY clear to the architect that any future spec / measurement related decision needs explicit sign-off from you in writing (email / text if sufficient) to avoid any similar recurrence.

Maybe just take your shoes off indoors (which we do as a rule anyway) - automatically gives you 10 mm

Similar but different story - we spent over £5k on a passive RK door with flush profile, fingerprint sensor, 180o hinges, the works. Aperture was 1600mm so I wanted 1100mm 'statement' door and just a thin section of glass for the remainder plus frame etc. Checked, double checked and ordered. When it arrived months later, the door was 900mm with wider glass - was fuming and checked the paperwork. I had screwed up and the final spec I had submitted online had somehow reset to the default of a 900mm door. I felt sick and was super pissed off for a week, even contemplated buying a whole new door. Reality then set in and I got over it, moved onto some other issue. Within a few weeks I was perfectly happy with the door as it still looks great. You do beat yourself up a lot over mistakes in a self build, whether your own fault or oversight, and the OCD kicks in all too often but you do get over it so don't be too hard on yourself. Just crack on and enjoy the house.

Not all IP traffic is equal so an ISP could, in theory, prioritise the type of IP traffic used in a speed test but restrict that used in TV streaming. If possible, get the TV next to the router, bypassing all the internals, and see if that makes any difference. You don't specify your ISP or router model - some are quite intelligent, others can be pretty dumb. MTU size can have an impact - guide here https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-optimize-the-mtu-setting-on-your-router-for-better-performance/ In theory IPv6 is faster than IPv4 but the change above may have restricted Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms which may have changed how traffic is prioritised. However I'd think that would only happen in your own network but my knowledge runs out here!

Yup, we did a new build basement but even that was touch and go until we cleared up some anomalies in the ground investigation. We are on free draining gravel on chalk with some water at 6m so waterproof concrete alone was sufficient. Ours was excavated to 3.5m deep on a 120m2 footprint to allow for a well insulated slab and decent ceiling height (finished level is just under 2.8m). The 4 rooms all have light wells, one has independent access to outside via stairs (fire regs requirement) and complement the house above. Two rooms are teenager dens / music / TV rooms, one is a gym and one may one day have a use other than just storing boxes. Plant room is downstairs so that frees up space elsewhere in house. Was fairly economic to build but we had uncomplicated ground, good access on site, plenty of space between the neighbours (no party wall concerns) and design was a simple squarish box with open lid. Build cost was about £1000/m2 (2015 Berkshire) and finishing internally probably a few hundred more but was all done as part of the internal house fit out. Added 50% to internal floor area and planners did not blink (we got planning for the above ground house first and then added the basement on a follow on application). So under those very favourable conditions it worked for us and added value to the finished house. Specialist basement companies do tend to be the most expensive option - we talked to a few and then used a general ground-worker who contracted out the concrete works. You're in an in-between situation as there is already a substantial space there. However, your status quo (water filled cellar) does not seem to be a great situation so per the advice above you probably want to understand what state it's in (as cheaply as possible) before moving forward. I can testify that basement are great spaces for noisy older teenagers (and adults) and can free up space elsewhere in the house. You do need to consider fire regs carefully and ensure independent means of egress (or have a suppressant system).

Welcome, I'm just down the M4 from you. While £3-400k sounds generous, it is very tight if the plot is to be included. Most builds cost between £1500-2500/m2 depending on the location, size, quality & complexity and that is excluding the plot. Some have done it for less (£1000/m2 or lower) but they have been able to do a lot of the work themselves. Small builds tends to have higher fixed costs as a proportion of the build budget, such as enabling services (power, water & sewage at a minimum). Until you have a plot you won't know what budget remains for the build itself. You also need to budget for non build costs, mostly professional fees for surveys, architect (if used), structural engineer, building control inspections etc. Regarding a phased build, entirely possible but you would be doing a lot of re-work to the roof in particular and would need to design and engineer the first story (including foundations) to take the additional load of upper storeys. Also, any subsequent phases would not be eligible for the zero rate VAT scheme .

It's easy to do with a service void (remember to leave a length of twine between the two endpoints and don't let your tackers block the void with insulation if it's on an internal stud wall. Dot and dab plasterboard also onto a solid wall. Probably a bit tricker in a chased wall, you'd probably want actual ducting between the endpoints. Also remember to protect the ends of whatever cable (e.g. HDMI) that you choose to pull through.

Back to cables, My spark had a simple solution. He had a double socket, behind where the TV was mounted and next to this put in a blank socket box that was chased out at the bottom. To this he fitted the nylon brush style covers. Vertically below this, behind where the TV table sits, was another run of power, ethernet, RF and another blank box with nylon brush covers. Between these two boxes was just a wall void - you could have duct if required. So TV plugged into wall and RF, ethernet and HDMI cables just ran into the blank box and popped out inside the TV table for termination. Means clean wall between the two. I suppose he could have put ethernet and AV behind the TV also and just used the ducting for HDMI etc..

Understatement - drilling holes for bathroom fixings into them was painful. Ended up using the ebauer diamond coated flat head drill bits and securely taping a template to the wall (as those bits can skid around initially).

We used modest 600x600 and 600x300 tiles (porcelain - no idea how thick) in our bathrooms. We were considering large format tiles for basement and ground floor but were warned in the showroom that when you get to 900mm you're requiring a more expensive tiler as they will need two people and larger format tile cutters. Went with Karndean in basement and resin in GF in the end.

Our original underwriter went bust also but the book was bought by another insurer. At that point we were offered the £3.5k premium back or the policy under the new firm. Took the insurance - kind of wish I hadn't bothered as it's proved impossible to claim on for my render issues. I've re-mortaged three times since the self build, only once was I asked 'do you have a warranty?' I said yes but they never asked to see it.

OK, be aware that the foundation system may vary between TF systems, MBC would use a passive raft not a traditional trench system.

Given we're both electronic engineers by education and the other half still works in the semiconductor industry, our house (completed 2016) is remarkably luddite by design. We did put cat6 in every room and that has served us well in hooking up static things like consoles and TVs. We've recently branded into the world of smart plugs which was handy for asking Alexa to turn on / off the xmas lights. Also bought some battery operated wireless blinds from Ikea for the rear sliders (external blinds were not a viable option) and they're working a treat - come up automatically on sunrise and we just manually (or ask Alexa) to put them down in evening.

Makes sense now. I'd get the architect to focus on how services interact with the generic structural elements of a timber frame (spans of steel in your floor structure, load bearing elements in wall etc) Not a full M&E design but thinking about penetrations in steels or similar for large items like fouls and MVHR ducts. We did not do this and had a few close squeaks to get everything in. Doors / windows / thresholds etc will also be outside the remit of the frame company as will your external cladding system. I know @Weebles had to redesign a window as it would have interrupted a vertical load bearing element. We had to figure out some threshold details for sliders to have a step free transition. MBC throw a bit of a curveball with their passive slab which is quite different to a traditional foundation system, however all foundation designs should be based on some degree of ground investigation to understand what you're building on.

Maybe things have changed since 2015. All the TF firms I contacted gave me a quote against the planning drawings, when I decided to process with MBC the detailed design only happened when I paid the deposit. I chose them as the package was very complete (as a novice i wanted to minimise contractors) and I was able to view a few of their builds. Also they were ahead of the others wrt passive performance back then. Was very happy with their work. We didn’t need their passive slab as we had a basement but others chose them for this reason also. I still struggle to see how an architect can draw up detailed tf designs when the vendor systems vary so much, unless you’re allowing for a degree of re-design by the supplier. Even MBC have different systems on offer - I have the passive standard twin wall blown cellulose option but there are single wall fixed insulation options with lower thermal performance etc.

Podpoint was installed yesterday, very straight forward as there is a RCD fuse box in garage already connected back to a 40a RCD in the supply kiosk - was about a 7m run of cable between it and the unit. Nice and fast, means that i should be able to do a full charge of the eTron while the sun is shining. Just need an excuse to go somewhere now!

From memory theres no (or minimal charge) to get it inspected, you can then take or leave the quoted repair fee and they just keep the unit. Mine came back with a logbook detailing the number of coffees made, descaling cycles etc.

Aside from accurate external dimensions, I really wouldn't spend too much on architect detailed drawings as the TF systems are so diverse they will just work to the building elevations and floor plans and devise their own structural system. They each will have different wall and floor profiles, steel requirements etc which will move things around internally. They will use their own designers (not necessarily architects) plus pull in calcs from their SE. We went through 4 revisions with MBC to adjust interior walls, window positions etc and these then became the reference drawings for everyone else, including building regs. You may want to invest in a basic cad package to navigate any DWG you may be provided, I found it invaluable to check measurements, play around with things etc. What we forgot to do (and just about got away with) was specify penetrations in steels to enable foul drainage and MVHR (general plumbing and electrical services can usually wriggle around through service voids). Architect can still be very useful for details etc.