Bitpipe

Always a great day when the frame starts to go up. I'm with you on the relief that the two bits match up - we had another contractor do the basement and even with re-measuring etc you're still convinced that something will go wrong. Not seen that joist type before, do you just cut your own penetrations for fouls, MVHR, etc..?

Can't understand why seller won't accept your offer irrespective of the mortgage type, it's all the same money in the bank for them, isn't it? Unless they're not prepared to wait for you to get PP and organise the self build mortgage, which can take a bit of time. Your plan is OK, pretty much what we did, but could you struggle to get a mortgage on the existing dwelling? Just be wary of redemption fees and do not be tempted to self build on the tracker without permission of the lender (which you likely won't get) as they are within their rights to ask you to redeem the mortgage if you eliminate their equity (the prefab). We were a bit naive in that respect and took out a 5 year deal then were refused permission to build by the mortgage holder. They went back and forth over 12 weeks to decide and in the end released us from the deal as goodwill, we paid off the mge with our build fund and then took out a selfbuild with Ecology. Added some delay to proceedings but it all worked out ok in the end.

Yep, however the fitter left the foot lengths of off cuts laying about so pretty obvious what had happened

A QS will be able to decompose the build into 'things', your builder and PM, if you get one, should help you understand which things are commodities (glue, sand etc) and which have a cost/quality/timing tradeoff or are a visible aesthetic and you want to choose them yourself. However, the question always remains, how do you ever know that the price a PM or builder gives you for anything is really the 'best price' or even the best option? Answer is you don't unless you do the research yourself. However that in itself can be a tradeoff - how long do you spend searching for a better deal? When is good enough, good enough. Many of us have been surprised that for many items, the local builders merchant is way more expensive than other purchasing options, yet they are full of builders all day long. Why? Those builders care much less about the 'best price' (as their client will ultimately foot the bill) and what they are most worried about is payment terms to help them manage their cashflow. You just need to get your expectations straight : for your contractors and professionals, this is a job - it will get done (hopefully well) and then the next job will come along and so on. They will not have to live in it. If you care deeply, get involved as much as you can. If you don't (and that's not a criticism) just let them get on with it.

I found the scaffers the only unpleasant and slightly dodgy trade I had during the whole build - my other trades said that they can be known for arriving on site at 7am 'well refreshed' and are strong as anything (if you've ever tried to lift a 12ft pole, never mind vertically so are not to be messed with. A majority are, I'm sure, perfectly honest and decent. My TF crew knocked the scaff about quite a bit during the build as it didn't quite fit and we had a bit of ground settlement that made it sag in a few places. Luckily the render crew fixed it all up themselves so the scaff vendor could not complain (but they did try to stick me for more ££). However the window fitter did trim a few poles with a disc cutter and left the bits on show and they were proper p'd off when they saw those - so put yours in the skip Scaff crews are also notorious about leaving it up (for free) on a site until they can take it directly to another site vs back to a depot, so be as strict about the 'off site' date as you are about other elements of the contract. I withheld a final payment to encourage them to take it down on time. Best to get your plan clearly defined (perimeter, lifts and adaptions) and then get two or three to quote and keep going round until you get the best price - there seems to be a lot of price elasticity depending on how busy they are.

Not exactly the same situation as you but... I have a suspended timber ground floor over the basement. I used Alu spreader plates and they are just insulated underneath with rock wool and the basement pb ceiling. Structural floor is 18mm OSB (glue & screw). On top of that I have 9mm marine ply & cross laid 12mm ply all glued & nailed. On top of that is a 6mm rubber crumb mat and 6mm (3x2mm pours) of resin. There should only have been one 2mm pour of resin but it wouldn't cure properly so they did it two more times. Quite a sandwich and just over 50mm of solid material but the heat passes through it all just fine - as our house is low energy design, the UFH flow temp is as low as the mixer will go - about 35o I think.

Completely agree - it's the cost / quality / time triangle - if you can afford it then you can get good quality in short time - which can make its own cost saving. We were not in a massive rush as living on-site our costs were fixed. We were lucky in having very good trades for the post frame fit out that did not need overarching supervision - sounds like you've been similarly lucky and I hope it works out as you expect. Are you leaving all purchasing decisions to them or do you have a clear spec on, for example, bathroom fit out etc and how will you check you're getting the best price etc. By way of example, we made a very last minute decision to put electric underfloor heating in the bathrooms. Electrician was able to put in conduit and back boxes at the last minute and after some discussion on this forum, I picked up very cost effective kit on eBay and one of the heating superstores - i.e. the mats, stats, insulated board, fixings & laytex, tanking kit etc.. It was all ready for the tiler when he turned up the following week. Had I got one of the 'off the shelf' premium kits then it would have been about 3x more expensive. Ordering all our Grohe, HansGrohe, VB etc bathroom kit on Megabad saved us about 40% vs Uk prices at that time. Similar for our Velux Integra windows etc. Do that a few times on a build and you start to save £1000s. Total time expended, a few hours on the internet over a few evenings. That's where you will make savings and get what you want.

Just be aware that the concept of reasonable can vary between the purchaser and the vendor - QS will decompose your build into component tasks and materials and use Spons to incrementally build up a cost model. This will only ever be indicative and materials and labour may well come in cheaper or more expensive - highly dependent on local, national and International variables plus your own trade off between time and quality. A main contractor will offset their own financial risk by either agreeing a cost plus or fixed price (with built in contingency). Yes however be aware using a single contractor will typically incur an overhead on the underlying costs (10-20%). They will also make their own decisions on how stuff gets done and what materials are used to do it (aside from finishes where you will have more input). You will not be consulted on every bag of cement or box of fixings purchased. Unless you're building something very complicated and expensive, you will just need to leave them to get on with it and hope you have a good set of professionals who will do their best. If you try to impose micromanagement then there's a good chance they will walk - seems to be the number one gripe of all the trades we had on site. Look, a professional will get a job done in the time allocated and the budget allowed. They will not agonise into the night whether they gave you enough options on your door handles or spent enough time hunting down the best possible deal on a box of glue to save you £5. No but I think you have an unrealistic expectation on how much above and beyond they will go for the fee you give them. Most will do a competent professional job that meets the requirements. If you want more you need to pay more but I'd suggest you're going to be spending more than you are saving at some point. You've obviously not got to the stage yet of ringing 20 plastering / plumbing / electrical contractors and being told that nope - they don't want your £20k job as it will probably take too long and they can make more money doing 4 smaller jobs for £10k each. Or that they'd love to do it but their developer mate has just booked them for the next 12 months at short notice so if you still need them after that then great. Etc. Or even getting them to start and then they disappear for week sand you're begging them to get back to unblock the next trade who is ready to go. All part and parcel of the experience. Keep in mind that self builders are a tiny fraction of the building market - majority are commercial & volume builds and then the smaller jobs like extensions and the like. I spent closer to £1500 /m2 - you only get well below that if you do a lot of work yourself or are prepared to take forever to get the build finished. If I were building today it would probably exceed £1750 as the pound is much weaker (most of my purchasing was pre Brexit). I did very little actual work myself but organised all of the trades & sourced materials etc. I would just find the time - that's what weekends, evenings & lunch breaks are for. BTW, it's not as time consuming as you make out. Trades are not children, if you get the right ones, they do not need constant supervision - they do need clear instruction of what you want though and the ability to get hold of you asap if a snap decision needs to be made. Self build is a big sacrifice of your finances, personal and professional life - it will consume you for the duration but at the end you have something special (hopefully).

Hmm - can only speak from my own experience but I'd be worried that the OSB skin on its own would have the same issue I had. The render board batten fixings carry a lot of deadweight, the render board - 2 coats of render and the top coat. Plus they need to resist the thermal expansion / contraction cycle of the boards in summer and winter. My issue took 18 months to come to light as the fixings slowly worked their way loose.

Had agreement in principal last summer from the contractor to replace the system with a view to doing it this summer but Covid has hit and I need to chase him again - last spoke 6 odd weeks ago as they were restarting operations. Fundamental issue is that their batten did not overlay the structural ribs in the TF outer wall (which were marked) so at least half of them were just screwed into Panelvent (i.e. MDF) and the fixings have failed.

Have you figured the overhead you're prepared to pay for all these functions? If you need that level of professional services attention during your build (and expect high quality vs box ticking) , do not be surprised if you add 20-30%+ to your build budget. And as it services, not eligible for VAT (unless part of your build package).

Generally in life, If you can expect someone to put a significant level of effort into satisfying your needs if a) they're in deeply, deeply in love with you, b) they are operating under fear of pain, death or unemployment or c) you are paying them handsomely. Most of us selfbuilers can only rely on c). Now, can you afford to buy that level of commitment then good luck. Otherwise if you care about it (quality or cost) then you need to do the work.

I think those of us who are not retired or won lottery have done do We lived on site which helps massively with logistics but is not essential. My big discovery was that a PM is not a site manager. Many will not be on site every day and certainly will not consider opening & closing site, taking deliveries etc as their job. So if you need that, you need to pay for it separately or do it yourself. Neither will they clean up at the end of the day, check what's been done, tidy stuff away etc.. They will likely be there for more 'mission critical things, but if you're using good contractors then that should not be necessary. We parted with the architect after planning was obtained as their costs for BC stages were quite high and as we were using packages, somewhat duplicative (drawings etc). I spent a bit of time discharging our planning conditions and reviewing the detailed design of the basement and frame and I think this gave me the confidence to oversee the work itself - at least I understood what the expected end result was even if somewhat clueless on how it was actually going to happen. We hired a PM to do a PHPP analysis and commission a QS plan and this was a really valuable tool as it quantified all the 'things' we needed stage by stage and put default costs against them so when I was getting real prices, I had something to act as a guide. That said, the QS pricing was about 25-30% above what we ended spending and the PM's fee would have been 10% of the build cost so we saved both. Packages for the key initial parts of the build help remove the need for a PM or even site manager. If the build is being done piecemeal then a main contractor is a good bet as they will combine PM and site management but will impose an overhead for management costs / profit. You're also dependent on the trades they choose. From there you can use good subs (electrical, plumbing etc..) do do their bits and you act as a bit of an orchestra conductor. On our build we did one package for the demo / basement and another package for the timber frame - very much observers for all of that, I did some sourcing & install for basement insulation and lightwells as they were not specialties of the contractor. Once the frame was up, we got the windows in, roof tiled and render applied plus soffit, fascia, rainwater goods etc in one busy month while the scaff was still there. Again, effort here was initial sourcing and agreement of supply/fix contracts (windows took most effort, however I independently sourced the Velux and saved a substantial amount on those.) and generally watching what was going on and making sure we were happy before the trades were paid. I did the rite of passage that is MVHR first fix and sourced all that kit at a decent price. Thereafter during the rest of first fix the trades came and went as needed - it was slow and steady and we did not need to source anything for them but we did start to accumulate second fix items (mostly sanitary ware). We did not have a pre-existing M&E plan (saving ££) so the first fix designs evolved with discussion with the trades and a few things were added last minute. Main input here was confirming locations of things (sockets, sanitary etc) but only required a few hours of onsite time with each trade plus a few phone calls. Use of FaceTime etc would make that a lot easier now. After first fix was complete things got a bit more involved - we hired a joiner to make good the first fix (boxing in etc) as since he was labour only, we needed to do a lot more sourcing but also got more involved in design of some elements. We then moved to plastering and decorating - again, largely hands off for that aside from choosing colours etc. Tiling & floor finishes required sourcing but that is very personal in taste and part of the fun - as most of second fix is 'what you see' you will want to be deeply involved in it anyway. Joiner back in for second fix carpentry (doors, skirts, architrave etc) then second fix electrics & plumbing and the kitchen was one of the last things to go in before we moved back. We did final stairs a few months after that (didn't want them getting wrecked) and landscaping came the following year - again we had a labour only deal there so did lots of sourcing and speccing. So it was not a huge amount of effort, no real skill required aside from knowing what you can and can't afford and what end result you want.

Excellent description - our basement design was an open top box (as I wanted a suspended timber ground floor) so the design was a bit more complex. The rebar design was quite intricate, especially at the wall slab interfaces.I was most impressed (as was the BC) at how well and how fast the crew implemented it - they even spotted a few errors in the drawings (misplacement of some elements) around corner details which the SE corrected immediately, plus suggested their own details such as diagonal bars at the corner of basement window and door openings to reduce cracking. Could it be that your groundworker is just not that confident or experienced in working to the spec you've been given? Our crew were lightening fast in doing the bar tying and really took their time with the shuttering also, even detailing grooves for the water bar etc - but they did this day in and out and that's why the GW had subbed them in. His team focused on demo, excavation and backfill, plus laying services.

Ok, I concede the point - a good joiner could do it but you will need to be be clear on the requirements.

We had 16 tonnes of rebar in our 120m2 basement - all hand tied, no mesh at all. But we were sited over chalk which is like Swiss cheese so the whole structure was bomb proof. Ultimately SE is legally liable for your design, groundworker is not. Who signed off their previous job using mesh?

I'd notify your building control inspector as he will advise what version of the regs you need to work to. I know our BC recommended that we did something 'material' in the April of the year we were starting the build as he could then apply the current regs against the whole build before they tightened up again. We were demolishing a garage and running fouls to the caravan at that point (still living in the old house on site) so we made part of the run the formal sewer connection and he signed it off and we had officially made a start. Work did not start properly until August of that year. Do you need to issue a demolition notice to the LA? That was a formality we needed to complete ahead of taking down the garage (and latterly the house).

In a low energy house, the front (and all) doors need to be both airtight and thermally efficient - i.e. low u value & no cold bridges (so a solid timber door is not a good idea). When closed, it needs to be secured against the frame to ensure the seals engage - multipoint locking is good for this. I'd be surprised if a joiner could make a door to meet that criteria, risk is that over time a timber door may shrink and airtightness deteriorate. We have a passive standard door from RK - foam core, aluminium structure, double seals etc - not cheap but we were aiming for a certain aesthetic.

https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/hot-tub-owners-pretending-its-not-a-nasty-sex-pond-2013042266204

Probably connected to Anti Money Laundering (AML) legislation.

Ecology do not require use of a solicitor beyond the initial conveyancing. I was quite surprised but you just send an email with the amount you want and it's transferred to your nominated bank account.

Thanks for the clarification - I did suspect it wasn't that easy. However for other items under the £30k limit (kitchens etc) then cards are definitely a useful part of the mix.

Look into section 75 credit card protection - I believe (but not 100% sure) that if you pay over £100 of the balance on a card then the card issuer is jointly liable for the whole contract. You may struggle to persuade the supplier to take some payment on a card but I believe it just needs to be over £100. By (EU) law they are also not allowed to add a % surcharge anymore either. I've only been shafted once on the build by the balustrade supplier going bust (and reviving later as a new company) but as the whole amount (£3500) was on a card, I got a settlement for the outstanding amount to complete the works.

I went with Velux in 2016 and am very happy, there are other cheaper brands out there so do your research. Look for good reseller discounts - I got mine from NL but the euro was stronger then (1.4) so made sense. My Integra windows work great - they come with about 6m of cable terminated in a 3 pin plug so was easy to terminate them to a fused spur - just remember to plan to have one in proximity. I have 4 Integra and four other manually operated ones in accessible rooms. They are solely controlled via their wireless touch pads and as you get one per window you will have a few to distribute round the house, any window can be controlled via any pad and you can group them together. We got the roofer to fit them along with the external motorised blinds (also controlled through the wireless pads). They have a rain sensor pad which will auto close them and I see they now have a range of indoor controllers and sensors to track humidity and Co2 plus extension to apple home kit so looks like there is an app now as well. As you say, great for cross ventilation in summer when the MVHR does not cut it. My advice, which ever brand you go for, is to ensure your drawings and plans are aligned to the standard window sizes offered. We needed to do a few NMAs to tweak the planning drawings to reflect this. We had a couple of SK10 and PK10 which are quite huge but also MK04 which is a more common size Velux. If you're using the insulated frame kit (recommended if the rest of your build is of a highly insulated standard) then ensure you allow for the additional tolerances in the aperture - we needed to knock ours about a bit to fit (too tight by a few mm) so just keep an eye on that.

Beautiful design, love how the front is so modest and the rear dramatic. Plus, I'm a sucker for a basement having built one myself ! More than familiar with the budget exploding but you have options - prioritise the structural elements and leave optional rooms (eg, in basement, loft etc) unfinished until you can afford them later. Quite often, once you have the shell up you can get more realistic quotes from trades and can bring things in under QS estimates. For Velux, their motorised external blinds are the only way to control solar gain unless the windows are reachable from the room, in which case you can fit the internal blackout blinds. For inaccessible windows, the Integra range are motorised & wirelessly controlled and the binds can be patched into the windows themselves. For manually operated windows, the blinds have a remote and can be patched into the Integra system. I see they've added more controller options too the range since we bought ours. As a Norn Iron native (now in SE England) my money is on a decommissioned arms cache from the peace process