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It’s not so much that they won’t let you It’s ideally ground conditions Mine being lots of trees What you need to consider is with BB you will have to add a screed afterwards Where as with a slab you can usually tile or floor straight on top

Slab would be cheaper I would have gone with slab rather than BB had I had a choice

So many of the sites I work on do the same Though I think no weekend working for a self build would be ridiculous

For a house this size it would have taken to long for me to build the house Due to planning relays we started in November I brought a five gang in They had both garages built and the house up to wall plate in five weeks I roofed the garages Then put the floor joists and boarded the floor over Christmas while they where off I built the three pikes and then put the roof trusses on I intended bringing a gang on for slating so I could keep the money coming in it couldn’t find anyone suitable So myself and wife put the several thousand skates on The wiring and plumbing where something we enjoyed doing Although I must confess we have two very good friends that would pop in each week and tell us what we have missed and any regs we where contravening One wired the consumer unit and terminated the UFH The other fitted the boiler and connected the gas supply Both drew me detailed drawings They both spent a day certifying the house I gave both a thousand each Which they reluctantly accepted Very good friends I had a quote for electric gate motors supply and fitted 3k I bought the same motors £600 and wired in myself Same with the garage door Everything numbered and colour coded Where do they get the prices Trip down memory lane Ive three days to wait to find out if my offer for a second and third building plot has been accepted

No I wouldn’t give up your day job Do both Get a builder in to get the structure up and carryon at evenings and weekends As I did

Your fine on bits I wouldn’t advise anyone to tackle a full house It’s one of those jobs The quicker you are the better end result With three to four days for a gang of two to skim a five bed house Its not worth the hassle

I run a plastering and tiling - framing business I brought a gang of Brickies in at the beginning and the rest my wife and myself have done and come in at 830m2 due to the small amount we have paid on labour Other than my son spending 4 days on the 350 m2 of rendering I’ve had no help from our business It would have sort of defeated the point Plastering is something I would advise all to stay away from A short courses are ok if you are going up an old cottage You dont want to be looking at a terrible finish Aims isn’t ideal for houses but isn’t easy to get right Tiling can look really good if you take your time We did most of the wiring and plumbing but had an Eletrician terminate and test same with plumbing We hadn’t done slating before but found it easy to do 300 plus m2 I pay loaders £1.50 a board to load in Myself and my wife loaded six packs So when you get your plastering quote that’s what you can nock off Even things like attaching a membrane to the high load dpc Then laying the king-span My wife did all that 155m2 £3.50 You can save a small fortune All while working full time people have said why don’t you get a couple of guys that work for to do some of the work They still would cost me a couple of hundred per day Soon adds up We are in the process of rendering 3 self builds The three couples have no building experience But are lugging bags of render up Doing all the masking for us and frost sheeting at night They are saving themselves two wages each day that we are there

I wouldn’t use the fixing at all I use a lot of these for fixing insulation to the underside of concrete floors I definitely wouldn’t stick felt on anything other than a garden shed

If your going down the route of individual trades there are lots you can do and save lots of money My wife is a office manager and helped slate wiring plumbing boarding All the insulation Lots of paving and tiling Trades will be happy to point you in the right direction So that you can do some of the prep work while they are not there Evenings and weekends Dont underestimate the amount of money you will save pictured is my wife in her element

Plus one with above £1000 up to include first fix would be plenty for most We completed our build for less Doing much of the work ourselves To a pretty high spec If you are going down the traditional route rather than Timber frame you will spend significantly less getting to watertight But be sure to get everything itemised When quoted for a roof don’t assume facias soffits etc are in the quote post up your quotes I’m sure others will have plenty to say

Yep and it will look like that in ten years Perhaps a quick wipe down

Very expensive Will tarnish though

I think you really need to stop them getting in We had a similar problem at my mother in-laws ONE rat under the floor boards I took a one foot piece of floorboard up Put and set a rat trap fastened to the joist with a piece of string I caught one each day for nine days It took a while but I found one hole behind a drainpipe where they had been coming in and out Which I blocked with mortar

Stair box is very good But you will need to be very certain of your measurements If you use a local timber merchant and the stairs don’t fit It’s there problem not yours Hardwood timber frames are very expensive and require a lot of looking after The supplier I have come across is John Carr Ive a friend who has a workshop and makes timber frames for a living But isn’t using timber on his due to maintenance

I know what you mean Ours looks awful

Expensive

The sink is browner than it looks But no it doesn’t show any marks When we first looked at them He had a broken plate and scraped the sink with it to show how tough it was

Also when you are making an offer Bare in mind that any valuation will take into account that there are Million pound houses opposite and will base the land price on the final worth of the new build It can be an expensive gamble But in saying that I’ve a friend who paid 50 k for land at an old quarry No chance of planning according to local parish Five years on he is building a house that will be worth a million plus Though I think he would be heading for a divorce is he agreed to sell

Normally there should be a level on your drawing Perhaps your neighbours Damp course Stating 00 Yours to match your neighbours Or a measurement above that In my experience when something new is built There is always someone that will tell you it is to high or in the wrong place I would tell him that you have had it looked at and all is as it should be

I think when you contact an insurer for something they don’t cover They often give you the impression that no one else will cover it either Good info Peter

We decided against ASHP We rely on ground floor UFH and lots of insulation I think we have wasted our money on 9 radiators for the five beds and three bathrooms A year in and we still haven’t used them Final Sap score 88

Estate agents are your best route The features you have added should make a good selling point Your average house buyer don’t really care about how efficient there new home is If they did the mainstream builders would make there homes more efficient The non standard seems to be more of an issue in England But I’m sure there are others on here that could point you in the right direction

and doesn’t look like he is struggling at all

Excellent video I’ve a friend who finished his build just as I started Former Brickie now site manager He and his lads built his whole house hand over arm No Scaffold Right to wall plate I can still remember roofs trusses being pulled up two poll ladders and tiled with no scaffolding

All parts excluding the motors on the gates are claimable You’re drive vat will be claimable But be very careful Starting them will effect your Cil agreement and may effect your planning As no commencement notice has been issued yet