Bored Shopper

All through our build I came to have increasing respect for one of the most famous quotes of this Forum: "someone else's common sense is not your common sense"! Even the greates QS/PM would not be looking after your budget as well as you would. They would compromise on one thing and suggest splashing out on another whilst you would do it vice versa just because you know what is more important for you and fits your lifestyle better. What I'm trying to say, I suppose, is that even with a QS/PM you HAVE to be pretty much involved. A complete turnkey would probably work if you intend to build and quickly sell to make money - you won't care much as it's not going to be your permanent home.

My husband and I are PM'ing 50%/50%. Husband (retired) does site visits and daily errands around shops etc, is the main liaison with the builders, manages neighbours, scaffolders, skip hires, Solar PV and doors installers, as well as all services connections. For him this is a full time job. I work full time and in terms of the project am responsible for the budget, mortgage, procurement costs, financial reporting, VAT return, half of all purchasing research, council, paperwork, weekly minutes, agendas, core correspondence, archive, and interior design (kitchen design, bathroom design, lighting concept etc). Luckily have been working from home since early March, otherwise no idea how I'd manage. Tough, but doable with very good time management skills and a clear vision. Ah, and we don't have small kids around (a senior teen, so not too time consuming).

+1 to combine PM with QS. Our PM was not too much costs-focused. He did offer some discounts with certain suppliers but at a closer look thier prices were exorbitant even with a discount. Had to do all the research and QSing ourselves, so not 100% cost-efficient.

whoever you choose, just remember that you must check everything and don't rely 100% that someone would check all the details for you. Our supplier/installer (quite a big name) managed to sell us a door which not only did not match the BC regulations on clear opening, but was even manufactured with a visible difference to the spec declared on the drawings! Naturally, in comes a BC inspector and says no, i won't sign this off! Follows a lengthy discussion with the supplier another month of wait, cutting an enlarged door opening and re-installing a newly produced door. We thought they'd know their Part M Diagram 1.1, but... well, now we know.

Came to the point of choosing internal doors. In two rooms on ground floor (hallway to kitchen and hallway to reception room) we definitely need glazed doors to allow flow of natural light. Question: can these be glazed like below (or similar), or once again Park K kicks in and it should all be protected against collision, max.250mm panel width, etc? Don't want BC to come in and tick us off for unsuitable doors (on the other hand, why are they widely on sale?)?

did you achieve the result you wanted? is it quiet?

We're obsessed with sound insulation (currently living in a rented house where you can easily keep conversation between GF and FF without raising your voice with doors closed, such a nightmare). We're stuffing Rockwool Flexi 140 wherever we can in internal stud walls and in the GF ceiling, and in a currently door-less house you can definitely hear the difference. It soaks up sound and really muffles it. Quite pleased. Also made a point of surrounding utility area with it to keep the noise from boilers / washing machine / tumble dryers down.

The bathroom in question is above left. Size is roughly 2000x2200mm. Our architect put the washbasin next to shower on an extending wall (protruding into the shower to create niche recess), but it proved not feasible when built in practice as access to showers is awkward. We changed window size, moved it to the left (when facing), widened the shower enclosure and moved the washbasin as indicated by the arrow. Now one can properly access the shower enclosure. But the door has to be changed.

Have you got all the permissions, soil surveys, asbestos surveys, water surveys etc? Are there neighbours around who may demand a Party Wall agreement? These all cost alot in Surrey (we're in Spelthorne). Have you got site insurance and warranty? Again, these each take a grand or so off your budget. We found skips to be very expensive in our area, particularly on a narrow plot (when scaffolding is up we cannot have a skip on site so have to rely on wait-and-load every 3-4 weeks and it just drains the budget (hopefully scaffolding will be down next week). You'd need to have a small contingency budget - practice shows you can never predict 100% of costs, no matter how careful you are. Anything from bad weather to a nasty neighbour can cause issues. If you are semi-rural, check you have no bats or crested newts around - this would be a disaster and drain funds before you even start. Demolition-wise, our bungalow raised to ground in 3 days by a team of 4ppl without any machinery, with some bits still salvageable, so it is doable.

Some advice, please. Due to tight space our family bathroom has to have its door either opening out into the 2x2m landing (not ideal) or of a sliding variety (non-pocket again due to space constraints) which I personally hate. We're considering a folding door - but do they ever extend to a fully flat surface and stay that way? Remember having this in one of houses we rented in USA and they were always *slightly* folding...

we've had to replace quite a few such blocks which cracked under incorrectly placed structural steels. Cost us two weeks delay and extra labour was really scary

One thing I dislike re green wall felt pockets is that they rot quite quickly. If you stuck them on a garden wall make sure you waterproof that bit as the wall would be affected when you water your herbs (the pockets dry up quite quickly so lots of watering). If permanently stuck on the wall quite high up planting may be inconvenient (I hate doing stuff on ladders). ALso the beautiful green colour of felts will get discoloured / dirty / patchy quite rapidly.

From experience, a PM helps if you are a total newbie and have no clue, and need a ramp-up period with the build for it all to start making sense. And if you work full time, are easily intimidated and do not wish to be present on site. With us it worked well for 3 months, PM was a great help. But then things went pearshaped with our builders, PM could not do anything about it, DH took matters in his own hands (he's retired so plenty of time on his hands) and effectively started PMing himself. This is much more effective as he is present now on site daily and makes it hard for builders to cut corners. He is there just in time to discuss minor tweaks / answer questions / check sensibility of some decisions (as was very cleverly put by some of this Forum's gurus, "someone else's common sense is not your common sense!!"). Direct communication and oversight definitely helps, as due to lack of such control under the PM (he visited weekly) we've had lots of things done wrong. That said, DH is now a full-time PM on our project, dealing with both site visits, procurement and overall coordination. From early morning to late at night, 6 days a week. I work full time, and could not have possibly done that working as I do. I do manage finances and budgets, but that's it. When our site manager calls with "can you pop round here for a moment?.." it's DH who takes off. But I do acknowledge PM did help with PP, LA applications, some general knowledge of how builds are done, double-checking engineering opinions etc. But you can't rely on a PM 100% to deliver you exactly what you want and at very good value. (Maybe there are such gems, have not yet met them).

which one did you go for eventually? What's the configuration? We're designing ours now, too many options!!

Please may I have more on this - compressing at point pressure on small mosaic. Does it really get bad? We're all quite large and heavy people so pressure applied when standing is considerable. Our concept design is to have a flat-floor walk-in shower WITH mosaic (rest of floor is large tiles). Our builder prefers Wedi products, but we found Tough-X which is apparently a GPR. Would this be better for mosaics? Also currently on sale so really tempting. Also not prepared to compromise on mosaics in shower, it's a matter of deep personal preference ?

Need advice please: FF bathroom is due to have a square(-ish) bathtub (1050x1250mm, 600mm deep). Total water capacity 428l. Users will be above 110kg. Now the floor structure is timber joists N. G2,47*250mm Grade C24@0.40mCTRS (taken from SE plans). We've made that double joists, bolted together. The new builder (we've had a change of builders this months, don't ask...) says it would probably need a metal plate support on top of joists to ensure the full bathtub does not cause joists movement. Architect says maybe not. Any opinion please?

From experience, the fatter the pigeon the harder it tries....

UPDATE: After waiting for 5 weeks for someone to look at p.3 of SE plans, master a calculator and calculate GEA, we took ownership and did it ourselves. Submitted to Buildloan, who passed it on. Christmas came and went, we continued to self-finance (thankfully, we're on a reduced building rate for holidays period, so only paid 50% of normal weekly fee). Post Christmas - no progress. Early Jan - were told by Buildloan (by this time we were on a personal radar of Operations manager there, a sweet guy really helpful) that surveyor were finally happy (I bet!). But the valuation they issued to NBS was now WAY LOWER than their original valuation! How? how??? NBS rightfully pushed back to surveyors (by now we were on Head of Lending personal radar). Frantically, we googled the surveyor only to find out that they habitually undervalue properties. Until the correct valuation was issued, we were offered a meagre 5% (five percent) of the awaited drawdown! This would not cover even a week's bill from the builders, but we grabbed it out of desperation. Finally, after another week's wait someone somewhere made the right decision and we got our Installment-3 in full. £7.99 of this would go towards a pack of hair colourant for myself as I was hysterial by that time. We have 3x more instalments to receive, God help us.

Is it hard water leaving whitish marks, or does grease and muck leave stains? What do you clean it with?

I wonder how many opt for an undermount sink? Does it really make a hell lot of positive difference?

We currently rent a house with a 10 y.o. kitchen. The kitchen (a Magnet) is falling apart (couple of doors hand by a thread), units are slightly out of alighnment. The sink (a composite one, we assume) was originally beige or sand colour, but is currently in such a state that no cleaning product can ever return it to anywhere close the original colour. Really don't want this in my new kitchen!..

I can see the overflow is sealed with a tape - is it at the inconvenient height / unnecessary?...

is it steel or composite? I imagine cleaning an oven tray regularly may offer some scratching...

Too much Christmas food makes your brain really thick. Mine is like pea soup today. And that - of all days - is when I have to finalise my kitchen spec. Now, to kitchen sinks. We are considering a 1.5 bowl sink - either in stainless steel or in Fragranite (or similar). Intended for quite heavy daily use (DH is a keen chef) by a family who stubbornly refuse to be slaves to daily uber-cleaning. We'll have a water softener, if it matters. Can you share your pet hate (or love) re your sinks, please? 1) What is your sink made of? 2) Inset or undermount? 3) Do you like it? Thank you and Merry Christmas.

@Thedreamer yes it is.