Bored Shopper

wow, I love this forum! It would never even occure to me that sections of handrail/spindlers can be removable! (Have not found this much wisdom in Homebuilder's Bible, but again I'm only on p.237...). Thank you all for comments and pics, guys, it helps alot.

Thank you both very much, your photos do help. @ProDave If yours is a Stairbox, which material did you go with? Trying to avoid a squeaky stairs (both me and DH are quite heavy). @joe90 Yours looks lovely, and it's a great idea re landing! What about carrying items upstairs, does it make it more complicated? (i.e, a sofa which cannot be disassembled, or a 1800 mm free-standing bath ?)

Need help and some opinions please. We are at design stage (a simple rectangular 3-storey 5-bed), need to figure out what to do with staircase. As seen from plans below, Option A is straight staircase (which I'd love as it would allow to build in my dream pull-out understairs coats storage as seen on Houzz). However, it takes lots of space along the Reception wall, as compared to Option B (double-turn), and, most importantly, eats into DH's precious study room, reducing it significantly. Also a question of how convenient a double-turn stairs is? Never had one (currently dwelling in a bungalow with a straight stairs to loft room). I was always dreading of lifting some bulky, long and heavy items up a double-turn which would get stuck... Stairbox tells us a double-turn is twice the cost of a straight one, which makes one think, but study space is more important.... Opinions, please!

@Ferdinand, thank you, good points, all noted.

Thank you very much - I did come across this list before, and our own list of questions for the architect interview was two pages long we drew alot from your list. The bit about chemistry and relationship is very true, I agree. We are reaching out to referees now and looking at past works. In terms of bankruptcy that does not seem to be the case. Files show that the cash flow is positive, albeit not in high numbers. I assume this is due to the fact that the guy was re-building his own house 1.5 years ago so drew some funds, and now since last year he resumed client projects. Still researching further...

I suspect they just want to ramp it up to the maximum at a later stage - as already said in this thread, the gut feel about these guys is not good. ? Yes, I agree - this is why we definitely need someone to help us manage the whole process from start to finish. In terms of how the job is tendered, to be fair - he did not say that was the only way to do this, it was a suggestion and he seemed pliable to try a number of options.

Thank you so much, good idea! We are aiming to have at least 15% contingency (that's me being paranoid), so we'll see. Also we are starting with probably a larger initial plan with a view to see if we can afford it (at drawings / costings stage), and will be prepared to trim down.

Hi everyone Need a fresh pair of eyes (and a brain) as a sounding board. We are veeery early on in the process of considering a new build. Currently approached a few architectural firms to get a feel of what they may offer. Output: 1) Firm A - purely architectural design firm, no fancy accreditations (at least not published). Good customer service, prompt turnaround, good reviews on Houzz, extensive experience, nice looking designs. Would only do design drawings Stage I / Stage II, and go as far as introduce you to three vetted builders. No further. Cost for services c.£5,000 (drawings and submission to LA only, all extra fees for surveys, BCO, SE etc extra, of course). Do not consider pre-submission of drawings to LA, just go straight through for proper submission. I liked them. 2) Firm B - an architectural designer, not RIBA / ARB. Significant number of glowing customer reviews on Houzz, good portfolio (not Norman Foster, but comfortable modern standard). He would do all the drawings for about £6,000, and then is happy to fully project manage the whole process. Not big fan of extensive tenders, prefers to use a main contractor of his choice (the contractor is a fully integrated building company, also has glowing reviews, some key accreditations, and a very nice portfolio, something we would strive to achieve in our house). For project management he charges 6% of the building costs (haven't yet discussed fixed price with him, but will attempt). DH liked him. 3) Firm C - an architects bureau, RIBA, etc etc, very fancy. Costs are 2.5 times more than Firm B, happy to project manage as well but won't even give us an approx. fee structure even though we've clearly stated our budget. Reviews are good, but portfolio looks pretty ugly (uber-modern "shipping-container-style" houses, odd choice of materials, etc). Don't really like them but it was good to get a quote for comparison. I know lots of smart and talented people on BH have managed to do their own drawings and submissions and project management, but that's not our case, sadly. My DH has got time on his hands and is happy to muck in with some not too complicated labour, but hopeless at project management. I am good at project management, spreadsheets, cost calculations, etc (corporate commercial background helps somewhat! ?) but am in a demanding full-time job so not able to closely run a tight ship with builders. So, what shall we do? Option A - go with Firm A, get drawings and pl permission done cheap and then tender for a main contractor (potentially approaching the preferred builder of Firm B)? Option B - just go with Firm B straight away, let the guy do the process for us but try shift him onto a fixed fee away from percentage? Also, should we be worried if neither Firm A or B are RIBA / ARB / CIAT etc? Your views, please. Thank you

No, we’re south of Heathrow, far away from Runway3.

Thank you everyone for the warm welcome and the straight questions! Of course, we tried to sell. 18 months on, only a one offer (so low that we can't possibly consider it), and EVERYONE's feedback is that they love the location but hate the bungalow layout. No lick of paint can save this, and we don't think that investing 20k+ into a new kitchen and paint-licked 5 beds can work in this case - we'll have to hike the price up accordingly whilst we are pushed by everyone to keep reducing the price (already knocked off 50k :(). So - no buyers, and an offer which will leave us worse off (just the cost of land which is expensive and very sparse in this area). So technically we do own the plot now. We need a "normal", regular two-storey house, compact but with two separate floors, nothing too fancy. Sound proofing is not a big issue since we are not exactly under fly paths and do not suffer from noise (unlike Hounslow / Richmond). The structure of the house itself is not great (blocks of poor quality), not much in terms of insulaton, etc etc. For the money it would cost to completely re-do it (and change layout, and convert the loft) we can just as well re-build it. So, I'm off to enjoy hours of forum readings :) all opinions welcome :)

Hi there, We are a professional couple, based in Greater London. Currently reside in a very dated bungalow which we strongly dislike (was not a dream buy in a first place!). Now we are exploring the idea of knocking it down and rebuilding a proper two-storey house from scratch. Very new to all this, so mega-grateful to find this Forum with loads of advice and experience shared. Never done any self-build before, not great at DIY, so just orienteering at the moment trying to assess the scale of what we may be getting ourselves into (and looking for survival tips). Thank you in advance for bearing with us