mjc55

Just looking at some more detailed pricing now we have plans in. Just been quoted £116 + VAT for 33 cube of concrete for foundations, I was wondering how this stands up against what others have been quoted. Thanks

How was the posi-joist sizing in relation to green roof loading? We got a quote for posi-joist some time ago but at that stage we were not specific on roof construction.

Just came across this thread and found it interesting. For the record, I retrained as an Architectural Technologist from 2009 to 2012 at UWE having spent a long time in IT. I had always had an interest in Architecture (having wanted to be an Architect from a young age only to be dissuaded by the careers teacher in the 70's) and we had always worked to varying degrees on our own houses. I stopped working in IT in 2005 and spent the next 4 years renovating a couple of houses (until the recession hit). When I say renovating I did nearly all the work, only the dark art of plastering and large scale brickwork was left to someone else. It was at that point I decided to scratch the itch that had been with me since I was about 8 and went back to Uni to study AT. I really enjoyed the course, and being in my 50's meant that I didn't have the callowness of youth and was happy to take full part in my course. I then spent 10 years or so working as an AT, working on relatively small scale extensions in our locality in Wiltshire. I had been self employed in most of my IT years and so the thought of going to work for someone else didn't appeal. So to the question in hand! I am of the view that you just cannot generalise in this arena. Titles play a part, education is not the same for AT as for Architectural courses, and as in any profession there are good and bad. What I would say is that my experience at UWE taught me that once the basics were taught in the first year (where the AT and Architectural degree students were taught together) that the courses diverged somewhat. There was a degree of pragmatism and practicality that was taught to us as AT students that gradually began to fall away in the Architecture courses, to the point that when looking at the Part II and III degree shows at the end of the course I was actually angry at what I saw. I suppose that there is no right or wrong in this discussion, its buyer beware in reality. Take your time in assessing the professional that you are going to use, look for and ask for examples of their work. The actual relationship with the designer is very important and like someone further up the thread said, one of the first things I said to anyone that took me on is that we wont necessarily agree on designs, it is an iterative process and as much as anything else I was there to guide people through the minefield of design to reach something that was as close to their desires as possible but was also possible both from a financial and technical standpoint. Some would come with plenty of ideas and others had no idea and simply left it up to me. One other thing to add is regarding titles! I spent so much time trying to disabuse clients that I was an architect, I was always very upfront about what I was qualified to do. On a scale of importance titles rank low, and as long as someone is not trying to pull the wool over their eyes with regard their qualifications then I think is low down the priority list of things to look for.

Yes, got those 👍

Thanks for that, I will probably work the numbers out anyway, I enjoy that sort of thing (I know!) There is the weight issue to consider, my oily rag wife wants to help as much as possible and lighter blocks to move around might be a consideration. As regards air-tightness, I haven't really thought much about that yet, I had very briefly considered external to the block (or insulation if I went that way) but as we are going with cladding puncturing that layer with fixings could be an issue! I will be looking at this in more detail soon.

Just in planning but am thinking of construction details. We are planning to use Ecobrix to construct the house and I have been thinking through the options. I haven't worked out u-values yet but will do that. I have attached a drawing of the two options, one using the 365mm width blocks, one the 300mm. The narrower has two advantages in that a) lighter, so easier to handle b) thicker contiguous insulation to outside Externally we will be going for timber clad on 3 sides, render on the other. I haven't worked out cost differences so that might have an impact but in the meantime would welcome thoughts. Please don't use this thread to discuss the merits or otherwise of Ecobrix, I know there are varying opinions, this isn't the place for that.

I meant to update the thread. The quote came back and was around £600 more than the single phase quote (£7.7k as opposed to £7.1k). Of that about £200 or so was to with 1/3 phase and the rest just look like general cost increases since last December.

Absolutely agree. Of course there is merit in the design principle, but in my mind the technical design is a completely different and more onerous task.

It's funny isn't it. I suspect architects tend to fall into one of two distinct groups, those that are not particularly interested in cost and those that are. When I did my AT degree at UWE we spent the first year with the Architecture undergrads, we were basically doing the same modules. After that we were split up and I think that it was noticeable that the thrust of their course was in a different direction. This was much more noticeable in the Part II and III Architecture courses which, it seemed to me, were much more removed from the practical. I did tend to refer to them as ARTitects I have to admit. This, of course, does not mean that they did not know what they were doing, more that the general direction of travel was away from the practical towards the artistic. Now of course I am not try to say that all architects are like this, however I think that one has to be careful when choosing the professional that is in essence in control of the whole design process.

If you are hoping for neighbours not to see what is happening I suspect that you are wrong! It would be obvious that some major work is going on. Have you taken any professional advice on what you are planning, that is a lot of structural work that you are asking about, it would be folly without at least structural input.

Hmm. Are you saying that from experience? Not sure I agree. However I would probably struggle to justify me saying that so it's difficult isn't it.

So I have some experience of this, albeit as an Architectural Technologist. I only worked on extensions never on new build, and mostly relatively small scale stuff. I retrained, having worked in IT for many years and so I didn't finish my degree until 2012, but having worked for myself anyway in my IT years, and having the confidence that comes with age I immediately set up on my own. What I found was that it was very difficult to price for work at anywhere near that which more experienced architectural practices did. As I got more experienced I did up my prices but once I got past a certain (relatively low) price I just did not get the work. I do think that t he prices charged by a lot of Architects are not based on their cost/profit basis, and I certainly think that percentage of build cost pricing is just not justifiable. There may be a tenuous link between the two but at best it is just that. The amount of work in designing etc. a build that will cost 200k and 400k (e.g.) will not be vastly different, so in that case I just don't see the justification for what would be essentially a doubling in price. I certainly do agree with @Dave Jones above that the costs for the design and planning stages can be vastly inflated, there is much more work in the technical aspects of a build IMHO. At the end of the day I guess that peoples expectations do come into it somewhat, if you are expecting to pay many thousands then the quotes received will not come as a surprise, and of course not all architects are alike, there are better and worse as in all businesses. I suppose I can count myself lucky that these costs will not be part of our own self build process.

This is what I had assumed. (pedantic note - sorry) It wasn't me you were responding to it was JohnMo!

Thanks for that. Makes complete sense. As an aside, Is it still a requirement to have meter in an external cabinet? They wont be coming to take a reading and it makes more sense to install the meter in the plant room!

But isn't more to do with how much you can draw at one time, especially given that electric car charging is coming more and more into the equation? And why are some suppliers only offering 3 phase? Note that I am not disagreeing with you just wanting to further my knowledge in an area that I am lacking in by the way.

I'm not sure I understand your reasoning here. You can control the use of electricity in your house by various means, most obviously in heating costs etc. A passive house by definition would require less input. Why would having a 3-phase supply change what you actually use? Surely input is down to requirement not the availability of supply? Am I missing something?

i was going to ask the question this morning about the possible downsides of 3 phase supply @Alan Ambrose has certainly started the ball rolling!

Just had quote back from Scottish & Southern for 3 phase. So single phase quote (Last December) was £7149.29. 3 phase quote is £7723.25! So not significantly different. I expect the slight increase is just as a consequence of it being 9/10 months later. The quote numbers were the same so I expect they just did a bit of a cut and paste for the 3 phase quote. This is of course for a connection to an external (temporary) meter box close to the front of the site. What happens when the house is complete and we want to then put meter etc. in the plant room in the house. Do they junction the cable underground or is there a requirement to pull another (longer) cable through the ducting so that it is one piece of cable?

Interesting that the access requirements show 5m set back. I am sure that I read (or was told somewhere) that they want 6m!

I am just thinking about what we really need. We have to move entrance onto site from the corner to the middle of the frontage of the plot, this was a highways response to original OPP. The frontage onto the lane is around 21m or so and for the purposes of planning I have indicated an entrance of around 4.7m where it crosses onto our land. This was a bit of guesswork really but should be adequate enough I think. Any thoughts or examples from others are welcome. Attached is from site plan.

Thanks for that, interesting. There is nothing in the ditch in front of our land, I am thinking that we might just end up filling most of it in.

We have a similarish issue to this at our plot. There is a ditch to the front of the plot, running next door and then that is it! The ditch doesn't run where the entrance onto site is but we have to move entrance to middle of plot frontage anyway. How did you go on with this?

Had a very similar project a few years ago when I was still working as an AT in Wiltshire. Can't remember exact details but went for a pre-app (I think, not at home so can't find the job details) Was given a very negative response from planning department so didn't pursue it.

Looks interesting. Was thinking that I need something to link together thought processes and checklists that I currently use Excel for. Big learning curve or something that is easy to d/l and run with?

I do not disagree with that statement but purely because I din't know. Can you say from what position you are making it? You do not actually have to own a plot to put in a planning application on it!