Peterc

Decision made. Had a long private message from JohnMo (many thanks John) which tipped us definitely in the direction we were leaning. As I said earlier, we have a joiner/builder/cabinetmaker who's done a couple of small jobs for us and a brilliant big project for our church; we have a plumber with an electrician colleague who we've used recently and did a great job; a groundwork contractor who also worked on the church project: a close neighbour who is a self-employed roofer - nearly everyone we need. We've also decided to work with a local architect we've known for several years for peace of mind. We're budgeting about £170K and £30K contingency for a bungalow build of about 110m2. (Maybe one and a half stories to reduce footprint?) We just need to be brave! Fingers crossed now as we move ahead!

They have verbally said that they can build us a turnkey house for £1600/m2, which suits our target budget, but I'm concerned that this will not be to the spec we want and by the time we add the extra insulation I know we will want and any individualisation it will be a lot more than we have budgeted for! The alternative, to self manage with subbies, is difficult for me to cost as we would need to get to building warrant stage before we can get reasonably accurate quotes, by which time we will have passed the point of no return and I don't want to have to reduce the spec at that stage to hit our budget target! A few years ago I'd have been more confident and handled a lot of the work myself but when you get into your 70s this becomes more of a challenge. We are lucky that we have access to some really high quality tradesmen who we have used in the past. It's a small plot, only 21m 22m so we want a build with a relatively small footprint as we'll still have to meet requirements for two parking places and turning space etc.

I would certainly consider that option, but I felt we'd have a better chance of getting better performance with factory made 235mm wall panels with built-in insulation. We don't aim for a total passivehaus build, but we'd like to be close. What do people think? (Also still looking for advice about other people's experience of working with ACJ Group.)

Yes, sorry - typo - it was ACJ Group that I meant! Full planning is in place for the plot but we don't like the design of the house that was submitted. It should be a simple job to get a variation to the plan.

Hi everyone. Peter from Montrose here. We're looking at a tiny 21m x 22m plot 7 or 8 miles away from us and have plans to build a small near passive house with solar, ASHP with UFH and MHRV. Initially we thought we'd have to self manage contractors to build within a sensible budget but we've had discussions with ACL group in Elgin who have come up with a very good offer. We're also talking to Scotframe and looking at several others. We know several local contractors and are confident that we'd be OK going the self-managed route, but a full service package sounds attractive. Does anyone have recent experience of dealing with this outfit? Any other suggestions welcome.