Jilly

Is the plot you are interested in actually for sale or are you going to approach the owner? You could offer to buy ‘subject to planning’ and put up the fees. It might suit a vendor with a big garden but no cash to do it themselves and be easiest if you have a trusting relationship. There will be a big change in the value of the land before and after, so you’d need a solicitor to prevent disputes. If you want to make all of the gain yourself you’d have to buy outright and risk it.

@-rick-£25k was the approx total of the professional fees, including some wasted due to inexperience: a planning consultant who seemed to make mistakes, so we parted ways; a very good but expensive architect, who got the planning through, an architect’s technician to do the Building Control drawings (another expensive mistake, would have been better to stay with the architect, but thought I was doing a friend a favour), plus the bats were £6k on their own. Soils surveys, structural engineer, etc etc Also don’t forget electric, water services etc, mine was about £4k, but that can catch you out, some people get horrendous quotes, it’s very variable and site specific. Getting an electric kiosk was a useful tip. Each site/ area comes with its own circumstances and local council foibles. You could look on nearby planning applications to see what issues arise in that area or are favoured by that local authority. For example clay soils often have piled foundations specified nowadays; nitrate run off in some areas; SUDS designs; biodiversity net gain, CIL payments to avoid etc. Some councils have good websites with info their requirements, others seem to be unhelpful. In the south east there seem to be few sites that the estate agents and developers have missed. Someone suggested looking out for people with large gardens in villages who might be up for selling off some land. A good planning consultant would not be wasted money. You’ll have to take some risks on a virgin site. Even if you were buying a house, you would spend on surveyors etc and might have to pull out.

Developers often bank land they think might have potential in future at some unspecified time. Are you looking at green belt because you want to uplift the value yourself and are hoping to save money? My plot was adjacent to village boundary and my fees ended up about £25k. It’s very high risk. All planning consultants are not created equal 🙃

Hats off to you! I really wish I could do more (I want an extension and a garden studio) and so I’m committed to learning how, as I don’t want to get another ‘proper’ job to pay for them with loans.

Can you measure the thicknesses? Call the supplier or better still, go and look in their yard to determine if they have mixed up either batches of the same stuff, which is just a colour issue, or mislabelled part of the delivery, which you’d need to know, to decide if it’s an acceptable substitution. What a pita

Sounds lovely, good luck, it’s a long journey and a steep learning curve.

A door overhang would give the effect, tho’ not quite so stylish.

Interesting that worms might be the canary in the coal mine, as it were.

A door overhang would give the effect, tho’ not quite so stylish.

@Stable3 I’ve done a stable conversion with a messy head too! Looking back, there were loads of times where I’d had too much to think (had to plagiarise that great line). It can help to write pros and cons lists for each worry, sometimes the answer will present itself easily. This forum was amazing and saved a lot of time and money. For windows, I went with a local firm for a triple glazed aluminium option: the frames aren’t perfect thermally, but the customer service was good, they came on site to measure up, advise and hand hold. The lead time from the slinky extra expensive ones was long and I didn’t want to get things wrong with the measuring and selection etc. Prioritise sleep hygiene.

Self building messes with your head!

HMRC run various free courses as you need to suss out the tax side and decide if you want to be sole traders/partnership or Ltd Co, there are pros and cons with each. Explore insurance, a broker might help. Word of mouth advertising is good and might be all you need if you do well, although many people expect a web presence, something like wiz is cheap. Be honest, and stay within your abilities and you should be fine. I wish you all the best.

That's the sink/washing machine/dishwasher outlet into the foul drain

We have had a raised path made up parallel to the side of the house and so have dug out the area alongside the (600mm) foundations (on clay). It’s left a kind of gulley: Should I back fill it with gravel (and will this be ‘strong’ enough?). The gulley seems to have a slight slope towards the corner of the building and the (hopefully sound) drainpipe and it’s a tad damp there. I’m not sure if that’s minor leak or water seeping in that direction. I’m wondering if I can ignore this if I fill it with gravel? Also there’s an earth spike slightly exposed, should that be in clay? The Belfast outdoor boot sink hasn’t been connected up yet. Apologies, the detritus in view is because of my CBA. Thanks @ToughButterCup!

I’ve suddenly got a diagnosis!