Bozza

With hindsight, with my barn project, I would have got a pour in, and offset the extra costs of doing so by working extra hours / days at my job on the days I ultimately spent DIYing it. You could probably work out the cubic meter age you’d need and how much aggregate, cement, sand etc you’d need if DIYing it, add in fuel or electric costs of your mixer, etc etc. bad back etc etc. if those costs were £thousands less than a pour fair enough but I doubt it would be TBH. good luck.

My barn is 8m long can’t remember the fall but it was the min requirement for guttering whatever that is. Sorry don’t have formal plans I built it by hand and within sizes that it didn’t need planning permission etc.

Kelvin, to assist you in your decision making I have attached pics of my house Sept 2020, March 2021 and July 22. The cladding is untreated Siberian larch, board on board. I think it’s about half way towards “silvering”. my tip would be whatever you do install have a few full spare planks left out in the weather if possible. In case you need to replace split boards, they’ll match.

Sound like you are a it OCD with detail as I am When I was building my posh barn/garage/shed I had same dilemma. I ended up going for the required fall on the gutters. Can you see the fall visually? Yes, if you look for it. Does anyone else see that fall? No. I went for function over form. I had black plastic gutters against dark box profile per picture below. Not dissimilar to your property, style wise with box profile roof and sides. I have galvanised gutters against anthracite roofline on the house. Don’t notice the fall at all but the house is taller. The way I see it is the gutters are there for a reason. Having something unlevel in my view is ok if it’s designed to be unlevel, like gutters. Your property is beautiful. Everyone’s eyes will be drawn to the whole building, not the gutters. Especially if they are similar colour to the box profile.

If you’re happy to disclose, don’t see why not. I’ve previously shared similar info to members.

Who was your builder ?

I can recommend Rationel, though I went for contemporary alu clad units, they also do more traditional style windows. Pricing I thought was very good, but I got my prices just before lockdown. They have just replaced the front door for free, under warranty, as the paint started to crack and crease. No quibble replacement. So I can vouch for service as well as product. My front elevation is well exposed to wind rain and sun. No issues with the windows. Very good Nordan have a good reputation amongst some other members.

Gaz, I had exact same dilemma as yourself re slab/founds. Never even mixed concrete before. I probably over engineered mine out of an abundance of caution and self doubt, as follows: For my 8x4 structure I dug trenches with 6 deeper depths at corners and mid way point, filled with concrete. Then blockwork course onto that. Popped in dpc and storm straps. Cement floor/slab in between. So kind of a combo of strip, pillar and slab. so when I did my frame it tield into the block work and the cemented in straps. If you are literally on about mixing and pouring the entire 29sqm with a cement mixer yourself (as I did) maybes think about dividing your slab into three sections doing one section a day. Suspect a single pour would be stronger but that’s a lot of work for one person. I did one half of my slab (16 sqm) in a oner. Then did the other half in two section, which was far more manageable. With hindsight I’d have divided my slab/floor into 4 quarters and done it that way. Divide and conquer. my advice is as a non pro though just please bear that in mind, I’m no expert in foundations.

I built (not yet finished) this thing. It’s timber framed and clad in steel and leftover larch. Has a concrete floor. Due to budget restrictions I hand built it myself, and I’m not a tradesman but ok with joinery & diy. It’s 8m x 4m x 3.9m high. I had pp for garage so got the vat back on materials. Inside the rear half has a loft space - storage and the front half is a vaulted ceiling, for a workshop area. Never built a building before, so I followed building standards for a dwellinghouse and tried to copy what my proper builders did in our actual house. Idea being if I built it like a house it would take me way beyond min standards for an outbuilding. So it has DPCs, breathable membranes etc etc. it’s even plaster-boarded inside. I bought heaps of 4x2 in a builders material auction and built modular 2.4x 2.4m osb clad frame panels for the walls. Shopped around for everything to cut costs. My budget was as cheap as I could do it to the best possible standard. I didn’t keep a running total but think I’ve spent around £5-6k on it that being current lockdown/covid costs. I think I’ve ended up with a circa £15-20k building. It was hard work but good fun learning new skills etc eg building the roof. I did consider buying a metal frame to be installed but by the time I factored in everything it was obviously more expensive. We were hit hard by Storm Erwin etc but the building was unaffected. Which was reassuring. Hope this helps for ideas.

Yeah the VAT scheme is really designed to bring uninhabitable/unoccupied property back to a habitable state, as opposed to refurb costs. There are some council tax rebates available though if you weren’t already aware.

Dan-wood don’t do that side of things as you know, but this is not their first rodeo. Suggest you speak with them to put you in touch with a contractor or perhaps a prior client, to see how they did things. Sounds like for you the groundworks will take much longer than the actual build. I’ve always said for self building, allow for price of plot + house build cost + circa £50k for other stuff. Though the actual house construction should be easy with Danwood, you’ve got a lot to do beforehand. And afterwards. I had my heart set in building with Dan-wood, until I visited one of their nearly completed houses. Finish wasn’t good I’m afraid. Quite poor actually. And communication from them wasn’t great. Very slow. But in balance they have got quite a decent reputation so perhaps I visited a lemon and my experience was unusual. Suggest you look through recent local planning application for new builds. This will create a list of things you will need. Eg tree surveys, perc tests and pp docs will give you name of consultants surveyors etc that you can speak to.

Or chase into the wall, but like ProDave says the fitters will have a solution, they’ll have fitted into plenty of old wonky walls. looks like you plaster kicks out at the bottom. Should be possibly to feather it out

Surely just using beading and packers in a frame, like any window? Or am I missing something?

I assume you’re not working a job in addition to all this? With my project the shopping around for deals, and being disciplined with expenditure, kept me at budget. Sometimes however I found it better value overall to pay the pros for jobs that would take me AGES.

Option 1 better for all reasons stated. Think about shower room access from boot room area looks like you have an outdoors lifestyle and would you come in needing a shower saves trampling through hallway. Regarding fundamental architecture of house - your house, your money, your choice. I think it is helpful for contributing members to support you in your choice and make suggestions to make your choice even better, perhaps with tweaks or amendments especially if they have similar style houses. As my house is very different style to yours I’m unable to assist with that. Good luck !

HMRC accepted normal till receipts from me, even a few from Aldi etc (for fitted lights & bits and pieces if I recall). I had a real mish mash of original invoices, downloaded ones, online order printouts and shop receipts. I presented them all neatly with a covering letter with explanations. I know what they say as guidance, but seemed flexible - at least with my application.

Yes if your design allows for it get a separate door would be my thoughts. Can you get a fully glazed hinged door that looks more like a window. Not sure about a traditional back door into a living area though. I went for loads of Rational window doors, but these cannot be unlocked from the outside.

Going up is deffo better value per sqm. Smaller roof & foundations. Also a bigger garden if your plot is smaller. Can’t give you a % difference though. Someone might here though. obvious disadvantage is if the house is for when your older though.

Welcome. if you were to do a to do list it could easily run into hundreds of things and potentially overwhelm you. Just deal with the next few things, get them done them move onto the next. See it as running 1 mile, 26 times as opposed to a 26 mile run. At this stage you’re looking at the design and planning which I personally enjoyed. When you have you designs put together post them here plenty of self builders who’ll give you some opinions and thoughts based on our own experiences, and mistakes. Almost every challenge you’ll face someone here should be able to help. good luck & congratulations on your plot purchase

My project included planning to build a garage amongst tree roots. What was agreed was the structure, timber or metal framed, would be supported via ground screws to form effectively a canopy. The base of the garage was permeable geoweb with tarmac on top to form a solid floor. in end didn’t build the garage but that was what was approved as build method.

Agree with @ConorDPM is a brilliant inexpensive sturdy cover for materials. I’ve been storing plasterboard outside on a pallet under DPM through the storms. Fence posts and block work being my friends.

Yes so there is dead space above the cylinder. So stacking a buffer is theoretically possible, as suggested, depending on dimensions and obviously allowing for some sort of structure/framing. Probably need to speak to your plumber though as what might physically fit on paper is different to what can be fitted in real terms eg access etc. as a door is only 2m high or thereabouts.

Our cupboard is 1x1 full height. Contains 230l cylinder & gubbins, fuse box etc etc. Some space to front for ironing board etc but not much room each side of cylinder. do not place your cupboard underneath or next to bedrooms, you’ll hear the system when on. If you have to, mitigate with extensive sound insulation. Hope this helps.

If you don’t want an American style FF protruding from the framework, as Buzz rightly highlights can happen with many, another option is to have side by side integrated f & f, and use stainless steel doors with big handles, to give that look.

My Vat reclaim was paid out a month or so ago. Amongst my claims package were some normal till type receipts, and some of the builders merchants (Jewsons) had “copy” printed on. Some were online printouts eg screwfix etc etc as printed original stuff seems to have fallen by wayside during pandemic. Some had my old address on. I’d say 50% of my submission included things which weren’t quite up to the paperwork definition required by HMRC. No issues and I received 100% payout without any quibbles. my overall claim was modest and I did put a covering letter letter explaining everything that could have been potentially questioned or why there wasn’t a “proper” invoice.