Bozza

You may be totally right about that. our krend is on blockwork.

Are you using K rend or similar if so I think it needs an expansion gap/strip every 5/6m. Reason I say that is if you would prefer to not have an expansion strip you can perhaps use a change of material eg cladding. One end of my house was a bit bland so we did timber cladding between windows for interest. Per attached. another thing you can do for interest is the gutters and downpipe which you can get in quite a range of colours. We went for galvanised and were glad we did. appreciate might not be right for you but just throwing ideas in...

+1 for A, but I couldn’t help myself but to suggest a couple of tweaks as attached. Mainly to give just a little more space at top of stairs, and to square off rooms a bit. Good luck !

If you are building to a finite budget, my best advice would be to identify a house design / style you like, but that you could enlarge or shrink in size depending on the quotes you get back from builders and what you can afford. Also preferred spec and what you’d compromise on. Eg concrete or slate roof. In terms of how much cheaper is self building than buying a house it depends on how much you can do yourself. I’ve gone down the turn key route which is the most expensive,. My estimate is that my house might be worth maybes 15-20% more than I have put into it. Have a look at Danwood Homes. They are turnkey and will give you a rough idea of how much houses cost to buy turnkey, but their prices exclude foundations and kitchens. I don’t think you’ll build a 180-200 sqm house for less than £200k unless you do a lot yourself. You haven’t allowed for fees, plasterboard, contingency, Also £60k for timber frame kit won’t include the external material eg cladding, brick, render etc. It l be just for the kit. £8k for a roof sounds light too. You’d have to try hard or be very unlucky not to make a profit on a self build. But you will have to work hard to achieve that. But what you do get i, or should be, a better quality phone than what is built on your local estates.

Are you talking about a freestanding, or an integrated dishwasher. If integrated a sliding hinged door will help eg AEG or Zanussi. this link may help https://www.instructables.com/Elevated-Dishwasher/

One mistake I made with my build is I’ve put small windows on my north side. Too small.

Welcome

Because you chose to build so close to him, I think the onus is on you both legally and morally to do things properly, as I’m sure you are, - namely a proper PWA even if it’s borderline whether you need one but it sounds like technically you do and he would want one. If you omitted to budget for a PWA then just take the hit and save money elsewhere. It’ll be worth it if you keep your house (neighbourly relations) or if you sell it as everything would be in order legally. Offering your neighbour cash compensation to circumvent a law, that’s there to protect you both, is not a particularly good look IMHO. But that’s just me.

Also consider, if you hadn’t already, running inexpensive empty plastic conduit from rooms to loft spaces, cupboards etc. With string line inside. Though technology is definitely moving towards wireless/wifi it just gives you easy options in the future, including additional power sockets, if you ever need them. Saves hacking into plasterboard. One of the benefits of self build. With my build I got my sparky to run conduit from loft to downstairs cupboard, near a socket. Had no plans to use it, but just recently looking at CCTV options. Means I can use a wired system with a hard drive in the cupboard if I go down that route. My nephew recently bought a brand new house and decided to put his tv on an opposite wall. As the house was on a solid slab he had to hack through several walls to do it. His wife wasn’t too happy.

On social media there’s quite a few examples whereby folk have used the freestanding modular IKEA Pax range but by using decor panels spare doors etc have built them in to recesses, to ceiling etc. In same way as you would with kitchen units. Far cheaper than the likes of Sharps. other option perhaps to look at like of DIY kitchens using tall larder units. Plenty of choice and style that wouldn’t look like kitchen units.

Is the pole exclusively carrying phone lines, or does it carry electricity too? I had a third party phone line across my plot. Openreach were an utter nightmare to deal with. Fortunately the phone line was carried on an electricity pole. When I got SSE to move their pole (fair price/good service) they told Openreach to remove the line and run it via another route. No cost to me. From your post it appears there are no poles on your land just the phone wires going across. Openreach have a statutory rights under the telecoms act, I recall reading that legislation in detail and they provide a lot of power to the likes of Openreach far more than to the landowners (you). To quote openreach when dealing with me : “The absence of a wayleave doesn't mean that we have no legitimate right to be there as our apparatus is afforded statutory protection under the Electronic Communications Code (Schedule 2, Transitional Provisions of the Digital Economy Act 2017 and will, in most cases, be providing service to the local residents and businesses.” You’ll find Openreach will move the pole/lines off your property, but you’ll have to pay for it. The legislation does provide rights for a landowner to require them to remove their equipment but for very specific reasons. The fact that you don’t like them their wouldn’t be enough and remember they’ll have a whole dept including lawyers to represent them. You need to read that legislation to familiarise yourself. So if exclusively phone lines/pole you’ll find you may have to live with them, or pay to be relocated. If it’s just one pole they need to relocate I think you’ll find it’ll be worth your while just to pay that cost as part of your build cost. Make sure you get that line removal detailed in your PP so the work can be zero rated. You may find others here say “just cut the wires” etc, that would of course be entirely illegal. Unfortunately as I say Openreach have more rights than you, the law is very much in their favour.

The likes of Danwood can put up a prefab build in weeks might be suitable for you.

For us with a main builder from start of build to handover - turnkey service - 12 months. Would have been 9/10 if Covid hadn’t struck. If you don’t want to live in a caravan my advise especially if you have family would be to rent. We’ve been crammed into a small flat since March. Total rental costs for us will be about £5k. Don’t see that as a waste of £5k just part of the build budget. One condition our our build was Mrs Bozza refused to live in a caravan on site, rightly so.

No I mean if it was a contractor who was VAT registered, the work would be zero rated eg 20% cheaper. But yes ultimately a cash to a farmer will be cheaper probably. Still sell your timber though if you can !

Don’t forget tree felling should be zero rated for VAT for your project, and assuming big trees there is a value in timber and firewood. You may already know this...

They do proper solid wood as well, but obviously more expensive. Personally, if it was a choice between the ikea engineered or laminate I’d go for their laminate as having seen it in the flesh with its square edge looks good, is cheaper, and will be very robust.

FYI I’ve ordered the handless Luca for our kitchen combined with their quartz worktops, then their cento range for our utility room, using ikea laminate worktops in there. The cheaper cento range I thought was excellent quality for the price TBH and we were borderline as to whether to have it in main kitchen, but we really fancied handleless. Our last DIY kitchen was shaker style which proved to be a dust magnet. Don’t forget all their carcasses and internal fitting are the same High quality.

Yeah the observation re channels rusting was said on a YouTube comments but someone else said they’re off the ground and not exposed, so unlikely to. If I were using that system I would probably use protective paint though, or galvanised channels. I thought his builds were pretty neat TBH.

Yes read as much as this forum as possible, the vast majority of new questions asked are answered & covered in existing posts. Plus you’ll pick up lots of tip ideas etc things you hadn’t thought about. If you’re going to use a main contractor make sure you speak to their last clients. Make sure your budget allows for plot cost + house build cost + access to an additional £30-£40k (to cover all the other stuff if needed. Fees, services, etc etc.). Welcome.

https://youtu.be/RIWH1b9Kgl4 Try this he’s got loads of good videos if link above Doesn’t work his names is William Griffin

Is it possible to cannibalise some of the units e.g. use the good left and right sides of the tall units so you only perhaps need to replace one unit. Factoring in the cost of buying some new units etc to replace the damaged ones would you still end up with a really good deal? I know that not the point, but just perhaps worth taking a hit on? what they should have done is when they removed the items and damaged them they should have discussed that with you and reduced the price or whatever. The goods would have had some wear and tear Being ex display but the way I see it is unless You’ve signed a disclaimer regarding damage upon removal you probably would have a strong legal case. Have you tried trading standards? I once bought a car from a dealer who told me it wasn’t an ex rental but once docs arrived it had been. Phoned trading standards and they told dealer to refund me which they did.

Phone your local SEPA office ? The local offices have direct phone numbers listed on the SEPA website

I’ve been watching some videos on YouTube of a guy who builds garden rooms professionally. For foundations he’s developed a system whereby he’s created a DIY pile system much cheaper than the ground screws I was on about. He pours cement into holes & encases M24 rods, with big square washers near the bottom. Then he bolts a u channel onto the top of the rod. may be worth a look maybes not for your project.

I cannot answer your specific query, but I like many here have our self build mortgage with Ecology. If you see their website they seem to offer a variety of option for self build mortgages and I suspect they’ll have more experience with your circs than the high street lenders. Thing is about them is if you phone them you’ll actually get to speak to someone in the right dept not a generic call handler. Would recommend you give them a phone as they’re very helpful. My best guess with any lender is they would only lend up to the value of your property once the current house is demolished, eg it’s value as a cleared plot with PP. so it may be that you need to use some of your savings to pay off the existing mortgage then use a self build mortgage to fund the build.. LTV will the key I’d imagine and how much savings you have. Unless someone here has done specifically what you are proposing the rest of us will probably advise you to speak to the lenders. If you do get an answer from a lender please do update your post, as future reference. good luck !

Or.....www.jali.co.uk