Bozza

If away to apply for PP imminently I would just submit existing one with it assuming none of your new plans conflict with the existing bat survey results. I would imagine they could only justify asking for for a brand new one if something significant had changed or it was way out of date. Bear in mind that if they require a full new habitation survey they are done seasonally (May-Aug rings a bell). The obvious answer is to ask planning dept but that risks them just saying we need a new one. Easy answer for them. If if it was a full habitation survey, which are expensive, I would deffo take the risk of just applying with the old survey. Nothing lost that way. If they do need a full new habitation survey in May do your research and make the house bat unfriendly prior to May. If you do need to do a new one go to same company as before because their report work will involve less work so you should get it cheaper. Bats have more residency rights than you BTW.

If you have only communicated your request by email could I suggest you phone the company in person and speak to a human. I’ve always found that when a problem exists speaking to people directly and reasonably gets results whereas emails can get ignored, passed around etc. Above advice re HMRC regs is excellent but I would keep that threat in the armoury. It’s far less easy for a person at the end of the phone to ignore you if you’re reasonable, friendly and on first name terms. Only escalate to next stage if necessary / needed. If if you speak to someone and say “Look I’m really happy within my doors etc and want to leave a great review but I have a problem which will take 5 mins to resolve and it’s this...”. Make sure you get the name of the person you’re speaking to and ask them how long they will take to action your request. Sorry if if you’ve done this and thus this is a patronising answer but obviously I have no way knowing if you’ve just sent emails. But if that doesn’t work deffo hit them with that HMRC threat.

I’m in similar position. I remortgaged current home on part interest only/part repayment basis, to purchase plot (Santander). Ecology mortgage for self build. Won’t repeat other comments but would add a few observations. 1. Cost of self build = plot + new house + everything else (fees, services, loan cost, landscaping, driveway, insurance, contingency etc etc. Allow min £30k for last bit you will spend it. 2. Would agree about considering renting as an option. Sound move if you can get a plot with pp and are using a quick build method. for the record Ecology have been excellent with me.

Just chatting with me at site in passing. Another option I looked at was a local quarry who would take it away for crushing into hardcore I think it was £180 per lorry load (16 tonnes) but obviously i would have to load it at my cost. Perhaps suggest you see if there are any major construction projects in your area, especially levelling land, you may get lucky.

Consider posting a free for collection rubble for collection on Facebook Marketplace. Someone may want it for building up land. Costs nothing so worth a try. A 20 yard roll on roll off rubble skip will cost about £400. Takes about 16-17 tonne of rubble. I ended up getting rid of 100+ tonne of rubble from my site. Tipper lorry £55 ph. JCB and operator £35 ph. Local farmer wanted it to build up land. Total cost to dispose about £400. NE Scotland prices.

Yes definitely should be zero rated. I’ve just done the same. My demo & site prep required tree surgeon to remove trees, jcb operator to demo house, lorry driver & lorry to take rubble away, and SSE to relocate overhead power cable. All charged zero VAT for the work, but some required me to explain rules. But had to pay VAT for skip hire.

I often see posts here whereby people take the time to reply to a query or dilemma, then the original poster doesn’t seem to take the time or have the courtesy to share their outcome. So in relation to this query from me I did go back to Rationel who offered a small % discount, which still kept me over budget. Another approach resulted in a further small % discount, plus a small change to make 4 windows top hung rather than side hung (to secondary windows) pushed me just under budget. This keeps me with my first choice triple glazed alu clad, solar glazing. Just awaiting the kitchen quotes now.... thanks for those who offered ideas.

Have a look at Bushboard Encore. I think it’s much cheaper than corian and I fitted mine myself. Did an invisible joint and I’m not a joiner. We have had it in glacial white I think is the name of the colour. In for ten years. Tea stains and the like sand out. About a year ago my kid decided to draw on thin a4 paper with sharpies, resulting in her picture being replicated on the worktop. Unbelievably I was able to sand and clean out the marks. It’s very heavy stuff though, but I think they do it in a thinner version now. 10/10 rating from me. Brilliant product. I wasn’t able to afford corian but it had the same effect.

I’m just doing some trenching services on my plot right now. I’ll also be doing armoured cabling and water supply from what will be the house to detached garage workshop. Personally I’ll use black conduit for for leccy and blue for water to depths per DNO utilites company etc standards and spec even if not required I’d rather be accused of overkill than killing someone in the future however unlikely. Though no one will see it that’s the type of thing I take pride in knowing I’ve done the best and safest job possible knowing that in 50 years time someone may dig it up, as I have done exactly that on my plot and found stuff which was dangerous.

Not yet got quote in for kitchens but having fitted a few over the years I have designed a cost effective layout that is not over elaborate but it’s quite a lot of units etc. Unfortunately as my house is turnkey I can’t fit myself and have to go with companies the builder approve. One option though is I’ve designed it with an island that has no appliances. So if necessary have the kitchen without island, then fit one myself costing much less.

Thanks everyone for taking time to reply/help. The chap I’m dealing with is away on holiday and will be looking at my quote when he gets back. He is aware the quote is over budget but I’m just considering options in case he cant get the quote over the line. I would need a discount if around 8-9 % just to get me to my max windows budget. Did you guys get anywhere near that, discount wise?

Thanks Conor thought about that trying to explain that to mrs though....interesting my allowance from builder for kitchen is also £10k.....

Some advice pse from anyone with knowledge re my new build house - NE Scotland.. The house will be timber framed, higher than building standard re insulation, and heating via ashp/ufh. The windows we want are from Rationel. Aluclad triple glazed. We have a lot of glazing to the south so to prevent overheating we want the solar glazing on the south windows. We need to get our windows cost down by £1k. If the supplier can’t do a discount I was wondering about the actual real life effects / impact of deleting the solar coating or possibly making some of the glazing double glazed. Re designing house / removing windows would not be ideal solution, so any ideas or thoughts would be welcome or best compromise solutions. There are a few posters here who clearly have brilliant knowledge of issues like solar gain, UV values etc etc..so probably asking for ideas or comments from those who have faced difficult dilemmas. I’m already over my desired budget for the project so can’t accept a £1k overspend on windows. Rationel were the best value even if over budget...

Don’t panic & don’t worry, Everything will be ok. Don’t fall prey to Project Fear. Somethings will be cheaper, some more expensive, It’ll all balance out. Just a couple of generations ago our relatives really had something to worry about. The next generation will be asking what Brexit was all about.

I’m currently self building in this scenario. My AD is very knowledgeable from a technical perspective. I however have been the one picking up on detail things on the drawings and my AD hasn’t really made any creative suggestions, and has been responsive but not so much creative, so it’s a bit of a functional relationship. My brief / plot has some challenges and basically I’ve designed the house and the AD has done the drawings. If I had my time again I’d have seen if I could get an architect to do a sketch design to then hand over to an AD to draw it etc, but unsure whether they’d do that. What I’ll never know is had I paid (much) more for an architect whether or not they’d have come up with a better design or not. Like every profession you get good and bad. I do think it’s essential that you review an architects work and get a sense of their style / ideas etc before commissioning them.

I’ve had a DIY kitchen at my current house for 10 years now. Really happy with it. But some of the doors have a few knocks and dints on them now, but they no longer make our range. Really wish I’d bought a couple of spare doors as most are the same size in our kitchen.

I’m in similar position will send you a pm.

It’s obviously great to renovate a beautiful old property, I’m assuming it is attractive otherwise you wouldn’t have bought it. I’m also assuming you don’t have a bottomless pit of money otherwise your preference would have been to renovate at all costs. Thing is with a new build is you have a much better idea of cost/budget as there are less variables than with a big renovation involving structural work -I’m sure you realise. Even allowing for demo costs it sounds like it would be cheaper to new build plus you are building something with modern technology, future proof etc. I bought a cottage that required serious and structural renovation, I’d have had to take it back to four walls. Rebuild was far more sensible assuming I could get planning permission, which I did. What I’m doing though is building something, though modern, with a nod to what was there in terms of using similar material, footprint, roof pitches etc. Also using existing stone from old building. So though brand new and certainly not a copy, it is as respectful as it can be to what was there before. Dont forget when thinking new build you don’t have to build something bland eg what some of the big house builders produce. You can build something really special and beautiful. Recently I have spoken to two neighbours who renovated. They both said they would have rebuilt if doing it all again. Also new builds are VAT exempt. Costs wise it will depend on what and how you want to build it eg turn key or literal self build. That will depend on your circumstances eg family and budget. good luck !

Not an answer to your technical question, but if installing CCTV can I provide some advice. Often CCTV is installed to provide as much geographical area coverage as possible, placed at height. Fine if you are monitoring it live, or want to prove an incident occurred. However what the police want is to identify is the culprit. Either by vehicle reg number and/or facial images. So please consider siting a camera (ideally covet) that has the best chance of capturing this. Footage of a crime with two vague figures in hoodies is not a lot of use TBH, However combined with a cracking facial shot is clearly vital. If you have one ingress / exit point to a plot try to site a covert camera that provides a clear, crisp head height facial shot in best definition / light possible. It’s rare for scumbags to wear full face masks more often they pull a hoodie up over their mouth on their way in and it will often slip on the way out if running or carrying stuff. Another tip is to think like a criminal. If breaking into your own house, which way would you approach, which method/point of entry would you use. Patio doors in a darkened area, not seen from road/neighbours, is the usual weak spot. If your garage is most vulnerable, hide a camera there. Being caught on camera is only of real use if you can actually ID the culprit in some way.

Have sent you a message.

No problem will do. Probably in a few weeks. Westhill.

I haven’t yet removed the Scottish slate it’s still on the roof so unsure yet of exact quantity or quality as obviously there would be some breakage when removed. The cottage is 9m wide and it’s on one side of the roof, other side in Welsh. What is it you’re needing? Welsh slate image attached.

If anyone is trying to source dressed granite 2ft x 1ft, quoins (difficult to source), or Welsh slate 16x8, or Scottish slate, I am demolishing a cottage near Aberdeen and would rather flog the downtakings direct to a fellow self builder if anyone needs it.

I also had my heart set on building with Danwood, and was able to visit one one of their houses a week from handover. I was shocked at some of the poor finishing quality - tiling trim, plastering etc. Also felt a draft from a closed window. When I queried this with the rep the response wasn’t as I had hoped at all, somewhat dismissive. The other thing I didn’t like about their houses were their sockets and switches which seemed a bit cheapy plastic , and their internal doors which had a lip which went over the door surround which was a bit unusual. Also if you want a room bigger than 4m they have to put a boxed beam dropped from the ceiling. +1 that they were a bit slow to deal with, and were very expensive to do anything other than their standard houses. Went elsewhere.

Yes I would agree totally, to firm up anything in writing as opposed to what some bloke (me) said on the tinternet. Interestingly the HMRC website itself says “You must claim within 3 months of the building work being completed”.