Bozza

@jayc89 attached pic of my DIY kitchen, similar room dimensions, and also in dove grey but with darker island. For comparison reasons. We have 1.4m between units and island and that works perfectly. Also have boiling tap. Keeping the island clear of sink/hob has worked perfectly for us. only thing I’d change would be to have a short run of matching wall units off the corner larder unit, to take the extractor. as opposed to what I put in, which matches the darker island. we have plenty of storage in this design. The corner larder is amazing and the pan drawers the other side of the island take all the crockery etc.

I think you’re right, would appear to be encouraging more volume of modest rural home to be created to be built as opposed to vast dwellings for the wealthy. Hard not to agree with that.

New build with good insulation in the south, and no mains gas? No brainer ASHP, especially if funding is available. In real terms, our recent leccy bill a few days ago for Oct was £157. Standard obscene flexible tariff. ASHP with no solar. 214 sqm. House occupied 24/7 and wife WFH, and we get £93 per month grant to offset that. Never been cold / always hot water. No horrible fuel tank in the garden. ASHP horror stories usually due to bad installation, badly insulated / unsuitable house, or settings errors. We’re in an exposed location in NE Scotland. It’s cold and windy here. My neighbour is Norwegian they’ve been using ASHP for decades. The non £££ bit is doing the right thing by the environment. ASHP isn’t the right or only solution but sounds like it would be right for your build TBH.

Do you need a warranty, especially at those prices?

If for any reason you can’t put the sockets high in the unit, something like this might be an idea. https://www.screwfix.com/p/swann-swifi-leak-gl-wi-fi-flood-leak-detector/485RT?kpid=485RT&cm_mmc=Google-_-Datafeed-_-Tools?kpid=KINASEKPID&cm_mmc=Google-_-TOKEN1-_-TOKEN2&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIusfjzIa1ggMVwertCh2a_gxiEAQYAiABEgLi__D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Might be an idea to write to your MP, to petition them for changes to housing legislation.

Yeah I didn’t expect much but was really surprised. Wouldn’t expect longevity from them but they were great for single use. If you do go for them I found best technique was to not to go straight in at 90degrees, but at an angle to create a little curved ridge, then as it scored in, bring the drill up to 90 deg to complete the scored circle then obviously drive down. Initially with drill and arms held stable against thigh/body to prevent driil wavering. Other tip was to get bit of wet sponge pushed into the bit, to provide constant water lubrication.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07DTHGN5N/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I used these to do my parents bathroom earlier this year. Unexpectedly went through the thick 10mm porcelain tiles no problem including some holes quite near the tile edges. Just took my time with plenty of lubrication. At this price I wouldn’t expect longevity TBH. Appreciate not the diameters you’re looking for, but I successfully cut multiple holes to make the required bigger holes.

Local authorities have planning policies. This is what the people who decide whether to grant planning permission work to. If you’re looking at a specific modern style house you’ll need to find a plot that building it won’t conflict with that policy. By restricting the house style to your own bespoke taste inevitably will restrict suitable plot availability, so you may have to either compromise on house style, or location. If a plot has planning permission it will be likely for an agreed style of house, or in principle. If you commit to that plot there is no guarantee you’ll be able to build they style you prefer. Simple guide for a plot is look around what’s already been built. If your proposed house is similar you are more likely to get it through planning. Those who apply for PP for something in keeping and respectful to the local vernacular tend to get planning permission without too much trouble, assuming it’s not green belt or whatever, and doesn’t conflict with local planning policy.

Is it something to do with the heat pump being set on a timer to come on and off, in addition to the central heating system & DHW being set on a timer. This was how my Ecodan was initially set up but my engineer persuaded me to set the pump to constant. Effectively though the pump only comes on when the DHW or heating timer kicks in and is calling for it. Also I think ours come on when’s it very cold as a safer measure. I’m still a bit of a biff though when it comes to my system but wondered if this may be a factor.

For those who haven’t seen it there is an excellent 2 part BBC documentary “Britain’s housing crisis - what went wrong””on iplayer. Though not primarily relating to quality issues it’ does cover other issues around major developers. The entire situation with major developers is just appalling.

Sorry no. But if you haven’t used them before I have twice and would always 100% recommend them.

Because in your original post you referenced projects going over budget, your architects quotes seem expensive and in your post and you called you post “sensible house build” all suggesting budget/cost is relevant

Though I didn’t build with them, have a look at https://www.dan-wood.co.uk/en They have a few flat roof bungalows. They have prices but you need to add on cost of kitchen, foundations and other costs say maybes £50-60k. The horror stories on Grand Designs seem to be folk trying to do unusual builds, restrictive ideas, or getting their priorities wrong. Keeping things straightforward mitigates this, as does fixed price contracts. Last weeks grand designers flew-to Morocco to import hand made floor tiles but they couldn’t afford to build bedrooms for their children. Where costs go out of control is when self builders are more ambitious than their budget allows. Build within your means. Identify key sensible must haves eg structure, insulation, quality windows. then have a wish list of things you would like to have but must be prepared to compromise on eg kitchens, flooring etc. Or don’t and spend more. We are very happy with our self build and ended on budget. But we were stubborn and made decisions with budget being a priority in that decision.

My doors and window frames are also anthracite both external and internal. Most of my walls are off white or light grey and the caulking is in white so it is ok. I have one room that has a bold greenish colour and the decorator has used white caulk. It’s ok from a distance but not ideal. This is the problem you and I have. like me you’ve probably found getting coloured caulk seems to be difficult - though coloured silicone sealant does seem more available. If you have a wall colour choice that no way matches any suitable caulk I think the only option would be to paint the white caulk to match the walls. Or a very and minimum bead of sealant in anthracite. hopefully someone here has the perfect solution and a supplier for coloured caulk. I have yet to determine this myself. I suspect quality masking tape may be involved in the solution.

@Thorfun is right that pure self building could be very rewarding. It’s something I wanted to do myself but wife wanted turnkey as she was worried about the stress time etc that pure self building involved. The compromise was that I did the demo, contractor did the build l then I built a barn.and the landscaping, fit the kitchen etc. it is true that it’s got less of your DNA in it the more others do for you. Having varying viewpoints, sometimes differing is very helpful to find what’s right for you. Another option would be to identify a builder who could work alongside you, as such you’d get the hands on build experience whilst mitigating potentially serious errors.

Yes and likewise a future partner would not be happy you spending several years of your at home time on a site If it were me I’d deffo do some agency work in the trade you know to build up ££ reserves. Building a home yourself from scratch will take a lot of years for someone unskilled.

I 100% agree with @ProDave You are proposing to work overseas 50/50. Unclear if that’s a rota by choice or not. I’m assuming your day rate or whatever is high. If it were me I’d stick to my day job earning the £££ overseas then get a pro to build the house…… but if it’s because you want to get your hand dirty and be involved in the build I get that - but leave the founds and structure to to the pros would be my advice,. By all means do the site clearance yourself, then hand over to the pros to build the structure to water tight, then do the fit and finish yourself, landscaping etc etc. If you are proposing to give up working hours and good money overseas to become a self builder I’d be surprised if the numbers would add up. Take your own hourly rate -v- a tradesman/woman. Say a plumber earns your hourly rate they would complete work 10x quicker than you can. Yes you’d be cheap/free but not if you’re giving up a good salary.

Not a direct answer to your question, but I used to live in a city centre apartment near noisy pubs and clubs - a converted 100 year old post office. Massive 2m high original single glazed wooden sash windows. we installed secondary single glazing and the sound reduction was remarkable. The secondary glazing Sat about 3-4” from the sashes. If you’re looking at establishing the effectiveness of secondary glazing for sound insulation I’d say if used in tandem with good quality double glazing you ought to get a great outcome. our secondary was from Everest, don’t know if they still do it or not.

Also in Scotland and bought land prior to PP (but it did have a house on it already). My strong understanding based upon my solicitors explanation is the missives are really just the written certification paperwork in respects of what is by that point a legally agreed deal. As such should a seller pull out of an agreed sale prior to missives being completed they the seller would be 100% liable in litigation for any costs incurred. This is why it’s rare in Scotland to get gazumping etc or agreed sales not going through. Even a verbal agreement in Scotland can be legally binding but obviously all the written paperwork makes it more certain. The sellers solicitor would be telling them that should they be tempted to do the dirty. Does your financial advisor know this ? Possibly not. My solicitor also told me that sellers who do the dirty like this thereafter struggle to get representation as it’s frowned upon strongly in the industry and there’s reputation damage for the sellers solicitor. I get the impression that the legal profession in Scotland are keen to prevent some of the ruthlessness that can occur down south with such transactions. But your solicitor should be able tell you how thing stand in your area. Frankly both sellers and buyers solicitors are like anyone else they just want the deal to go through, they get their fee and move on. In terms of your loan I dealt with Buildloan / Santander to purchase my plot but then used Ecology for the self build mortgage. 100% would recommend Ecology they were superb to deal with. @Conor ‘s suggestion to collate all necessary documentation in advance is a good one. In terms of speed personally I have found using bigger solicitors firm far slower than using an individual solicitor. Because so many individuals are involved in the process.

The solution to this problem could be that the govt makes it compulsory for local councils to identify a set % of their geographic area for new build homes. Within a limited deadline. It can be different parcels of land both small and large, and unsurprisingly i’d advocate provision for self builders and indeed low cost housing.. Legislate so that such compulsory requirements prevent local objections. Local councillors should be allowed to decide where the builds will take place from a selected shortlist. Incentivise and support businesses who can provide high quality homes that can be built in factories, SIPS systems etc that minimise the need for trades on site . If a major developer buys land make it compulsory that builds are complete within a set deadline. There would have to be real innovation and financial incentives and penalties in the process. They speak about building infrastructure as the way out if the economic mess. New and efficient high quality homes is the solution.

You may already know this but if you didn’t Ikea also do cut to measure / shape worktops. I’ve personally had good experiences with their worktops. I’ve always found their worktops far better than their cabinets.

Helpful post , thanks. Before I built my house we had to remove an SSEN pole that also carried a telephone line. Openreach were appalling to deal with, whereas SSEN were superb. I always felt that SSEN saw me as a customer who they were obliged to provide a good service to, whereas Openreach were more arrogant in their responsibilities and took a mightier than thou approach. They (Openreach) also spouted legal mumbo jumbo and tried to charge me for removing the SSEN pole. SSEN basically just told them it’s their pole on their customers land, and he’s told us to remove that pole, and therefore you need to reroute your line. Dealing with Openreach was the only major frustration in my project. Anyone dealing with them my advice would be do not trust them.

We had exact same issue with an island unit 1800x1200, also with quartz worktop. No nails was my friend, to fix the plastic legs to the floor. The island hasn’t moved. Frankly it was heavy enough that it probably wouldn’t have moved anyway. Your peninsular will additionally be braced by the the worktop. if still worried other option would be to construct a timber underneath, no nailed to floor and bottom of cabinets. no nailed legs will be fine though unless your units / legs are poor quality/wobbly.

Thanks for comments & input folks. Managed to get someone to figure out how big a generator I’d need.