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Think it also massively depends on where you are in the country and level of finish. High spec and you’re over £2000 sqm...also I have been told with bigger houses what you would think would be economies of scale is negated by the fact that a lot of builders don’t want to do the bigger jobs. They don’t have the working capital to tie up in big projects.

We've had a bit of a re-design....house has changed in size and the separate garage and studio have been incorporated into the main house. We're probably two months away from planning...this design still needs tweaking. Solar issues still not addressed....that's next.

I’m about to start down this road...don’t think I want to reply on the architect’s opinion of which is the right way to build the house. Or at least I wan to be able to challenge it by asking the right questions!

We're in the Chilterns, ground is chalk/flint. We're on top of a hill so I think we're a good way above the water table. Going to see if we can increase the above ground build so we can remove the need for a basement completely. One option is building a garden room or similar under PD for the existing house before we demolish it (but after we've got planning for the new house). As you say it does makes sense that it's more complex.

We’re relatively advanced with a design for a new build house. The design originally had a basement under the full extent of the house but we’ve reduced that to 2/3 because of the cost and the fact that we don’t really need the space. We’ve recently started meeting QS’s with the view to retaining one in the near future, one has made a comment that it could be a false economy to reduce the footprint as having a partial basement means that the foundations in the rest of the house need to be commensurate so you don’t really end up saving that much ? I can sort of see the logic in that but wondered if anyone had a view on it ?

We’ve just had a re-vamp of the design, have a follow up meeting with the architect in a couple of weeks. Once we’ve done that will post some of the drawings up.

This i exacly what I am worried/concerned about. I feel I would rather have two pairs of eyes looking at the drawings now so these issues hopefully get picked up before they cost real money if changed once on site.

That’s great will drop you a PM ragg987, we’re not that far from you.

Architect is a practice, we’re dealing with one of the three partners. However, originally met with one of the other partners but the one we are dealing with is now our only real contact. We have met other clients, who are happy but I suspect they have used one of the other partners. They’re a decent firm, have several Para 55 houses built so well used to getting difficult projects through planning. I need to find a QS anyway so that is clearly the right place to start, if they have a Project Managment as[etc to their expertise all the better! We’re on the Bucks/Herts border if anyone could recommend a good one !

Hi, We’re working with an architect who we feel is strong on design and we’re relatively confident of getting PP having had a good pre-planning meeting with the local planning office. Importantly they are designing a house we are very excited about. I think we’ll be submitting planning in the next couple of months but am willing to delay that to make sure of come critical cost based decisions first. The main issue for me is at this stage is which construction method to use, to be honest the guidance from the architect we’ve had so far is not definitive and I feel I need some professional advice on this. The project is a large one....house will be circa 600 sqm including basement so 10% variation in costs will be a six figure sum. I also don’t think our chosen architect is going to be strong on some of the technicalities and I am thinking of going with someone else for the building regs, tender/construction drawings. My feeling about the architect has been borne out because by sheer fluke we’ve met and got to know a family who are currently on site with the same architect and certainly they don’t think the tender/construction drawings were in sufficient detail and also had some technician errors which resulted in 4 weeks of work on some walls being reversed! Apparently said drawings came with T&C’s which meant they weren’t liable for errors. So, I know a QS is the person to engage for costs estimating and management but who/what is the best route to go for deciding on construction method ? Once that is done appointing an Archtectural Technician or similar for the detailed drawings ? I have read an awful lot of the fantastic information on here but still feel that it would be worth having some professional input. The people mentioned above that are on site have a house with a concrete basement, which has a steel frame on top but such is the amount of timber that has been specified in the construction of the walls/insulation that the warranty company is classifying it as a timber framed house. Their strong advice is go with brick and block because that’s what most builders know and are happiest to quote for ! The house will be contemporary but likely will be clad in brick.

Yes that’s the subject of the next meeting...there are some mature trees that will provide some shading.

That’s not right. Good spot! Working on elevations currently, we’re looking at brick clad for both floors. Might have to be some kind of screening on ground floor to eliminate solar gain though which might possibly be timber.

Astute observation about the master bedrooom suite....really not sure that it functions well as you have noted. Our old place in London you walked through the dressing room to get to the bathroom which would work better. Good advice about working through the week. Funnily enough when you say that about the boot room in your house being narrow, the last iteration of this plan the boot room, pantry and study were all a meter narrower....we’ve made the house 1m wider for that very reason.

Thanks ! We went for the stretched barn as it’s the cheapest shape to build. The views to the north are over a valley (we’re in the Chilterns) Interesting idea about amalgamating them but my wife really likes symmetry which is why we’ve gone with the studio and garage being where they are. Also one of the things the planners liked about the scheme is that from the road the garage and studio sit within the silhouette of the main house. They are not fans when you have multiple out buildings creating a “complex”

Hi Ferdinand, 1. Yes it is large ! As I said I don’t think the basement will be as big as it currently is. In some way the size is driven by wanting 5 bedrooms with en suites and a large master bedroom suite. 2. We’re replacing an old house with similar dysfunctional living spaces. Again it was extended I think in total three times. Luckily the last time so badly (70’s) that it’s been de-listed. The intention would be that we will have at least one partition on the ground floor should we want to use it. Most probably separating the music room (more formal space) from the res top the house. 3. Our lifestyle testing is really for the next 20 years I think. I’m 51 and my wife is three years younger. I don’t think we’ll want a garden this size when we’re much older than that! The one thing I don’t think we’ve thought about it where we could put a lift in if necessary which obviously “future proofs” us to a greater extent. I think we do have enough space for 2 x teens. We have the studio outside which I think will be used for teenagers to have friends over and potentially also the cinema room downstairs. We could also use the partition in the living room. It’s something we’d thought about as w elite in an area where there’s not much for the kids to do when they are say 16. 4. I’ve just finished full time working last year. Doing a bit of consultancy work which can be done from the study. My wife is training to be a counsellor, intention would be to use the studio space for that. 5. We originally had two schemes....one was much more wow than this. We went with this because it will be cheaper to build and has a better mix of living and bedroom space. This particular scheme was originally bigger and had a double height space, we’ve lost it to try and reduce space a bit....might have a look and see if we can add some space back in and what the cost implications would be. One thing we could do would be to move the laundry to the basement and allocate that upstairs space to double height. 6. Hadn’t thought of that, interesting idea! We’re intending to try and have the sooutherly aspect with as much glass/open up as much as possible. 7. I was thinking about this last night re the study window...it’s not ideal and needs some thought! 8. There’s no space for that unfortunately because neighbours share some fo the access. 9. We won’t be having any elderly relatives living with us (both had dysfunctional childhoods!). We can’t build further forward as we’re going to apply (and not build) for planning to build two houses on the front garden. We can’t have habitable space any further forward for that reason. There’s deifinitely a possibility of kids hanging around longer though, it’s the way of the world these days. 10. Good question. We have a wood shed and tool shed already. But under PD (once we have planning permission) we’ll be a wooden double garage as a garden machinery/bike store. It’s going to be to the right of where the new garage will be. 11. We already have a number of mature trees. We have a very large Sequoia in the front garden (its marked inside the bend of the driveway) and quite a number of other mature trees. We’re going to look at whether one tree which would have to be felled can be moved, have people coming to see us next month about that. But yes we do need a proper scheme, garden is disjointed at the moment.

Lots of great feedback from everyone I’ll try and reply systemitically to everyone. Good point about the noise from the laundry, I suppose my concern would be if you put it next to the stairs the sound might carry down the stairs ? We have two kids so it’s likely the three bedrooms that will be used permanently will be the master and the two bedrooms immediately next to it...although as the kids get older (currently 10 and ? that may change.

Hi, would be very interested in people's thoughts on these plans. We've had a chat with the local planning office and had a green light for the outline we proposed to them which is similar in scale/size to what is below. It's extremely unlikely that we would build a house with a basement that big but we will definitely put the storage and plant room (don't think that's big enough) down there. Obviously it's a big house put it's replacing a house that is actually bigger above ground than this. For guidance on size the house is 30m long and each window bay is 3m. Have also included a site plan, the purple line on the site plan is the boundary of the AONB and Green Belt which runs right through our garden, house used to be a farm house many years ago which is probably the reason for that. The house cann't go any further back in the plot than that line without considerable planning hurdles.

Might be able to help with some recommendations. I don’t live a million miles from you (we’re Chiltern District council). We’ve just successfully got through pre-planning and are now fine tuning the design before going to full planning application. Our architect is based in Berkhamsted which a I am sure you know is Dacorum and have quite a lot of experience of building on Green Belt sites. Our planning consultant used to run Chiltern’s Planning Dept so knows the ropes very well and has been very helpful....my feeling with him is that if he tells you it’s possible you’ll get it through. We’re demolishing a de-listed house and building a new replacement as well as going for two additional houses on the plot so it’s quite complicated...the boundary for AONB and Green Belt goes right through the middle of our garden. Drop me a PM if you’d like details,

We’ll definitely be looking to do similar in our design, fortuitously for us the wall that makes most sense to put it on is north facing.

That sounds logical but at what point did you know/estimate what the build cost would be ? Was it at Stage 1 based on a ball park estimate of price per sq ft/m or at Stage 2 ? I ask because obviously at Stage 2 you’ve already got PP so are somewhat “pregnant” at this stage and would presumably have to go back to plann8ng if you had to change the design because quotes were coming in high ? Asking as somone who is at Stage 1!

I may have read it here but I remember someone suggesting that if you’re going for a pantry to build it with less insulation on the external walls than the rest of the house, and to build the internal walls (and door) to the same specification of the external walls of the rest of the house.

We’ve just gone through pre-planning and are about to go into the detailed design phase on our house so this has been incredibly useful. Some things I’d already thought about (having laundry upstairs) but there’s tons of really useful info here....the kind of details that can really change your day to day life but also make the hose more robust. The idea of a separate electrical circuit for things like freezer, tv and some lights during a power cut (using a generator) is a great one...we get more power cuts than we should!

I think that’s very good advice about making sure the contract specifies that systems will work and perform to specification. I have a decent amount of experience of contracts with suppliers/consultants from my day job so have an idea how to manage it but hadn’t thought about it, I’m fully aware that as an individual the T’s &C’s in a contract will be full of caveats and reductions in liability so that’ll all be getting removed,

According to their own material it fades, Page 20 of the pdf I ave linked to below. https://www.ribaproductselector.com/Docs/1/26501/external/COL712751.pdf We’re in the early stages of planning a new build and will likely want some form of cladding for the first floor. I have zero interest in something that will need maintenance/treatment to maintain its appearance. We had a Juliet balcony on a previous home which was a contemporary addition to the back of a Victorian house...was made of teak and looked great but needed regular treatment. That was a pain and tiny compared to the area of a whole house. The expense of maintaining/treating wood cladding is a non starter!

Thanks for all the replies...haven't quite got the hand of quoting multiple replies so I'm starting here. Interesting what you say about Passiv not being more expensive. First naive question....what's a TF ?! With regards to renewables our intention is to live in this house for at least 20 years so we can take a long term view. Although I do think the housing market will really start to reflect the running cost of house in the next five to ten years as utility costs continue to climb especially with big houses. There are an awful lot of houses in the area we live in that were build in the 80's and 90's which people want top money for and I think are just hugely mis-priced....the have poor insulation, traditional heating systems and out of date layouts which I think mean these houses will be valued more on what the plot is worth than the house....because the only buyer will be someone that wants to start again. Which is what we're now doing. No definitely not taking on the build! Have no experience in this field myself. I have quit full time work though so intend to "some extent" (to be decided how much) get involved in Project Management. We did a full refurb of our house in London ten year's ago and learnt a lot the hard way regarding that. Wouldn't say it's made me an expert but I know a lot more than I did about dealing with these things. That's very interesting thanks and I'd be interested in learning as much as possible, if you have an hour or two to spare I'd love to take you up on your offer. I understand what you're saying I think about a house being a system....one thing that is absolutely key for me is trying to future proof it too. For instance I've been reading about rainwater harvesting....not sure we'd go there yet but I think you can plan for it/have the pipework system in place and switch to it in the future if you want to. The one thing that REALLY concerns me about the project is making sure the house works properly and that it's been specified properly. e.g. Architect Designs House House is modeled for heating requirements based on glass area, orientation, construction type, insulation etc M&E engineer specifies system Contractor installs system If it doesn't work properly/house is too cold who do is responsible ? I guess it's down to the contracts. If we could achieve build costs in the £1500 to £1800 sqm I'd be very happy, I have been told to expect more. One thing I learnt when we did our refurbishment in London is that if you set a high bar in terms of fittings/flooring etc things can get very expensive very quickly. To keep the expensive angles down we're going for a barn style (i.e. rectangular box)....our architect has done a couple of incredible houses with roofs that are almost organic in form but costs are huge for that ! I have a thick skin so will post plans when we get them....at the moment they're a work in progress. I think our architect is very strong on design (they've designed several Para 55 houses) but I suspect less good on practicalities. I'm happy to take on all advice or criticism! My cousin is an architect and I think a very practical one but is based in Ireland and doesn't have the time to take on our project. He's already volunteered to have a look at the plans and especially comment on how he thinks the house will work/flow. We currently have children of primary school age but they'll soon be teenagers so our use of the house will change and the house needs to adapt to that. There's also every chance that they may end up living with us into their early 20's/post Uni as that seems a very strong trend these days due to the cost of housing in S.E. England. Very good point and hadn't really considered that. In theory there should be economies of scale.