Kevan Marshall

Thank you Alan, very interesting reading!

Thank you Alan, My Solicitor shall just say pay it, HMRC have a phone number I can ring so I’ll give them a ring when I get a chance….

Hi, I am in the process of buying a plot, there is an old wooden shack on it that is uninhabitable, I have received outline planning and can knock down and build on the plot, one of the reasons I received planning was the fact that the planners agreed that the house could not be renovated or ever lived in again, would this class the plot as non residential because the shack is uninhabitable which would make it exempt from Stamp Duty, I know I have got three years to build and shall have to sell my house I am living in within this period to claim back SD but it would help with funds if I was exempt from paying it? Kind regards, Kevan

Hi Iceverge, It needs to be built in a longitudinal direction, I have tweaked things slightly to get as the maximum room sizes for the footprint of the house! kind regards, Kevan.

It is going to be a SIP’s build so some walls we can alter as they shall be non load bearing!

The workshop can be 10 x 6 mtrs or 9 x 7mtrs, about 3 metres to eaves and 22.5 degrees pitch, 3 sides and roof shall be 40mm insulated cladding and front shall be silicone renderer board with 3mtr x 3mtr sectional garage door facing road

Hi Iceverge, Unfortunately the planners would never allow the garage to be built in front of the house and so close to the road!

Blue line is where outline off building shall be, the square at front of new house is outline of old shack, the planners want the new build to be in same line as next door but their garden is twice the size, the shack has been there since the 40’s and next door built there houses in the 80’s, it’s not my fault they put their houses further back and planning guidelines say that a house must not be brought forward from existing dwelling on my plot, problem is neighbours objected and mentioned privacy, one side has 7ft high wall, other side has 8ft high hedge, the side with hedge is double story and one small living room window looking onto ours and we are only building single story at this stage, the other neighbours are single story so no issues with privacy…

Budget has to be kept to an absolute minimum so trying to make the outlay as simple as possible and trying to make two bathrooms serve three bedrooms plus day visitors, the house is only for me and my wife and having occasional guests staying, the bedroom and snug are south facing, the plot size is 20 meters x 40 meters and I also need to incorporate a 9 meter x 7 meter workshop into the plot, I have neighbours either side and their plots are twice the size, planning have put a restriction on how far I can come forward with the house so this would only leave a 3 meter wide south facing back garden but we are appealing this, there is an existing wooden shack at front of plot which shall be taken down and we want to keep the new build behind it so we have 8 meters garden at back and 12 meters at front of house

We are trying to keep it simple and uncomplicated, only have two bathrooms to serve all bedrooms and utilise one bathroom as visitor/disabled toilet, we have to try and not waste any space and have everything in proportion

This may be better, slightly wider entrance hall, slightly bigger en-suite and small airing cupboard at end of entrance hall

What I have proposed

Second design from architect, we need bathroom for guests so jack and Jill is ok from hallway but architect has visitors going through bedrooms…

This was his first design, utility too big, en-suite with crazy sliding shower, stairs coming off main entrance, we have a restricted plot and at this stage can only build a certain size…

Trying to design a bungalow, I gave my architect a sketch and I am now on rev 3, every time I mention something he tries to put his own spin on it, my mates an experienced builder and he advised me to spend a couple of grand more putting heavier ceiling joists, waste pipes, heating pipes and provision for stairs up into loft space so that at a later date I could convert loft for 20k myself and add 100k on property value, aside what my mate said I’ll show you what I proposed and what the architect has drawn up!

Thank you Nick, just looking for a simple solution with reasonable U-valued about 1.2,and only the middle two sections with one sliding door for pedestrian access!

I have been looking at glazing and went to look at Internorm windows, the salesman seemed a little arrogant and said they only sell windows to passive house standards, I showed him what I wanted and explained the house would be timber/sips and he said they only install into steel or concrete and windows do not hold the roof up, I told him I know that but house manufacturer have structural engineers to design the front of house so it can support windows, he then said you’ll need this style of window/sliding doors and it would cost 30k, he showed me electric doors that open with fingerprint and he could not get it to work, I am trying to get U-Values to a sensible level but 0.6 is not what I am looking for, does anyone have any experience with installing a similar type of window in Northern Ireland and who did you use, the overall width shall be about 6mtrs and height of about 5.5mtrs, has anyone used Fenbro windows from Poland as they have a distributor in the South of Ireland? Kind regards, Kevan.

Hi, Did you find any SIP’s suppliers, I am in Antrim and Clays SIps seem to be the best but in Yorkshire

How much more expensive is asphalt compared to Bitmac?

Hi, What type of metal cladding are you going to use please? Kind regards, Kevan