Lets

Thanks - that works as a good guide. I'm a looooong way off anyway, but interesting to know!

It might be worth checking what your local council offer too. I had some low grade asbestos roof tiles. The council collect a certain amount for free and then its extremely affordable up until a certain weight (not being specific as I can't remember the weights now, sorry). It was worth me using this service as the other quotes I had were ridiculous. I removed the tiles with the help of a family friend who is a builder.

Working (very slowly) through my house renovation and was pondering what the last thing building control inspect? How long are they with us for? Or does it depend on your area? I had sort of assumed it would be the staircase but a building project up the road were chatting and said that building control wanted to come and check when it was all finished. For information, I have a bungalow that I am converting into a chalet bungalow. So new roof, extension, staircase and the addition of a porch.

Thanks for the starting points - really helpful. Glad I'm in good company! Guess using a spreadsheet is the most efficient way at the moment! Will keep hunting in the meantime for that golden egg! ?

Hello, I have a renovation I'm in the early stages of. It's going to be a long project on limited funds. I've never done this before but have a family friend who is a retired builder offering advice (phew!). However, I can already see that if I don't keep a very careful track of expenditure, dates when things are booked in, dates when I have to have finished a job I'm doing myself etc that things will run away with me. I'm also calling in favours from some people I know in trades and will need to be flexible when they can help me. As a result I am on the hunt for a template to use to manage the project. Does anyone have any recommendations? I've searched the forums but not found any - apologies if I'm not using the correct search phrases.

Hi all, I'm at a point where I am replacing an entire roof (trusses etc) so to some extent, I can vary the pitch (already having to go through planning for all this) and span of the roof. Is there any merit in building the roof to be an exact fit with integrated solar panels and if so, what do the finishing edge trim pieces need to be? Also, I'm hoping to have vlux/skylights in the roof, are there any convenient ways to fit them (i.e. leaving out a panel and replacing with a flux)? Have done a fair bit of reading on this forum and in other places and it seems to be possible, asking here seemed a good plan as you'll tell me if I've totally missed something/if theres anything else I need to know/consider. The roof ridge runs North/south btw.

Good tips - I shall head away to do more research, thank you.

Hi, me again (with another question - probably a rather silly one but I’m learning as I go). Property purchased and finally insured. Big project for me - Roof to come off and be replaced, requires larger floor space... but in discussions with architect today, we had an interesting chat re plans. The new roof includes plans to turn bungalow into chalet style house with 2 bedrooms and a bathroom in the roof (foundations fine for this). However, because downstairs is very small and has a large garden I had initially planned to extend and bring the roof out to the new extension (keeping 1 bedroom in the front and a study too). Then the back an open plan space knocking two smallish (8x10) rooms together and extending to make a reasonable sized open plan space - lounge, dining room and kitchen. Architect suggested that instead of the extension (costly) it might be better to put a decent, well insulated conservatory on the back (north facing) rather than pay for an extension and (much - roughly 1/3 again) larger roof. 2 double bedrooms and bathroom are ok for the space without the extension. This is not something I had even considered until now. Funds are extremely limited and I am learning as I go, so any cost reductions would be welcome. Currently I’m approaching this as a 5 year project (simply because I need to save, then move to try next phase) with phase 1 being the main building work and then keeping the house watertight. So my main question is, would a conservatory across the back of the house do the same job, but cheaper? Any drawbacks?

brilliant! Thank you!

No Suggestions?

Hi there, I have just brought a bungalow as a renovation project. It is structurally sound, but needs reroofing, extending etc. However, I will not be living in it whilst the work is being done and I am struggling to find somewhere to insure it! Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you in advance for any help!

Apologies. Yes, I mean a C3(a). The link states it is ‘store and premises’

Hello. I posted earlier about acquiring a (smallish - 80K) mortgage on an office to convert into a residential home. I *think* I have now resolved this (although don't want to assume anything until the paperwork gets signed!!). However, I'm now really stuck and I am trying to work out the following: 1. How do I find out the category of a business site? I *think* its a B1 (office) and so do the people selling to me, but none of us are sure (their dad died, it used to be his business premises). 2. Therefore, if I want to convert it from a B1 to a C1 do I have to apply to planning? Or do I do something else? I've tried to speak to planning but they never seem to answer the phone! Its all a bit confusing as the information hasn't come through to those selling yet (friend of a friend gave me the heads up about the site, I was showed around, building friend came with me, I offered and it was agreed) but details are still to come through. I am trying to action these things so that the sale can go through as fast as possible - I suspect if anyone else locally found out this was selling they'd be on it quite quickly and I would lose the opportunity (I know from a lot of experience that developers can afford much more than I can!). I'm not a developer and really do have no idea what I'm doing so sorry for asking very basic questions!

Yes please! That would be extremely helpful for me!

Thanks for the comments. The plot of land is set back from a residential road and surrounded by gardens. It currently has 3 large garages on it. One individual house that backs onto the plot has access rights to their garden and one next to the (private) path into the plot has a garage (tiny section of plot) they own but no access rights. These are things that need to be negotiated, but having spoken to the guys with no access rights I think we’ll be able to agree something. The other guy is going to be difficult, but as long as access is provided (it specifies it doesn’t have to be car sized, although I can easily make it so a car car drive through for a garage) it can work. Really, he can make things take time (likely to be a year of negotiations take a long time), but not stop anything (having spoken to a solicitor to check). I’m ok with that - I’m living with my parents and not in a rush, this will be a slow project! I have informally spoken to the local town council and they have said, provisionally, a residential house on the plot should be fine. Whilst I am sure there will be some issues (nothing is ever as smooth as you might hope!!) I think I will get things moving. im thinking the best for the plot (although yet to chat to an architect!) would be a horseshoe shaped single story house. Potential for a basement but would depend on soil and costs. I’m definitely going for cheap and cheerful rather than dream home project. But obviously, a home is a home. ive a friend who is an electrician and a family friend who is a builder, they’ve both offered to help around ‘real’ jobs, but clearly this is occasional and guidance rather than ‘whole project’. so.... I am a total beginner. I’ve never done anything to a house. I’ve done some reading about self builds to gain some idea, I’ve researched potential costs, I’ve chatted to a couple of people who have built their own. I’ve researched some different methods and gained some idea of the (scary!) pitfalls. But really this is all limited info at the mo. im fundamentally doing this because I can’t seem to buy what I want (a 3 bed with a granny annex and small garden) where I want to live. i am very aware that if I do not want costs to spiral, I need to have very detailed planning... and since I’m at the very start of my journey, I wondered if anyone had any ‘must dos’ for the start I guess. will check out that book, thanks!