patp

We could but he is known to be the best around which is why he keeps getting poached. The good thing is that, at 67, he is going to retire soon. He was looking for bungalow only builds when we heard about him. He prefers to work alone :(. He turns up dead on 7.30 and doesn't stop when you take him a cup of tea or try to chat to him. This last time he went off it was at the request of an old team mate and he told us that the mate would come to our site and give us a week's work. I won't hold my breath.

I did have my garden designed, for a big birthday present, about thirty years ago. It was the best present I have ever had. The designer walked the garden with me and asked about the things I like etc. I told him a love trees. We have a large garden and he filled it with trees. The shrubberies were all measured and planted so that the large ones were at the back and they tapered to the ends. Roses over the door and climbers over the garage. The biggest reason I love it is because it stopped all arguments about what went where. Chris hates anything that spreads or climbs or really anything that grows! It is a constant battle to wrestle the mower, the slasher, the weed killer from him. He has managed to "prune" to within an inch of its life a magnificent spreading (!) tree that was supposed to shade out grass and weeds from beneath it in the front garden. He insisted he had to mow underneath it! I have asked for a garden design for another significant birthday present this year. Not so many trees this time due to all the leaves. A bit of a Japanese theme perhaps?

Roughly how much would a lighting designer charge for a four bedroom bungalow?

Brickie went off to help a long time client, who lives opposite us, out of a muddle. It was a large warehouse project and they had been let down by their brickie. Turned out that much of the blockwork was below ground level so he, at 67, was lugging wet blocks of the cement kind, and having to place them below ground level. They all needed disc cutting too No wonder the site owner could not get a brickie to turn up! The week that he was gone from our site was a week of good weather that we are still waiting to return. First it was rain that stopped play and now it is low temperatures. I send evil looks to our neighbours over the road because they have stolen our brickie several times now. They are safely ensconced in their lovely self build mansion while we sit looking at our half built bungalow that we started in 2019. We were so hoping to have the roof on by Christmas. It is still a possibility that, if the weather cooperates (!) we could have it on for the new year. Sigh.

I would like Architects to go on an interior design course. Our architect and the, different, one opposite both wanted to site houses with their backs to the Southerly aspect that was available on both plots. They all seem obsessed with the kerb appeal! I, personally, would love the help of an interior designer to, first, help with lighting as it can have a huge effect on the quality of life in a house. I see that most people, above. think that one should be engaged for walls, windows etc but will have already chosen their flooring. Would an interior designer be of any help at the flooring stage. It is expensive to lay the wrong kind of flooring but is given little consideration as a design feature. What do you think @H Kaur ?

Hello.

Congratulations!! Can you come round here now and help us get moving. I think we are over the 61 weeks and the wall are only half way up

My advice would be to insist that Highways do a site visit. We have had many run ins with our Highway department over access (we used to own some land where we wanted to open a caravan park) and they work from google maps/earth. More recently even our architect had given up with them until we insisted on a site visit. When they come out they look at it and say "Oh I see your point - yes that is all fine!" With the caravan park we called on the help of our district councillor who called on his mate the County Councillor who "spoke" to Highways and they backed down on their requirement for a 14 metre pull in. We have seen, in a busy urban area, a turntable installed in a small driveway. The driver drives in, parks on the turntable, and when he wants to exit he swings the turntable so that the car faces forward. I believe it was in Chelmsford.

Ooh yes! Must remember both sides of the story

Eh?

I was thinking more of security than anything else. The above points do make sense though. Here in East Anglia we tend not to worry too much about weather problems. One door, the utility room, will be facing south. The front door will face North but we do not expect it to used very often. Everyone in this area comes to the back door no matter where that is sited Would it put anyone off from buying a house?

I know that the traditional way to fit them is so that they open inwards. Is there any good reason for this? I noticed that my sliding patio doors have an outward opening door before they start to slide. It occurred to me that this door is somewhat more secure than an inward opening one. Any thoughts?

We went to a course offered by Potton builders on how to manage a self build. It was free and not all about timber framed buildings. There is also the National Self Build Centre in Swindon who do course.

Even within a planning department there will be "officers" who are flexible and those that are not. Our first planning officer was very tractable. When we put in for some changes we got another one and she was just awful. She refused to answer her phone to our architect and ignored his emails. I intervened and, while she eventually answered me she was very surly and we withdrew in the end. Our architect reported her to the department head but he, of course, would not rule against her. Even though we had not had a tree survey for our plot she wanted one done for the revised driveway! I know some local developers will put in plans and then withdraw them due to the planning officer that gets allocated to their case. Some architects will deal with the building warrant but if not there are recommendations on here. Architects produce working drawings at least our chap had a technician that did them.. A little tip - if you have lots of planning drawings hanging around then do dump the ones that have been revised. We had our windows made very early on and mistakenly gave them the design drawings instead of the working drawings. Nightmare!

Our a architect charged us £2k to design and obtain planning on our own plot of land. We know several other self builders who have managed to deal with the planning department themselves. I think they are much easier to deal with when planning has been approved already. They seem to be easier to deal with if you go to the planning department in person. All architects seem to do this and they build up relationships with the planners. From my understanding It starts off with the applicant stating what they would like to change and then a discussion ensues with the planner about what they will approve and what they will not approve. If you go in with an open mind but with a clear idea of what your bottom line is with regards the usability of your project I am sure they will try to help. The only difference will be that you have not already established a relationship with them and that you may need help with terminology. They will have seen all that before. Just be prepared to understand that they hold the power and treat them with some deference. For instance - We applied to build a small bungalow next to our detached house. It was in the street line of the other houses in our road. The planner said "I don't like it" our architect answered "why?". Planner - looks too cramped. Architect - it is all in keeping with the area and fits the plot. Planner - no, I don't like it. Architect - hmm what do you suggest we do? (Meaning I will go to appeal which is very expensive for the planners to defend) Planner - Why don't you put it behind the house? (We were always told it would NEVER be approved as it is classed as "backfill") Architect (hiding his shock!) - hmmm I suppose that might be acceptable to my client. Acceptable? We thought we had won the lottery!!! It might work for you if you uncle did the face to face chat with the planner as he will speak their lingo? If not ask him to just chat it through with you how to explain what it is you are after and then let the planner feel that they are in charge which, of course, they are!

Ooh thanks for that @daiking I have snapped one up

I wonder, if you took it to law, if they could stop you demolishing your own house? It would be a terrific risk but if in a residential area surely they would have a hard time refusing planning permission to build on the empty plot???

I would be interested to know if it is always a given that you can demolish a house in order to rebuild on the site? It has happened several times around here but when one of the developers tried to do it again the council said "no". It was a huge plot (old farmhouse with paddock) and they got planning to build on the paddock. The old farmhouse stands looking sad now and I just wonder what would happen if they chose to demolish it. It is not listed.

Welcome to the journey

Thanks @joe90 I will bear that in mind. When I worked with disabled children we had a sink unit that you could wind up and down to make it wheelchair accessible. We used to use the table for a work surface.

Very interesting! Do you think that it could be made to be a little closer to the front of the unit. I find sinks very difficult to access due to being five foot nothing

As recommended above we got an online estimator for our build. It was offered by our Builders Merchant (Ridgeons then and now part of Huws Gray) and they refunded the cost of it after we ordered a certain amount of stuff from them. It has been very useful especially as it comes in two formats. One is alphabetical and the other is in order of build. This version is so useful because we can see that once the materials start to be used for one part of the build you just look down the list and order the next lot of materials. For instance we are at the bricking up stage so the next materials on the list after bricks and blocks is Roof Trusses, then the felt and batten and fascias then the tiles. We have made a friend of a salesman at our local builders merchant. He warns us when certain materials need more notice than others due to shortages. He also knows the local tradesmen and will, when he can, recommend one. Another thing to do is, when a tradesman starts work, get chatting about the next stage and ask him/her for recommendations for the next trade needed. We have been so lucky with this as, probably the best bricklayer in the world, when working opposite us, asked if we were building a bungalow. When we answered in the affirmative he offered to quote. He does not want to work on houses anymore due to his age. He then recommended roofers and told us which ones to avoid. They have come to quote and have, in turn, recommended carpenters, scaffolders and solar panel installers/electricians that they trust to work with. Many of these people do not need to advertise and so are hard to find. We are not too far ahead of you due to finding a 4 inch water main slap bang underneath our proposed build when we were digging the foundations. It is illegal to build over them and so we had to pay to have it moved. There is a thread on here about the trials and tribulations.

Yes, every time any trade comes to quote they say "cor that's a big bungalow". Eeek! It was not intentional on our part. The plot is a large one and the architect asked what we wanted. I asked for a separate dining room and, when he showed us his plan, that he do away with the integral garage and make it into a "dog room" with wet room included. We keep reminding ourselves that there is not much difference in building a large as to build a small one. Re sale for our daughter will also be better. We will, also, have a separate garage and workshop! The tiles are called, I believe, pin tiles which are small but, we are told, very attractive. We toyed for a while with going for the large, cheaper, option but have succumbed to the "you only do this once" school of thought.

Thanks guys. All is well. The truss manufacturer was on the case. I think the "expert" in question was trying to sell us his book on roofing. He may well have worked on timber framed houses where the uneven weight on the roof may have buckled the frame. Ours is brick and block. We wavered a bit away from the lovely Imery Phalampin tiles towards some lighter, cheaper version as offered by the builders merchant, but have stayed with the Imery after the roofer told us how much better they were and reminded us we are only doing this once. Phew!

At the planning stage we rushed out and chose the bricks and roof tiles for our bungalow. The tiles we chose are Imerys Phalampine Burnt Red. We are now at the stage of ordering roof trusses to be made. We were already staggered at how many roof tiles the Take Off had stipulated we need (over 18,000) and a chance conversation with a roofing expert neighbour explained why. They are very small tiles and that is why you need so many. He also said that they would be very heavy, once laid, and that he hoped we had warned the makers of the roof trusses!!! He told us a few horror stories of them being laid on one side first and buckling the roof! Any advice gratefully received.