Triassic

Architect for the house and SE for the insulated raft and basement walls.

Having made a genuine mistake on a CGT form a few years ago and got fined, all I can suggest is get advice. I’d also add a narrative ive to any text boxes on the form explains that this was a self Build that was not bought, inherited or gifted. There are a series of videos on YouTube put there by HMRC, might be worth watching.

Total area is 130m2. Some parts are only 100mm thick. That works out at £276/m2 including the excavations. Or £162/m2 excluding the excavations.

We’re the same, we pegged it out and it looked big, the dug the soil out and it stank, we cast the concrete and it looks bigger, We stood on the newly laid concrete and the wife said the lounge is too small. Let’s see that it feels like when we move in!

The costs so far... Excavate the hole for the basement £14,872 Mot type1 and bedding sand. £1,109 Radon Barrier. £ 218 Insulation EPC300 and 100. £5,581 Reinforcing mesh and bar. £4,297 Labour to fix reinforcing and insulation. £6,548 Concrete for raft £2,763 Sundry items say. £. 500 Total spend on basement, excluding walls £35,888. I've worked along side everyone working on site, so I moved excavation material, fitted radon barrier, worked alongside steel fixers tying steel reinforcing, worked to place the concrete, tidied up etc etc. My time is free! Edit To put the above total length not context, I got three quotes for this work, the lowest was £50k and the heights the £150k. Having done my homework it was clear the lowest did not include everything and would have resulted in extras. The company who quoted the heights price, the M.D. drives a £100k Range Rover, I’m not inclined to support his lifestyle.

The only Thing I can add to this thread is a warning. In our last house we installed a Whirlpool American fridge freezer, it had the water and ice dispensers and both worked fine throughout the seven years we owned the house. However the frost free element of the freezer was cr@p, it broke down within six months and was replaced under warranty. It then broke down again about 18 months later, just out of warranty. The replacement parts, two faulty circuit boards, were around £200 from Whirlpool. Luckily I found a guy on the internet who ran a business repairing circuit boards and he replaced four faulty capacitors for £40, this included sending me two temporary boards for use while mine were away being repaired. It was a known fault as a result of using cheap components but Whirlpool washed their hands on f the problem. I’d never buy a Whirlpool product again, look nice on the outside, built using cheap components on the inside.

I’m hoping so, the invoices for the work are all in now, so I’ll sit down and work it all out when I have a moment.

I got all the insulation, EPS300 and 100, from Varley Insulation, they came in cheapest. Regarding the L shaped edge up stand, the design from Hilliard Tanner called for 200mm wide 200mm tall up stands on three sides and 100mm wide 200 tall up stand at the front. I cut these pieces, all 90 of them, using a table saw. I cut one side then turned the 100mm thick insulation slab over and did a second cut. The cuts were all ok, in a few cases a bit wavey, but remembe4 the cuts are facing the concrete and the outside, so are of little consequence in the grand scheme. I glued each peice using low expansion foam, staggering the joints of the second course. Once set they were solid.

If it were me I’d want all the services run around the outside of the house, especially the gas.

I am the man and Kango. The more I DIY the more I save for later in the build.

This is becoming more common. I’m currently ordering some items from a company in Yorkshire and their first response was cash before delivery and oh here are our bank details for the BACS transfer, no mention of other ways of paying!

So my next job, having concreted and power floated the basement floor, are the basement walls. These were designed by a structural engineer and on reflection they're probably over engineered, given we have solid limestone on three sides and a lawn to the front. The extent of the limestone only became apparent when we demolished the old bungalow. We only had one small area within the footprint of the new house for a trial pit and as luck would have it suggested around six feet of broken fractured limestone. Once the house was demolished it became clear that the fractured limestone only covered a small area at one end, as a result our three weeks dig extend to twelve weeks. For the walls we’ve decided to use the Amvic ICF system which has plastic webs with notches at the requires spacing for front and back horizontal layers of rebar. Once stacked and braced these will be pumped with concrete in 1m lifts space at around one hour intervals.

I ask why he didn’t put it in at the pump end, elf and safety, apparently, someone might cop the lot at hundred mph!

Oh they’ll take it away at £100 per m3, customer service is not free!!

I’ve just concreted the foundations for my new build. I’d calculate the volume to be 23m3. I got a second person to check my calculations and they came to the same figure. I talked to the concrete pump guy and he said I should order a little extra and some would be lost within the pump and pipe work, so I ordered and extra 1/2m3. The pump guy guy turned up today having never seen the job, one of his other guys had been on site to check access and had said to him it would be fine. So he set up as best he could, as a result the rear end of the pump truck was stuck out into the road. Becauses of the distances of involved We had to carry extra lengths of 4” rubber and steel hose up onto site and couple these to the end of the boom. Four concrete wagons turned up at half hour intervals and the pumping went smoothly, with only two blockages caused by hard lumps of cement within the concrete mix. However we were about 2m3 short. So I ring the concrete company and ask for an extra load. It turns out I should have ordered “23.5m3 PLUS.”The PLUS means that your not exactly sure about the volume required, by saying PLUS you’re staking a claim in the pecking order, so if you ring up for extra, you get The next load out of the batch plant. If you don’t say PLUS and you ring up for extra, it’s like placing a new order and you could get it as the last load out of the batch plant or maybe first load tomorrow. Having finished pumping we had to uncouple and empty each additional length of hose of concrete. The pump guy then inserts a foam ball into the end of the pipe and sucks this back to his truck, filling the pump hopper with any concrete left in the delivery lines. This has to be discharged onto site, in my case onto the stone driveway. I then had to barrow 10 loads up a steep drive and dispose of it into a canvenient hole (I’d estimate there was about 1m3 within the concrete pump and hoses) in my case, a freshly dug foundation. Whilist your doing this the pump guy is power washing the hoses, equipment and pump truck all over your drive. One final thing, you also need two bags of cement to prime the concrete pump. Luckily I had two bags on site as the pump guy expected me to supply it.

The view was part of the reason we move here. The house is an upside down house, your looking into the basement which will contain three bedrooms. The lounge, kitchen and family room will go on top of the bedrooms and have been positioned to make the best of the view.

Finally we have concrete! After cancelling Fridays pump job due to someone hitting a high voltage cable on a the Thursdays job he turned up at 7:30 this morning to set up, however he wasn’t a happy bunny as anothe4 of the pump guys had inspected the site access and had said it was fine! After a lot of struggling he managed to get into a position he could put the legs out to allow him to deploy the boom. Thee hours and 25.5m3 later and a lot of hard work for the two of us, we have an excellent insulated concrete foundation! The first load goes in. The finished job. Spot the concrete pump truck.

I’ve also had a quote off Sunamp for a system to provide hot water and under floor heating, in conjunction with a high temperature ASHP. The quote came back at over £7k for the Sunamp, then there’s the ASHP and the 4Kw of solar to add to that figure. It’s turning into a rather expensive approach. Now going back to look at the price of a thermal store!

MInd you don’t go over the new road bridge across the Mersey at Widnes, it’s tolled, but the signs telling you how to pay on-line are very small and around 500,000 fines have been issued so far, at £20 a pop.

I have 4 poles in my garden, none have a servitude clause and I get £10/year for each one.

If the pole is on your land without a wayleave even better, more leverage!

Very stylish, where did you get it from?

You can do that by going to your original first post and edit it from there.

I think a lot of people here will agree with you.

Could you delay the cable to the end of the build, the other plots might have been sold by then, so more customers to share the costs with?