SuperJohnG

@Jenni I quite like the polished floors and especially some with the aggregates through them but the better half of us is not a fan unfortunately

Currently trying to bottom out flooring (house design is in for planning at the mo). Options considered are: Engineered wood LVT (Amtico or similar) Tiled I have 130sqm to cover, which will be wet UFH, and whilst we originally wanted to keep it all the same pattern downstairs we may have different patterns, tiles etc in different areas, but I would think it will all be the same type. We have sort of discounted engineered wood as we have two young children and to be honest It'll just get scratched up with them and toys, and not taking shoes off and we are rural, dirt, grit etc. Hence currently weighing up tiles vs Amtico for costs vs benefits etc. More leaning towards Amtico as it is warm and comfortable underfoot, durable and forgiving and we can change patterns, types easily in different areas. Plus I like the idea of small joins compared to grout (we like herringbone style). House will be SIPS or TF and ground floor will be either an insulated passive raft or a normal strip founds with ground bearing slab and finished with a screed. For the past few days I have been considering about thresholds as we will have two sets of large sliders or bi folds and I would like low thresholds so we have no step to make the transition from inside/outside as seamless as possible. Now - I haven't figured out if I will go with tiles or Amtico, but as I believe it the build up heights would be drastically different with say 2.5-3.5mm for Amtico and maybe say 15-20mm for Tiles. I would imagine I need to specify which flooring I select quite early on, in order to get the door and thresholds correct and then stick to it? Also if I choose Amtico, I wouldn't really ever be able to change to tiles I assume as they would be too thick? I am assuming if it is screed finish, it will be a more flexible approach as I can reduce screed thickness or increase at the time of pouring. But if it is a raft then I better get i right from the start? Or am I worrying about nothing and there is any easy fix? anything I need to watch out for? thanks for any input.

I'm currently at the stage of building a detailed budget as we are now in for planning and interfacing with self build mortgage lenders. I do have a high level spreadsheet and have a full development cost understood, however I need to break the build cost section out with real numbers just now as I just have my magic 'finger in the air' 1200/m^2 figure at the moment for the build. I have various prices back for all the windows, the house kit, MVHR, etc however I have basically been procrastinating as hard as I can before building the full budget spreadsheet and cashflow (albeit I have a very good idea of what I want it to do). I have a terrible habit of avoiding these things, rather than just eating the frog and getting done. I have downloaded a number of spreadsheets from on here, which I have attached for reference for anyone else who is looking. I can't remember who posted them (one is definitely by @Jeremy Harris) but thanks to those who shared. I am going to build a budget spreadsheet using the 'self build - cost estimate' attached. I seems to make sense and uses pivot tables to allow the data to easily broken out. I've a little learning to do on those but, I spend most of my day costing and estimating on spreadsheets for large engineering projects so should be fairly straightforward. Then I plan on adding a cashflow tab and actual costs vs budget. Hopefully so it's all easy to update and doesn't take up too much time throughout the process. However, I wanted to check if anyone else had other examples they would be happy to share and that worked well? And also any tips? extra functions or info to add that you would add in hindsight? I do plan on adding a column for reclaimable VAT so I can track this and also an easy way to add a column to monitor costs during build easily to see if we are on track. Sample_Costbook.xls Self Build - Cost Estimate.xlsx Simplified costing spreadsheet - 050421014.xls

@Roundtuit I haven't done a reclaim but that seems perfectly logical to me. If it is supply and fit and is covered in the acceptable list to be included then I dont see why not. The VAT reclaim and getting something zero rated at source are two different things that are not linked other than being part of a house build.

I recently completed on a rural plot, which is essentially a gated field surrounded by a barbed wire fence. I was going to get liability insurance.. but after talking to a friend who runs an insurance firm, he suggested not to bother with PL and just get site insurance when required.

That's good, I am completely enclosed by a wire fence (it was a small field for livestock. There is literally no way you could get on the site without knowing it

Welcome. Lots of good info to be found here. My advice would be to fully understand the budget and assess the costs to build on that plot prior to purchase. I have recently completed purchase on 4 acres with legacy PP (albeit mine had commenced previously) get costs for services in and other preliminaries etc. If your into instagram follow the_hutch_selfbuild they have built very similar to what you are looking at. Where in the country are you?

Do you actually need heras fencing? I have a rural plot which is a gate to enter the plot. Then the house will be built 150m from the access. It has been mentioned about adding security fencing...but I'm not sure what it would do. If someone comes creeping late at night (we are 300m) from.nearest house and wont be living on site then we wouldn't know (until we have power) so not sure the heras would do anything. Is there any good legal or similar reason you really need it?

Thanks @Carrerahill I think what drew me to it was it looks like tiles/ engineered wood but you can do these nice patterns but the joins are tiny? is that correct? see image attached, I believe this is eden oak.

@Carrerahill thanks, and looks a good transition. I'm just at the moment trying to price and see the cost vs benefits between Amtioc/ Tiles/ engineered wood.

@Carrerahill any update on pics for this interested in having a wee look to see how it turned out. I'm going through flooring options at the moment and Amtico has some really nice options.

Sorry to hear this. Sounds like it was very unexpected and going to cause some pain. I cant help with any advice on the joists and so forth. However from an engineering perspective, its worthwhile to stop for a second, stand back and look at the situation and make a plan to get you to the end and ensure it's all done correctly. If you have all the materials you need and you're not down and cash because the builder had an advance payment then you're in a good place and could look at getting someone else in. If they've walked off with your money...then there are always channels to get it back through the proper processes, which can take time. I would definitely take the time to try and put all the drawings in order and find any you dint have if after all you've paid for a design and SE they should be available. Hopefully of some help.

If you have an architect cert you shouldn't need a warranty if it's just for the purpose of remortgaging or selling. So dont get caught out by paying twice just get one or the other. I am currently just looking at this stage to ensure the architect certificate will give me everything I need an also check the costs

thanks @Redoctober I've got fleming homes on the shortlist for supply of the kit, based on the good reports from your blog. If anyone does want more information I happy to share the advice from the LA and the letter form the Chief planner.

No percolation tests yet, I'm changing ti to a treatment plant (I have preliminary selected a Biopure unit) and asking to discharge directly to the burn for foul and surface water. It will have a high table as we are the low point in that valley which is on a hill. Hence the burn running through. We have to get a borehole too, so I'm hoping clean water is not too deep for that reason!

We have thought about that and certainly never say never, however for the foreseeable future it will be for us and the kids to grow up and enjoy the freedom and quiet life. Maybe in 20 or 30 years we can build a bungalow there and the kids could have the main house.

@ProDave It was very easy to remove. Applied to have that condition removed as it was stopping me gaining finance to complete the house and also that they are unfit for purpose as per a letter from the chief planner back in 2011 to all planning departments. Agricultural ties are generally found to be unfit for purpose and are now very very rarely used. They are quite happy to remove these without issue these days, as it essentially causes financial issues for the owners. I have however seen the AG tie used for developers locally to bend the rules. By starting "farms" they got planningn where they wouldn't normally then once built they have the tie removed as they need to remortgage to invest in the farm and grow it. Then once removed...then shut the farm down..sell the house for massive profit. All the trees you see in the picture were had planted 25 years ago by the guy it's all really nicely done with all the road and sight lines etc. There is actually a road through that plot but you cant see it as it has grown over.

@Russell griffiths @ProDave It is a semi long story and I have included a quote from a previous post below. But in short it has planning permission already which has commenced. The land was purchased by the previous landowner some 25 years, at which point he gained planning permission for a single dwelling with and Agricultural tie in 1997 . He lived in a farm attached to that land and had thought that in years to come he would sell the farm and move closer to town and build a house here. Around 2000 the planning was due to expire, hence he contacted LA and said he would do a number of things to 'commence the development' which included doing access, putting road into plot, completing all the planting and landscaping, sightlines and part laid some foundations., the council agreed this would suffice and then he undertook the above and wrote to the council to say it was completed at which point they wrote back and confirmed they were happy and it was now fully granted or whatever the term is. 19 years passes and after numerous failed attempts as per below, I hooked up with him. In between times he had sold farm and built a passivhaus up the hill. He was quite willing to sell me the land and was very supportive of self build. He had planned to move there eventually but realised he wasn't ever going to do it and his daughters weren't interested in self build. In the first instance, after meeting him, I contacted council (not knowing about above letters) Ayrshire LA are even less keen on building in countryside than further North so I wanted to check if I would get planning. It was in the rural diversification zone, but the DPO basically said there was zero chance I would get planning for a residential home. I was gutted, went back to the seller and told him I couldn't get planning. At which point he showed me the letters, saying it was fine (he was very very wise to get it all in writing) I called LA back, and they confirmed yes I could build the original house which was granted without issue (subject to building warrant approval). One fly in the ointment was that it had an Agricutural tie which meant I couldn't raise the right value for the mortgage, hence I had to remove this. The LA advised me to remove the TIE (and told me how to do it) prior to purchase, once removed complete purchase and then apply for a change of house design. I removed the tie in December, completed purchase in February and now we are submitting house design change this week. Here is my post from another thread: (it was a how did you find your plot thread) 'I mostly scoured Google maps and drive around the local area. I limited myself very tightly to our small town as that where we wanted to stay. I had 7 goes of writing letters, approaching people, chasing up possibly for sale plots. I got quite far with the 7th lady who was offering 0.6 acres for 140k unserviced. 300m from main road. I went through the full budget cycle for utilities etc. Decided it wasnt worth that and offered 85k. She wasnt impressed..by this point I was fed up. I posted a Facebook request looking for any land or someone else who was interested in building. My mates wife hooked me up with her dad...who I was meant to meet up witha year previous but we never did. Lovely man and now we are just finalising purchase of 4 acres with exisitng PP from 25 years ago. Where theoretically the development had commenced. He sold it to me for half or a third what he could have got open market...just because he was similar to me 25 years ago and wanted the same. (He built one of the first UK passivhauses). He made ten times what he paid so a good deal all round...moral of the story dont give up.'

I wanted to sort of close the loop on this thread and provide an update after 6 months of membership here. I've now completed purchase of the plot and finalised design of our house, it has taken 5 months to complete purchase of the plot and about 2-3 to design the house. I've done a but of an update on the design and more can be found here:

Good evening all, I was going to update one of my other threads where I was looking for design input to close the loop but decided I had too many to cover, so best to put it here. Also noticed I hadn't added pictures of our plot which we completed purchase on a couple of months back. . Hence see below for pics of the plot and also the final design. It's taken a few months working with the architect and a last minute flip of the full downstairs layout as we had realised (in spending lots of time at the plot recently) we neede d the lounge at the north side to capture the views up the valley to the NE. Last minute we added a bay window to that room also, I was trying to avoid anything like that so we could reduce cost by keeping the walls and junctions simple but I think it was something we might regret Hence, thanks to all for the input on the design so far about dormers, rooms above garages and so forth it has all been very helpful. Going in for planning this week, which we are hoping will be uneventful as planning has already been granted, we are just changing the house design. (Design attached as JPG and PDF) final.pdf

As an probably helpful note on this. Build store has told me all lenders will accept the architect certificate instead if a structural warranty. So if you have an architect and they are signing it off then that should save the 3k needed for a pointless structural warranty if you need self build mortgage / residential while complete. Slight catch (theres always one) is that lender will send their own independent party to verify work has been completed also at 200 a pop. So 3-4 visit maybe. But its defo cheaper than structural warranty as far as I can see.

@jamieled thanks, I just found this on a UK SIPS website which confuses things even more.. Full pdf attached for reference. TB5_Durability.pdf

Currently I'm trying to nail down (pun intended) some of my choices while we are for planning permission on our design. Rural property in Scotland (so it's wet and windy), which will be SIPS or TF. It will most likely be some from of slate effect concrete tile, like marley edgemere or something or similar mainly due to cost considerations (See more below). I had done a lot of reading and made some notes to ensure the build up detail was correct and had marked down to allow for counterbattens and then battens so as to let water drain etc. Which made perfect sense and seems to be a logical choice. This was until 2 days ago when i came across this blog entry by @Thedreamer which has no battens and the slates go directly into the sarking. Which has completely confused me now. So back to the point of this thread....when to use battens/ counterbattens / and when you need to?? As a side note - I found the above thread when searching about Cupa 3 heavy slates as I would like a slate roof - but from quick searches over the past few months it seems as though it's considerably more expensive. But I am struggling to quantify this at the moment as I can't seem to find the right info while searching - so if anyone has any good links to notable thread or has previously done a cost comparison then that would be much appreciated also. thanks

@tonyshouse I dont mind the grey, I'm going to clad our annex in Siberian larch. @scottishjohn you have a good idea with fibre cement. Higher quality than PVCu and nice finishes in any colour with a relatively low cost I think. I had previously looked at cedral cladding for the house some time ago but never really followed up much. But it might be the perfect match for that no-maintenance/quality/cost triangle @Russell griffiths mentioned.

unfortunately I would agree (sorry Tony), which is exactly what I would like to avoid. I'm in west coast of Scotland - it's constantly wet. I did fit a new fence to my current house about 4 years ago, specifically bought tanalised wood so I would never have to paint it and could leave it to weather knowing it would last a long time with no maintenance,