Haylingbilly

I think you will find that whilst there are areas you can make savings there are a lot of areas that you simply can't make any savings on and these constitute a good 50%. of the overall build costs. Things like plasterboard and plastering - there is surprisingly little variance in this - you can shop around as much as you like but the price will be the same, scaffolding, muck away, blocks, insulation (you can over pay), concrete, screed, timber, aggregates to name some but there are countless. You need to be on top of all of these but my point is that there is relatively little that you can do to meaningfully impact an awful lot of the costs of the build and they are fixed by site specific and your design. Slopping sites are notoriously expensive to build on and you haven't mentioned your ground conditions which will have a big impact too. I would think £2500 psqm is realistic and if you try too hard for £2000 you will make false economies which will show through in the completed build.

I have been looking for land to do a development project but can't see any with a profit margin higher than 10%. The only plots that go with margins over 10% are for multiple units so not really suited to home builders. Even multi unit sites under £1m have much less than 20% margin and those £2-£3m are around 18%.

I used oak worktops for my pantry shelves, they come in almost whatever size you want. You could always use laminate worktops if you don't want real wood. Topped them off with cornices to match the kitchen. Pantry needs a tidy up but hopefully you get the idea.

Another layer of cost is wastage/mistakes - they aren't perfect so will waste materials and make mistakes and have to do rework, stuff get stolen and generally go missing on site- not many clients (none) will pay for this and hard to pass on to subbies and anyone on a day rate so any builder has to absorb them.

I am afraid there is no other way to get an answer on this than to get quotes to price it up. It is a tricky roof with lots of detail around dormers which will impact roofing costs and also will be fiddly to install the insulation. I would guess that you would pay £50k-£60k to manage the trades yourself but that is a pure guesstimate based on prices 2 years ago. But the description of work they are doing for £65k needs clarifying

I got mine back today. Paid in full. Submitted mid May

I am surprised to hear this - which revision of building regs are you referring to and why is it no longer permissible? Have you looked into packing out the wall thickness with some EPS insulation?

100% get one - I had one on my last build and it was brilliant - the savings on skips alone is worth it. My top tip would be to keep builders bulk bags and separate out waste into wood offcuts (which people will collect together with pallets) other stuff you can take home and put into your bins (general waste and recycle) and then one for the tip. Only once you have a quanitity of bulk bags with waster that has to go to the tip do you pop 'em in the back of the tipper. I only needed to do two tip runs in the end. It never ceases to amaze me that once you have a skip on site, how quickly it get filled up. For aggregates and pallet load collections it was really handy and of course you can drive it right up to the front door for unloading...

If I was doing it, I would do it in sections 1m long with a 2m break between them, so do the wall in three goes. You are digging down 1.9m 400mm away from a 1m retaining wall which may or may not be a problem. You could also do a test section to see how well the ground holds up. I had a similar issue and that approach is what the SE recommended - however in the end we piled it and then dug the earth away.

Sure, you can try Amanda Tate Partner Surrey Property Lawyers The Old Estate Office Wilderness Road Guildford Surrey Gu2 7QR Tel: 01483 485 800 Fax: 01483 485 801 Email: info@surreypropertylawyers.co.uk

https://www.moneysupermarket.com/credit-cards/guide-to-credit-card-protection/ £30,000 is the limit....so if overall contract is over £30k you are not covered but maybe you could break it down into smaller chunks if it is...

The way I did it was to make a part payment via a credit card. It then covers you for the entire contract (up to a point). The timber frame company would only take a thousand or so on a card, but were happy to do so, understanding that it offered me protection.

I had the following condition " Prior to the occupation of the dwelling, details shall be submitted to and be approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority to confirm that the dwelling has been completed to meet the requirement of 110 litres of water per person per day." The Ecology were happy with this . Not sure if this helps or not?

Sent mine on 1st May and got the same text on 4th August so guess they sent a text to everyone on the 4th!

I feel your pain! I have just finished building a house with a similar access - was 40m with pinch point of 2m wide unsuitable for heavy machinery due to a collapsing retaining wall supporting the access, basically had to hand ball everything to site. We did have a loading area 40m away and built using timber frame and a crane there but the max crane we could get in was 60tonne which wasn't man enough for the job. Was all a big f... up by the timber frame company. Must have caused 3 months delay all in all sorting it out. If I had my time again, would go brick and block any day - is heavy and labour intensive to carry into site but is reliable and consistent. The issue with a SIPs or Timber frame is if you have problems with getting it or the machinery into site then the problems will compound. Think very carefully about the steel supporting any big spans - the timber frame company specified (and supplied) a 750kg beam which caused no end of problems. We had to get 15 men in on a Saturday to move it. Can you get a tele handler into site - if you can only just get a transit in then you might struggle?

I have the same problem, with the second fix being done in last December (2021). When do you think I should fill the gaps and fix the popped screws - this autumn, next spring or next Autumn - I only want to do it once!

I used an interior designer and she was brilliant. She charged £60 for an hour visit and 2 hours follow up. I gave her the brief of Neptune look with Dunelm price, with some pieces from eBay. She was happy to review items I spotted on eBay and Facebook and use them if they fitted in. I got 4 beds and 2 sofas on eBay, she used mainly existing furniture with only a few new pieces then Dunelm curtain, lightshades and blinds apart from in the sitting room where she recommended bespoke curtains. The house was already decorated with kitchen in when she got involved.

I have just had someone private message me to say they have been waiting 4 months for their plans to be checked. They really are a shambles.

HI There Is any one else having issues with Approved Consultants - Buildzone seem to subcontract their warranty and building control inspections to them. I have found them to be an absolute nightmare from start to finish, cannot count how many mistakes they have made, delays they have introduced. I cannot believe it is just me!

Very much so. I would speak to the CIL team at your council and explain what you plan to do and whether they consider it commencing development. Follow it up with an email, and if you have agreement with them of what you plan, then I think you would be safe. It is after all their interpretation that counts.

+2 to the Delonghi You can buy it from Costco too if you are a member Had mine for 3-4 years and services a family with 10 cups or so a day.

I am not sure that is a safe assumption, if you want to get clarity on build cost, ground conditions is one of the first to get sorted. A call to building control and or a ground survey would be time and money well spent. Otherwise your answers make me think £2000-£2500 is a more reasonable build cost...

This does seem like a high build cost for the design but some points to clarify What are you looking at for material choices for outside walls, roof, windows etc? Zinc roof, trendy cladding and fancy windows will push the cost up and set the tone for the choice and cost of materials for the rest of the build. What are your ground conditions like? (phone the local building control - they will have an idea if you don't know) Any access or other constraints that will add time and complexity to the build How close to the boundary are you building?

If you have decent internet then you don't need an arial - I haven't had an arial for 5 years and I only have marginal internet (20Mb) which may not be good for some but with 4 kids it is not for us! Some of my neighbours have put in 4G internet and get 45Mbs and one has Skylink and gets over 100Mb and typically 150Mb - 4G is not much more than the cost of regular broadband. Skylink is £89 a month I think. If you have internet, no arial required. About 6 years ago one of the trendy millennials at work asked me quizzically "do you watch linear TV?". I have to say, I now know what he meant and don't watch it anymore!

I would go straight to appeal and not waste any time with the local planners. And ask for costs as their decision looks to be meritless on what you have shared. Bloody planners.