Tony L

Thank you @saveasteading & @Mike. I got about half way through the video. You're right - it's not at all exciting. I'll watch the rest tomorrow. It hadn't occurred to me that a QS might help me evaluate the builders' quotes. There's a lot to think about here. Asking about the BoQ & cost estimate has raised more questions than I expected. I probably ought to leave this for now & focus on getting my drawings completed.

That's good to know - thanks. I've never seen a BoC, & I was concerned there may be pitfalls to look out for. I am very wary because, although I'm still in the early stages, I have been let down very badly by many of the people who have worked on my project so far & this has caused thousands of pounds of extra spend & months of delays. Yes, I will buy a cost estimate add-on as part of the QS work. I may make some changes to the design or specification, based on the QS cost estimate. & your point about the estimates is well made, although I will be asking for quotations, rather than estimates.

Thanks, @Dave Jones. For this, I guess I need the bill of quantities to be presented in order, with sub-totals for each stage. Some self builders have shared their BC/construction drawings, & this has been invaluable to me in enabling me to tell my architectural technician where he's gone wrong. I can't find an example of what you get when you've paid for QS, anywhere. If anybody would be willing to send me a copy of their reports, I'd be very grateful. Are mybuildestimate.co.uk a good example of a professional QS company, or are there superior professional QS companies out there? Any recommendations would be very welcome. Do these QS companies get almost everything right the first time they issue their reports, or is there often much work required by the client to get them to do their work properly, as has been my experience with my BCO/construction drawings?

Best on blocks, I'd say. We had ours installed by the dealer we bought the 'van from, & they told me to get the ground as level as possible & have plenty of blocks to hand. Perhaps they fine tuned the levels with off cuts of wood & old slates - I don't remember now.

if I remember correctly

I don't know which part of the country you're in, @boxrick. I've saved the details of a company in, Purley/Croydon, called Bespoke Guttering. They manufacture on site, from a roll, so you end up with a seamless gutter. They do fascias & soffits too. Presumably, they offer downpipes as well. I'm way off the guttering stage of my build, so this isn't a recommendation, but you may want to consider them if you're not too far away. Here's a picture from their website:

Well done for taking them on. I hope you win in the end. How did they force you to pay? Did this go to court?

Interesting. Thanks, I didn't know that. It wasn't one of my conditions, but they did put this in next door's conditions (for PP to demolish & rebuild - same as me).

Also consider that PP is often granted with a condition that the property will no longer have PD rights. This probably doesn't help you, @Leigh0403, but the best thing to do is to get your outbuildings up before PP is granted (assuming they qualify as PD & they're not going to get in the way of the main build).

Thanks for explaining your VAT reclaim, @nod. It's good to know they don't enforce the silly wardrobe rule, although a different inspector may have taken a different view.

The natural wood colour looks the best of those two pictures. It suits the house. Normally, I prefer black, but it needs to be on the right kind of house. With black, you can be confident it’s going to retain the same look for many years. With the natural wood, anything can happen – perhaps not, if you really know what you’re doing, but it seems most people don’t know (or perhaps the builders just don’t care). I don’t like it when natural wood cladding turns grey. I see a lot of wood cladding weathers badly & can look damp towards the bottom. I particularly dislike the “damp at the bottom” look I see on a lot of natural wood cladding – it looks just like a cheap garden shed to me, & that’s not a great look for a house.

You have no downstairs loo, other than the en-suite. Are you going to send your guests upstairs, or into the bedroom? Your enormous L-shaped hall is a waste of space. You could re-configure & have an extra room down stairs – a downstairs loo, & perhaps an office & cloak room as well. There’s too much glass in the bed room. A room that’s closer to square, rather than long & thin will always be better IMO. If you move the bedroom door towards the porch, you can make the en-suite twice as big, or make this room a downstairs loo, for everyone. You’d still have room in that big bed room for an en-siute. Which way is North? I wouldn’t worry about the internal configuration too much just now. The planners don’t care about how bad your internal configuration is, so just put in for planning to see if you’re going to be allowed to build a house that’s the size, shape & height you want. You may find they force you to build a smaller house or a house with a lower ridge height than you want. Once you have PP & you know what the constrains are, you can then spend time on the details, knowing you’re not wasting your time. You may need to put in for a non-material amendment, but getting these approved is easy compared to gaining PP.

It will grow on slates too, although it will likely be easier to remove than from a clay tile roof. Zinc works in the same way as copper, & would be my choice.

Probably not, no, but I'm past the point of no return now, so I will keep going, with a positive attitude, & I hope I will have changed my mind on this by the time the end is in sight.

Welcome to the forum, @JoanneP. My advice is: spend as many hours as you can spare reading through the history on this forum. There’s a lot to learn & I think this is the best pace to educate yourself. You will come across many success stories – so there’s the reassurance you’re looking for. Also, you’ll come across many stories of builds that have gone wrong – mostly because self-builders have been let down by the people they’ve employed. For example, my builder, caried out sub-standard work then, with the help of a solicitor, tried to force me to pay over £7,000 for work he hadn’t even done. The arguments went on for weeks. You could very easily find yourself in a similar situation. & the builder's not the only person who’s ripped me off or let me down badly – I could give you a long list. So if you’re confident you can stand up to these types of people, go ahead. If not, think again, because there are a lot of very bad people who are very good at telling wonderful stories about what they’re going to do for you then, sometime after you’ve engaged them, you realise they’re not going to make good on the agreement that’s been made & the arguments start – intense, lengthy arguments. Are you good at dealing with those kinds of situations? You may need to be.