miike

£35.1k for new stairs, £17.6k for an ASHP on a 122m2 house that's (presumably) already hooked up to gas 😬 Maybe there was a miscommunication about what 'mates rates' means, and you're actually paying him a lot extra to help out his company's profits, rather than the other way around. Why don't you tell him what your actual budget is and ask if he can advise on what changes you'd need to make to get it there.

That's a very good price but I don't see them listed as one of the companies that Natwest would accept a warranty from - https://www.intermediary.natwest.com/intermediary-solutions/new-build-hub.html#structural Not sure if it's different with other banks.

I applied for quotes from LABC, Self-Build Zone and Protek. LABC - £13.5k inc audit fees SBZ - £7.5k inc audit fees Protek - No quote received after 2 weeks For me, the warranty is just a piece of paper that lets me either get a mortgage or sell the house in the future, so I went with whichever company could provide it the cheapest.

The Canton Fair is on next month - it's the biggest trade fair in China with 60,000 exhibitors. Looking at flights + hotels now. A couple days there and I should have a pretty comprehensive list of who to buy from.

I think almost every electrical item in my current house is probably made in China. CE certificates can be verified using the certificate number - this is part of the due diligence you've got to do with these companies.

I'm frequently purchasing products from China and shipping them to the UK for my business. I could buy the same products in the UK but they are typically at least 4 times as expensive, and usually just ordered from China and then rebranded with the UK name on it anyway. This has naturally led me to browsing alibaba for potential supplies for my new house. Some initial pricing comparison shows that I could get most things to the UK for about a third of the price I'd pay here. And you can get everything and anything - wood flooring, stone cladding, tiles, bathroom suites, kitchen countertops, stairs, balustrades, lighting etc. The key issue I see is quality control - knowing who the right person to order from is the biggest hurdle with China. Alibaba offers trade assurance for certain sellers which gives you a lot of protection if things go wrong, but obviously it's much better to get it right the first time. I'm considering putting together a list of all the different materials I need, shortlisting 3 or 4 different manufacturers in China for each material and then flying out there to go visit them. I can see the factories and inspect the products, decide who I want to order from, then put in a big order for everything and ship it all together in a container. Has anyone on here tried doing something similar?

Work has started now - timber frame deposit has been paid and site has been cleared. Excavation was supposed to start this week but has been pushed back to next week now due to waking up to a couple inches of snow covering the site, which was unexpected. Electricity and Gas connections have been paid for and were under £1500 together. Waiting on the water connection quote but spoke with them today and they said they expect it to be sub £500 as there's a pipe running along the site boundary. I'd budgeted £9k for connections so that was a nice start. I will update on costs as I go along for anyone interested. 10 year warranty with self build zone is £5.5k - waiting on a protek quote to see if it'll be cheaper. I also found that a local fibre optic company is installing 1GBS full fibre along the road next month so I've asked them to include this site in the work (current max is ~50mbs in the area). Question for people who chose a name for their house address, how did you decide what to pick? I was originally going to call it Redwood House due to a redwood tree on the site but unfortunately had to remove it due to it being rotten internally. Other suggestions I've had are Onyx House and Maple House.

I assumed there would be a lot to learn but these EPDM training videos do make it look quite simple - https://www.rubber4roofs.co.uk/how-to-install-a-classicbond-one-piece-epdm-rubber-roof I have builders taking it to the watertight stage, it's at this point the remaining work can either be subcontracted out or done myself. Electrics/plumbing I wouldn't even consider trying. But laying the UFH pipes, screed, landscaping etc. these are things that don't necessary seem out of reach to potentially learn.

Following a conversation with a builder about roofing, I found that for my flat roof house I could get qualified on a one day course to install an EPDM membrane myself (which would give me a 20 year warranty on any roof I installed it on). There are then additional introductory roofing courses of ~2 days to cover the basics of roofing. I would then be paying £10k for materials to install myself vs £30k+ for a roofing company. The roof is a pretty simple design and comes with an initial plywood layer from the TF company, so would need a vapour barrier, rigid insulation, plywood, membrane to be installed. I'm still doing some research into what exactly would be involved, but this seems to be an opportunity for a big saving compared to the effort of learning the trade. This brings me onto the question of what other elements of the build offer the biggest opportunities for savings relative to the time needed to learn how to do it? From my initial thoughts, I'm thinking flooring and painting.

Planning was a nightmare, I did a write up of it here - https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/30935-2-years-later-and-planning-is-approved-my-long-battle/ A Developer would have a £250k CIL payment to make upfront for this, which instantly makes a big difference to their margin. Then from April they've got a 25% corp tax on their profit. They also will usually have developers finance at ~1% per month on top of the build costs. Say both myself and a builder could both get this built with materials and labour coming in at £1600m2, they'd then be at £2100m2 with the CIL. Financing costs would then bring them to ~£2300m2. They'd have financing costs on the land as well which would add another few hundred per m2, so they'd likely be in at £2500m2. Add in £2000m2 to the house costs for the land and you're at £4500m2 all in, with a £6000m2 sale price. Of that £1500m2 they'll pay 25% in tax, giving them a net return of £1125m2, or 25%. That seems pretty standard to me.

There's been some modifications since that rendering - primarily reducing the top floor glazing by 1/3. The CGIs were done independently of the architect, I had someone do them during the planning process to show how the materials would look to the PO. The glazing reduction makes it easier to support the structure, there's currently £20k of steel works on top of the £100k TF to get it standing. For the kitchen, I'm looking at a similar style to this - https://www.solakitchens.com/skog/ Let me know if you disagree with any of these sums but I see: ~£6k dekton <£1k slotted wood veneer panels ~£1k lights ~£1k sink ~£5k cabinets So around ~£14k before appliances. They've got a wolf range cooker in there, which is obviously as expensive as it gets, but still available used for ~£10k. Wine fridge another £1-2k. To me, that's an un-compromised luxury kitchen for £25k.

I do agree that the feeling of the finishings have to match the value of the property but I think that, especially with contemporary houses, a lot of that expensive feeling comes down to the design. Have a good look at the finishes of this similar style new build which is under offer at ~£23k sqm currently https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/130717802#/media?channel=RES_BUY&id=media1&ref=photoCollage Those finishes and fittings are not ultra expensive. I recognise those bathroom fittings from lusso stone and they would have cost £2-3k per bathroom. Tiling is minimal, instead carrying the wooden floors into the bathroom with plastered walls. The stair case is relatively simple but has good use of LED lighting to elevate the premium feel of it. The kitchen has maybe 4m2 of granite worktop, the rest is painted wood cabinetry. More pictures here - https://amazingarchitecture.com/houses/thurlow-road-residence-in-hampstead-london-by-square-feet-architects

Prelims + scaffolding are included in the basement quote. Plumbing I've been quoted £2k per bathroom (I've used them to do a new bathroom previously and they were able to complete the plumbing for 2k then as well). Baths/showers/sinks/toilets/taps are at £16k with Lusso stone. I've used them before and their stuff looks good without being hugely expensive. £6k/m2 would actually be about £400/m2 below the area average, so I'm not targeting the absolute max £ pm2 value. Good advice! This time last year I was working 100+ hours a week and stress was off the chart but I've made the business much more self-sufficient now so I'm comparatively pretty zen now! There are already 5 year fix mortgage rates below the current BoE base rate, this signals that banks strongly anticipate that the BoE will lower rates below their current level in the next few years. They're high to try and control inflation - that's predicted to drop to 4% by the end of year and then continue to fall after that. When inflation is around the 2% target, the BoE has more flexibility to provide low interest rates, and subsequently low mortgage rates. Also, remember that only about half of owner occupiers actually have a mortgage, the rest own their property outright and aren't affected by current mortgage rates. There is also a supply/demand issue that will prevent big drops - if it costs more to build a house than you can sell it for, developers will stop building. The housing supply then drops, and if there are more buyers then sellers then prices rise. This essentially is a box, with extra glazing. It is three rectangular boxes sat on top of each other, it was specifically designed to be simple to build. I previously spoke with a turnkey builder that specialises in mansions on the Wentworth estate and even they'd build you a palatial spec house for sub £5k. This house is quite similar in spec to what I'd be looking to achieve - https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/130717802#/?channel=RES_BUY

Something I didn't clarify is that while the basement is 250m2, it was originally only supposed to be 175m2 but this didn't fully follow the floor above so there still would have been additional foundations work. The basement company offered to do the extra 75m2 for £30k which would put a basement under all of the upper floor, as it wasn't substantially more work for them. The top floor is also 75m2 and is a fully open plan space, its primary function is to lead out onto the upper terrace where you have nice views. This total of 150m2 of space should bring the overall average down as they're very basic rooms but the cost of bathrooms/kitchens gets absorbed by them too. I think you can then start to look at this in two parts - a 350m2 house costing £2000 sqm and a bonus 150m2 of enclosed basic space for £100k.

Budget is tight because I'm attempting to do it without a mortgage. There'd be an additional ~£500k available if I did opt for one but I run my own company and haven't paid myself a salary this year as I've been reinvesting all the profits back into the company, so getting a mortgage now would be a big pain. 2. Roof edges haven't been specced yet. I'm looking at simply rendering them or potentially a black charred wood cladding which I've seen used quite effectively. 4. For the kitchen, if I didn't find a suitable ex-display or used one, I'm going to buy the carcasses from B&Q then purchases premium doors from a separate company so you can get the expensive look without spending a huge amount. Equipment wise, I'd be looking at £2k on an induction hob with built in extraction fan and 2.5k on a built in oven. Add a £400 no-name wine fridge and people will assume the whole kitchen must have cost a lot. 5. Correct on the two stairs. The estimate was based on figures I got from an ironmonger to make the skeleton of the stairs and then fit timber steps. The quotes for the stairs were all over the place though - I sent the same plans and reference pictures to several stair companies and they were quoting 80k+ but ironmongers with joiners were quoting <10k. 6. The engineered wood floor pricing is within the the 'floor' category. I can source this at £30 sqm but will be used throughout the house. Tiling is going to be kept to a minimum in bathrooms, pretty much only in the showers. Roof is the big unknown one currently though, which I'm trying to nail down.

Thank you! I learnt this tip from my architect when discussing window options - I've budgeted 70,000 for them but if I went through a UK company to place the order then I'd be paying double that easily.

I've had that issue as well. Solution is to get your Lithuanian 'friend' to make the order for collection from the factory and then organise the shipping yourself.

Basement is actually 250m2, middle floor is 175m2 and top floor is 75m2. The area being clad with the larch isn't actually huge, the majority is render and as the bulk of the house is underground, so it's more like cladding a 300m2 house than a 500m2 one. I've budgeted £80m2 for the supply of the burnt larch though. There's some economies of scale with the third floor, the cost to add that extra space is pretty minimal which helps bring the overall average down.

It's on a sloping hill, only about a third of the basement is really a basement, the other parts open up out into the garden. It's also an upside down living arrangement with the bedrooms on the bottom floor. I don't need 500m2, but property values in the area are £6000+ sqm so it made sense to go big from an ROI point of view.

I'm about to start building on my contemporary 500m2 house. Planning ended up taking 2 years longer than expected to get, so while the original plan was to give the whole project to a single builder, the increase in construction costs during the past 2 years have put this option out of my budget. I'm now going to be project managing the build and sub-contracting out the work. I've put together my list of expected costs and the total comes out at £794,750 (£1590 per sqm). The house will be three storeys, with a semi-submerged basement and a two storey timber frame sat on top. 4 bedrooms, all with en-suites. Cladding will be burnt larch and polished plaster. The confirmed costs so far are for the basement (includes prelims, site clearance, excavation, muck away, waterproofing and drainage), timber frame (supply and erection) and professional fees (engineer + architect). Everything else is ball park at the moment. Utility connections will be simple to this site. Do any of the below costs stand out as too high/low? I'm also looking for any suggestions on where I could save money as at my estimated build cost, a lot of stuff is going to end up being put on credit cards. Some places I thought I could save is on the flooring and kitchen - I'll be using engineered oak flooring but happy to buy used, same with the kitchen. I'll have about 6 months to source some good deals on these items, which could substantially lower their cost. Basement - 285,000 Connections - 9,000 Timber Frame - 120,000 Windows - 70,000 External Cladding - 40,000 Professional Fees - 25,750 Warranty - 5,000 Roof - 20,000 Rainwater Goods - 8,000 FF Joinery - 9,000 FF Plumbing - 15,000 FF Electrics - 10,000 Screed - 12,500 MVHR - 9,500 UFH - 10,000 ASHP - 10,000 Floors/Ceiling - 35,000 Stairs - 8,000 SF Joiner - 9,000 SF Plumbing - 15,000 SF Electrics - 10,000 Kitchen - 25,000 Decoration (inc tiling) - 14,000 Landscaping/fencing - 20,000

Thanks for these figures, looks like I was quoted a pretty extortionate rate. Looking at the work which goes into laying the pipe, it seems like something I could potentially do myself if I can't get a sharp quote. It's a three storey house, the bottom floor being a semi submerged basement. I'm currently staying in a well insulated (but nothing special) apartment and I haven't had the heating on once in the past month and it still stays around 20c, so I'm thinking that in a well insulated property you only need occasional boosts to keep it heated. That's the thing, I've seen quite a few places using them in other countries but they're a rarity here. So it does seem viable in other places. The company I'm looking at produce IR panels that are mirrored for use in a bathroom as well as towel racks. May get one of them even if I opt for the full UFH system.

I've got a 500m2 new build that is about to start and I'm looking at heating options. I was originally planning on an ASHP with UFH throughout but I had an interesting alternative pitched to me recently. A friends family owns a german manufacturer of infrared heaters and are willing to provide their units at cost to me. Never heard much about them but they seem to be quite popular in other European countries. The ASHP will be £10k and the UFH would be £55 sqm - total £37,500 to heat the house. Infrared would be £15k, although I'd still probably add electric UFH in the bathrooms so call it £20k all in. So there's a pretty decent saving with the infrared and the budget is already tight. The question is whether I'd then be putting potential future buyers off or affecting the property value with the infrared heating system. Does anyone know of any new builds that used infrared?

Why do you wish this? I have a semi submerged basement (sloping site) that is already ~200m2 and almost matches the floor plan above. My architect is encouraging me to expand the basement floor to be a box shape which would line up with where I'd need to build the foundations for the floor above anyway but would take the basement size to ~260m2 which seems a bit excessive as budget is already going to be tight.

A case officer ended up crying at a recent committee meeting after they overturned their approval and the head of the LPA has now quit as well. So it does seem that all is not sunshine and smiles in the planning department. I only had to deal with these councillors for one application and it was an absolute nightmare, I can't imagine having to deal with them on a daily basis as part of my full time job. I'd be out the door too.

I did apply for costs and was unfortunately denied - the reasoning being that design is an inherently subjective matter, so not liking a style and refusing it for that reason would not be considered so unreasonable as to justify an award of costs. Most of the money was spent prior to the appeal anyway and you can only get back your costs that were specifically for the appeal (~£4k from what I remember) so not the end of the world. The first CO repeatedly asked if we wanted to withdraw the application, seemingly hoping they wouldn't actual have to write a refusal that we could then appeal. When I found out about the councillors putting pressure on the LPA to refuse the app, I treated it like an all out battle and threw everything at it - every comment/criticism/concern they had, I responded with reports/surveys/drawings until everything was so comprehensively covered that it was irrefutable that the house complied with all planning rules. I'm fully aware that a lot of people would have caved at the start when the CO was saying to withdraw it or they'll refuse it - it's unfortunate that people can be bullied this way. That's why I wrote this up, for anyone else who's sure their app complies with the planning rules but is getting push back at their LPA, to not give up.