Buzz

Congratulations, at least you have something worth more today than it was yesterday. Now onto the next steps.

If you have had the rest done and have a recommendation why do you feel you need an SE to design the foundations? BC will be on site when you dig the first trench and advise is they are happy or not once they see what's below.

Hi @Drellingore Like you I find it difficult to understand why when you gave your architect a budget they didn't throw up any red flags to the escalating costs before now , they must have known where the final cost was likely to be very early on in the process but carried on regardless, always easy to spend someone else's money. So what does that tell us about them as a company? Either they are incompetent and have no idea when designing a home as to the cost of what they are drawing as they go along or they don't care about the costs as that's your problem, neither are a good look .

Welcome along At a guess I would say your not too far from our build, we are in fenland but very close to the west Norfolk border. Good decision to demolish and rebuild not only do you get the VAT back but your services should be relatively straightforward as well something we had issues causing big delays with. Good luck

The thought had crossed my mind

You must have the patience of a saint , three and a half years to try a resolve a boundary issue regarding a fence built on your land ! I can only echo the opinions above, if its your land then you are entitled to remove the fence (or anything else )whenever you want and you do not need to inform anyone what and when you intend to do it .

Thankfully no CIL in fenland , but definitely something not to forget if your in an area that does impose it.

You have 6 months for the date of issue of the Certificate to claim your VAT back . There are still a few items I want to buy before I claim, gravel extra paving and any thing else that I might want at a 20% discount.

Our certificate was emailed over today , feels like another milestone on the build, despite the fact this will be our second Xmas in the house officially we have(now) completed .

Have a large one and enjoy it . Fair play for posting this issue on the forum, it will serve as a reminder for those who follow as to the seriousness of CIL and how much of a financial benefit it is to us self builders ( if we reminder to fill out the forms 😀)

It can be done and has been done, many time before ,the real question is why has this not been used for mass house building? You would think that one of the big developers must have looked into this but decided that it's not financially viable?

Hi @Indy reading some of the replies above and based on my own experience i would agree with the fact that your architect has given you a build spec without any real consideration as to how difficult the wall and roof detail will be to build in the real world. The floor is a odd thickness, i was told a block is 225mm tall and the 1st row will sit on the B+B floor with a layer of DPM on top so you will need to lay DPM across the floor and up the walls 225mm, so you have 225mm to play with i opted for 175mm insulation and 50mm flow screed, your only adds up to 185 so not sure how that is going to work out on site for you . The walls with PIR are going to be a nightmare to install correctly personally I wouldn't even entertain the idea, I would even consider if you don't want to increase the size of the cavity going for full fill batts and accepting 0.017 u value done properly rather than 0.015 with PIR done half arsed. Totally agree with @Iceverge regarding the roof . IMHO putting PIR in between rafters should be the choice of last resort, fluffy stuff between the rafters and PIR above or below or combination of both . But most importantly whatever you choose to do make sure that it will be achievable on site in the real world, you would be far better of have a house built to basic building regs but done properly than having a higher spec but a difficult design and ends up being build poorly.

Hi @Firsttimer reading similar posts to this over the last few years on here is does appear that the price of electrics is very dependent on where you are in the country and how much your house will be worth when finished as to how much a self builder will be expected to pay . Ours for 365m2 was 7k supply and fit, I did put the invoice up on another post on here somewhere.

Definitely use the concrete at the front of the property, you will be amazed how quickly it will turn into a mud pit once you get started, you will need a lot of materials to be delivered and will need an area for lorry's to access the site without the risk of getting stuck . As you have plenty I would create a roadway for them back down with a large hard standing area to unload onto close ot the house .

Welcome to the insane world of utility connections, you may end up paying over 6k in road closure fees for water , electric and sewers .