Buzz

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 .

Have sent you a PM , I was given his number from the building fraternity hope he can help you.

I do have another number ,he only wanted a copy of the plans and the number we wanted to get to ,he was £250 , I don't think it mattered to him where you are as I get the impression that an actual visit was highly unlikely if you know what I mean .

A 1 Airtesting, don't think he will travel up to you for that though.

Mine was zero rated for VAT ,£180

Hi @Dan1983 we used these https://www.pavingsuperstore.co.uk/strata-paving-porcelain-grey-sandstone-paving-slabs .

Hi @Nytram a lot will depend on where you are building as this has a major impact costs , going into the ground will be your biggest unknown, if you were building in fenland i could give you numbers of groundworks companies who based on my 3 year old quotes would be less than 50k for the above. Although we didn't have any demolition to worry about we did have to build a 6m culvert to access the plot and remove 3 20m-30m tall trees before we could start on the 300m2 foundation which was also block and beam, total cost including both set of drainage and a lot of stone around the plot was 52k

Yes it is reasonable to expect a fall on your patio and your paths too, the only thing up for discussion would be where to have the fall if not obvious but as you have a french drain I'd have thought that was a big enough clue and shouldn't need pointing out .

Hi @LaCuranderaI built in East Anglia during the nuts period and found then as it is very much today a buyer beware market, i had various estimates from trades who clearly didn't want the work but would be happy to do it at an inflated price , not sure how you are doing your build, one main contractor or individual trades with some diy for the simple stuff but if going trade by trade no harm getting new estimates for each part of the build and if you wish you can always post them on here and will always receive feedback as to whether or not it represents fair value for the job.

Bumped into the builder who built our house the other day and got talking about, amongst other things, the cost of building now compared to two years ago he said he is now £30 m2 for block work on a full build but that will include all materials, labour and scaffolding .

Another fan of glulam beams here , this one was just over 12m and tele handler friendly , you can leave some of it on show rather than boxing around steels.

Didn't aim for passive standards but didn't want B regs either, so ended up with 150 mm full fill in the walls for a u-value of .17 ,175mm in the floor , but the roof was more complex due to fact that we have 300m2 on the ground floor and only 120m2 upstairs (room in roof) and 100m2 of vaulted ceilings but achieved .11 using a mixture of pir and rafter roll in various configurations . To get a lower value on the walls would have been quite simple buy using insulated plaserboard but we were happy with what we had . Are you looking to build to passive standards?

The size for the house seems to be open to interpretation as to how you measure a house ! The architect has it at 365m2 the builder has it at 420m2 , when I questioned this the architect said he did not include the integral garage and only counts the internal floor area left after all the walls are in , the builder counts the total floor area to get his m2 number ,I did mention to the builder that the architect does not include the garage in his m2 and his reply was ,well they ain't f@!*ing free. The only reason for not using TF was cost , they worked out so much more expensive than brick and block on our build, May not be the case for everyone or you.