Indy

Agreed. The hard part is how do you find out before you engage which one is honest and decent against which one is an shyster. Unless you plan for worst case scenario and cover the eventuality that all of them are shysters - thus leading me back to his statement (and adding increased cost).

So mixed responses here. I agree (in my head at least) that it seems to be duplicating a bit of cost. However, I do also fully recognise my limitations - in a sense, even if I'm directly staring at some work that a builder/brickie/electrician/plumber would have done, I'd have no way to tell if it was good or not based on a visual inspection. I'd be relying solely on the word of the main contractor. I've done a lot of sifting through and found what I think are people that are trustworthy and people I can get on with - however, I'm not sure how much I can take anyone on their word. As my architect reminded me, everyone in this business is a shark and if they can find a way to charge you £500 for £50 worth of work, they will!

Been working with 2-3 builders to get prices for our build based off the Construction drawings/BR submissions. Did not go down the QS route and getting a BoQ (unpriced) for a formal tender process - as it's a one off new build and probably too small a job to be tendered like that. In discussion with all of them, they've hinted/implied that the price we're working to is based on not having a QS engaged as it means more effort for them / and more money for me - i.e. if they have to demonstrate and argue the toss at each stage payment so they would have to build in some fat into the contract if we choose to go down that route. We're engaging the builder/contractor for a full turnkey finish, so they will have their own site manager/project manager assigned to the project (which I'm already paying for). Do I need to also engage a separate PM that visits the site once every fortnight and work with the builder to manage the stage payments? Not sure how much this would be but it seems like an added cost and is that something I'd be able to take on myself? How have others managed it on their builds?

£2k sounds virtually impossible unless I source odds and sods off eBay myself - which implies I would know what's needed. Even the most basic unit from BPC without cooling was £4200 (Vent Axia) which then climbs up to £5800 for Zenhnder. That's the parts only without install.

Current plans are for a masonry build and SAP calcs include MVHR + cooling option. Not passive house but BR specs and airtightness target of 3 (I think). After speaking to a local builder, we’re leaning towards a timber frame build (MBC maybe) for speed mainly. Wanted to understand what the implications would be if I decided not to go for an MVHR system – mainly for cost. It seems to be adding about £10k+ to the build cost and to be fair – I’d rather use it for an air con system. Not seeing the payback apart from the comfort option and my personal feeling is that the comfort I get from having heating/cooling/dehumidification from an air con system is going to work better for me. What would it mean for the windows – do I have to add trickle vents or is there another way to overcome this requirement in a generally airtight build? I assume not going for MVHR would trigger a new as built SAP calc to be done at the end of the build, but as long as we achieve the same or higher in terms of overall efficiency – that should be ok?

From what I've been told - a freestanding appliance is not eligible for zero VAT. So an American style freestanding fridge/freezer would not qualify but integrated appliances would as they are 'built into the fabric' rather than just unplug and take it away types.

Yeah - nothing in materials and I don't have the exact breakdown, but adds about £500/slab in labour to achieve that finish. I wasn't aware that it existed until we saw it in a showroom in a very run down area.

Very much the way we went with it as well, including the mitred joint and also shark nosed edge for the worktops (which adds a fair bit of labour). We did have a tambour unit (I didn't know what it was called - I just used to call it the 'shutter/roller' cabinet) but it went away in the final design when we added the larder which will have a slide out shelf to be used for things like the coffee machine, kettle, toaster etc.

Yes, Self build so the VAT is claimable - apart from any freestanding appliances which seem to be excluded. So it looks like we'll have to pay it on the washing machine/dryer. Unless we go for integrated ones but then the cost of the surrounding cabinetry probably makes it about even anyway! Price wise - yeah, been to a few places and apart from a place that wanted to quote us £50-70k for a Hacker kitchen (same layout) - I haven't found anything cheaper. Not tried Howdens/Magnet etc as we like the German kitchen look. The reason I'm hesitating is that I think it's a little too much to pay for MDF cabinets - albeit very nice ones with top quality hinges and lights etc. We've also got a fair number of drawers, a double door larder and storage on both sides of the island, all of which didn't help the price.

The price I've quoted above is for cabinetry alone for the kitchen and utility. Appliances are around £6500 ex VAT (need to finetune these as they've put in some really expensive ones as a default) Worktops (Quartz) - for the island, waterfall edge, splashback etc - £8700 inc VAT Kitchen/Utility fitting is around £5.2k - which is not too dissimilar from what our builder ones so we may go with the recommended fitters. To provide an idea of the space - here's a few images of the kitchen/utility space

For those that went with local companies that made bespoke kitchens, can I check how pricey it was compared to one of the high street brands or the German options? I haven't really looked at this option even though it does sound very tempting but have it in my head that a bespoke kitchen would work a lot more expensive than an off the shelf one...

Yes please, that'd be great. Happy to receive details via message. Re Schmidt - not yet, but it's on the list before we finalise. There's one not too far in Wimbledon too but we just haven't made it to them yet.

Looks like they sell the Nobilia range. Have you used them personally and any feedback to share?

I’m in the KT10 postcode area - Surrey/Elmbridge.

We like the design as it's tailored to what we want. Several hours and visits spent with multiple companies and online planners to come up with that. Re the MDF - it's a fair shout and I do have some reservations. But we can't seem to find a handleless kitchen in the finish we want with solid wood doors. The alternative is a shaker style kitchen - which we don't want (or particularly like the look of). The sales patter from the kitchen showrooms is that laminate doors are better because they're not subject to expansion/contraction etc. What would you suggest as an alternative?

Looking at 3 German kitchen brands for our new place and finding it hard to decide between them. 1. Nobilia - £19.5k - seems like the entry level option 2. Bauformat - £20.5k - a slight step up in quality (acc to the sales person) from Nobilia for about 5% ish more. 3. Leicht - £32k - the most expensive and I'm not sure how much difference there is between Bauformat and Leicht. Would love to hear people's personal experiences with any of these brands? Designs are all fairly similar.

I looked into this and seems an impressive product and would get rid of a lot of the hassle with regards to getting builders to do the right thing. I've had a quote from them - looks like they do it solely based on floorspace and it's coming in at just a shade over £3k ex VAT! Seems like a pretty high number and I'm sure there are cheaper ways to achieve the airtightness?

Can I ask for an opinion on the option to go for a Lewis deck on the 1st floor ? This would be covered with a thin layer of screed which gives the floor a little more solidity, acoustic insulation (which I want to prevent noise transferring across floors) and a little better fire prevention capabilities. This was something the architect and I had discussed a long time ago and agreed but due to the whole process dragging on far longer than anticipated - was mostly missed in the pack I have so far. The SE design will need to be redone, the 1st floor height has been done at 2422 to account for normal floors and 22mm UFH system, whereas Lewis deck would mean I need to give up an extra 27mm of headheight as the system with UFH will come in at 52mm vs the 25mm of the existing option. Has anyone does this and does it really work? This is the one we're considering LEWIS-Metal-decking-brochure-2022-EN-web.pdf

Thank you @Iceverge - that's a really terrific input and lots of food for thought. I will admit I don't know what the difference is between yours and the one I posted originally apart from the areas where there's greater insulation and wall depth, and therefore assuming U-Values must be better. I take your point about buildability and cost as well. The tough part will be how do I get this all incorporated in my BR drawings as it could mean redoing a lot of the work that has already been done and I'm really at a point where I want to finalise the pack and start tendering the work out!

No, there is a room behind it which is my study and this gives extra headroom and there's a skylight in that room on that flat dormer. Because I hate creaking stairs in our current house and the original thought was to build an ICF house with concrete stairs, walls and floors. Moved away from this due to cost reasons but decided to keep the concrete stairs requirement. This would go well with the Lewis deck and screed floors that I'm planning for the 1st floor. Have the option of either though - and my initial quote of a pre-cast staircase wasn't as horrible as I was expecting. £4k including delivery but it would need cladding and installation etc. Getting quotes for timber stairs ranges from £3-4k for pine to about £10-12k for hardwood oak stairs - so the differential isn't as large as I was expecting, though this is all desktop research for now. We'll finalise which route to go when we get firmer prices back on either option and the SE designs/calcs we have cater for both.

Same for us - it's really there for wow factor more than actual utility. It will come on for about a week between Christmas and New year (based on the usage of our current gas fire) when we have friends and family over for entertaining and showing off. Not really meant to be the primary or even secondary heating system.

I am keen on having an airtight house though we're working towards a target of 3.5 at the design stage. It's something I will discuss with the main contractor and stress on as the build goes on. However, we do like to open the windows from time to time and the sliding doors are pretty non negotiable I have to say. Wood burner is something I like (as do both the boys) so I guess it will stay but I've been told you can get chimney stacks that aid airtightness when not being used?

What alternatives should I look at? Somewhat by design - given that BR is already a huge step up. I'm not too keen on losing internal space and we're limited on how far out we can go as we need to leave a 1m gap on either side of the property from the fence line. I have to admit I will need to spend time understanding all of this - though I assume VCL is a Vapour Control Layer?

I have heard the same re cost of wet plaster vs dot and dab being the same from a contractor I spoke to - just a little more work for the plasterer. However, my architect is convinced this was more expensive and would increase the drying time by several months - which would mean we couldn't paint the property or to expect cracking for at least 6m afterwards. So we changed tack to parge coat and dot and dab as a compromise.

Yes, wet UFH currently planned on both floors.