soapstar

Thanks. It would seem things are very different in England - For a value of around 280k the fee is approx 2k plus! So just to confirm...these m2 figures that the local councils set, do they include just materials or is an average labour cost included with this too?

Hello Folks, Another newbie question heading your way....This is out of my control as my architect is handling everything however I just wanted to know exactly how the estimated cost figure is worked out for a building warrant? Is this purely done by the area of the house (internal/external?) and multiplied by an off the shelf figure for a 1.5 storey house? I have been looking at other building warrants in the area and I really dont understand how they have come to working out these figures. One 1.5 storey house is estimated at 90k? This seems way below what it actually cost to build?! Does this cost include builders labour etc or is this purely materials? Note I am based in Scotland. Thanks in advance to all the helpful folk on here!

Thanks @ultramods for the tip. We are also in the process of changing ownership into my name from another family member - I presume none will be interested until we officially own the land.

Thank you both @JSHarris & @ultramods Buildstore seems more and more an unlikely candidate now. Still no harm in trying them when it comes to it I guess but I will certainly pursue other alternatives after reading this! Scottish Building Society looks interesting, they have been added to my list of potentials! I was also going to be having a chat with ASPC, I didnt realise they were clued up on self build mortgages until visiting the Scottish home show at the AECC. Cant remember her name off the top of my head but extremely helpful! Before we can proceed any further we need our valuation to be complete on our land, hopefully this wont take too long

Thanks @JSHarris Unfortunately we wont be in a position to fund everything ourselves therefore using the land as a deposit on our mortgage will be a great help to us. We do have a mortgage on our current property right now (not a massive amount). Are BuildStore mortgage advisors worth avoiding given they are specialist brokers for self builds? They were top of our list to start off with. If we can avoid huge fees that would be the ideal scenario for me!

Hi Folks, What I would like to know more about is the options available to fund a self build where you already own the land? many self build mortgages assume you are buying a plot plus building. I have heard that you can use' the value of the plot towards your mortgage to fund the build however I do not know the details of this. For example what percentage of the land value can go towards as a deposit so to speak for the self build mortgage? If the land was worth 100k for example. Im sure there has been many of you that has been in the same situation as myself, any advice or experiences would be hugely helpful for us! Thanks!

Thanks @Ian It seems crazy that the BW process is vastly different and more logical across the border... I believe we will take your advice and restart the process of talking to TF suppliers. Hi @Thedreamer We are building in Aberdeenshire. Congrats on the building warrant. We are thinking of pursuing our TF from ScotFrame...has anyone had any experience of this company? Seem to get good reviews. Although pricey perhaps?

Hi ProDave, Many thanks for your reply. Our house design incorporates a fully glazed 'feature window' on a 1.5 storey therefore its slightly less 'standard' than an average house. Your point regarding the SAP is handy to know - I find it very difficult to fully commit to something at this stage, knowing that there can be a little bit of wiggle room later on is comforting to know. It was more a question of should we be in full discussions with the different aspects on the build (TF suppliers, heat system suppliers) at this stage? Or wait for the building warrant to be done before approaching these suppliers...I always assumed the latter

Hi folks, Been a while since I last posted on here...things are progressing VERY slowly We are at the stage of getting our Building Warrant ready for submission to the local authorities for approval (more like rejection and weeks of pain if its anything like the planning process!). However we are seriously getting confused with the process that needs to be followed in order to get everything in place for submitting our building warrant. We have our architect who has now finalised our drawings to which we are now happy with, this was the easy bit. Now from this stage I am of the understanding (please correct me if im wrong) that the following needs to be done: Plans are given to structural engineer (chosen by us the clients) to whom does all the detailed calculations in relation to the building structure. SAP calculations are done by another company (or SE?) from structural engineers final drawings. Submission to Building Control Now these stages are all done by other people, this might sound strange but what I would like to know is what should WE be doing as the clients. Given this is a completely new venture for us and have had no experience in building before and having a great attention to detail like myself I hate not knowing exactly what I should be doing! At this stage should we be set on a timber frame supplier by this point? (quoted etc - even though we do not have building warrant drawings approved?) I was under the impression that you go to timber frame suppliers / builders when you are armed with nice approved building warrant drawings, not before. Dont get me wrong we have already discussed very vaguely with a timber frame supplier but this was before planning was approved. Should we be set on exactly which heating system we require? And is this required for heat loss / SE calculations in the building warrant phase? Mortage - Again we have no Building Warrant which details projected costings therefore we cannot proceed very far on the mortgage front? I hate pestering our architect - the reason why im asking you helpful folks on here! I guess we just need some advice from people who may have been in our position before and know what it feels like!

Yes. This is exactly what I think. They have simply got the dimensions wrong and to compensate they have packed up the bottom to make it fit. I have had a look on their website but no detailed drawings unfortunately.

Appreciate the responses everyone thanks. Sorry I should of mentioned this is based in Scotland. From briefly researching FENSA this only covers England and Wales, Scotland is covered differently (like many things!!) - by whom I am not sure. I can confirm there was no word from building control regarding the replacement of the doors, they were simply quoted a price for patio doors to replace the original sliding doors, no mention was made of the higher threshold and the issues this would cause. From what i have gathered recently their excuse is there is no patio door available to replace the profile of the original door...so it would seem you just throw in any old door to do the job and take pensioners money, job done. Really infuriates me. Not prepared to name and shame this company as we are willing to give them a chance to rectify this issue. I may get in touch with local building standards and have a word! Thanks everyone

Hi Folks, Need a little bit of advice regarding regulations with external stepped access to a dwelling. A family member (elderly) has just recently got new patio doors fitted to replace their old ones. Upon viewing these we were disappointed to find the rise of the lower runner has increased by several inches compared to the previous patio door making it a very dangerous entry/exit for an elderly person (or any person!) The last step inside the property is now a little over 9 inches, with the other 2 steps approx 6 inches in height. From the attached photographs you can see the lip on the bottom of the door is quite substantial (note these photos both have the door open - not closed!) I am disappointed the company left the steps at this height and offered no resolution to compensate for the change in step height. Can anyone shed any light if this has broken any regulations or was the company complying with building regs? Thanks you very much for any advice!

Thanks. Never knew aluminium clad was an option! Cost wise are these much more expensive than wooden frames? Dont suppose you have any pictures of your frames, would be interesting to see the colour/texture you went with. It seems the consensus from looking around that wooden frames are a pain in the a**, however I do like the natural look of wood (as does everybody else who buys them and realises the mistake they have made by the sounds of it!)

Hey folks, So we are still in the building warrant drawing stage so we have lots of spec we need to decide on for our house, one being wooden or PVC windows. Can anyone offer any advice on choosing between these two materials? From research I have gathered the obvious in that PCV is cheaper from the outset and needs less maintenance, however wooden frames can last longer (repairable) but require regular upkeep. I have also been informed that by using PVC windows in a conservation area (which our house will be in) seriously reduces the value of the house. From what i am aware there is no 'rule' in our area against using PVC windows. I have attached a picture to show the look and feel of what we are trying to achieve - we will have dormer windows in our 1.5 story. And we also will have a large front facing window as in the picture - would this effect our choice? I would also like to point out we are quite close to the coast - perhaps something to consider? Aluminium is also something I was looking at being hard wearing, has anyone had any experience with this? Any advice, pictures or past experiences would be great!

Thanks this did cross my mind. I assume we will lay this pipe at the same depth as the previous pipes once we find them - im assuming at least a metre. The more I read into this the more i need to wait on Scottish Water getting back to me, although it will be a pity to miss the opportunity to get the pipe in before the Farmer puts in his next crop Electric wont be coming down this route fortunately!

Thanks. This gives some insight into design considerations. This was my exact thoughts to begin with however I was convinced otherwise that using the largest pipe available would future proof any further developments around the plot. 25mm pipe would be a nice little saving though! Like i say i haven't had any involvement with Scottish Water yet, hopefully they can recommend the correct sizing.

Thats interesting. Where did you do this online? I was told to fill in and post back a WC1 form. In terms of the pipe sizing I am going with the largest size possible without incurring extra charges. From what i can gather by reading other peoples recommendations 32mm pipe is the best option. Perhaps someone can shed some light on this? Before I order some!

Hi, Quick question for those of you who may have been involved with installing water supply pipe (even better if through Scottish Water). Basically we have a water mains connection point located in an adjacent farmers field, to reach our plot the supply would have to travel approx 100m down field and crossing a road (small country road) into our plot. I have spoken with the farmer and he is good with us putting in the pipe when his crop (oil seed rape) is harvested. My issue is that i haven't been quite quick enough to get the ball rolling with Scottish Water - the usual rubbish has to be done filling in forms etc before we will get anywhere. My question is would I be good to go ahead myself to avoid missing the chance - without confirmation from Scottish Water - to put a length of 32mm pipe down this field ending beside the mains water connection? If so is there certain guidelines that would have to be adhered to? Note this would certainly be the mains connection to which we will connect to. Neighbouring properties to our plot already have pipes from this connection - I know its stupid we didn't put a pipe in at the time they were built! hindsight is a wonderful thing! Thanks!

Hey folks, Just a quick question regarding land ownership (not sure if i have posted this is the right section!). The permission granted for our house is on land owned by my parents. Has anyone had any experience, particularly in Scotland as I know they have a different land registry system, with changing over the ownership of land where there is no sale involved? Would this still involve a solicitor? Thanks for any advice!

Thanks again guys. The fused isolator route is looking like an option, I will keep this in mind. Thanks for the pictures it helps! Im going to be discussing this with SSE sometime this week. Thats unfortunate you had to upgrade the transformer - wouldn't like to ask how much that set you back Thanks, yes the planning was a compete nightmare. Our situation was slightly unique, I was told it would be near impossible by the planners, consultant, architect....took it all in my own hands and proved them wrong! May know nothing about building a house but i know a lot about the planning 'game' now

Wow I can tell already this forum is going to be very helpful! Thanks so much for all the help and photos. I think I may take the advice and get in touch with water and open reach very shortly! SSE have been extremely good to deal with, the only problem is me not knowing what im talking about Can anyone tell me the max distance from the meter to CU/fusebox definitely being 3m? I've come across varying answers. I ask because the position of the supply into our house will need to be determined before knowing the distance of the mains cable which is being connected to the transformer. From what I believe the supply cable which is joined onto the mains cable can be no more than 30m, therefore the length of the mains cable will need to be long enough to allow the supply cable to reach the desired position on the house. We will be looking at an external cabinet on the house I would imagine. In an ideal world the CU would be best suited in the garage in my opinion? Thanks!

Thanks guys your replies are very helpful...and quick! We are building in Aberdeenshire. Took over 2 years to get the permission but we won in the end! That's interesting IanR in that you got your main supply terminated until you were ready to connect up to a cabinet, this sounds exactly what I would be after. I will propose this to SSE and see what they say. Although I assume they will charge extra for coming back and connecting to the cabinet. This self building is a whole new world to me but I look forward to learning! Be prepared for more amateur questions from me on this forum

Hey folks, This is my first post! Just started my first self build adventure with permission being granted only last week! I thought it was wise to get my utilities sorted for the site first, in particular the electric supply. I have been in touch with my local supplier (SSE) here in Scotland and they have quoted me to take a supply from an existing transformer (which is luckily close by). The main reason I want to secure my connection so early is I was told that if any other house was to be connected to this transformer it would need upgrading - which I obviously want to avoid! Given we are in the extremely early stages of building I want to ask a question on how we terminate the supply without a house being present on site. I have spoken with the supplier briefly and they say we can take the supply (the full length which has been quoted to connect to the house) right down the boundary of the field 60m, then when it comes to connecting the supply to the house they will move this supply over to the house to which there should be enough length given this quote assumes the house is in place. Now my question is at this early stage we will not be needing electric for at least until next year I would imagine, therefore do we need to terminate this supply into an external cabinet right now or is there anyway for the supply to be terminated and left without being put into a cabinet? It doesn't seem logical to fit a meter at this stage given we wont be needing the supply for good length of time. If anyone has been in a similar situation any advice on what they did would be helpful. I understand the electric company will take us through the process nearer the time however I like to understand exactly what I need to do! Thanks in advance