Thedreamer

Thanks for that @Crofter

Sorry should have been cleared it will be sitting on the top of the stud but between the joist on the edge of the balcony. The beam itself we be covered in wood and then I believe It will be covered up in plasterboard.

We have a semi full height ceiling in our living room, so the steel beam will be resting on a triple stud. Hopefully when it's done it should look like this. I would imagine we probably don't have a supplier on Skye so it's probably Inverness or maybe Fort Willam where it would come from.

That's good to know. Is the steel that self builder's typically use made in Britain or imported from the likes of China?

Thanks very much, that's very useful. Are there any nationwide suppliers of the steel or are the suppliers usually smaller independent firms? Do you usually fit the beam with the likes of a telehandler before you install the trusses? @ProDave and @Crofter did you use steel beams in your self builds, have you come across suppliers in the Highlands?

Hi, We have to procure a 5 meter 152 x 152 x 23 UC steel beam. Where do you typically purchase these from, your building merchants or from a firm specialising in steel beams? Thanks

Thanks Pro Dave.

Zurich.

Old post, but where did your single beam of Kerto come from?

I got my insurance from that site. £700 for 24 months, insured value £240,000.

Here is what we are building. The site itself is surrounded by family agricultural land so it's more than just a plot to us. When we realised that building would be our best option to get on the property ladder it was just a case of picking the best spot for the house.

I'll need to keep a look out for this next time I go to Edinbane play park with the kids. Would you see it from the road?

Thanks for the comments. This forum (and e-build) really has been useful to keep me focused on what you can achieve when self building, particularly over the last few years.

Yes the plan was to get rid of the paper aspects of the build and get uililties on site so when we were ready we would be ready. Here a couple after the access was created through the trees and the hard standing was put on the site in 2015.

Yes, this is an obsession. The ten years might seem a bit misleading. I was 22 when we put in out line planning and was earning a pittance after finishing university, the credit crunch hit and nobody was lending especially to first buyer, let alone first time buyer and self builders, but now I have saved enough money and earn a salary which allows me to get a self build mortgage. Yes I think when it properly starts I will keep a blog. Here is a picture of the site roughly where the digger is.

After nearly a decade since our outline planning went in almost ready to start! Building warrant signed off in February Valuation of site and proposed house done on Thursday Self build insurance purchased Self build mortgage required site insurance and valuation before being finalised and that's now done, so should have this sorted next week. I can't really think of any other preliminary work to do? Need to look for scaffolding, a shed/container and producing a list of materials.

Thanks for this. Just purchased my self build insurance (gone with 24 months as well!) and Zurich is the cheapest by about £150 and a better policy then others as well.

Looks great

Yes, but assuming no other gifts in the current and prior year, the £5,000 would still be exempt as you can receive a gift of up to £6,000 over the two years which would be exempt from inheritance tax.

Also an annual exemption of £5,000 exists for gifts to children. This is outwith the seven year inheritance tax rule mentioned.

Like other users don't want to be negative, but.... your build costs seem very low. Also your need to remember that your loan will be taken into consideration for your borrowing limit. The amount from your mother will need to be in your bank when requesting the mortgage with possibly as an agreement. You will need to remember that the 85% value limit not just at the end but during the build process. Buildstore will hit you with some pretty heavy fees I don't know who ticks the box for 4.5 times borrowing on salary costs, but be prepared for this to be drastically different. I.e. no overtime, remove child benefit, stressed mortgage rates and higher expenses then you actually show on your bank statement. Most of the lending multiples offered by big banks tend to differ hugely from from the building societies that offer self build products. I would suggest that you really check the feasibility of this before you commit any spending towards the build.

I considered buildstore but the levels of arrangement fees, indemnity insurance, valuation fees, brokers fees and other fees were eye watering. I think quite a few members on the forum share the same opinion. In addition if you have a self build product you will need to consider how you will move from the self build mortgage to a standard residential mortgage. If your switch provider, your need to consider items such as warranties etc, it all gets very expensive for piece of paper, especially if you have no intention to sell and have a simple design. I would suggest contacting lenders directly and checking to see if what they can offer. Obviously I don't know your personal circumstances, but affordability assessment can be ridiculously different to what you expect it will be. Also your query regarding professional fees, my lender has told me exclude these from the build cost calculations. I have to finance these through other means. I should say that my mortgage application was approved at branch level last week and is currently with the underwriter, so finger, toes and everythink crossed, I've nearly been through this process very recently.

We have a similar shock with our connection. Had a pole on our land but was too far from the transformer to support another property. Had to go 220 meters back across a road, through some trees and a minefield of solid bedrock. Managed to get our quote down from around £8k by going through all the possibilities with quoter, using our own contractor for the trench work and we also managed to get a grant. Came down to £5.4k. Might be worth asking somebody from the Electricity supplier to come out and meet you and see if they can see a more obvious solution?

Hi @soapstar, we used a design consultant and structural engineer to prepare the building warrant. We had to wait until the building warrant was ready to be submitted to the local authority before we could review the costings with our quantity surveyor in order to get the mortgage process started. I'll be getting a joiner to put together the timberframe kit with engineered trusses coming from a factory. Your need to have an understanding of your required heating system for the SAP aspect of the building warrant. Incidentally we got building warrant approval today! And our mortgage application and a mountain of documents have gone away now to the mortgage underwriter. Whereabouts are you building in Scotland?

No difference in VAT law between Scotland and England. LLBT tax is the recently devolved tax to Scottish parliament equivalent of Stamp Duty. Option to tax usually occurs in commercial property where an incentive existed in the past to claim input VAT. I.e you construct an office block and seek to reclaim VAT on the construction costs, option to tax is applied and agreed with HMRC. When the property is sold or rented you charge VAT on top of the sale or rental proceeds. If you are the tenant and are VAT registered it can be reclaimed on their returns, if not you just suffer the rental price with VAT on top. My question would be, what would have been the incentive for the landowner to opted to tax a parcel of land?. Might be worth confirming with the seller this and mentioning that land is generally VAT exempt (unless the option to tax has been applied) even if the seller is VAT registered. If the land and property is commercial and has been opted to tax in the past you might have a problem, as I can't remember seeing this on the HMRC VAT manuals. You might need to get a professional opinion from an accountant or solicitor. I would be quite interested if an amount of VAT would be payable whether this would then be reclaimed on the DIY Self Builders VAT scheme upon completion it probably one that you would need to check with the HMRC. But my gut feeling would be no. Hope that helps.