BadgerBadger

I've confused myself with what is probably very obvious once you've been through it! We're intending doing a full plans building regulation application and our architect is currently working on the drawings. I've been looking at our options for using the local authority or a private company. Is the process the same for each? i.e. would we submit our plans to the private company for prior approval, and they then follow up with inspections. Or do the plans still need to go to the local authority, with the option of using a private company for inspections? Before the house build gets underway properly we need to do some things like creating an access from the highway, setting up site, getting temporary services etc. Can we do this whilst our building regulations plans are being finalised and approved to save some time? (obviously only once planning conditions are discharged, and CIL exemption/commencement notified) Thank you!

Thanks for the post! If you don't mind, can I ask roughly how much you had to pay the contractor for the entrance construction please? We have a very similar requirement for our new access from the highway!

Thanks all! That's really useful, and all much more in line with expected! Looking at my online estimate it basically works out a rate per m3, which might give a better estimate for small volumes, but clearly falls over at larger volumes!

We have a gently sloping site and are ridge height constrained, so we are having to reduce the ground level to give our build an L-shape with a slightly sunken patio to the rear. We need to remove approx. 375m3 of in-ground soil. It's ~25m x 20m area and average depth is around 0.75m. It's a bit deeper at the back but can slope back up to natural ground level, so hopefully nothing too tricky. I'm working the finances at the moment and am using Estimators Online to try get a good baseline. For the excavation and removal of this soil, they've estimated ~£10k for the 50 muckaway lorries, and then about £25k for the labour and plant hire for excavation and lorry loading. Muckaway is as expected, and not much we can do to reduce that, but the labour/plant seems very steep? Is it practical to consider the bulk excavation as a DIY job, or is the volume going to be just too much and take too long to do on a fairly standard hired excavator/dumper?

Hi all, Our build is heading through planning at the moment so, whilst I have the chance, I'm getting ahead on options for construction phase. We're aiming for good insulation and air tightness, but are drawn to some of the benefits of masonry construction. Our roof is relatively large, the overall building footprint is around 200m2, as the plans include an attached garage and a vaulted single-storey kitchen/dining/living section. Due to ridge height constraints the upstairs bedrooms in the two-storey section could also potentially benefit from being vaulted. So, does anyone have an experience of combining a SIPs roof on masonry walls? Is it a logical thing to do?! We're splitting the build in work packages that will be contracted out, whilst hoping to manage the interfaces and do some strategic things ourselves to save some money as opposed to using a single main contractor. Our thinking was a manufactured SIPs roof would be quick to install whilst giving us good performance, and we could then push on with the roof covering at a more leisurely pace as the internals would be largely weathertight? (there's a lot of plain clay tiles to fix!)

Hello! We're just going through planning at the moment and I'm trying to get all my ducks in row in preparation for starting on site. We're looking to break the build into phases (groundworks, structure, roofing etc.) and contracting each one. I had a couple of questions! At what stage in the build would contractors generally be expecting an electricity supply to be available? I know for a temporary supply we'll need a kiosk (or similar) with meter for the provider to connect to, we have electricity on poles right next to site so hopefully this will be relatively straightforward. But what would contractors expect to connect to? Would it just be a consumer unit with a few 230V 16A sockets at the kiosk, or something else with 110V transformers, site distribution etc.? Thank you!