LegoHead

Thanks all for the replies. I found the local (Scottish) building regulations and had a good read through the relevent parts. Then I had to refresh my primary-school trigonomatry and found out that, through pure luck, there is a spot under the turning area at the front of the property which fits all of the criteria in terms of distance from boundaries and buildings. It's possible that we might have to move the house 1 meter back in the plot depending on tolerances, but that is much better than what I had feared. It was good advice to take a look at recent local planning applications too. I had forgotten that the conversion around the corner, done a couple of years ago, had had a similar issue. While we already knew we were going to have to dig a long trench for our water supply, it hadn't occured to me that we could use the same trench for a pipe to the nearby watercourse (this being what the neighbours did with their conversion instead of using a soakaway). I have found so far Dan-wood to be good but very slow. It's taken a year of iterating plans to get to something that would work, and I feel like we have pushed the boundaries for them. That said, they have been helpful and patient, proactively honest about timescales, and (assuming it gets through planning) we have a design that we love for a tricky plot without spending thousands on an architect. And @Bozza you are making me think I have over-budgeted! I remember many years ago being told "a third of the cost for the plot, a third for the groundworks, and a third for the house". We already had the plot (but estimate it would have cost £100-150k with planning), the house is costing about £350k, so I have budgeted £200k for everything else, plus £100k contingency. Here's hoping it comes in at £50k!!!

Thanks Dave. Fortunately there is a farmer’s field just across the track (but of course I’d have to negotiate a solution with the farmer) and there is a watercourse nearby at the other side, but to get to it we would need to go uphill before coming back down, which of course wouldn’t really work. I’ll start a thread.

Hi everyone. I’m hoping to build in the Scottish Borders with Dan-Wood. We have a fifth of an acre which we already own, technically the garden of our property but fully separate to it and not usable as a garden. We’ve been speaking with Dan-Wood for a year, and have finally come up with a design that we love, and which echoes local features while not having a negative impact on neighbours. (We did pre-planning last year.). We have engaged a planning consultant who doesn’t see any major issues with the design, and has assessed things like building group expansion etc. BUT I am starting to get worried about all the things that aren’t covered. I really wanted a turnkey solution, and assumed it was as simple as picking the house builder and then picking a ground-works contractor, but I am now worried about all the things that fall through the gaps. e.g. drainage - we will need a septic tank / treatment plant, but I have just been reading all the restrictions about where they can and can’t be situated. Ours is a long thin plot (14m x 45m) with access only from one of the short ends, and the house fills a lot of that plot. Who specifies what we need and where it goes, and when? Another example, mains water connection. We know where it needs to connect, but it is approx 100-130m away and will involve digging a trench along a shared single track (hardcored) road. Fortunately we know there is permission in the deeds to dig the road so long as it is restored, but how do we get a cost for that? From the groundwork’s contractor? So many questions!