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Hi all We're at the very beginning of our self build project and wondered if anyone has a budget spreadsheet template they'd be willing to share with me (remove figures if preferred)? Ideally I'm looking to track quotes, spend, materials, specialists, trades etc and also use it for the VAT side of things. I've found a few older posts on here asking the same but the people I reached out to haven't replied, probably because they're now finished and no longer use this forum! I've also looked online but everything is very US based so not ideal. Thanks so much!

Hi, can anyone suggest an accurate way of getting a build cost for a closed panel timber frame kit house? I'm comparing some companies that offer supply and erect with supply only, but in order to have a clear comparison, I need to get an accurate idea of how much the build costs will be. I also don't want to commit to a design if it ends up costing loads to build! I've asked several companies to quote, and a couple have replied saying they'd need to see planning and building warrant drawings to give an estimate. But by that point we'll have committed to what we're building ? Any help appreciated!

I have an offer accepted on a plot, subject to planning permission. To complete the purchase of the land I need finance along with my deposit. The broker I have spoken to said I need planning permission and detailed costings before they will lend against it (standard I assume). Does this need to be by a qualified person? There seems to be a bit of a circle here, I have a budget which I need to stick to, so I need to get the planning through with a design I think will be on budget, then get it costed and hope it comes out on budget. I then have to hope the mortgage company will accept the expected build cost. There feels like there are so many hurdles (probably more that I don't know about) which could trip up the whole process. I really don't want to be in a situation where I've got planning permission, paid all the costs, then for something to mean I can't complete the transaction. The contract says I have to complete within 7 days of gaining planning permission. Surely there is an easy way to do this and I'm over thinking it? It's stressing me out a little, so any help will be much appreciated. Sadly I don't quite have enough to buy the land outright.

I feel very frustrated with it all today. Barn conversions are not easy, massive understatement! I might just put a caravan on the plot and save myself the hassle. Im trying to spend as little money up front as possible, I've had my offer accepted on the land with a barn with PP, the only bill I'm racking up at this moment in time is the solicitor. I understand no builder wants to be out of pocket but I'm wondering how can I progress from here. To get a quote I need a plan, to get a plan I need architect to draw up the plan to my specs, to get him to do this I need a structural engineer to check the derilict barns foundations, walls etc. are sound enough. The original plans were obtained for the guy who I'm buying the land off, I'm guessing just a basic design to get it passed. But I'd like some alterations, en suite in master bedroom plus an extension which is still within the footprint and a window in the lounge to enable me to see my land not just a courtyard. Ive been told by my architect to expect £1,000 which has now jumped to £1,500 per sq meter plus services (electricity, water bio mass treatment unit), and then buy the kitchen & bathroom fittings plus landscaping etc. My architect suggests I pay £200 to the builders merchants to give me an estimate for all this extra work. Anyone who would like to help me make sense of all this please feel free, so sorry to rant on when you maybe all think this is the easy stage. Julie

Here it is: as accurate as I can get it. No pretense of getting it done cheaper than anyone else. Just the raw numbers and a few words to explain context if necessary (why did I buy a chain-hoist for example). Yes, you'll probably get it cheaper. That's excellent. The point is openness and telling it like it is. March 2014 Home Building and Renovation Show NEC: £100, including fuel and tickets Phone calls about £15:00 extra, and about £70:00 fuel. July 2014 Land: already owned Planner: £1050, plus £70 initial consultation fee, (in cash). LPA Outline Planning Application fee £770 Phone calls: about £15:00 extra, and about £50:00 fuel. August 2014 Ecologist: £1390.15 (works out at about £1 per Great Crested Newt – a further £2000 budgeted for. But see below June 2016) November 2014 Topographical Survey: £540 January 2015 Trips to Timber frame companies and various local suppliers : £50 fuel Subscriptions to various magazines: £70(ish) February 2015 Architect: £4000 (design plus all other matters up to and including submission for Full PP application) QS: £630 – feasibility study Legal: £360; altering title LPA fees: £385 Structural Engineer: £1782; foundations calculations Land registry Fee: £40 Contamination Desk Study and Geophysics : £1260 (plus possible indeterminate decontamination costs) Phone calls: about £20:00 extra, and very little fuel. March 2015 Discharge of Conditions Fee £97.00 Health and Safety Services are being handled for free by a colleague: I’m coding his website in exchange. Notice: no site insurance yet……. :huh: I’m just too mean. Projected cost £568.65 (May 2015) August 2015 Architects fees £2000; from award of Outline PP to Full PP (6th of August) and £40 for bottle of champagne to thank our him: his judgement in relation to what would pass was exactly right. Read paragraph 9 of the Delegated Report (here) Trip to Swindon to visit the NSBRC Fuel £36, overnight stay £85 Strimmer: Polycut head, and set of knives for strimmer £46.60. (No lawn for Salamander Cottage: at last, no mowing…… bliss) September 2015 Legal Fees; alteration to title status £232 October Purchase a four wheel trailer (new) £2500 Purchase a Mutts Nuts (Nick’s term, not mine) Bosch Laser Level £250 First Aid Course (ref. H+S policy) £80 Chainsaw Course £130 December Off mains drainage legal agreement Legal fees and £1000 for access to the land to discharge to stream (wayleave?): £1862 (£300 over budget) Cladding Preparation for processing the wood; Serious Stihl saw (660) and ancillary equipment £2000 (resale value £1000) Trips to open passivhauses £50 + Off – road parking (ground matz) £2800 (resale value £2500) January 2016 SPONS Architects and Builders’ Price Guide 2016. Can’t do without it. And there’s an App that goes with it. £150 Small shipping container (for tools) £300 (resale value £400) Base for container: 4 tons of 20 mm to dust from my mate: £35, yep £35 New wheelbarrow £97 (French made Hammerlin: two flat tyres (in 2 weeks) and a stupidly forward C of G so the damn thing tips forward ON ITS OWN... sodding thing) Local Oak trees (for the shakes and cladding) £1200 (1 square meter of oak shakes retails for £100!) T.K Knipe Allithwaite. £100s of pounds worth of free advice. 1 Sweet Chestnut tree (high tannin content) £140 5 local oak trees £100 (they were going to be cut up for fire wood - I kid you not) Another container (you can't have too many): £1000 (resale value £1000) February 2016 Small hand tools and boys toys £1500 May 2016 2.5 tonne Mini Digger = £14,000 (PV Dobsons, Levens) EPS Licence £1200 (I still haven't paid the bill - because of some really unprofessional behaviour.) Red Diesel £15 120 meters of Temporary Amphibian Fencing (TAF), 80 stakes (37 by 37 by 700) £267.37 Lifting gear: a 2 tonne chain block and tackle 2 shackles, and two beam clamps £181.03 (to run on the RSJs below) 2 RSJs, (6 meters long to span between the two containers) £230 +VAT Filing frame to assist sharpening my chainsaw chains £97 Site signage (ebay) £10 for several (more needed) Plastic Barrier Fencing Safety Mesh Fence Netting Net With Metal Pins £50.95 (for the edge of the car park and pedestrian walkway) Three stillage cages to store material on the site (one cage fitted inside the container) £50 Another two stillage cages today. £25 And £80 worth of 2 inch wire mesh so I can weld it to the stillage cages: slows light fingers down Two (full-on-big-boys) deck brooms £24 A grease gun for my digger and two cartridges of grease £22 Another High Security Digital padlock and hardened, sheathed, hardened chain to secure the buckets (that aren't hooked up) for my digger £55 A 2 Tonne x 1.5 meter Leverhoist £79.95 2 off 2 tonne Beam Clamps £25.98 4 off 2 Ton Alloy Bow Shackles, with Safety Pins £11.96 The above is initially for lifting trees and heavy objects safely off the trailer (on my own) Later the hoist and clamps will do the same job, but in a small purpose-built workshop. 100 meters of 16 amp electricity cable. £71.89 Building Control Fees £600 Red Diesel £18.21 June 2016 Two more stillage cages £25 A Douglas Fir tree and a Larch tree. £40 (Fir tree £10) Will produce stock worth about double that (conservative estimate) 20 8" coach screws £4. 4 sheets of reinforcing mesh £20 (16 by 8 foot for welding to the stillage cages to slow down thieves ) Structural Engineer £1774. And worth every penny (so far) First Aid Kit (10 person HSE Approved) £7.57 (tried getting one locally, couldn't get one for love nor money) Security marker pens £1.99 (a requirement of the Site Insurance: all scaffolding poles must be security marked - not the digger or the saws!) "Curiouser and curiouser" Wood for lining my container £81 HERAS panels, feet, clips, struts, pins for the struts £200 Some steel stock to practise welding £12 (making a small tool table for my SuperJaws clamp: cost on the open market £30) Four Point Lifting Chains ('shorten-able') £139. Fed up of worrying about the webbing strops - they are quite worn already Site H+S sign. £24 ( and I begrudge every penny: it's expensive wallpaper... why do I say that - read on - last but one point) 2 tins of Hammerite for the rust spots on the container. £28 The ecologist had the good grace to halve his bill given the less than prompt approach to fulfilling his contract. £900 July Builder's Merchant bill: £704 - bits and bobs, sand 25mm water pipe and stuff like that August Builder's Merchant bill: < £100 all sorts of tiny things September Builder's Merchants bill £1379.24, Ply wood for the stillage and to make some internal storage in the container, a DeWalt nailer (luxury beyond compare) It starts to get serious now........... Piling will be about £6000, Groundwork price yet to come in, site clearance - I've hired a lumberjack who's coming from Canada - muscles coming out of his ears - off mains drainage and site drainage.... Off to Harrogate next week. (4th of November)

We need some piles. Into every life a little rain must fall. I know nowt about piles. So, onto YooChube, onto the architect, onto the SE, and I have some outline advice. Use screw piles. Why? Here OK, so now what? I know the cost will be significant, and when my bank balance is about to get hit, I get cautious. So, I've decided to blog about it in a good deal of detail. Because there's one process that makes me more jangled than anything: how does anyone compare like with like? Reducing risk is the key thing I think, but I still feel damn nervous about it. And one way of reducing that horrible feeling that grips at 5 in the morning - what the Hell have I missed out now ? - is by turning that fear (yes fear) into some sort of creative, positive action. Hence the blog and this post. So, I'm putting all of the information on line (suitably edited - no emails, no phone numbers, no company names, no addresses) so you can all have a look and comment Please come with me, linger, lurk, laugh, look, learn with me. And comment, poke, challenge, ask. Please!