I'm slowly moving forward with my foundations. Because of the sloping site we went with an L shaped configuration, with a lounge and bedroom above in one wing and a walk in basement with kitchen above in the other wing. Having sent the drawings and a scope of work to six companies and got three quotes, the cheapest is £50,000 and the most expensive £145,000. However, the cheapest quote doesn't cover everything listed in the scope of work, leaving me thinking I'd be better following Ian's lead @recoveringacademic, and using local trades to do the individual element. A few phone calls today and I've found a local ground worker to do the excavations and the drains, ive also got a local company to do the concrete pour into the insulated slab, I'll be installing that!
Now to the question! I need to do the formwork for the basement walls. Is this something a local joiner could do, or is it a specialist job? I was also wondering if I could DIY it as I have loads of timber left over from the demolition of the old house.