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Hi, I am seriously considering "outsourcing" my structural calculations and technical design drawings via UPWORK and wondering if anybody done anything like this before. As I was planning to manage the build myself I already been looking on UPWORK for an architect, but at the end wasnt brave enough to employ someone to do this from far away without knowledge of the plot. Now that I have got my Plannijg drawings together and only need someone to translate them into Technical Design Drawings - I am considering again to use a structural Engneer/Architct from Serbia/Ukraine/Pakistan/Bangladesh to do the technical drawings for me. I do know exactly what I want and have all the Technical drawings including Sections ready in an amateur style / homemade, but missing the AutoCad skills to make it into useable drawings plus I dont really fancy reading myself into structural calculation and woul rather leave this to someone with experience. Please also tell me if you seriously concidered doing something like this and why you have/havent . I can see a problem when it comes to UK Building regs(some bits are different here then in other countries, e.g. no Lightswitches/plugs in the bathroom) - but this would be something to be sorted by myself to make sure the plans comply.

I'm in the early stages of a project to demolish our family home and rebuild the house on the same plot. I've already got planning permission and am in the process of getting building regs through as well as party wall agreements with neighbours etc. I'm lucky enough to own the current property outright, but will need a mortgage for the build. One of the problems I hit when I looked into this is that I am a freelance contractor and finding a lender who will lend on both self-build and to a contractor is quite limiting. I started looking into this in May and found a specialist broker for contractors who would also deal with self build. However, he was only able to find one lender, Halifax, who would lend to contractors on a self-build. I was a bit concerned about this but went with it. Since then, he's done virtually nothing and I've had to push all the time. I've provided a full credit check and lots of other details, but I'm trying to push to get to a stage where they're got enough information to make a formal offer so I can move ahead with the project and plan accordingly. I have still not had anything written from the lender at all to confirm the terms, the amount they will lend or even whether they will lend at all. I've only got from him that they will only lend on 75% of each stage. Is this reasonable when I own the plot? I'm getting to the stage where I would like to bin this broker and go for something else, but I don't know of anything out there. I'm wondering if anyone else (a contractor) has had a similar experience, whether there are other lenders or sources of finance out there? Alternatively, is there anything I can do to speed things up and / or get some certainty? Thanks.