Hello from Sunny Dover!

[Seren161]

Hello Buildhub community! Just received planning permission to knock down and rebuild our house. Spend all that that fighting for permission and now it’s like oh no.. actually have to build the darn thing now! 

It’s a large house 350m2 + and we are hoping to go the project manager route as we already have a builder who comes highly recommended but we need a decent project manager to cost, budget, troubleshoot and run the build as we will be on a self build mortgage so don’t want cash flow dramas! 

This feels like the scary stage.. Having said that a quick read through the forum has made me feel more normal!

 

[Mr Punter]

Hello and welcome.

 

If you have sufficient money, a decent builder, a site that you already know well, planning consent and finance in place you have dealt with most of the tricky bits.

 

Are you living on site during the build?

[Seren161]

21 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

Hello and welcome.

 

If you have sufficient money, a decent builder, a site that you already know well, planning consent and finance in place you have dealt with most of the tricky bits.

 

Are you living on site during the build?

 Thanks Mr Punter .. Time will tell...sufficient money ..haha..will keep you all posted 

[Micharlblueboy]

Good luck with the build

[Seren161]

Long time no post but have been reading and learning. Great forum! 

Following on from a year.. now about to finally commence with our build and now ( better late than never..) looking at MHVR.

Any recommendations in Kent for an installer?

Also at 350m2 habitable area or so Are there any single units that comfortably deal with this space or do I definitely need to have 2 units. 
A modest plant room planned and ideally would like the unit in the plant room.

Also any arguments against MHVR? Critical analysis seems rather sparse..

 

Thanks!

[saveasteading]

We are at a similar stage and I asked the same question, the answer was NO: use a single Heat Pump, and spread the water by a big feed pipe to a second manifold.

 

This just as a starter, and I refer you to the experts who will follow with more detail.

[IanR]

1 hour ago, Seren161 said:

.. looking at MHVR.

Any recommendations in Kent for an installer?

You could get the MVHR system designed and supplied, and install yourself or by your builder, or Project Manager. They're not difficult to install if they've been designed along with your house.

Airflow will do your design free of charge and give you the bill of materials to then take to all their distributors to achieve the best price.

 

1 hour ago, Seren161 said:

Also at 350m2 habitable area or so Are there any single units that comfortably deal with this space or do I definitely need to have 2 units. 

There are single units that will easily deal with your size of property, although volume is more important that floor area. I have an Airflow DV1100 for my 421m², 1650m³ property and it's oversized by quite a factor. Airflow class it as a small commercial unit, but it's made to the same standards as their domestic units, is PH Certified with pollen filters etc.

I remember Paul also do MVHRs that were more than large enough for my place and I'm sure there are others.

If you do want to hand it over to someone else to design and install, then I'd try Mango Projects Ltd. https://mango-projects.co.uk/
I haven't used this company (it's a recent venture), but the people involved were all involved with my build.

 

1 hour ago, Seren161 said:

Also any arguments against MHVR? Critical analysis seems rather sparse..

I see little point in MVHR unless you are targeting better than 3m³/m².h @50Pa air tightness. But if you are, then for building regs you have to have a centralised mechanical ventilation, so it might as well be heat recovering.

[Seren161]

Keep meaning to come back to this thread….15 months later.. Build is close to completion..but definitely taken 3 months longer than I expected. Will end up as a 16 month build 🤞. We did go with a single unit MVHR..sourced from BPC Ventilation.waiting for final commissioning of MVHR and at the stage of accumulating various certifications and calculations for BC.

We were not expecting to be able to but we eventually upped our spec to include ASHP, 3G,Solar PV and battery storage fast EV charging and a few other “nice to haves” 
Final costs working out at about £1900 per square metre which is respectable for a turnkey build. We would use our main contractor again in a heartbeat …not sure our main contractor would want us again though! 

Lessons learnt 

- Pick a contractor you can maintain a respectful and cordial relationship with. Our builder was nobody’s fool but he had a great habit of really listening which was really good for us all.

-Have a look at their previous projects, in person if possible. 

-20 percent contingency is more likely than the oft quoted 10.

-Pop something in your contract about targets, nothing massively punitive but something that keeps the focus on your job..We knew we were in good hands but tradesmen and builders are busy (maybe less so post trussonomic mortgage disaster) and so the focus was not always on our job.

-Be as specific as you can be about the spec and make as many decisions as you can well beforehand..I found having as many 3D renders of the project super useful for visualising key spaces and thus was able to answer some super specific questions that invariably arrived by text in the middle of my work day

-Have a detailed landscaping plan..I didn’t and on a sloping plot.. that was a very expensive omission.

- Clear Detailed schemes are your friend….detailed lighting schemes, painting schemes, tiling schemes..Clear and easy to understand for all involved.

-Don’t be afraid to ask the builder or the other trades for their opinion..they usually have tonnes of experience and sometimes the best decisions were made by saying “ what do you think?”

- If you are buying any items yourself such as tiles, decorative light fittings built in appliances etc..Negotiate with your builder before commencement if possible so that they purchase the items and you reimburse them promptly perhaps with a small handling fee to save you having to pay and reclaim vat.

- Additional costs should be clear and agreed by all parties,

- stuff will go wrong, people will make mistakes, hopefully nothing too damaging, ours included a smashed up neighbours car ( by Building merchants vehicle) and a landscape designer that couldn’t design amongst other minor mishaps..you live and learn 

This forum has been a brilliant resource for staying calm and carrying on ..even for members like me who aren’t physically doing the building 

 

[MikeSharp01]

Well done for getting this far and providing your insightful advice.