Reasonable DIY tasks

[On rocky ground]

Hi!

 

We are looking to build a 200m2 house plus an integrated garage and really need to get it done for £1000/m2. This will no doubt require a lot of DIY tasks to be undertaken to be within that budget, looking for some real world experiences of what the forum have tried and any definite no go areas for a relatively novice (in house building terms anyway) DIYer.

 

We have a family friend who has a groundwork/plant hire company who can help with that side of things. Hopefully he can get us materials through his trade accounts if this is allowed which we are hoping will bring down material costs. This will be in SW Scotland and the site already has services on it.

 

 

[PeterW]

Welcome

 

yes it’s achievable but what is the construction method ..?? Timber frame..? Brick and block ..? Render..?

 

All have a cost that will affect your budget. UPVC 3G windows are just as good as aluminum clad in the right place, but 1/3rd of the price. £5000 kitchen or £25000 kitchen ..? Big glass walls, or patio doors ..?? 
 

Everything has a price and you can do it with a lot of effort. 

[On rocky ground]

Timber frame would be the plan and a fairly low key design, no visions of large amounts of glass and UPVC also suits us fine. In terms of kitchen/bathroom fit out happy to go with middle of the road or lower budget finishes that can be upgraded further down the road and spend the money in getting the fabric of the building right.

 

But I take your point that its a bit of how long is a piece of string type question as there is a such a variety/price range of choices to be made. Pleased to hear you think this is not an unrealistic target, albeit that it will take a lot of effort involved as I was beginning to think the whole idea was starting to look like a pipedream.

[PeterW]

Ok so it’s serviced - that is a lot of your unknowns done. Foundations and frame are your big costs and then things like insulation you can DIY. Plumbing isn’t too bad if you take your time; leave the electrics to the professionals as it’s simpler and usually quicker. Find a friendly plasterer and get a price to get the house fully skimmed - that way you can do the boarding out and they can cover up your errors ...!

 

Doors can be as simple as £15 MDF ones that you can replace in the future, skirts and archs don’t need to be expensive and they are easy to DIY. Leave the frames and doors to someone who knows how to do them properly. 
 

In terms of design, a simple box is cheapest. Start adding curves and lots of roof details and your prices go up. 
 

The biggest thing is to get the design on paper, make all your changes to it and then that’s it - you stick to the design and build it. Where costs get out of control is when you start making changes on the fly.

[nod]

We came in at 830m2 doing most things ourselves Our build was a traditional build 
We are getting ready to start a second build While I’ve nothing against timber Frame It does work out quite a bit more expensive 

[On rocky ground]

19 hours ago, PeterW said:

Ok so it’s serviced - that is a lot of your unknowns done. Foundations and frame are your big costs and then things like insulation you can DIY. Plumbing isn’t too bad if you take your time; leave the electrics to the professionals as it’s simpler and usually quicker. Find a friendly plasterer and get a price to get the house fully skimmed - that way you can do the boarding out and they can cover up your errors ...!

 

Doors can be as simple as £15 MDF ones that you can replace in the future, skirts and archs don’t need to be expensive and they are easy to DIY. Leave the frames and doors to someone who knows how to do them properly. 
 

In terms of design, a simple box is cheapest. Start adding curves and lots of roof details and your prices go up. 
 

The biggest thing is to get the design on paper, make all your changes to it and then that’s it - you stick to the design and build it. Where costs get out of control is when you start making changes on the fly.

 

Thanks for that, yeah hopefully once we have a design/layout we are happy with we will stick to it, as I said we will be going for very straightforward style, something pretty much boxed shaped so shouldn't be too much in the way of wanting to add anything too fancy further down the line as that's not really our tastes. 

[dnb]

I will echo that plan changing is a significant cost increaser. Scruitinize the design carefully and cost everything before hitting "go". To give an example, one of my mistakes was to assume 2 metre wide windows were just going to work. I found that while they are available, either the maker will not warranty the style I want (stress on the hinges) or I must go to a more expensive product range. This wouldn't have happened at 1.8 metres.

 

The piling works and SIPS were work packages I obviously couldn't contribute much to once the design work was complete. But don't underestimate the savings possible from a little knowledge of what the products will do at design time. We cut £10k from the SIPS cost by reducing the roof pitch by a couple of degrees - it cut out 2 large glulam purlins and made the roof into a single panel span.

 

I have done a lot of mine on site, from digging trenches to laying blocks and installing beam and blocks. It's saved me a fair bit of cost, allowing me to spend it in other areas. I have a couple of good friends in various trades who have helped on an agreed day rate basis when more bodies were needed or stage deadlines loomed large. Now working on the roof battening ready for slates. The downside of doing things yourself is the tool bill. Over £500 this month alone. But afterwards I'll still have a lot of good tools!

 

My experience is that local authority building control people could not be more helpful to a self builder provided you listen to them a bit. This has given me a lot of confidence to undertake and manage the work myself. This is obviously not guaranteed from area to area!

[On rocky ground]

12 hours ago, nod said:

We came in at 830m2 doing most things ourselves Our build was a traditional build 
We are getting ready to start a second build While I’ve nothing against timber Frame It does work out quite a bit more expensive 

Interesting comment as there seems to be a lot of debate around pro's and cons re construction method. Did you price up both methods?

[Conor]

As already said, you can do a fair bit of plumbing yourself with a bit of care and right materials and tools. Flexible plastic pipes and push fittings make most jobs easy. You'll still need a plumber for likes of boilers and cylinders.

 

Of you go down the route of an MVHR (recommended) then again you do a lot of the installation yourself and save anywhere from £2-£4k.

 

Painting is done job I wouldn't do and if you have the budget, get than done professionally along with second fit joinery. Those are the parts you'll see everyday!

[On rocky ground]

36 minutes ago, Conor said:

As already said, you can do a fair bit of plumbing yourself with a bit of care and right materials and tools. Flexible plastic pipes and push fittings make most jobs easy. You'll still need a plumber for likes of boilers and cylinders.

 

Of you go down the route of an MVHR (recommended) then again you do a lot of the installation yourself and save anywhere from £2-£4k.

 

Painting is done job I wouldn't do and if you have the budget, get than done professionally along with second fit joinery. Those are the parts you'll see everyday!

 

Agreed I'm happy doing the bits that can be hidden but anything on show needs the professional touch ?

[nod]

30 minutes ago, On rocky ground said:

Interesting comment as there seems to be a lot of debate around pro's and cons re construction method. Did you price up both methods?

At the time of planning our build I was plastering and rendering two self builds in the lake district 

When I initially went to quote 

Both where water tight shells

 Being  so close to starting our I asked both what they had spent 

Traditional was 62k TF over  100K

From then on the costs should be identical 

 

We have built a 286m2 house which is as well insulated as we will need 

We rarely use the UFH 

 

TF is quicker and more convenient 

But that comes at a cost