Just for fun - build a house for £100k

[Ian]

3 years ago I built a 71sqM 2 double-bed bungalow for £96k. Timber frame construction with cedar cladding. The site was difficult on a 1:8 slope with poor access on a remote site in N Wales.

 

The only ‘work’ we did ourselves was the decorating + I did all the drawings, PM work and coordinated subcontractors.

[Ferdinand]

3 hours ago, the_r_sole said:

I wouldn't build a house as we know it... I'd build a collection of individual bits with a big covered area joining them so it can be added to if required and areas not in use don't need to be heated etc when not in use - eventually you could join them up with heated circulation, or close in the sheltered area but I reckon you could get something amazing for 100k!

 

3 hours ago, Gav_P said:

Hey, I like the idea of that.. actually thinking outside of the box! 
 

Have you seen anything like that done before? 

 

It always happens in various ways.

 

There was a shortlisted one of exactly this setup on the Stirling Prize shortlist (longlist?) a couple of years ago ... built in a former yard in London.

 

The last 2 decades vogue for open plan is similar - you reconfigure your furniture and partitions as required. Of course, if you go passive your energy bills tend to zero so the overheads on the bits you don't use become less important.

 

Or consider the 450 sqm barn conversion we have been discussing - one suggestion was to treat a large part of the inside as "indoor sheltered external space", or as the Building Regs might call it a "covered yard". Really that is no different from a palm court, winter garden, or loggia-with-infill (which would be an orangery).

 

I had a friend in France who pointed out that in rural France if they don't need say the second floor they just close off the door and ignore it until the next generational lot of childen or grandparents move in.

 

My own chalet bungalow was sold as Kitchen, Lounge, 2 bathrooms and 5 bedrooms. It is now Kitchen-Conservatory-Lounge, Study, 2nd reception and 3 bedrooms.

 

There's even a Peter Aldington 1970s house we discussed on BH where the central circulation space is the conservatory, and everything is built to join onto that.

https://www.themodernhouse.com/past-sales/bessacarr/

(Pic from there)

 

 

It's a continuum and design language, and where you put the various bits of hardware.

 

I would characterise @the_r_sole's scheme as the house fabric being split by function into an insulated rainscreen and room dividers. He could take it further and make the room dividers dismountable, which essentially turns them into furniture. Which is  the same as the way modern offices are built. 

 

In one of my favourite quotes: "There is nothing new under the sun."

 

Ferdinand

 

Edited August 28, 2020 by Ferdinand

[Ferdinand]

Incidentally, just to completely Ferdinandize this thread, I was essentially declared clear of the Hairy Cell Leukemia this afternoon. 

[Gav_P]

2 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

Incidentally, just to completely Ferdinandize this thread, I was essentially declared clear of the Hairy Cell Leukemia this afternoon. 

Congratulations! That must have been a fantastic feeling to hear that. Such a weight being removed. 

[Gav_P]

3 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

central circulation space is the conservatory,

I wonder how much the temp varies in the house when the sun is out. I have a feeling it would be roasting on a sunny day. 

[the_r_sole]

4 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

 

 

It always happens in various ways.

 

There was a shortlisted one of exactly this setup on the Stirling Prize shortlist (longlist?) a couple of years ago ... built in a former yard in London.

 

The last 2 decades vogue for open plan is similar - you reconfigure your furniture and partitions as required. Of course, if you go passive your energy bills tend to zero so the overheads on the bits you don't use become less important.

 

Or consider the 450 sqm barn conversion we have been discussing - one suggestion was to treat a large part of the inside as "indoor sheltered external space", or as the Building Regs might call it a "covered yard". Really that is no different from a palm court, winter garden, or loggia-with-infill (which would be an orangery).

 

I had a friend in France who pointed out that in rural France if they don't need say the second floor they just close off the door and ignore it until the next generational lot of childen or grandparents move in.

 

My own chalet bungalow was sold as Kitchen, Lounge, 2 bathrooms and 5 bedrooms. It is now Kitchen-Conservatory-Lounge, Study, 2nd reception and 3 bedrooms.

 

There's even a Peter Aldington 1970s house we discussed on BH where the central circulation space is the conservatory, and everything is built to join onto that.

https://www.themodernhouse.com/past-sales/bessacarr/

(Pic from there)

 

 

It's a continuum and design language, and where you put the various bits of hardware.

 

I would characterise @the_r_sole's scheme as the house fabric being split by function into an insulated rainscreen and room dividers. He could take it further and make the room dividers dismountable, which essentially turns them into furniture. Which is  the same as the way modern offices are built. 

 

In one of my favourite quotes: "There is nothing new under the sun."

 

Ferdinand

 

 

My thinking is more a collection of sheds! So you'd have a kitchen diner and shower room in one, then a master en suite bedroom in another. Then after that you can add your sitting room and additional bedrooms... there would be some kind of roof to shelter the in-between bits... the one pictured above is more house like than I'd picture, I'll see if I can dig out some old sketches but think my sketchbooks are in the loft!

 

It's one of those that I'd have to build it myself to prove the concept before I could convince a client to do something as out there!

 

And congratulations! 

[Gav_P]

23 minutes ago, the_r_sole said:

I'll see if I can dig out some old sketches but think my sketchbooks are in the loft!

Get digging! I need to see this collection of sheds becoming a home. I can only picture something that America Pickers tv show would visit ?

[Ferdinand]

38 minutes ago, Gav_P said:

Get digging! I need to see this collection of sheds becoming a home. I can only picture something that America Pickers tv show would visit ?

 

There are excellent precedents for separating functions eg  cooking, living, bathing, sleeping.

 

Think Scout Camps And Stalag Luft 3. But also some posh holiday homes separating guest sleeping quarters. Necker Island?

 

?

 

More seriously I am sure some dwellings in huge barns will have done some things like this, with the barn as rainscreen / shelter.

Edited August 28, 2020 by Ferdinand

[Gav_P]

I would challenge wether you could get a Necker Island style home for the £100k budget... even with the 30% contingency. 
 

scout camp.. fair enough... might have some cash left over for the toilet tent too! 

Edited August 28, 2020 by Gav_P

[SteamyTea]

If this is just a costing exerciser, then I would think it is quite easy to 'build a house' for £100,000.  Probably 2/3^rds of the world do it for a lot less.

 

[Russell griffiths]

18 hours ago, Gav_P said:

This lady did it for £105k apparently..

 

https://www.self-build.co.uk/home/budget-family-home/

 

I don’t believe that for a second, these articles can be very misleading and I bet there’s loads of things missed of her list of expenses. 

[Gav_P]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

If this is just a costing exerciser, then I would think it is quite easy to 'build a house' for £100,000.  Probably 2/3^rds of the world do it for a lot less.

 

It’s a what would you do exercise? What kind of home would it be, what materials etc? For example you might choose a haybale structure and make it circular around a central courtyard with a pool which you’d use as a thermal store. 
 

would it be a tile roof, or a green roof, .. Etc etc

 

If it was just a costing exercise, I’m sure a simple normal house would be easy enough, as every housing develop does it every day.

 

What could be the best home you would choose to do for £100k??

 

 

 

 

[Thedreamer]

Also remember those quoting low building costs, probably didn't work for best part of a year. I view the missed earnings as being a cost in it's own right. 

 

Also it's hard to know the quality of the spec used. 

 

 

[joe90]

I originally wanted to build straw bale (been on a couple of builds as a volunteer) but health and age (and Devon is sooo wet) precluded that method. If I was young and fit (and had the money) it’s what I would have loved to do. I even priced building a protective scaffold house so I could build “indoors” and not be controlled by the weather.   Dreams eh!

[Ferdinand]

22 hours ago, Gav_P said:

This lady did it for £105k apparently..

 

https://www.self-build.co.uk/home/budget-family-home/

 

Worth noting that the PP was 2006 and build perhaps 2008, so our "2020 100k" would be about 70-75k then.

 

F 

[SteamyTea]

Is Straw Bail construction any cheaper than block, really?  Not as if straw is valueless, and it needs processing.

 

May be easier to just cost out some components.

So stairs, build a bungalow.

Bathroom, just fit shower.

Kitchen, small and basic.

Windows and Doors, find the cheapest and make the hole to suit. Trickle vents.

Heating, storage heaters.

Plumbing, E7 and vented (as you can fit that yourself).

Electrical, basic, two double sockets per room, pendant lights, one per room.

 

SIPS, stick built or bought in timber frame, integrated roof PV as probably same cost as tiles.  Basic cladding/render.

 

Probably make a 50m² house like mine for £40k.

 

Or just spend that contingency on the kitchen and bathroom, more CAT7 and HA than you can understand, and convince yourself you have a better building as it is flashy.

 

[Ferdinand]

17 hours ago, Gav_P said:

I wonder how much the temp varies in the house when the sun is out. I have a feeling it would be roasting on a sunny day. 

 

That's an interesting one.

 

The original 1967 plan did not have a conservatory and there are alternative circulation routes (perhaps I mischaracterised it as circulation), and that is basically a courtyard with a lightweight roof, with house on three sides and a tree on the 4th, so the only sunlight really comes through the roof.

 

If you look at the Google piccie I think it will be OK. Virtually all the rooms have large sliding doors.

 

 

 

 

It's a superb plan - would be good now 50 years later.

 

And demonstrates what can be done on a tight (built to both side boundaries) site by not being square. The entire interior is a response to the plot orientation and limitations, and it is only 150 sqm. There is hardly any single purpose circulation space, and he has achieved an FLW style modest approach route which damps down, then tantalises, then surprises.

 

Have attached the modern-house.net brochure with more detail.

 

F

 

 

 

 

peter-aldington-besacarr-plan-modern-house-net.pdf

Edited August 29, 2020 by Ferdinand
Add gumf

[Ferdinand]

7 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Straw Bail construction any cheaper than block, really?  Not as if straw is valueless, and it needs processing.

 

 

You can grow the straw on the plot before you build ? . *

 

F

 

(* - large plot)

Edited August 29, 2020 by Ferdinand

[SteamyTea]

1 minute ago, Ferdinand said:

You can grow the straw on the plot before you build

Yes you can, you can also put PV on it and earn living .

[joe90]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

Is Straw Bail construction any cheaper than block, really?  Not as if straw is valueless, and it needs processing.

fairly cheap. Self build, very good insulation with a natural product, rendered with lime render. No concrete foundations as built on old tyres rammed with earth/gravel.

[SteamyTea]

1 hour ago, joe90 said:

very good insulation

Straw Bails have an RSI of around 0.26 m.K/W, aged rigid PU is around 1.1 m.K/W

So about 4 times the thermal losses.

1 hour ago, joe90 said:

fairly cheap

A quick look on eBay and they range in price between £3 and £19.  As these are feed quality, I suspect that building quality is at the upper end.  OSB3 is around £20 for 18mm.

Lime Render is about £8 for 25 kg, Portland Cement is around half that.

 

1 hour ago, joe90 said:

No concrete foundations as built on old tyres rammed with earth/gravel.

I suspect that the foundations have to be the same, all depends on what the local BC and SE says.

 

I seem to remember that the cost of SB was discussed over at the other place and it was decided that it was not cheap.

Edited August 29, 2020 by SteamyTea

[joe90]

https://strawworks.co.uk/straw-bale-in-north-kesteven/

[SteamyTea]

3 hours ago, joe90 said:

https://strawworks.co.uk/straw-bale-in-north-kesteven/

My house uses less, I suspect yours does to.

[ProDave]

3 hours ago, joe90 said:

https://strawworks.co.uk/straw-bale-in-north-kesteven/

Those are some pretty poor energy use figures, mine is a lot lower than that.

[SteamyTea]

10 hours ago, ProDave said:

Those are some pretty poor energy use figures, mine is a lot lower than that.

and, like my house, your walls are not a yard thick.

 

I think the problem with SB is that people think that straw is a waste product (we used to burn it in the field) and should be cheap.  That, and it is natural, well I don't think there is much natural about a cultivated crop that has been intensively farmed and processed (I don't have a problem with industrial agriculture).

It does have a lower embodied energy and CO₂ but as it is not the major mass in a building, the benefits are probably not that great.