Self build first house

[DanielAllen]

Hi Everyone,

 

Just wanted to introduce myself and share some information on what we're looking to do.

 

We've been lucky to of been offered a small plot of land on my granparents old business area. Im 28 and my girlfriend is 25, we still live with parents and have been looking for a house for nearly 2 years but nothing fitted what we like and budget at the same time.

 

We're hoping to build a block/block then rendered house. 3 storeys with a garage on the ground floor but the rear and one side will be at first floor level due to the lie of the land. The house has a footprint of 85.5 m2 (9m wide and 9.5m long).

Features hopefully include: Aluminium windows, 6m bi-fold doors, bespoke metal staircases (built by the metal fab company my Dad works for) and a very open plan first floor with large kitchen island.

 

Hopefully trying to make it as contemporary as possible but our budget is a max of around £220k so we'll see how that goes!

 

Due to receive amended draft plans this weekend so we can get costings on certain areas build wise not yet costed so if all goes well we'll be proceeding with plannning!

[ToughButterCup]

Welcome.   Good luck with the planning aspect of things.

Since this is your first post could I suggest you have a look through the planning threads? And also have a play with the search facility on the site: its very powerful

 

To help you, as an example,  I've done three searches for the topics you highlighted in your post above - and link to them below.

• Metal stair cases
• Bi-fold doors   ( You might try different spellings of bi-fold )
• Kitchen Islands

You are starting out at a difficult time - BH is a very supportive group though.  Best of luck.

 

If you want some walk on glazing @pocster has some , and don't worry about @Russell griffiths, he's actually quite tame. ?

Edited January 15, 2021 by ToughButterCup

[nod]

Sounds good 

We finished our B+B rendered home two years ago and are getting closer to starting another build 

Depending on ground conditions it sounds like a healthy budget 

Building tradition will save a lot of money 

 

Good luck 

[DanielAllen]

31 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

Welcome.   Good luck with the planning aspect of things.

Since this is your first post could I suggest you have a look through the planning threads? And also have a play with the search facility on the site: its very powerful

 

To help you, as an example,  I've done three searches for the topics you highlighted in your post above - and link to them below.

• Metal stair cases
• Bi-fold doors   ( You might try different spellings of bi-fold )
• Kitchen Islands

You are starting out at a difficult time - BH is a very supportive group though.  Best of luck.

 

If you want some walk on glazing @pocster has some , and don't worry about @Russell griffiths, he's actually quite tame. ?

 

Thanks for the help!

Its definitely a very helpful and resourceful forum. Plenty to go through over the coming weeks before we apply for planning hopefully

[DanielAllen]

32 minutes ago, nod said:

Sounds good 

We finished our B+B rendered home two years ago and are getting closer to starting another build 

Depending on ground conditions it sounds like a healthy budget 

Building tradition will save a lot of money 

 

Good luck 

 

Do you think our budget will be okay given the specs?

 

I do have a good groundwork family friend but it won't be a huge discount I doubt. Also the architect fees are minimal with my Cousin being one

[ToughButterCup]

6 minutes ago, DanielAllen said:

.... Also the architect fees are minimal with my Cousin being one

 

Families are great. We all have one. A place to share stuff informally. A safe place in which to try things out and see if they  work. Bridging the gap from informal to formal ( i.e. professional) is frought with the opportunity for mis-communication.

I have seen many instances of the bridge between family and professional services being put under strain.

 

On the other hand, nobody would have told me of those instances when it all went well.

[Bitpipe]

Welcome!

 

You don't say where you are in the UK so hard to comment on budget - the rule of thumb is usually £1500 /m2 with some degree of project management from you (hiring individual trades) with that shooting up if it's a completely hands off build (i.e. you trust entirely to a single contractor) and down if you can take on more work yourself, depending on your skill set.

 

You also need to factor in services cost (power, water, sewerage, telecoms) and access that will meet the planners satisfaction - sometimes these can be prohibitively expensive and kill your project at the outset so get ahead of them now.

 

The other unknown is ground conditions - if it's brown land (ex industrial or similar) your LA may well want a contamination survey and remediation plan as a planning condition.

 

Good that you have a friendly ground-worker, more important than a discount (they have to make a living) is working with someone you can trust and who can give you good advice. Architects, SEs and BCOs can all over specify and having an experienced hand to counter balance that is invaluable - that's where you'll save money.

 

 

[DanielAllen]

26 minutes ago, Bitpipe said:

Welcome!

 

You don't say where you are in the UK so hard to comment on budget - the rule of thumb is usually £1500 /m2 with some degree of project management from you (hiring individual trades) with that shooting up if it's a completely hands off build (i.e. you trust entirely to a single contractor) and down if you can take on more work yourself, depending on your skill set.

 

You also need to factor in services cost (power, water, sewerage, telecoms) and access that will meet the planners satisfaction - sometimes these can be prohibitively expensive and kill your project at the outset so get ahead of them now.

 

The other unknown is ground conditions - if it's brown land (ex industrial or similar) your LA may well want a contamination survey and remediation plan as a planning condition.

 

Good that you have a friendly ground-worker, more important than a discount (they have to make a living) is working with someone you can trust and who can give you good advice. Architects, SEs and BCOs can all over specify and having an experienced hand to counter balance that is invaluable - that's where you'll save money.

 

 

 

We're in Staffordshire so services around here aren't all that expensive compared to the south.

 

The area the house will be going does have Electric, water and sewerage plus there was another house built very close to it so Gas shouldnt be too much of a problem either hopefully.

 

A family friend owns that house and its literally about 20 metres away so we know the land is also good for building onto. Planning was also very straightforward with his but its a very similar brick and block house, nothing overly modern.

 

My cousins boyfriend is an SE so she's been consulting with him a bit but defintely not looking to over complicate things with too many steels etc.

 

Thanks for the advice

[Bitpipe]

32 minutes ago, DanielAllen said:

 

We're in Staffordshire so services around here aren't all that expensive compared to the south.

 

The area the house will be going does have Electric, water and sewerage plus there was another house built very close to it so Gas shouldnt be too much of a problem either hopefully.

 

A family friend owns that house and its literally about 20 metres away so we know the land is also good for building onto. Planning was also very straightforward with his but its a very similar brick and block house, nothing overly modern.

 

My cousins boyfriend is an SE so she's been consulting with him a bit but defintely not looking to over complicate things with too many steels etc.

 

Thanks for the advice

 

That's a great position to be in.

 

The goal now is to get your architect and SE to 'value engineer' the house you want for the budget you have.

 

Quite often you can get a dramatic effect, such as contemporary views, by using a series of smaller windows vs large and expensive expanses of glass - we have a few 'slot' style ones that are 600mm wide but 2m tall (and the same horizontally, higher up the wall) which really work well and they were quite cheap. 

 

Keeping to standard dimensions (e.g. 2.4m ceiling heights, standard internal door widths etc) will also reduce material and labour cost. 

 

We kept our interior colour palette quite muted but then used a signature colour (in our case a sharp teal) to add a bit of zing. We had custom coloured glass splash-backs made for the kitchen (not expensive at all) and used a whole panel of the same coloured glass in the downstairs loo vs wall tiles - again, not that expensive.

 

Outside we tried to avoid the standard anthracite grey and used Basalt Grey instead (RAL 7012) to give a softer look for windows, cills and guttering etc - it's all the same cost if you're getting it powder coated.

 

Are you having a traditional pitched roof or going flat? The latter can be expensive and problematic if not installed flawlessly so you could consider a traditional roof (i.e. slates) but at a very shallow angle (15 degrees).

 

Anyway, lots to throw in the ideas pot there - it may take a few iterations but you should be able to get something with the look you want that won't break the bank. A few signature elements (such as your metal staircase) can make a big statement.

[Thedreamer]

3 hours ago, DanielAllen said:

Hi Everyone,

 

Just wanted to introduce myself and share some information on what we're looking to do.

 

We've been lucky to of been offered a small plot of land on my granparents old business area. Im 28 and my girlfriend is 25, we still live with parents and have been looking for a house for nearly 2 years but nothing fitted what we like and budget at the same time.

 

Is that your land sorted? 

 

3 hours ago, DanielAllen said:

We're hoping to build a block/block then rendered house. 3 storeys with a garage on the ground floor but the rear and one side will be at first floor level due to the lie of the land. The house has a footprint of 85.5 m2 (9m wide and 9.5m long).

 

How many m2 in total?

 

3 hours ago, DanielAllen said:

Features hopefully include: Aluminium windows, 6m bi-fold doors, bespoke metal staircases (built by the metal fab company my Dad works for) and a very open plan first floor with large kitchen island.

 

Hopefully trying to make it as contemporary as possible but our budget is a max of around £220k so we'll see how that goes!

 

People usually reckon £1500 per m2 is a good starting point. Mate rates/family connections are great, but you might need to wait if work is required above their normal work.

 

3 hours ago, DanielAllen said:

Due to receive amended draft plans this weekend so we can get costings on certain areas build wise not yet costed so if all goes well we'll be proceeding with plannning!

 

Planning, firm connection quotes for services, and then financing that's the order I did stuff.

[DanielAllen]

1 hour ago, Bitpipe said:

 

That's a great position to be in.

 

The goal now is to get your architect and SE to 'value engineer' the house you want for the budget you have.

 

Quite often you can get a dramatic effect, such as contemporary views, by using a series of smaller windows vs large and expensive expanses of glass - we have a few 'slot' style ones that are 600mm wide but 2m tall (and the same horizontally, higher up the wall) which really work well and they were quite cheap. 

 

Keeping to standard dimensions (e.g. 2.4m ceiling heights, standard internal door widths etc) will also reduce material and labour cost. 

 

We kept our interior colour palette quite muted but then used a signature colour (in our case a sharp teal) to add a bit of zing. We had custom coloured glass splash-backs made for the kitchen (not expensive at all) and used a whole panel of the same coloured glass in the downstairs loo vs wall tiles - again, not that expensive.

 

Outside we tried to avoid the standard anthracite grey and used Basalt Grey instead (RAL 7012) to give a softer look for windows, cills and guttering etc - it's all the same cost if you're getting it powder coated.

 

Are you having a traditional pitched roof or going flat? The latter can be expensive and problematic if not installed flawlessly so you could consider a traditional roof (i.e. slates) but at a very shallow angle (15 degrees).

 

Anyway, lots to throw in the ideas pot there - it may take a few iterations but you should be able to get something with the look you want that won't break the bank. A few signature elements (such as your metal staircase) can make a big statement.

 

We've told them to try and keep costs managable building wise and they know our budget but she lives down in Bristol so I imagine things cost a little more down there.

 

We actually added 2 of those windows and the exact dimensions you mentioned width wise but 2100mm high. They aren't really any more expensive than a typical window from the quotes we've had but definitely add a more modern feel. We also have 4 more fixed windows at 1500mm wide. The rear and side looks out onto a nice open woodland area so we've put all of those there.

 

Going with pitched roof as we'd like to use for the 4th bedroom. We will leave it unfinished unless costs are coming in budget but making sure its construction is designed to be usable in the future.

 

We should have the revisions later so i'll post some pictures up

[DanielAllen]

9 minutes ago, Thedreamer said:

 

Is that your land sorted? 

 

 

How many m2 in total?

 

 

People usually reckon £1500 per m2 is a good starting point. Mate rates/family connections are great, but you might need to wait if work is required above their normal work.

 

 

Planning, firm connection quotes for services, and then financing that's the order I did stuff.

 

We are looking to purchase a small bit of land to extend the garden but im hoping it won't be too much as its ground that can never be built on.

 

It's 3 storeys with the whole ground floor being a garage/workshop plus a usable attic so square metre's wise it is a lot. Excluding the attic it will be 256.5m2 (simple cube shape of 85.5m2 per floor) I think that's correct but will confirm later when I get the plans back

[Thedreamer]

1 minute ago, DanielAllen said:

 

We are looking to purchase a small bit of land to extend the garden but im hoping it won't be too much as its ground that can never be built on.

 

It's 3 storeys with the whole ground floor being a garage/workshop plus a usable attic so square metre's wise it is a lot. Excluding the attic it will be 256.5m2 (simple cube shape of 85.5m2 per floor) I think that's correct but will confirm later when I get the plans back

 

That would be £384,000 but it might be less as you are building 3 storey. 

 

I would recommend you buy the home builder bible off Amazon, it is worth investing £10 or 15 quid on this, as it will give you a good grounding on the build process. 

 

Your age is quite young, I started to dream when I was 22 with the build and finished last summer when I was 34. I could have built earlier but I decided during that process that I wanted to build a house with a low mortgage that will hopefully be gone by the time I'm in my late forties.

 

Use this time to be a sponge and soak up as much information as possible. Some on here are around on the forum for a good while before they start. 

 

I would check out the blogs section, range of projects, building styles, sizes.

 

 

[Bitpipe]

1 hour ago, Thedreamer said:

 

That would be £384,000 but it might be less as you are building 3 storey. 

 

I would recommend you buy the home builder bible off Amazon, it is worth investing £10 or 15 quid on this, as it will give you a good grounding on the build process. 

 

Your age is quite young, I started to dream when I was 22 with the build and finished last summer when I was 34. I could have built earlier but I decided during that process that I wanted to build a house with a low mortgage that will hopefully be gone by the time I'm in my late forties.

 

Use this time to be a sponge and soak up as much information as possible. Some on here are around on the forum for a good while before they start. 

 

I would check out the blogs section, range of projects, building styles, sizes.

 

 

 

Great advice from Dave there - the HBB is a great buy.

 

You're already doing a lot right as the most efficient house shape to build cost wise is a square / cube with gable ends and a pitched roof - tells you all this in the book. By luck, that's also what we have

 

Also smart that you have areas that need minimal finish (garage) or can be left until later (room in roof). We were in a similar position with our basement and top floor - however when getting quotes I was always surprised that the incremental cost of including those spaces was not excessive, you've also got to weigh the advantage of doing it now at zero VAT vs doing it later and paying 20%.

 

A compromise can be to get to first fix in those areas then buy and store additional materials for post completion work. While the VAT claim cutoff can be quite strict (3 months post completion), I have had trades come back a year later and still charge me zero VAT for labour based on our original agreement.

 

 

 

 

 

[DanielAllen]

1 hour ago, Bitpipe said:

 

Great advice from Dave there - the HBB is a great buy.

 

You're already doing a lot right as the most efficient house shape to build cost wise is a square / cube with gable ends and a pitched roof - tells you all this in the book. By luck, that's also what we have

 

Also smart that you have areas that need minimal finish (garage) or can be left until later (room in roof). We were in a similar position with our basement and top floor - however when getting quotes I was always surprised that the incremental cost of including those spaces was not excessive, you've also got to weigh the advantage of doing it now at zero VAT vs doing it later and paying 20%.

 

A compromise can be to get to first fix in those areas then buy and store additional materials for post completion work. While the VAT claim cutoff can be quite strict (3 months post completion), I have had trades come back a year later and still charge me zero VAT for labour based on our original agreement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah that's exactly what we're thinking finish wise. We also don't have any children yet so its not like we have to finish the other 2 bedrooms yet as well as the attic bedroom.

 

Just want to build the best house we can for the budget but make sure there's money for certain things that are expensive to re-do at a later date.

 

Good shout on the materials we well, storage is no issue either so we will definitely bear that in mind!

[DanielAllen]

The initial plans for costings have arrived with me tonight. I've attached the 3d sketches on this post so you can get an idea of what we're looking to achieve

0901 - 3D 02_Initial Costing.pdf 0900 - 3D 01_Initial Costing.pdf

[Thedreamer]

5 hours ago, Bitpipe said:

 

Great advice from Dave there - the HBB is a great buy.

 

Thanks Trigger. ?

[Ferdinand]

Welcome.

 

Quote

budget is a max of around £220k so we'll see how that goes!

That would be ... quickly.

 

And beware colleagues who pretend to be disinterested.

(Not sure if it is genuine,  but the soundtrack makes it.) 

 

[Redoctober]

15 hours ago, DanielAllen said:

The initial plans for costings have arrived with me tonight. I've attached the 3d sketches on this post so you can get an idea of what we're looking to achieve

0901 - 3D 02_Initial Costing.pdf 128.48 kB · 16 downloads 0900 - 3D 01_Initial Costing.pdf 162.25 kB · 12 downloads

 

Looks great but simply out of interest and curiosity, how do you overcome the "level access" requirement for building Regs? I'm in Scotland so the regulations maybe different north of the border!  

[DanielAllen]

2 hours ago, Redoctober said:

 

Looks great but simply out of interest and curiosity, how do you overcome the "level access" requirement for building Regs? I'm in Scotland so the regulations maybe different north of the border!  

 

There is stairs in the garage leading up to the first floor as well. I'm not an expert but is that what you mean? I can ask my cousin if you don't think that's enough

[Redoctober]

35 minutes ago, DanielAllen said:

 

There is stairs in the garage leading up to the first floor as well. I'm not an expert but is that what you mean? I can ask my cousin if you don't think that's enough

 

Hi - it's not a problem as such. The Scottish Building Regs make great play on new builds having to have what they call a "level access" for wheelchair users and this can sometimes be problematic when planning / designing the house of your dreams etc. I just raise this issue with regards to your drawings, as there doesn't appear to be any such provision.