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Quandary- what would you do?


goatcarrot

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Turns out a local architect is a friend of my wife’s so I asked him if he had any experience of Passivhaus design. He said no but was willing to be educated and has offered to help us if we make a donation to charity, an incredibly generous offer! I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth but...
 

while on the face of it this sounds like a great opportunity to save some money and keep things local, is there a big difference between mindsets here? 
 

my budget was always tight anyway (£150k for 3bed) but I do want a house that is as near as PH standard as I can get.
 

Could this be a false economy? 

he said he would look at doing the training too and seems a genuine bloke though I’ve not seen any of his work yet.

 

what do you think? 
 

 

Edited by goatcarrot
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Just now, goatcarrot said:

NE Cumbria, well I’d like 160m2 but others have told me that’s not doable on my budget

No chance.

 

I have almost finished self building a similar sized near passive house for just under £1000 per square metre.  That is paying a builder to build the shell and doing almost everything else myself over 5 years.  Are you ready for such a long DIY slog to get it that cheap? 

 

And that is before you allow for cost of materials rising since I bought most of mine.

 

And we haven't even mentioned land, professional fees, getting services on site etc etc

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Unrealistic budget, inexperienced designer, family friend.... what could go wrong ?

 

In all seriousness if you want to do something relatively complex in your build like passivhaus and do it as cheaply as possible - you want the most experienced designer possible to work with,  not someone learning on the tools in my opinion 

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@ProDave  land already owned, services very nearby. 
 

I think the builder is very good but cheap, see his rough estimate above on a recent house 

he’s just done, that’s 3 men laying block/stone and 1 labourer. That’s the going rate round here, works out about £20 per hour excluding the labourer. 

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18 minutes ago, goatcarrot said:

Insulated foundation

No.

The ground will rarely get above 12°C, so even if air temperature is higher, you will still be loosing energy heating the mud.

 

You can save cash or all those expensive 'nice to haves', posh kitchen (with or without island/breakfast bar), over the top bathrooms, expensive staircases, expensive glazing etc.  All that can be replaced at a later date when finances are different.

 

Design an airtight, well insulated, box with the internal walls where you want them.  Make sure your thermal bridging is kept to an absolute minimum, design in the MVHR at the very beginning, so make sure the build is as airtight as possible (even if you do an interim test), fit UFH pipework, but maybe run it off a simple Willis heater, see what @TerryE and other have done, keep the plumbing and wiring simple, but maybe run ductwork for extra cabling later.

Internal doors can start off cheap, then put a posh one in every year.

Keep an eye on the professional fees, and make sure you are not in for any surprises i.e. connecting to services, ground conditions, storm drainage, environmental reports/mitigations etc, You can loose £50k on those alone @ToughButterCup was keeping a spreadsheet on these costs.

 

Just keep it all very basic, but allow for easy upgrades later.

 

Research all you can.  Then do some more research.

 

Only use a friend if you want to get rid of them, and they are well insured.

Edited by SteamyTea
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Maybe you need to forget that silly word PASSIVE HOUSE and instead build a very well insulated, airtight house. 

Im in agreement that unless you do a MASSIVE amount of work your budget is woefully small. 

You can get a shell up with a £1000 kitchen and move in, then finish it over the next few years. 

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I agree with the above,  I did similar, nothing flash, but loads of insulation and airtightness. Windows made locally and double glazed but very near triple value. You can upgrade all the “bolt ons” afterwards but you can’t add more wall and underfloor insulation afterwards. Loads of knowledge here and we don’t mind how many questions you ask!!! (Unless your names zoot ?).

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21 hours ago, goatcarrot said:

@ProDave  land already owned, services very nearby

 

"very nearby" as in you know you can connect to them for minimal costs, or "very nearby" in that you know where they are but that's about it.

 

There have been people who have services very nearby who have had quotes for £10Ks for connection due to service routings/capacity limits/providers wanting someone to pay for them upgrading their infrastructure etc..

Edited by AliMcLeod
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@AliMcLeod  fair point. 4” drain from neighbour actually runs across the site so if it’s not at capacity further downstream, connection should be straightforward. I realise this isn’t a given though and might be looking at private treatment so if I can save £8k on architect fees then great. 
water is in the lane, again, if not at capacity then should be ok. 
elec poles run along the edge of field not far from substation so unless the transformer’s on its limit it should be ok. 
I’ll be applying for connection quotes as soon as I get the pre-app back, all being well. 

Edited by goatcarrot
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 15/02/2021 at 19:18, goatcarrot said:

Ok I realise I was being optimistic. 
 

looks like I’ll have to compromise somewhere, question is where? Size? Insulated foundation?
 

local builder has quoted £35k for labour on an 8x8m house in block and stone over 12 weeks. 
 

 

 

 

 

what does this include the shell to wallplate ? The roof? 

 

 

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