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Would appreciate some thoughts on plans please :)


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I had intended using estimators online hwoever they don't touch ICF which was a shame. I asked them about this at the weekend at the Glasgow HBR Show and they think they may be able to do this in 6months, but ICF treated slightly as something 'new' - which needs to chaneg given how many self builders are starting to use it. 

 

House Builders Bible is useful to an extent and a good starting place. Although I never anticipated just how much 2x2 and 4x2 we would go through!

 

 

 

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5 hours ago, Kuro507 said:

 

£1,300 /m2 would probably be impossible for us. We are West Midlands based and need to be much nearer £1,000 per m/sq.

 

Its downstairs space thats important, we will probably end up sepending £200-£250k for a 1acre plot, leaving £200-£250 for the build.

 

You also need to allow for non build elements such as planning & building regs (you'll need drawings, etc), SE fees, site insurance and a warranty should you need a mortgage on the property post build or wish to sell within 10 years.

 

I've not done the final sums (still spending :) ) but we're probably between £1500 and £1750/m2, excluding land costs. That's in the SE - I hear build costs of £2-2.5k/m2 are not unusual now.

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5 hours ago, Kuro507 said:

 

£1,300 /m2 would probably be impossible for us. We are West Midlands based and need to be much nearer £1,000 per m/sq.

 

Its downstairs space thats important, we will probably end up sepending £200-£250k for a 1acre plot, leaving £200-£250 for the build.

 

Ok so you can do the £1k per square metre but you are going to have to compromise. 

 

Although I hate them, dormers are a cheap way to get a room into a roof. I have 3.....

 

Reducing to a big double pitch single storey with a steep pitch roof will give you space for less than the cost of building walls. I have 50 degree roof pitch....

 

Doing it yourself means just that - learn to do things such as underfloor heating, digging trenches, basic plumbing. Labour for the trades if they are on day rate and learn to make lots of tea .... 

 

Plan in for the future and make life easy. A socket or switch on every wall in a room is a pain for a plasterer and more cost for the sparks - putting a plug in a corner where it can be used both sides is not an issue but do it once. Try and keep services to stud walls and inner walls and you will save a lot in time running pipes and wires. 

 

Insist on pozijoists as they will halve the time to install and make huge time savings for the follow on trades. 

 

Looking at that design you need at least 3 soil stacks - all adds up so move it around so you end up with a services zone running down through all the floors. 

 

The ensuite looks a little odd ... no door to the toilet ..?? 

 

Kitchen island is too close to the table - 5m is about the minimum to get a decent run of cabinets and an island in without that table. If you look at yours you have cabinets (700mm) service space (1200mm) island (1100..??) and then a table which at 850mm wide leaves 1150mm for 2 chairs and someone to walk down ..?

 

We did 4 plots and 10 designs before buying one, this one ironically coming with full PP but we adapted the outside a little and gutted the internal design which has created an additional study, a cellar and a 10sqm ensuite with a 24 sqm master bedroom. 

 

My target price per square metre ..?? I'll let you know when we are done ..!!

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21 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Although I hate them, dormers are a cheap way to get a room into a roof. I have 3.....

 

Reducing to a big double pitch single storey with a steep pitch roof will give you space for less than the cost of building walls. I have 50 degree roof pitch....

 

If you hate dormers, consider my idea of "gable ends" instead.

 

Ours (like just about every house in the Highlands) is room in roof, but I built big gable ends, instead of dormers. Think of a dormer, but don't chop the sides off. I first saw this style of house on Skye and liked it.  I have to say I am very pleased and just about the entire floor area upstairs has standing headroom.

render_13.thumb.jpg.0229ec60cb52c0a24e0ed1a67316c6de.jpg

 

 

 

 

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7 minutes ago, ProDave said:

If you hate dormers, consider my idea of "gable ends" instead.

 

Ours (like just about every house in the Highlands) is room in roof, but I built big gable ends, instead of dormers. Think of a dormer, but don't chop the sides off. I first saw this style of house on Skye and liked it.  I have to say I am very pleased and just about the entire floor area upstairs has standing headroom.

render_13.thumb.jpg.0229ec60cb52c0a24e0ed1a67316c6de.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

+1.

 

Love the defenestration window for Czech visitors. A pond and a plank must be tempting.

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6 hours ago, Kuro507 said:

 

£1,300 /m2 would probably be impossible for us. We are West Midlands based and need to be much nearer £1,000 per m/sq.

 

Its downstairs space thats important, we will probably end up sepending £200-£250k for a 1acre plot, leaving £200-£250 for the build.

 

 

You are creating a problem for yourself if you want to buy a 1 acre plot for a 250 sq metre house.

 

A plot will generally be priced based on the largest build that a developer can put on it and sell. A 250sq metre house would fit very comfortably in a quarter of an acre, indeed a developer could get 6 houses that size into an acre, or a couple of blocks of flats.

 

If the value of a house that size is £500k then I would expect a build cost of around £300-350k and to be spending £150k for the land it is built on. If you want to buy a piece of land that could take a substantially larger house or multiple houses you will end up spending more than the house is worth, although you could of course recoup it later by selling the excess land.

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  • 3 months later...

I agree with Jack...a real site will make a huge change to your thinking, and create many fantastic opportunities. Ferdinand has suggested my' originally free' design notes...now a somewhat more detailed book, but with the printers. However, the initial notes do point out that pre-made plans are only useful, it seems to me, for initial and isolated inspiration. Supposing the site is only 5.5m wide!  Incidentally there are very few plans in the book, just words, quotes, descriptions...and a few computer generated 3D images of bits of interiors of my designs. Maybe the game is to see if you can guess which image matches the words and ideas elsewhere in the text. Incidentally it was devise I use when teaching some 3rd year interior students...ignore fashion statements in books and design magazines...use a dictionary for extremes and opposites of interior possibilities!...they all passed.

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Re designing before a plot.

One of the beauties of CAD is that you can rotate, flip, invert, scale and mirror easily, so not a waste of time at all.

I doubt if you would buy a plot that was unsuitable for the design of house you envisage, so keep designing.

Also you learn useful skills along the way and start to get a 'feel' for what is involved.

 

So keep sketching and thinking up things to save work and expense.

My Mother has been in her house for 30 years, it was only in the last year that she removed the trellis that was dividing up her garden.

As she said, "until I actually did it, I could imagine anything". :D

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Ah, thanks for the welcome...Didn't know the forum existed until Ferdinand spotted my recent post GBF. I did design a house on a site that was only 5.6m wide, but one 'no maintenance' wall was on the boundary, with the agreement of a friendly neighbour. Another was sold with my design attached as it were, to a builder who did indeed flip it, to no detriment. No important views, more or less level site, Steamy Tea, well said...but beware pre-conceived ideas overtaking your  choice of site...good sites are few and far between...as many of us know.

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  • 2 months later...

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