Doing it again…

[Kelvin]

For those of you that have completed your self-build what would you do differently if you did another one? Particularly in terms of running the house after. I saw a few posts, for example, talking about some of you having overheating problems. 
 

We’ve not started ours yet but hopefully soon. 

[Conor]

I'd take a full year off work, and not have a new child arrive half way through.

 

All the obvious other things apply, finalise more of the details in advance, don't change minds, do networking in advance and have good trades sussed out and booked in well in advance.

 

[ProDave]

If relying on the sale of a property to finance it, I would sell the bloody thing before I even started the new build.

[nod]

We are four months into our second one 

We have followed what we have done precisely 

Muck away cost us 9 k last time 

This time we have a two acre field and where able to bury all the clay on there 

If not I would have explored every alternative to paying £300 a wagon to get rid of it

Farmers etc 

 

we are South facing and I bitterly regret being talked out of MNRH on the first 

Easy fix on the next one 

 

Both previous posters make excellent points 

Booking trades well in advance without overlap is great advise 

If you end up with three weeks or so between your electricians finishing and boarders starting Its better than them clashing and upsetting both 

 

Last but not least Don’t set unrealistic deadlines for trades and YOURSELF

 

[saveasteading]

5 hours ago, nod said:

able to bury all the clay

Dig a hole to bury the clay?  clever.

 

Advice....use your prep time to talk to people. Good tradespersons will have other good contacts. Bad tradespersons will have bad contacts.

Builders merchants have business cards up on their walls usually, but that doesn't mean they are good.

Look at other projects. Be cheeky and speak to the workers, and the client if possible.

[Water]

Not a lot really, I'd structure the contract differently and if I did it again it would only be once more!

[Kelvin]

10 minutes ago, Water said:

Not a lot really, I'd structure the contract differently and if I did it again it would only be once more!

In what way? 

[Kelvin]

On 09/08/2022 at 13:44, ProDave said:

If relying on the sale of a property to finance it, I would sell the bloody thing before I even started the new build.

When I started reading the forum I noticed you’d said on other threads. Fortunately that’s exactly what we did right at the peak although any extra we made has been swallowed up and more by the price rises. 

[saveasteading]

Doing it again I would write the floor construction tolerances  on the drawings. NHBC seems to only refer to the final floor level, and not to the subfloor. Obv there are some expectations or it could be +/- 100mm.

 

I come from doing commercial projects and can't believe how poor house building is allowed to be.

 

Then this amount of packing would not be even argued about......'nobody cares about the subfloor level...it doesn't matter'

 

The slab is not thin here, as there is a footing under it. That gap will be filled. Haven't decided whether folding wedges or drypack...or both.

 

[jack]

This could be a very long list, but a few thoughts:

 

- More blinds. Currently have external blinds on most east, west and southern windows, but we stupidly left them off the large east-facing glass french doors in our bedroom. The idea was to reduce costs, but we're going to have to retrofit, so it'll cost us more in the end.

- Recesses in ceilings for curtains. The external blinds don't block out all the light, and I end up being woken up by the light in summer. We can retrofit in most places, but it will be messy and a lot of effort. 

- UFH heating in the bathrooms. I was talked out of this by people with passivhaus levels of insulation and airtightness. It isn't that the bathrooms are particularly cold, but they could be a lot warmer. We've ended up fitting aftermarket electric heaters that certainly cost us more than UFH would have, and aren't as neat a solution.

- Insect screens on bedroom windows. This is a massive oversight that I hope to rectify at some point. It would be great to be able to open the windows and our large skylight when the external temperature falls below the upstairs temperature in summer, but we can't do it at the moment due to insects.

- Less floor to ceiling glass in the kitchen. People remark on how nice it is to see out into the garden, but it really isn't great for furniture placement. 

- Think harder about placement of electric car charger. We thought we were clever running heavy armoured cables to the garage, but in the end we decided that we wanted a workshop and gym more than we wanted to garage the car. Solution (again): retrofit cable through ceiling then outside to where we actually park the electric car! At the very least, we could have run a duct that would have allowed a new cable to be routed. Ducting is cheap - I think I'd have run a lot more of it all over the house if I'd known what I know now!

[JohnMo]

Don't buy a big sand hill.  Views great, but landscaping costs are huge.

 

Less glass, or Aircon from day one.

 

More solar.

 

More insulation.

 

No more than one thermostat in the whole house.  I had loads caused loads of issues with the heating and short cycling of the boiler.

[Kelvin]

All very useful input. 
 

I can echo the insect screen comment. It was a nightmare at our previous house. We visited our old neighbours a few weeks ago. They couldn’t use their kitchen because of the number of flies in the house. 

[Iceverge]

Less bathrooms. ( 2+ ensuite) A main bath and a shower/wc is fine. 

 

Make it smaller 130m2 vs 185m2. 

 

Downstairs bedroom from day 1. Not a provision for a later conversion. 

His and her's office spaces. 

His and her dressing areas/wardrobes. 

Timber frame with natural insulants vs concrete. Much more sympathetic and carbon negative. 

Built in carport. 

Solar PV from day 1. 

Insulating external shutters. 

Floor drain for spills and leaks in all wet rooms. 

Narrower stairs . 900mm vs 1000mm

Veranda for Shading. 

2000*1900mm tilt and turns at 500mm sill height in the kitchen vs 2000*2400 sliders. Half the price and less heat losses/gains. Less tricky threshold details. 

 

Things I would do again. 

Passive House.  

3G PVC windows. 

French drain, 

Cross ventilation to all rooms. 

Tilt and turn windows for stack ventilation.

Simple electrics. Sockets pendant lights, a good wifi router and a few TV cables.  

No TV in the Kitchen. 

100% Wool carpets. 

Amtico tiles. 

High Ceilings. 

Simple rectangular shape. 

No fireplace. 

MVHR. 

Airtight.

PVC guttering + fascia + soffit. 

Very simple heating system. 1 x Electric Rad.

Very simple Never leak roof. ( A hip roof with no holes for windows, chimneys, cables etc and a healthy overhang 500-600mm. )

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kelvin]

Agree on the fewer bathrooms comment. We had 5 in the previous house and plan two in this one. One upstairs in the ‘master suite’ and one shower room downstairs between the two downstairs bedrooms.