Young, naive and potentially stupid.....

[Bozza]

@Thorfun is right that pure self building could be very rewarding.  It’s something I wanted to do myself but wife wanted turnkey as she was worried about the stress time etc that pure self building involved.  The compromise was that I did the demo, contractor did the build l then I built a barn.and the landscaping, fit the kitchen etc.  it is true that it’s got less of your DNA in it the more others do for you.

 

Having varying viewpoints, sometimes differing is very helpful to find what’s right for you.

 

Another option would be to identify a builder who could work alongside you, as such you’d get the hands on build experience whilst mitigating potentially serious errors.

 

[Pocster]

Or ….

 

Do absolutely all of it . Save a fortune and take forever !!! 

[Adsibob]

6 hours ago, ClifftopBuild96 said:

Do you have any shrewd advice for me prior to starting? 

Yes, give up now, sell, and buy a house that needs no work at all.

[saveasteading]

Commercially, you are best to earn your building fund  doing what you are skilled at, then diy as much as you can.

 

Your funds are hard earned and after tax.  Anything you can do yourself is tax-free work.

 

UNLESS your skill is extremely well paid, in which case employ builders at a much lower rate than yours. 

[SteamyTea]

Welcome.

What sort of engineer are you?

 

With any project, make the big decisions first, then stick to them. You don't want it to end up like HS2.

 

Design in the PV and the ASHP right at the start. That will make it a much cheaper place to build. Don't add complications.

 

[Gone West]

Welcome to the forum. First of all good luck with your project. We lived in East Kent at the time and it took us eight years to complete the building work and two years planning, so it pays to have somewhere comfortable to live, while all that is going on. We also had an old bungalow which we replaced with a Passivhaus. We were able to live in the bungalow while building the house in the garden, which was a tight squeeze, but at least we were always on site. We built a timber frame on an insulated slab and did a considerable amount of the work ourselves, hence the eight years. We had never done any large building work before, but we designed and built our own Passivhaus, so just pace yourself and enjoy the rollercoaster.

[Russell griffiths]

18 hours ago, Square Feet said:

I think you should watch this before settling too much on ICF.  I have picked SIPs for the same reason - I think I can build them myself. ICF seems like a stressy disaster waiting to happen.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs-the-streets/on-demand/58244-001

I think you should have looked into it a bit more, disregarding a product because a couple of people on a tv programme made a hash of it, isn’t really a good measure of a product, the people involved in that show shouldn’t really have been allowed anywhere near it. 

Silly old lady and her neighbour helping, yea that’s going to work. 🤣🤣

[Square Feet]

1 hour ago, Russell griffiths said:

I think you should have looked into it a bit more, disregarding a product because a couple of people on a tv programme made a hash of it, isn’t really a good measure of a product, the people involved in that show shouldn’t really have been allowed anywhere near it. 

Silly old lady and her neighbour helping, yea that’s going to work. 🤣🤣

Oh I have!  This was just an example of what can go wrong - there are plenty more out there, but I couldny be ar*ed linking to them all