First self build project!

[Gus Potter]

9 hours ago, saveasteading said:

How many new builds, probably on new estates, are done badly?

Pretty much all of them.. that is one reason for self building.

[Gus Potter]

What great posts from all, you all get a "like from me".

 

I used to say when I was a main contractor. If you PM on a self build and work hard you can save 10 - 15% on the build cost.

 

The posts above are great as they show you how you have to adapt and wear lots of hats.. build relationships, network, learn to deal with suppliers, getting let down and go through a big technical learing curve so you know that what you see getting built is right and complaint.

 

There is no free lunch, it takes hard work. However if you put your back into it big savings can be made that are tax free.

 

One big thing is you can do overtime at work, earn extra, save and pay someone else to do it all. But you get whacked for income tax on your extra earnings.

 

Or you can spend less time at work and work on your build.. you'll actually have to work much harder.. but it's for you so you don't log the hours spent, the personal sense of achievement can't often be quantified in monetary terms.

 

The main thing is that you get that quite satisfaction of doing it yourself.. few folk in the UK ever experience this so grab the opportunity and go for it.

 

There is an old saying .. folk that work hard often get lucky!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Canski]

Gus I never thought of some of that. I like the tax free element of working on your own build but one needs to be productive and there is ALWAYS something to do on a building site. Plan a job or two to do the next day and something else to do will always crop up during the day. Be careful of doing work for people if they are priced to do it. I recently loaded out all of the floor joists to make it easier for the chippies and it took me a few hours and I didn’t even get a thank you. Needless to say they managed the trusses on their own. 

[joe90]

9 hours ago, Gus Potter said:

the personal sense of achievement can't often be quantified in monetary terms.

+1 to that, despite not being allowed to keep my build, the sense of achievement and memory of doing it will always be with me.

 

9 hours ago, Gus Potter said:

There is an old saying .. folk that work hard often get lucky!

People tend to consider me lucky 🤷‍♂️

[Andehh]

If you plan to PM, accept a large portion of your life will be on hold for the later stages of the build . You need to be on site whilst trades are, evenings with be spent adjusting and updating plans and contingency, weekends spend tidying, adjusting and fixing what you didn't get to during the week.

[Sho_86]

Hello there,

 

I am also a new member here.

Congratulations on your project. I just did the same thing and the house was finished this January.

However if you can afford it, please do appoint a builder and project manager. I made the mistake of not having one, on the ground of saving like yourself.

I had to contract different workers, one for the complete interior who also brought his on electrician and someone for heating and plumbing.

This turned out to be a mess, I was supposed to coordinate them myself while doing a full time job as well. It was not fun at all.

The guy doing the interior went bankrupt at 80% of completion and I had to find someone else fast, in the months prices easily doubled and because it was urgent it cost even more.

What was even worse is that I only found out later that they did a lousy job regarding the electric cabling, they had no consideration for the cables while putting about they dry wall and about 1/3 of the electric cables were ruined.

And now of course since he is bankrupt I can't even make warranty claims.

The heating and plumbing guy did his job but as I also later found out there was no checking or fine tuning of the heating either, I am still in contact with this guy and since the middle of September we are playing this game where he promises to come the following week and never shows.

I actually registered to this forum to try to get some help regarding our heating in a separate post.

 

So if you can afford it please contract someone to organize everything.

 

Best of luck!