Living the dream.

[Selexus]

Hey everyone,

 

Hope you’re all well!
After 20+ years of dreaming, 3 years of searching and a couple of false starts , we’ve finally had our offer accepted on a 1.6 acre plot in North Devon.

We’ve engaged a planning consultants to help, us with the change from 2, 2 storey houses on the plot to a single, 1 storey house.

It’ll (hopefully) be about 6m by 56m with an attached greenhouse section and garage. Similar in style to the Ramon Esteve house in Spain.

 

The plan is for us to do 90% of the work ourselves. ICF walls, sips roof, etc,etc.

As with most people our budget is tight, and we expect to partially complete the house before moving in, then continue the internalls over the following couple of years (whilst being back at work).

 

Looking forward to running some ideas past you, and hopefully incorporating the advise into our build to make things simpler and less expensive.

 

Cheers

[ProDave]

Hi and welcome.

 

If the budget it tight, I would have thought the obvious answer was split the plot, that has PP for 2 houses, sell one half and build your house on 0.8 acres?  

 

Anything else and you are effectively paying for another building plot, just to get a bigger garden.

 

a 56metre by 6 metre house is an odd form factor, not the most energy efficient, there must be a reason for that?

[nod]

Sounds a great project 

We have similar site of 2.5 acres and have used half an acre for our build and probably won’t build the second that we have planning for (expensive garden) Like you we have done at least 90% ourselves and look to come in at about £1000 m2 Plus the cost of the land Though quotes of 50k plus for a kitchen (Supply only) Look to undo some of the good budgeting 

Good luck 

[Bozza]

Welcome.  I’m estimating you are, like me, are middle aged.  Most of my build was turn key with me finishing off some stuff, kitchen and landscaping etc, due to budget.  I also had the potential to do two plots on my site but stuck to one house.

 

My body is now broken.  I’m tired. And with hindsight I’d wished I’d split my plot.  Thing is I approached my project with the mindset of a fit 30 year old.  Not a now broken 52 year old.  
 

I don’t want to pee on your fireworks, but if you are a bit older please be aware of the toll the manual work can take and that the dream and reality are quite different.

 

If I’d split my plot my bank balance and body would be in a far better place.  And I’d be Living the Dream.  
 

having said that glad you’ve found something and looking forward to the challenges.  If you wish to crack on as planned, get yourself into the gym and get private healthcare, you’ll likely need it.

 

just remember you are not 20 anymore.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Conor]

6x56m is a silly, expensive, and energy inefficient shape for a house. I hope that's a typo? You'd be mad not to split the plot as you already have pp for. The profit from selling the second site will make life far more comfortable.

 

It's a tough job building a house. We had a main contractor do our ICF shell. We then took it over and got all the individual trades in. I'm spending my Easter weekend kerbing and building garden walls. There's no way you can do 90% of the hands on work yourself. Unless you stop your main jobs, and ignore friends and family for four years!!

[saveasteading]

2 hours ago, Selexus said:

6m by 56m 

Is that so every room has an amazing view?

For building physics it is a very inefficient shape.

For living in, perhaps 2 generations with an end each and shared middle could work.

Our steading, if unwrapped, would be 60 x 5m, and it works as 2 spaces, but needs clever design, and space wasting corridors.

 

[NailBiter]

Welcome, we are doing something very similar to you building a 42m x 10m ICF house in Dorset doing everything but the frame / subframe ourselves.

It is a little out of the ordinary so you may receive some pushback but there is a wealth of expertise and knowledge here on the forum. It is worth listening intently to what people are saying (and then being willing to discard some of it after careful consideration).

There are of course efficiency issues with having a building shaped long and thin like this (yours even more so) but they can be mitigated in many ways.

Depending on the orientation of your roof and shading you should have an enviable orientation for cheaply fitting a very large solar installation. The majority of the cost these days is in the mounting system not the panels. The panels are cheap and getting cheaper.

You can also use techniques like DC oversizing (up to 200% these days) which let you save costs on large inverters and avoid arguments with National Grid. Add DC linked batteries and a DC linked EV charger to make it even more useful.

With an ASHP and underfloor heating you effectively have a heat battery that will take a few days (depending on building fabric) to discharge.

 

Deferrable loads, TOU tariffs (time of use tariff) and renewable energy all go hand in hand. 

I hope we stay in touch as I think we probably have quite a lot to learn from each other, cheers.

Other members with projects that may interest you are:

 

@BotusBuild Who is currently building his own ICF house to an incredibly high standard. 

@TerryE Who built a large multi-generational home in 2017

@AliG Who it won't let me tag as I've run out of tags on this post. Built a 1000 m2 ICF house
 

Edited March 31 by NailBiter

[NailBiter]

21 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

For living in, perhaps 2 generations with an end each and shared middle could work.

This is the layout we went for. No idea if it works well yet or not but from walking around it and placing furniture / people in Twin Motion it seems to. 

[BotusBuild]

2 hours ago, NailBiter said:

Who is currently building his own ICF house to an incredibly high standard.

Thank you

[Pocster]

4 hours ago, Bozza said:

I don’t want to pee on your fireworks, but if you are a bit older please be aware of the toll the manual work can take and that the dream and reality are quite different.

Splitting the plot would be a dream ontop of your existing dream .

An important point @Bozza makes is that even for a super fit stud of a man like me after 11yrs my back and knees are (expletive deleted)ed .

Chiropractor couldn’t believe what I had done on my own ( amount and weight of materials ) - guaranteeing a shagged back .

[Selexus]

20 hours ago, saveasteading said:

Is that so every room has an amazing view?

For building physics it is a very inefficient shape.

For living in, perhaps 2 generations with an end each and shared middle could work.

Our steading, if unwrapped, would be 60 x 5m, and it works as 2 spaces, but needs clever design, and space wasting corridors.

 

You’re pretty much spot on here.

this is the view that I want to keep to myself (no neighbours 😉)

 

There is an existing slab from the former agricultural use, in place, that I’m attempting to keep undisturbed, for several reasons. Doing this also constrains the building shape to long and narrow. As mentioned, not the most efficient, but sometimes form needs to override function 😊.

 

When we have planning approval I’ll post a layout and elevation plan.

 

@Bozza I am a similar age and recognised this is pretty much my last chance to do this before I get too old. I’m taking 12 months off work to dedicate to getting a watertight habitable shell . It’s gonna be tough, but most things worth having are…

One of my best mates is a builder, and my partners son is a carpenter, both want to help with the build so I’m not totally on my own.

 

@NailBiter we can take advantage of the long roof space for PV and HW solar, as it’s south facing. Solar gain (both negative and positive aspects) will be accounted for. My other best mate is purchasing director for one of the UKs leading boiler/renewables manufacturer. He’s promised to help get some free equipment (thermal store, inverter, etc) to make the whole heating/power installation more affordable, along with free design services from their in house team.

Thanks all for the advise and encouragement so far.

 

[SteamyTea]

57 minutes ago, Selexus said:

we can take advantage of the long roof space for PV and HW solar, as it’s south facing

And add an extra 300mm of insulation on the long North wall.

 

 

[Thorfun]

2 hours ago, Selexus said:

There is an existing slab from the former agricultural use, in place, that I’m attempting to keep undisturbed, for several reasons.

Does this affect zero rating VAT at all? If using part of an existing structure? 

[saveasteading]

33 minutes ago, Thorfun said:

Does this affect zero rating VAT at all? If using part of an existing structure? 

No it's fine. I think it's clearly a change of use. 

[Jenki]

On 31/03/2024 at 11:28, Conor said:

There's no way you can do 90% of the hands on work yourself. Unless you stop your main jobs, and ignore friends and family for four years!!

We  ( wife and I )did 99.8% of our 90sqm in 7 months. Full time, and ran 2 self catering cabins over the summer (around 150 nights).  We didn't have any other life, just head down and ass up. It was tough, left me an  exhausted 51 for a few months, I'm now ready for the next chapter. Anything is possible but it all comes at a cost ,financial, physical and or mental .

6 x 56 M will keep you fit if nothing else. But at over 3 times the size of ours I think that would have broke me.

[SteamyTea]

8 minutes ago, Jenki said:

56 M will keep you fit

Usain Bolt would have run that distance in about 6 seconds.

[Pocster]

7 hours ago, Selexus said:

m taking 12 months off work to dedicate to getting a watertight habitable shell .

Typo ? Years surely ? 🫤🤣

[Alan Ambrose]

Re: reusing the slab - you’ll want to allow for a bunch of insulation (anywhere between 100 &300mm) and check you have enough foundation strength there to support a house rather than a shed, so it may just be easier to re-make the slab. That also gives you more design flexibility if you need it.

 

I vote also for a build schedule / financial arrangement that doesn’t leave the builder with the body of an 80 year old

Edited April 2 by Alan Ambrose

[saveasteading]

It depends on circumstances but my first instinct is to leave the concrete but shatter it and treat it as your harcore base. But if the levels aren't correct then break it up for hardcore. 

Whatever, don't design the house around it.

Having any hard surface on a site is such a bonus that I hate to break them up.

[ProDave]

On 01/04/2024 at 08:34, Selexus said:

There is an existing slab from the former agricultural use, in place, that I’m attempting to keep undisturbed, for several reasons. Doing this also constrains the building shape to long and narrow. As mentioned, not the most efficient, but sometimes form needs to override function 😊.

Are you planning to build on this existing slab as others seem to think?

 

My mind must work different to others as I had assumed you wanted to keep the slab as a handy parking / storage / work area so that only left you a narrow strip to build the house alongside this existing slab.

[Selexus]

1 hour ago, saveasteading said:

Having any hard surface on a site is such a bonus that I hate to break them up.

 

Exactly my thoughts.....

 

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

Are you planning to build on this existing slab as others seem to think?

 

My mind must work different to others as I had assumed you wanted to keep the slab as a handy parking / storage / work area so that only left you a narrow strip to build the house alongside this existing slab.

 

The current slab is 15m x 60m and I'd like to utilize it to have a good surface to build from, possibly dropping an insulated raft on top and tying the ICF structure into it ?(subject to Ground survey, and SE report) ? Also there will be enough space around the current building design to also utilize this slab as sub base for parking (gravel over stabilization grids, or similar), and patio base(tiles on pedestals), etc, etc. The ability to drop landscaping/drive/path surfaces over the top with minimal preparation will be a cost/time saver.

I'll have to cost up different foundation options but the benefits of having a large stable platform for working/parking/storage onsite is very appealing and has to be factored in.

 

Keeping it must be better than spending money removing it, then trudging around in acres of mud.....surely ?

[Selexus]

On 01/04/2024 at 11:40, Jenki said:

We  ( wife and I )did 99.8% of our 90sqm in 7 months. Full time, and ran 2 self catering cabins over the summer (around 150 nights).  We didn't have any other life, just head down and ass up. It was tough, left me an  exhausted 51 for a few months, I'm now ready for the next chapter. Anything is possible but it all comes at a cost ,financial, physical and or mental .

6 x 56 M will keep you fit if nothing else. But at over 3 times the size of ours I think that would have broke me.

@Jenki I've followed some of your posts and on the back of your experiance I contacted Will at Polysteel. Their office is a 5 min drive from my current home, so i popped round last week and had a chat. 

I like the product but was a little concerned by the office/business and the lack of people. This to me would indicate a risk of lack of support ?

I'll have to factor that in when making a decision on which system to go with.

[saveasteading]

Excellent. So you cut a slice out and have the house and parking 50% prepared.700m2 @ £20 saved. Or more.  Plus the benefit of  the hard surface for working and storage.

It is in the best position though?

[Jenki]

9 hours ago, Alan Ambrose said:

 

4 hours ago, Selexus said:

@Jenki I've followed some of your posts and on the back of your experiance I contacted Will at Polysteel. Their office is a 5 min drive from my current home, so i popped round last week and had a chat. 

I like the product but was a little concerned by the office/business and the lack of people. This to me would indicate a risk of lack of support ?

I'll have to factor that in when making a decision on which system to go with

 

Tha fact it is around the corner would be a big plus for me. Will answered all questions, and spoke with my SE no issues. They will also do the calculations as part of the job so a saving / help there as well.

I'm not self building again, but I would not hesitate to use this system again. Bit I did need EWI and IWI to hit insulation values.

Edited April 2 by Jenki

[Tom]

4 hours ago, Selexus said:

Their office is a 5 min drive from my current home

 

Nudura fairly close to you too: https://www.thefellpartnership.co.uk/  always found Tim there very helpful