"Costs I hadn't budgeted for" - let's build a guide for those who follow behind us.

[Bancroft]

I think a useful topic to have pinned on this site would be one entitled "Costs I hadn't budgeted for".

 

Joking aside, I think it could be a useful thread to help people get a more comprehensive idea about all those little things that no magazines, tv programmes, or manufacturers/suppliers tell you about.

 

I'll start the ball rolling:

 

Our internet fibre comes to our property via overhead cable.  The cable runs across our driveway/site access point and is about 3.5m above ground height.

 

To get concrete lorries in we need a minimum of 4m but there isn't enough slack in the cable to simply raise it.

 

What we need is for the consumer connection box on the side of the house to be unscrewed and raised about 2m to give the slack required.  Then a new cable needs to be added from the box to our internal connection socket.

 

I've sent photos to Openreach and spent an hour on the phone explaining the situation.

 

Andy, the nice man at Openreach, has said they need to do a 'detailed survey' to determine exactly what needs to be done.  What needs to be done is clear from the photos and Andy privately agrees with me but the system says we still need the survey.

 

Out of the goodness of his heart, Andy has kept the costs of the survey as low as possible so now it will only cost us £633.

 

Only £633!

 

That doesn't include any work needed to fix the issue and could actually be more '...if we find any issues...'.

 

When I suggested he had me over a barrel with my trousers around my ankles because only Openreach could do this work, he said, "Yes, we have".

 

So, new builder, if you ever have a reason to speak to Openreach regarding your new property, be prepared for an eye-watering experience.

[Mr Punter]

I have had 3 new fibre connections to new flats from Openreach at no cost.  I guess they must subsidise them by ripping off the likes of @Bancroft.

[Tony L]

You say, "only Openreach can do this work".  I'd be very surprised if that's true.  Perhaps only Openreach should do the work, but if they're charging you £633 to send their salesman round to price up the job, I think they are abusing their monopoly position & you have all the justification you need to get any old telecom engineer to come round & do whole the job for £200 or whatever.  & why run a new cable from the box?  It sounds to me like you just need a connector & a couple of meters of new cable on your house.

 

I have incurred a large unexpected cost on my build today: I planned to dig the trench foundations at the start of October, because, historically, that's when our water table has been at its lowest.  With the weather we've had over the past month, the water table is very much higher than expected. I have a large supply of reclaimed OSB & plywood that's been sitting on my site, to use as shuttering, to stop my foundations caving in as they're dug.  My builder called this morning to say it's all too damp & the braces are just punching through the boards, so he'll have to buy new ply (to run the whole length of the foundations x 2 sides).  He says OSB won't be strong enough as the ground is so wet.  I don't know how much this will add yet, but it will be a lot.

[Andehh]

We didn't fully spec the electrics, and the electrician utterly buggered us as a captive audience. Plan plan plan.

[ProDave]

39 minutes ago, Andehh said:

We didn't fully spec the electrics, and the electrician utterly buggered us as a captive audience. Plan plan plan.

That was a case of bad electrician rather than poor planning.  when I was wiring new builds, I would take a walk round the shell of the building with a marker pen and discuss with the owner where they wanted sockets, switches etc and price on what they wanted, not what some random architect who was never going to live in the property had marked on the plan.

 

Sole trader tradesmen live or die on their reputation and recommendation.  If he ripped you off, don't be afraid of telling anyone that asks and don't recommend him.  All my work came from recommendations.

[Bancroft]

20 hours ago, Tony L said:

You say, "only Openreach can do this work".  I'd be very surprised if that's true.  Perhaps only Openreach should do the work, but if they're charging you £633 to send their salesman round to price up the job, I think they are abusing their monopoly position & you have all the justification you need to get any old telecom engineer to come round & do whole the job for £200 or whatever.  & why run a new cable from the box?  It sounds to me like you just need a connector & a couple of meters of new cable on your house.

I had a chat with my tame electrician to see if he knew anyone who could do it but he said he didn't think anyone was able to.

 

As it happens, I've found a way around my immediate issue - I've re-located the consumer connection box and taken as much slack out of the system as I can and it seems to have worked - just.

 

However, I'll still need to pay them for a survey for supply to the new house...

[Bancroft]

20 hours ago, Andehh said:

We didn't fully spec the electrics, and the electrician utterly buggered us as a captive audience. Plan plan plan.

Captive audience - too true.

 

SSEN quoted me £8.2k for single phase or £8.9k for three phase.

 

As the difference was so small I paid for three phase.

 

Then, a day later, I got an email from them saying they'd forgotten to add in some costs for the three phase cable and the new quote price is £11.3k...

 

It's as if they just roll a dice.