Self build on a tight budget

[Budgethouse]

Hello,
 

Me and my wife have a small plot of land and hope to build our own house.

We have researching timber frame house kits and are visiting the NSBRC in Swindon next week for more insight.

 

The thing is we don’t have much money and want to avoid mortgages. Our budget if we are able to borrow from family is roughly 60-80k and we have lots of friends and family that are electricians/ builders etc that are willing to lend a hand.

 

We don’t have any planning permissions but hope to build a house like the Scotsframe “Calder” floor plan.

 

i joined this website to learn and get advice as we start our journey!

 

Edited Wednesday at 18:03 by Budgethouse

[JohnMo]

Welcome - not a lot of budget, but on the plus side it's a modest house. But I assume you will be doing a lot of the actual work yourself - if not the money will soon disappear.

[SteamyTea]

Welcome.

 

I like doing things 'on a budget'.

Seems a lot of the self build expenses are the non building things like surveys and professionals fees.

 

[Kelvin]

Welcome. 
 

Perfect house to stick build on-site rather than a timber kit which would likely be a bit dearer. The budget is very tight though so will need careful thought and no surprises in the ground or with utilities. There are people who have spent close to your budget just getting utilities to their site so the first thing I’d do is look into that if you haven’t already. 
 

That said most of us have a tight budget even if the absolute number is higher. 

[SimonD]

1 minute ago, Kelvin said:

That said most of us have a tight budget even if the absolute number is higher. 

 

That has got to be the best self-builder quote in a while! So if my budget is 1m and the estimated build cost is 1.2m, then definitely a tight budget..maybe too tight and certainly no room for cost shaving 😉

 

But on the op - that is a tight budget in today's building space and would require some very careful assessment in the high risk areas as already mentioned, but also in decisions all the way through the build with materials etc.

[JohnMo]

General cost adders are

1. not planning well enough, there should be no surprises once out the ground. 

2. Deviations from drawings once drawn.

3. Getting carried away with expensive kitchens and bathrooms.

 

My advise

Plan everything at the drawing stage.

Map out you sockets and lights

Map out all your plumbing and heating - how are you heating?

Map out a ventilation scheme Massive savings are possible by keeping things simple - one zone heating fully open system.

Fully understand how and what you are doing about insulation airtightness etc - if planned well, need not cost you anything additional.

All the above allows you to spot bargains but ahead of time and save loads.

 

Things on your plan that look expensive already are

1. the corner with the glazing in the lounge - looks like and expensive structural detail you could eliminate. 2. Do you need french doors in the dining area?

[SteamyTea]

Make sure you have CIL exception if it applies in your area.

 

Download the latest Building Regs and keep reading them.

Plan your build to comply with them (use their examples if you can) then Building Control should not give you too much trouble.

Edited Wednesday at 20:13 by SteamyTea

[SimonD]

And keep everything to standard, off the shelf sizes

[Budgethouse]

Thanks everyone for your replies and input. There is lots of helpful things you’ve shared that I was unaware of. I will have a look at simplifying the windows/ doors and also do more research regarding regulations and stuff.

[nod]

Building  TF will cost you more than building traditional 

But TF is quicker and more convenient 

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, nod said:

Building  TF will cost you more than building traditional 

But TF is quicker and more convenient 

Not if you're a carpenter.

 

Point being, any element of this budget self-build can be a cost saving.....if you don't work 9-5 and are a competent multi-disciplinary DIY'er.

 

If not, I just cannot see this being a sensible pursuit.

 

Prepare yourself to begin this journey, and to then have to borrow funds to complete. FYI, that's not me being a negative dick, it's my honest reply after 30+ years of building stuff for people..

[Mike]

Another topic to add your to-do list is to learn the VAT rules and budget accordingly. If you're mostly DIYing then you'll be paying VAT on your materials and, while you can eventually reclaim the VAT on most items (not all), you'll have to fund them until you put in your VAT reclaim, so don't let it become a cashflow issue. And, where you do have contractors, make sure they only charge you VAT on the items that they should; if you pay it on other items you can't reclaim it. There are other threads that go into this.

 

Returning to the design, because plasterboard, plywood, OSB and other sheet materials come in 1200mm widths, it will help to reduce waste if you can plan as many dimensions as possible on multiples of 300mm. It won't save a fortune, but will make a difference if cash is tight.

 

For some 'relaxation', track down the BBC series 'The House That £100k Built'; it may give you some cost-cutting ideas, though bear in mind that inflation means you'll now have significantly less to play with than they did.

[Crofter]

That house design seems like a good starting point for a budget build. It's nearly square, and it doesn't have any costly features like stairs, dormers, bay windows, or a chimney.

 

You might find it useful to pick up a copy of 'The Housebuilder's Bible'. I'm not sure how up to date the current version is, but the one I used was pretty no nonsense.

 

Just for reference, the house I built (see profile pic) cost me £40k. That's the full build minus land. It's small (50m²) and was built between 2015-2018, so pre inflation.

 

In your position, I would look to play to your strengths. Are you handy with woodwork, or can you lay blocks? Do you have friends or family with skills, who would do you a favour? The various build methods and materials all have pros and cons. I found that timber frame with timber cladding and a sheet steel roof was very cost effective and DIY friendly.

 

Good luck 🙂

[nod]

6 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

Not if you're a carpenter.

 

Point being, any element of this budget self-build can be a cost saving.....if you don't work 9-5 and are a competent multi-disciplinary DIY'er.

 

If not, I just cannot see this being a sensible pursuit.

 

Prepare yourself to begin this journey, and to then have to borrow funds to complete. FYI, that's not me being a negative dick, it's my honest reply after 30+ years of building stuff for people..

We looked into a TF kit for our second build Foundation and drainage the same Up to watertight was coming out more than a third With a massive upfront payment There after the same 

Convenient BUT Your obviously going to pay for that 

[Kelvin]

One thing to consider that can be overlooked is furniture and furnishings. Obviously that has nothing to do with building the house and it’s something you can deal with when funds recover over a period of time. We intended just to use as much of the furnishings and furniture we already had to save money. However a lot of it just wasn’t suitable (our large L shaped sofa was too big for the open plan living room for example)  or we didn’t like it in the new house. Consequently we’ve pretty much got rid of 90% of what we had and replaced it. Not a consideration for the house build but is potentially an extra cost down the line a bit. 

[Jenki]

I built to a very tight 'budget' around (25% less). We had just over 50k on the bank when we started.

However at that point I had been planning the build to the details @JohnMo describes, i.e. designing out all the features that cost more, (no hips, valleys, large structural openings). We also had all our services in, (treatment plant, water, electricity and most importantly planning, building warrant and certificate of design) .

Timber frame airtightness costs a lot of money, and even if this is part of the kit follow on trades will do their best to ruin that good work due lack of understanding or CBA.

We did all the work ourselves, hunted around for bargains and made choices based on cost and needs not like to haves.

We switched to ICF, a big learning curve,.but I'm convinced we would not have been able to build to the levels we achieved (EPC A 103) with the same costs.

Realistically we spent circa 70k internals all but finished decorated etc.for 89SqM.

So be realistic,.how much are you doing.. 

[JohnMo]

39 minutes ago, Jenki said:

We switched to ICF

I did the same also, so I could build the walls. It's very cost effective route, especially DIY. 

[ToughButterCup]

Welcome 

Your budget is tight. Join the club. But budgets aren't just about money.

 

How much time do you think you have? You might want to talk to relatives about that ..... especially, ermmm - yes her.

[torre]

14 hours ago, Budgethouse said:

avoid mortgages. Our budget if we are able to borrow from family

 

What's your plan if family circumstances change and they need money back? 

 

If you may need a mortgage in future you'll need to budget for some sort of warranty, also if you end up needing to sell.

 

Your house looks well suited to being built on a budget but you need to plan for worst cases and have contingency. What are ground conditions like and service access? So much money can go just getting out of the ground.

 

It's an exciting plan and I want to sound cautionary not negative but if you risk running out of money an unfinished, unwarranted house may not be worth much more than the land it's sitting on.

[ProDave]

Put some dimensions on that drawing or tell us how many square metres?

 

You will do well indeed now to build for under £1000 per square metre.  We did, but it was a slow build with a LOT of DIY work and it finished about 5 years ago.

 

But as others have said, once you have foundations in, that would be an easy timber frame built on site which is entirely DIY possible if you have some basic skills and tools.

 

Other DIY things, buy some kwikstage or similar scaffold and do it yourself. no scaffold rental and no time pressures to get it done and scaffold down.

 

 

[nod]

11 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

Not if you're a carpenter.

 

Point being, any element of this budget self-build can be a cost saving.....if you don't work 9-5 and are a competent multi-disciplinary DIY'er.

 

If not, I just cannot see this being a sensible pursuit.

 

Prepare yourself to begin this journey, and to then have to borrow funds to complete. FYI, that's not me being a negative dick, it's my honest reply after 30+ years of building stuff for people..

My point is That the TF is more expensive There not going to let you muck in Even if you don’t work 9-5 

[Mike]

2 hours ago, ProDave said:

buy some kwikstage or similar scaffold and do it yourself. no scaffold rental and no time pressures to get it done and scaffold down.

A good tip. I did the same.

[Crofter]

3 hours ago, nod said:

My point is That the TF is more expensive There not going to let you muck in Even if you don’t work 9-5 

Who are 'they'?

Who's to say the OP isn't going to do the stick build himself? I did.

[nod]

3 hours ago, Crofter said:

Who are 'they'?

Who's to say the OP isn't going to do the stick build himself? I did.

 

[Edited by mods - please keep it civil] 

 

The clue is in Timber frame kits 

[nod]

11 hours ago, Crofter said:

That house design seems like a good starting point for a budget build. It's nearly square, and it doesn't have any costly features like stairs, dormers, bay windows, or a chimney.

 

You might find it useful to pick up a copy of 'The Housebuilder's Bible'. I'm not sure how up to date the current version is, but the one I used was pretty no nonsense.

 

Just for reference, the house I built (see profile pic) cost me £40k. That's the full build minus land. It's small (50m²) and was built between 2015-2018, so pre inflation.

 

In your position, I would look to play to your strengths. Are you handy with woodwork, or can you lay blocks? Do you have friends or family with skills, who would do you a favour? The various build methods and materials all have pros and cons. I found that timber frame with timber cladding and a sheet steel roof was very cost effective and DIY friendly.

 

Good luck 🙂

Oh god 

House builders bible 😂😂😂😂😂