Rant Rant Rant

[Visti]

Just a short rant from me. Need to vent!

 

If you aren't already familiar, we're one of the builders at this new and leading custom build project in the UK called Graven Hill. We reserved in March last year and as yet haven't been able to set foot on that piece of land... largely due to the (in)famous Golden Brick.

 

It's been a long process; lots of hoops and lots of compromises that we wouldn't otherwise had to do with a normal build. Then again, I suspect there's a lot of pitfalls we've likely avoided due to the same. Swings and roundabouts.

 

We are at the stage where engineering calcs are being done by MBC for the TF loads, so that we can get the foundation designed and the Golden Brick costed and contracts exchanged. it's been a massive chicken and egg scenario between the TF and foundation which has cost us months of time, but that's what it is.

 

Today we received a formal letter from Graven Hill informing us that our plot price could be re-evaluated if we don't close before the end of the month. That is three and a half weeks notice. To get all of the above done... If they adjust according to the market then our project is as good as dead.

 

We've absorbed ~£30k already on a plot price that was more than expected. Another ~£40k in labour and material cost increases alone in the last year. And we suspect the Golden brick will be double the quantity surveyors estimate due to it not being self built. Thats another ~£25-30k. An increase of nearly £100k  (+50%) against our original budget before we even own the plot. We've accounted for it and can just about manage that if we do about ~£40k in DIY (a lot!!) in just two years. 

 

We're assured by our architect that this is more an attempt to light a fire under us and get this done. But hell, it's rubbed me the wrong way today.

 

I'm sure it'll be alright, but it's just another of those unexpected bumps in the long self-built road...

[willbish]

Can fully understand your frustration @Visti. Only hope I can offer, hasn't the property market cooled in the last year.. Property prices have certainly slid a bit in my neck of the woods, much the same in Oxfordshire perhaps?

 

http://www.home.co.uk/guides/house_prices_report.htm?location=oxford&lastyear=1

[MikeSharp01]

Sorry for being thick but what is the link between the TF loads, foundation design and the golden brick - why must one follow the other?

Edited March 6, 2018 by MikeSharp01

[Visti]

14 minutes ago, willbish said:

Can fully understand your frustration @Visti. Only hope I can offer, hasn't the property market cooled in the last year.. Property prices have certainly slid a bit in my neck of the woods, much the same in Oxfordshire perhaps?

 

http://www.home.co.uk/guides/house_prices_report.htm?location=oxford&lastyear=1

 

If it comes down to a renegotiated price, we'll certainly be doing our research in this regard!

 

14 minutes ago, MikeSharp01 said:

Sorry for being thick but what is the link between the TF loads, foundation design and the golden brick - why must one follow the other?

 

It's complicated, and I don't think it makes much sense either. I just wish we'd pushed harder with a passive slab than having to muck about with this horrid mess of what should be such a fundamentally simple beam and block design

 

The foundation will be done in two parts:

1. Everything below the red boundary is to be included in the Golden Brick (as they don't include anything other than the structural foundation)
2. Everything above the red boundary to FFL is not included in the Golden Brick and must be done by a contractor we hire (EPS, concrete floor)

Everything above FFL is the Timber Frame, which we've hired MBC to do. There will be come internal load beading walls, which have to translate down through the concrete floor and EPS via foamglass or equivalent. 

 

Without those loads, which are being calculated by MBC on a 6 week lead time, we can't get the engineering done on the middle portion, which in turn is delaying the Golden Brick.

 

That's a good point, and one which I'd been told were dependent but now that I think about it, I don't see why we can't proceed with the beam and block... surely we can design the mid-section appropriately to compensate for the loads as and when they're calculated?

 

 

[Russell griffiths]

Bit thick here as well 

have you not paid a deposit and agreed on a sale price. 

[MikeSharp01]

17 minutes ago, Visti said:

Everything below the red boundary is to be included in the Golden Brick (as they don't include anything other than the structural foundation)

So this work is included in the price you pay, so it has to be clear so they can cost it? Have I got that right? If I have why not get MBC to give you a worst case loading and pass this through the process, you might have to pay a little more for the belt and braces foundation but the plot price won't need to be reworked.

[ProDave]

I hope it all works out. It is this sort of nonsense that would turn me away from this scheme.

[Visti]

13 hours ago, MikeSharp01 said:

So this work is included in the price you pay, so it has to be clear so they can cost it? Have I got that right? If I have why not get MBC to give you a worst case loading and pass this through the process, you might have to pay a little more for the belt and braces foundation but the plot price won't need to be reworked.

 

Not quite. The Golden Brick cost is ontop of the plot cost (which is £270k). Until the foundation design is completed and engineering calcs done on it, they wont cost the Golden Brick. Our quantity surveyor estimates ~£25k for the beam and block foundation, but we're expecting double based on the £/m2 figures other builders have been quoted.

 

13 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

Bit thick here as well 

have you not paid a deposit and agreed on a sale price. 

 

Yes and yes, but there is clause in the reservation fine print that alludes to this, but we certainly never foresaw we'd take a year to get here, and have yet to even set food on the plot!

 

I'd get it if we weren't doing a thing and not keeping them informed, but we've been fairly open and transparent on progress so they know we're close and not dallying around. We could possibly have been faster, but the number of extra stakeholders in this project has certainly had it's toll I believe above and beyond a 'normal' project.

[MikeSharp01]

How are your fellow plot holders getting on. Have any of them had this letter a few months back and if so what happened? That might tell you if the letter ever gets enforced or that are just pulling your chain.