A checklist from post-planning to DPC

[Tony K]

Hi,

I have planning permission for a new house on land I own. I am now wading through the various literature on what to do next, and have concluded that whilst I would be happy dealing with sub contractors and trades from DPC upwards I am too far out of my comfort zone with the stuff that comes before that.

 

I wonder if anyone can suggest the best method, or a checklist of to-dos, from obtaining planning permission to DPC? Everything from paperwork (insurance, warranty, detailed design spec, engineers drawings, renewable energy tech etc) to the actual physical works, which in my case are likely to be a bit complex and awkward. 

 

I would be happy to find one person or firm to take on all of the above, but am unsure what type of person or firm is best. 

 

Any advice gratefully received.

[Jeremy Harris]

Welcome,

 

I don't have a checklist, as I think every build will have some unique, or site-specific, elements that would make a generic checklist hard to use.  However, I was in a similar position to yourself, in that I bought a plot of land, obtained planning consent myself, and was then concerned that I wasn't comfortable with breaking ground - I just didn't know enough about the way the building industry works to take on managing the ground works.

 

In my case I had several major aspects to the ground works, that coloured my approach.  The plot was on a  steep slope, so around 900 tonnes of earth needed to be removed and a large (up to 2.5m high) retaining wall had to be built.  I had already shortlisted a contractor to supply and build our passive slab foundation system and house frame, and knew the specifications they needed in terms of a prepared foundation area.

 

To de-risk this first stage I wrote a detailed tender document and sent it out to around half a dozen ground works companies for quotes.  Comparing quotes was very challenging, as none of the companies priced all of the work in the specification and drawings I'd given them, but I ended up short-listing two of the better companies and then working up a firm price quote from each.  The company that won the contract wasn't the cheapest, but it was the one that gave me the most professional itemised quote and included not only their quantity surveyors breakdown of cost, but also invited me to talk directly with their QS if I had any concerns.

 

I awarded the contract to this company, on a firm price basis, with them having full responsibility for managing the site, so they controlled H&S@W, security, etc, along with compliance with some arduous planning constraints regarding possible pollution run-off on to the lane and adjacent stream.

 

This worked exceptionally well.  They managed the site well, were easy to deal with and the only thing that I think I'd have done differently if doing it again was to be on site more regularly for briefings on each stage.  I assumed once or twice a week would be OK - in practice half an hour every day would have been better.

 

They left me with a site that was ready for our foundation and frame company to move straight on to, as well one with provision for all services, ducts for pipes and cables etc, in place.

 

Much of this is documented in our blog (linked in my signature below - look for the earliest entries) and some of the stuff there may help you work out what's needed.  There will be a lot of variation depending on the foundation system you choose (there must be a couple of dozen variations at least just on that theme) as well as how your services are going to run.  Might be worth posting details of your plot and locations of things like service runs etc, as there are lots of different ways to approach the early stages of the job.

 

FWIW, "managing" the first stage of the ground works was a bit of a baptism of fire for me, but did give me a lot more confidence to manage the post frame erection work myself, both in choosing work I could do and in contracting with sub-contractors for work I didn't feel comfortable doing.

[lizzie]

Try and get recommendations and check out everyone you propose to use. Mistakes are costly.  We were far too trusting, it cost us a lot of time, money and stress.

[Tony K]

Thank you very much for this info, especially the link to your blog JSHarris - it is very interesting and useful.

 

My plot is not a challenging as yours, but will need a good Structural Engineer as I have to contend with neighbouring trees very close by, and the design I have come up with involves a partially sunken bedroom block, the bottom one metre or so of which will be dug into the ground. As you say in your blog, design is largely a matter of responding to the site constraints, and that is certainly true in my case. 

 

My own list of 'to-dos' looks like:

 

Confirm my mortgage in principle for the works (I am told this should be OK, but see you have a cautionary tale to tell).

Locate any underground pipes on the land (somehow?).

Contact Water, Drainage and Electricity companies to arrange connection for the plot.

 

Thereafter I will need to decide between three routes (I think):

 

1. Employ an architects technician (or suchlike), a structural engineer, and some sort of renewable energy consultant to turn my very basic plans into 'proper' building drawings. Then tender the different parts of the build out (groundworks, walls, roof etc and so on), managing different sub contractors along the way. 

 

2. Take the 'proper' drawings to various contractors and get quotes for them to do most or all of it.

 

3. Get a design and build firm to do both the drawings and the work. 

 

I favour the first option as I have a plumber, electrician, roofer and plasterer I have used before and trust, but wonder if I am missing a trick by not getting one firm to take it all on? I work full time as does my wife, we have three young children and I have enough experience of doing building work myself on our existing house to know that it is stressful and time-consuming, probably more so than I can accommodate on this project!

 

Any advice on the best route is again welcome.

 

I am a planner by trade and happy to help anyone else out with questions on that front by the way. 

 

 

Edited July 20, 2018 by Tony K

[Declan52]

The easiest route once you have settled on a design is going for a package from a timber frame company. They will all offer various different options. From these you can pick what one suits your design plus more importantly the wallet.

Although not every timber frame company will do the foundations but some do.

Once the frame is up and wind and water tight then you can get the trades you know to come in and do their bit.

As always bear in mind that the founds is the great unknown element of every build. You don't know what's there until you start. As such it's the hardest part to price up.

Have you thought about what kind of standard you are aiming for from passive to meeting building regs or somewhere in between??

[PeterW]

2 hours ago, Tony K said:

 some sort of renewable energy consultant 

 

Save your money and ask on here..! There is more real life experience and data within this forum than any consultant could give you, and renewables only form one part of a very complex relationship in the M&E plans for a build. Often overlooked but vital to getting it right - MVHR, water, heating, electrical all need to be planned and designed. 

[Ferdinand]

2 hours ago, Tony K said:

Thank you very much for this info, especially the link to your blog JSHarris - it is very interesting and useful.

 

My plot is not a challenging as yours, but will need a good Structural Engineer as I have to contend with neighbouring trees very close by, and the design I have come up with involves a partially sunken bedroom block, the bottom one metre or so of which will be dug into the ground. As you say in your blog, design is largely a matter of responding to the site constraints, and that is certainly true in my case. 

 

My own list of 'to-dos' looks like:

 

Confirm my mortgage in principle for the works (I am told this should be OK, but see you have a cautionary tale to tell).

Locate any underground pipes on the land (somehow?).

Contact Water, Drainage and Electricity companies to arrange connection for the plot.

 

Thereafter I will need to decide between three routes (I think):

 

1. Employ an architects technician (or suchlike), a structural engineer, and some sort of renewable energy consultant to turn my very basic plans into 'proper' building drawings. Then tender the different parts of the build out (groundworks, walls, roof etc and so on), managing different sub contractors along the way. 

 

2. Take the 'proper' drawings to various contractors and get quotes for them to do most or all of it.

 

3. Get a design and build form to do both the drawings and the work. 

 

I favour the first option as I have a plumber, electrician, roofer and plasterer I have used before and trust, but wonder if I am missing a trick by not getting one form to take it all on? I work full time as does my wife, we have three young children and I have enough experience of doing building work myself on our existing house to know that it is stressful and time-consuming, probably more so than I can accommodate on this project!

 

Any advice on the best route is again welcome.

 

I am a planner by trade and happy to help anyone else out with questions on that front by the way. 

 

 

 

I think one way may be to reflect on the amount of your time it will take up. We have not iirc discussed this in tems of hours.  My very approx guesstimates might be:

 

I think route 3 might take 500-1500 hours of your time. Ie 3-9 FTE months. 

Route 2 might be more like 1500-2500 hours. 12-20 FTE months.

And route 1 might be 2000-4000 hours. 15-30 FTE months.

Route 4 - doing a lot of work yourself - could take up x hours, where x is a number less than perhaps 10,000.

 

Each over a period of between 2 to 5 years period, depending.

 

I would be interested in others’ opinions. My experience is that even if I am employing contractors etc, the PM can easily swallow half my time on a renovation if I a interested in the result in detail.

 

Somebody may may have been mad enough to have logged it all.

 

Ferdinand

Edited July 19, 2018 by Ferdinand

[Tony K]

This is all very helpful, thank you all.

I think my instinct is to try and find a firm to do as much of the design and building of the shell as possible before taking over at roof level. I am intrigued by ICF as a solution, and will speak to some ICF firms, as well as some general design and build firms, and take it from there. 

 

Any tips on distinguishing good firms from bad would be welcome, but thanks for all this so far in any event.