Hi from Scotland. We've been gifted a chunk of ground with a derelict house on it and are starting the process now to demolish and rebuild but on a low budget so any cost cutting tips welcome!

@Barryscotland   Welcome to the UK's premier self build and renovation forum!   What part of Scotland are you building in?

Perthshire, hopefully be starting demolition  in July unless there is any hold ups. Only one that we can foresee after getting our Preapp reply is the dreaded Bat survey.

 

The choice we need to make now is

1  Buy a kit through the likes of ScotFrame an choose a design that we can live with an get them to do it all 

2 Architect designed to what we want to live in and get the likes of ScotFrame to build it

2 Architect designed  and get a local Joiners to build the timber frame on site

Edited January 11, 20197 yr by Barryscotland

Welcome. So when you mention Scotframe presumably they will just put the frame up and then it will be down to you to contract builders for the rest, or do they do the whole lot now? They didn’t when I bought my frame from them but it was a long time ago. 

 

 

Likewise, I'm another former Scotframe customer.  AFAIK, they only supply kits, albeit they will for a fee, take your project through planning and building warrant.  It'll be up to you to find a contractor(s) to do the work, although the Dundee office may well be able to give you some recommendations.

 

Can give you details of the builders we used (albeit several years ago) in Perthshire.

do it all as in architectural drawings for planning an building warrant and supply the kit ready just to zap together. 

Yes we'd still need our own tradesmen to put it together. 

 

What were trying to get is an idea of cost difference between getting an architect to design the house we want an then getting it built against buying a ready designed house that comes pre built in kit form from the likes of scot-frame.

What standard of house are you wanting?

 

We wanted something approaching a passive house.  When I was taking to Scotframe, I mentioned taking one of their standard kits, and adding extra insulation to get the performance level I wanted.  They then refused to quote me and wanted nothing to do with it.

 

I guess I could have just kept quiet and added the amount of insulation I wanted without telling them.

My house already had PP but Scotframe did the building control drawings, structural engineer’s certificate for the frame etc. They also changed the design as we wished when we changed our minds over a few things. 

 

All of that was invoiced as part of the frame so all of the VAT was recoverable. If you instruct your own architect, structural engineer etc you will need to pay the VAT on those things as it’s not recoverable. It’s also pretty convenient having a one stop shop rather than coordinating yourself.