Neil Samuels Posted May 16, 2019 Share Posted May 16, 2019 I'm Neil, a Plumbing & Heating lecturer from Kent and myself and my wife are looking to do a self-build within the next year or two! We have rebuilt/refurbished our current and previous family homes and now that all the kids have left home we think it's time to do what we've always wanted to do and self-build our next home. We are ideally looking for a plot in Kent/Sussex but tomorrow we are going to look at Graven Hill to see what's going on there and see if it's suitable for us. I am particularly interested in a timber frame, pre-insulated/SIPS type that can be erected and weatherproofed and then I would complete all the interiors and services. Although I worked for many years on construction sites, like so many I'm very keen to keep the cost down so any tips are greatly appreciated. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted May 16, 2019 Share Posted May 16, 2019 Hi and welcome to the forum. As I think you have recognised the crux is finding a plot and you seem to have chosen just about the hardest and most expensive part of the UK to do that. Let us know how you find Graven Hill. there is at least 1 member on here building there. Plots seem to be a lot more expensive now than Grand Designs recently led you to believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToughButterCup Posted May 16, 2019 Share Posted May 16, 2019 36 minutes ago, Neil Samuels said: I'm Neil, a Plumbing & Heating lecturer from Kent [...] like so many I'm very keen to keep the cost down so any tips are greatly appreciated. Welcome. Sounds like you'll have forgotten more than i'll ever know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Samuels Posted May 20, 2019 Author Share Posted May 20, 2019 On 16/05/2019 at 09:08, ProDave said: Hi and welcome to the forum. As I think you have recognised the crux is finding a plot and you seem to have chosen just about the hardest and most expensive part of the UK to do that. Let us know how you find Graven Hill. there is at least 1 member on here building there. Plots seem to be a lot more expensive now than Grand Designs recently led you to believe. To be honest we were disappointed with Graven Hill! The plot price is not a problem but then the cost of 'their foundations' are ridiculous! They quoted £40-70.000 for a 3 bed plot on top of the plot price of £250,000 so in my opinion it makes the it a bit too expensive. But it was when we drove around the site that we both saw the actual scale of each plot (v small) and how close some of them are together that made our minds up. Don't get me wrong, some of the houses are great and the concept is great too but the figures and plot size put us off I'm afraid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted May 20, 2019 Share Posted May 20, 2019 2 minutes ago, Neil Samuels said: To be honest we were disappointed with Graven Hill! The plot price is not a problem but then the cost of 'their foundations' are ridiculous! They quoted £40-70.000 for a 3 bed plot on top of the plot price of £250,000 so in my opinion it makes the it a bit too expensive. But it was when we drove around the site that we both saw the actual scale of each plot (v small) and how close some of them are together that made our minds up. Don't get me wrong, some of the houses are great and the concept is great too but the figures and plot size put us off I'm afraid. Thad sadly is my opinion. The recent "Grand Designs Street" showing decent plots for £100K won't have done them any favours in that respect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted May 20, 2019 Share Posted May 20, 2019 @Neil Samuels how far are you wanting to move ..? Plenty of decent sized plots in the East Midlands area that are accessible to the East Coast mainline, A1 and M1 but at a third of the cost of anything south of Milton Keynes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Samuels Posted May 21, 2019 Author Share Posted May 21, 2019 14 hours ago, PeterW said: @Neil Samuels how far are you wanting to move ..? Plenty of decent sized plots in the East Midlands area that are accessible to the East Coast mainline, A1 and M1 but at a third of the cost of anything south of Milton Keynes. We are looking to stay in the south/south east/east simply for distance to children and ageing parents! We regularly used to travel to Loughborough to visit my daughter at University and regularly saw the land/house prices are not only better value but there is so much more available, but the 'family ties' are probably going to keep us further down here I'm afraid. On 16/05/2019 at 09:08, ProDave said: Hi and welcome to the forum. As I think you have recognised the crux is finding a plot and you seem to have chosen just about the hardest and most expensive part of the UK to do that. Let us know how you find Graven Hill. there is at least 1 member on here building there. Plots seem to be a lot more expensive now than Grand Designs recently led you to believe. To be honest we were disappointed with Graven Hill! The plot price is not a problem but then the cost of 'their foundations' are ridiculous! They quoted £40-70.000 for a 3 bed plot on top of the plot price of £250,000 so in my opinion it makes the it a bit too expensive. But it was when we drove around the site that we both saw the actual scale of each plot (v small) and how close some of them are together that made our minds up. Don't get me wrong, some of the houses are great and the concept is great too but the figures and plot size put us off I'm afraid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 Have you though of buying a house and rebuilding/renovating it. Most of Aylesbury needs rebuilding in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newhome Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 3 minutes ago, Neil Samuels said: Don't get me wrong, some of the houses are great and the concept is great too but the figures and plot size put us off I'm afraid. From what someone else said on here autonomy is an issue there too resulting in delays. The cost of the plots vs the price of the ready for sale homes there don’t stack up either. There’s a good overview of what it’s like in this post. https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/9242-grand-designs-at-graven-hill-starts-tonight-on-channel-4/?do=findComment&comment=158926 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Samuels Posted May 21, 2019 Author Share Posted May 21, 2019 8 minutes ago, SteamyTea said: Have you though of buying a house and rebuilding/renovating it. Most of Aylesbury needs rebuilding in my opinion. Yes we have done that with this and our previous house but I've done them as we went along, but we are interested in buying a 'wreck' and rebuilding it now that our children have all left home it will make it a bit easier. It's just it seems to be the perfect 'time' for us to do a self-build which we've always wanted to do and I will have more time after this summer so it's something we really want to do but perhaps we will go down the renovating route if we cant find the right plot/development. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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