self build.....where to start.....

[Moonshine]

1 hour ago, soapstar said:

Same for us, little over 15k to get where we are now. Architect, planning consultant, ground surveys etc

 

If i knew it was going to cost that much i may have thought twice,

 

My application for two houses (pretty identical) has been submitted for planning (pending decision) and so far for a total cost of just over £6k. I have done a fair bit of the leg work myself, but has included;

• Pre-app (free)
• Planning consultant for planning feasibility 
• Accountant tax advice
• Air quality monitoring
• Noise assessment
• OS plan
• Land Survey (recycled data)
• Architectural technician
• Tree assessment
• Planning fee

 

There may be some more work dependant on the LPA requirements before a decision is made, but it seems that i have able to save a bit

Edited June 5, 2019 by Moonshine

[soapstar]

Have you been to a mortgage broker to determine your options and how much you can actually afford? You will go round in circles asking questions here, the advice is great on this forum however everyone's situation is different

[Amateur bob]

3 hours ago, JSHarris said:

 

 

Yes, bungalows tend to be more costly per m², as the roof costs per m² apply to every room, rather than the roof costs being split by the number of storeys.  It isn't a massive difference, though.  Taking our roof cost as an example, had our house been a bungalow of the same floor area then the roof cost would have been roughly double, but that would only have added about £70 to £80 per m².

interesting id have thought it would add at least a few £100/m2

[Amateur bob]

3 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

Ok so now we are getting somewhere, so it’s a family farm and you need to stay local to run the farm. 

i will ask some more questions

 

how old are you?

are you married?

any kids?

 

How long till mum and dad croak?

 

 

my friend has just built on his dads farm, under some agricultural thing he got planning easy, but it had to stay under a certain size and also cost very little. 

I think it is about 100m and cost him about £120,000 to build. 

But this is why you need to answer the questions. 

He is 40 years old and single, his mum and dad are 70 years old, he plans to run the farm brother not interested,the plan is he will live in the small house for a few years until one of the parents croak, he will then move into the main farm house and the remaining parent will move into the small one, he will then find a wife as they will all come running when they see he’s a rich farmer with a big house. 

 

You need a plan, just because you have a bit of land doesn’t mean you need to build a house. why not put up a nice log cabin for £60,000

im 35 been married a few years and now looking to build a family home parents 68 and sister will get their house ill get farm so need to fund it myself, live in house i bought in nearby village no kids yet

[Amateur bob]

3 hours ago, soapstar said:

Have you been to a mortgage broker to determine your options and how much you can actually afford? You will go round in circles asking questions here, the advice is great on this forum however everyone's situation is different

no i want a rough idea of what i want and what itll cost first, if i cant borrow enough ill just have to rent my own house out and rent a bigger one for a while

[recoveringbuilder]

Our first house had a section 75 agreement, this meant our house had an agricultural tie on it, we were running a plant nursery on the land at the time so this tie meant we couldn’t sell the house without the business, the house should it have been sold would have had to be sold to someone working in agriculture or horticulture, this tie affected the value of the property quite a bit as it couldn’t just be sold to anyone.

After a good few years we applied to have the tie lifted but the local authority refused however they had granted permission for another house across the road from us on a farm and this house didn’t have the section 75 agreement so we fought it with the Secretary of State and won. The tie was lifted and the rest is history.

The one thing I can say is that it took us a long time to find a lender as it was viewed as a higher risk, our solicitor was eventually the one who challenged the bank as to why they wouldn’t lend to us and eventually they did,

[Amateur bob]

36 minutes ago, Christine Walker said:

Our first house had a section 75 agreement, this meant our house had an agricultural tie on it, we were running a plant nursery on the land at the time so this tie meant we couldn’t sell the house without the business, the house should it have been sold would have had to be sold to someone working in agriculture or horticulture, this tie affected the value of the property quite a bit as it couldn’t just be sold to anyone.

After a good few years we applied to have the tie lifted but the local authority refused however they had granted permission for another house across the road from us on a farm and this house didn’t have the section 75 agreement so we fought it with the Secretary of State and won. The tie was lifted and the rest is history.

The one thing I can say is that it took us a long time to find a lender as it was viewed as a higher risk, our solicitor was eventually the one who challenged the bank as to why they wouldn’t lend to us and eventually they did,

i believe theyve changed the rules on this in scotland recently so that you can get it without a tie if you can prove its needed for a working farm, the house can be sod but you wont get planning again for another house on farm, this is what i was told recently by a farm adviser would need to double check though

[Russell griffiths]

1 hour ago, Amateur bob said:

im 35 been married a few years and now looking to build a family home parents 68 and sister will get their house ill get farm so need to fund it myself, live in house i bought in nearby village no kids yet

 

Perfect, so you need to build the best possible home you can, if you think you will be there 20years end up having kids who won’t leave home. 

I would build a 4 bed 2 bath house as a shell, install a £1000 kitchen and just finish one en-suite, no. Internal doors skirting, flooring, build it to the best standard you can. And finish it at a later date. 

 

Planning, architect, building regs, warrant £15000

foundations,floor £12-18000

timberframe £50-65000

roof £15-20000

services £3-8000

brick skin £12000

plumbing £8-12000

electrics £3-6000

 

then move in, so you need to find £30,000 on top of your savings

its time to start designing, come on what you waiting for

[Alex C]

26 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

 

Perfect, so you need to build the best possible home you can, if you think you will be there 20years end up having kids who won’t leave home. 

I would build a 4 bed 2 bath house as a shell, install a £1000 kitchen and just finish one en-suite, no. Internal doors skirting, flooring, build it to the best standard you can. And finish it at a later date. 

 

Planning, architect, building regs, warrant £15000

foundations,floor £12-18000

timberframe £50-65000

roof £15-20000

services £3-8000

brick skin £12000

plumbing £8-12000

electrics £3-6000

 

then move in, so you need to find £30,000 on top of your savings

its time to start designing, come on what you waiting for

Yeah but its a farm and is probably infested with bats and newts. He will burn through half his savings just mitigating for them.

[lizzie]

Windows & external doors??

 

My slab and frame alone were a lot more than your price estimates...............as were services, plumbing and electrics

[redtop]

58 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

 

Perfect, so you need to build the best possible home you can, if you think you will be there 20years end up having kids who won’t leave home. 

I would build a 4 bed 2 bath house as a shell, install a £1000 kitchen and just finish one en-suite, no. Internal doors skirting, flooring, build it to the best standard you can. And finish it at a later date. 

 

Planning, architect, building regs, warrant £15000

foundations,floor £12-18000

timberframe £50-65000

roof £15-20000

services £3-8000

brick skin £12000

plumbing £8-12000

electrics £3-6000

 

then move in, so you need to find £30,000 on top of your savings

its time to start designing, come on what you waiting for

some of these costs seem high to me. our prof fees have been circa 8k including ground survey. roof has been quoted at 10k for 180m sq flat roof.  plumbing we havnt sorted yet but had last (5 bed detached house) completly re-plumbed, every water pipe, heating pipes, new radiators and new (very posh viessman) boiler for 6k + radiators which we bought, and doing that for a new build would be cheaper and quicker.  also services are at the bottom end, 3k for water, elec and mains sewer conection. Dont get me wrong that cost includes me digging my own service ditches, desinged my wall build up for SE to confirm, buying timber at source, etc.  i am going on a GRP flat roofing course so will fit that myself and as a sparky (quals expired but know folk in the trade) can speak the trade lingo

[soapstar]

37 minutes ago, Alex C said:

Yeah but its a farm and is probably infested with bats and newts. He will burn through half his savings just mitigating for them.

 

I've heard bat surveys can be expensive...I think you need one done if your demolishing an old building.

 

Have you thought about services? Do you have electric and water close by? If your electric supply is not sufficient enough for another house plus what it is already serving that cost can be pretty huge to upgrade transformer..

[scottishjohn]

19 minutes ago, soapstar said:

I've heard bat surveys can be expensive...I think you need one done if your demolishing an old building.

 

find one with no roof --then no survey needed

[patp]

The log cabin idea is a good one! If you take services from the house (electricity for instance) and use them in the log cabin then you often can get away with not needing planning permission at all. There are some amazing examples around.

[recoveringbuilder]

There’s a company called mountain lodge homes that we looked at when we hoped to buy a plot a few years ago, their lodges were lovely but not suitable for this plot, the one we missed would have lent itself to the design 

[Amateur bob]

2 hours ago, soapstar said:

 

I've heard bat surveys can be expensive...I think you need one done if your demolishing an old building.

 

Have you thought about services? Do you have electric and water close by? If your electric supply is not sufficient enough for another house plus what it is already serving that cost can be pretty huge to upgrade transformer..

would be a new build, 3 phase electric at the steading, water too

[Amateur bob]

2 hours ago, lizzie said:

Windows & external doors??

 

My slab and frame alone were a lot more than your price estimates...............as were services, plumbing and electrics

15k to cover windows and doors? how much was your slab and frame?

[Amateur bob]

3 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

 

Perfect, so you need to build the best possible home you can, if you think you will be there 20years end up having kids who won’t leave home. 

I would build a 4 bed 2 bath house as a shell, install a £1000 kitchen and just finish one en-suite, no. Internal doors skirting, flooring, build it to the best standard you can. And finish it at a later date. 

 

Planning, architect, building regs, warrant £15000

foundations,floor £12-18000

timberframe £50-65000

roof £15-20000

services £3-8000

brick skin £12000

plumbing £8-12000

electrics £3-6000

 

then move in, so you need to find £30,000 on top of your savings

its time to start designing, come on what you waiting for

this sounds achievable what sort of m2 are you basing these costs on?

[Russell griffiths]

1 minute ago, Amateur bob said:

this sounds achievable what sort of m2 are you basing these costs on?

 

No idea I plucked the figures out of thin air while eating my lunch. 

Have you worked out what you want to build yet. 

[Pocster]

@Amateur bob there are many ways to achieve your dream .

My method is to go without anything ; so holidays , meals no worries .

But ! ? , I do as much of the work as I can . It takes forever. I borrow everywhere .

 

oh yes I forgot ( how could I ) . Our current living accommodation is a ‘compromise ‘ ...... 

 

I can’t recommend my approach. But it’s one way to have your cake and eat it ?

Edited June 5, 2019 by pocster

[AliMcLeod]

8 hours ago, JSHarris said:

 

 

You're right, and worth noting that our build ended up costing about £1,380/m² at 2013/14 prices.

 

Which is around £1550/m² at today's prices. 

[Russell griffiths]

So now we have established your farmer Giles, you should start to think how to apply your farmer discount code. 

 

Groundworks clearing the site, I bet you have a digger or a front loader, I bet you can find a corner of a field to put the spoil. 

Ca ching. You just saved £2-3000 in muckaway costs. 

Water, I bet in the past you have run a good few m of pipe around the farm, simple isn’t it, so you can install your own water supply. 

Electrics, so you have 3 phase on site, perfect. 

 

So you are about £10,000 ahead of someone with little knowledge living in suburbia. 

 

What does the main house look like, would you like to match it or go completely different. 

You and the misses must have a few ideas knocking about. 

[Amateur bob]

1 hour ago, Russell griffiths said:

So now we have established your farmer Giles, you should start to think how to apply your farmer discount code. 

 

Groundworks clearing the site, I bet you have a digger or a front loader, I bet you can find a corner of a field to put the spoil. 

Ca ching. You just saved £2-3000 in muckaway costs. 

Water, I bet in the past you have run a good few m of pipe around the farm, simple isn’t it, so you can install your own water supply. 

Electrics, so you have 3 phase on site, perfect. 

 

So you are about £10,000 ahead of someone with little knowledge living in suburbia. 

 

What does the main house look like, would you like to match it or go completely different. 

You and the misses must have a few ideas knocking about. 

yes i have a digger and forklift getting rid of topsoils not an issue, im just going for as cheap a design as possible tbh

[Amateur bob]

say i were to build a bungalow mabye 150m2 with enough height that i could in future add another level in attic, would this save me much money in the meantime?

[ProDave]

12 minutes ago, Amateur bob said:

say i were to build a bungalow mabye 150m2 with enough height that i could in future add another level in attic, would this save me much money in the meantime?

My neighbour did that.  Built a 1 bedroom bungalow.  Later added 3 more bedrooms and 2 more bathrooms in the loft.

 

The important thing is make the roof using attic trusses when you build the bungalow so all the structural work is in place to do the loft conversion later.  And design the layout so you have space on the ground floor to add the staircase, e.g an over large entrance hall that will fit a staircase later on.

 

Unless they system changes in the mean time, it will also mean you get a lower council tax band, and that does not change when you extend the property, it presently only gets re valued when you sell it.