Well, I won't be laying bricks or doing the actual building, but instead of buying built

So any house builders out there?

Any idea of costs? 2500 - 3500 sq ft? Is that large? Cost of adding in a swimming pool? Where are the problems? Will that get me a house with plastered walls, floorboards, heating, plumbing, wiring all done? Or shell + bits to finish?

Costs of solar heating? Is it worth it? Any other advice & pointers would be great

Land with planning permission + water & sewerage + electricity + access roads all sorted...

 

A friend is having a 5 bed timber frame house built. IIRC it was going to be about 80-100k for the building. (He said they weren't going mad on the luxury fittings)

The land will cost a fortune depending on location, unless you want to take the large risk of buying cheap land and trying to get planning permission.

He's a farmer, so he owned the land already

 

"Costs of solar heating? " - in Ireland ? - can you make heat from rain ?

 

You should have watched Grand Designs when it was on. Loads of good links at the site though. One of the programs featured Rupert Upton who was also a scoob owner and frequented Scoobynet a couple of years back. I gather they're going to run updates on some of the programs soon.

Also, check out the Yahoogroups email list 'UK Self-build' - it's very good.

We planned to do a self-build when we moved to Scotland, but it's well-nigh impossible to find a decent plot these days in anywhere decent without paying largely over the odds for it. But I suspect you already have an area of land available ;-) so that wouldn't be a problem. We'll probably do it in 5-10 years - it's hard work, but looks like fun.

Another place to look is Self-Build magazine, or Build-It mag.

 

Thought it was interesting the number of people who sold their houses immediately they finished and said "never again - it dominated my life"

 

I have built 2, the first two were blown down by this ******** wolf that lives near me, the one Iam building now is made from bricks so I should be ok......sorry, couldnt resist!!

 

Land not a problem

Rupert Upton - thanks MarkO

Silly me, he's a friend of mine & I completely forgot that he'd done that!

Deano

Building a wind generator or a water generator into the house is not viable They're the subject of future threads

Keep 'em coming (not the jokes!)

 

LOL. He told me in a mail a couple of weeks ago that he's considering doing another. Mad, quite mad!

 

Hi Mate

How's it going?

3,500 sq ft is a nice big gaff. Depending on the final spec you should budget on £65 - £75 a sq ft finished (that's labour and materials, not land)

Cheers
Kav

 

PTMW,
I'm an architect (in Ireland).We budget around £60 per sq.ft.depending on design etc.I'm doing one with a 8m x 4m swimming pool at the minute and will be getting costs for it in this week.Also we work with m+e engineers who are big into solar,wind eta over here so may get some info off them for you if you want on costs,practicalities etc..
SD.

 

There is an easy way to get an idea if you'll get planning permission or not. Ask the duty planning officer at your local authority. Outline to him what you want to do and ask if it's likely to be approved or if he/she can suggest improvements/ammendment. If he talks a sharp intake of breath before talking....just get up and leave

 

Got solar panels on my place. Lashings of piping hot water all summer (some in spring and autumn too).

Two or three bath fulls a day a couple of loads of washing and constant hot water at the kitchen sink and the tank is still full!! You can't use it fast enough and it's all free

 

Puff,

Check out Build It, or the magazine itself.

It will tell you EVERYTHING you need to know.

I've got a few back issues lying around somewhere if you want to pop over to MK to take a ganders.

David H.

 

Father is a builder - would cost about 70k to build in N. Ireland for cost so reckon on at least 10 - 15% profit on top of this.
Don't know about swimming pool but solar power is a waste of money if only trying to save as it will never pay for itself.

 

Puff You have far to much money to play with

Huxley

Ps. Thanks for passing on my good word!

 

Saxo Boy, we did this, only with a view to knocking down 2 existing extensions and rebuilding in the same design of the original 150 year old cottage. Bloke did not bat an eye lid when he said "absolutely no problem". We buy the property then put in for planning permission, same bloke recommends to committee that it is not approved.

WTF. The saga is still going on. Built my garage in the meantime though, nice and big. Cost me £2800 its 4m(w) x 7m(l) x 3.9m(h), fully built (nearly) and that includes a remote roller door costing £800, so not bad.

We have put aside £30000 for doing the house, including renovating the old bit.

 

I wish.....

The 5 bed timber frame house we are just about to move into (2450 sq ft) has just had a rebuild cost put on it of £216,000...

 

That figure probably covers site clearance as well, if it's an insurance value. (This costs much more than people anticipate.)

My friend has a tendancy to know where and how to get things done cheaply

 

I am currently right in the middle of building anew house, it's a modest 3 bed detatched of flint and brick build, with all materials being hand made, the roof tiles were 70p each, and there are 12,000 of them !!!!!!!. We had 'a' groundworker in, I helped him, we then had brickies and chippies etc, they left when we had a shell with a roof, I have since then fitted all the windows, pointed all the flintwork (nightmare!) and have also done the wiring, I am at the stage of putting plasterboard up on ceilings and stud walls, the plasterer will be in in september, and I hope to move in in the spring, I am only working a couple of days a week at the moment, just to get away from the house, it would drive me bonkers to be at it 7 days a week, but seeing as I'm doing most of it myself, it only gets done when I do it!
I have currently spent about 85k, and I reckon ot'll be 120k when done, it's a mere 1500sqft, ot thereabouts.
I'll try to get a photo added, just so you can see what you get.
Ron.
edited to add pics, and say that I'm having underfloor heating, if you can stetch the budget a bit, get it!









[Edited by RON - 8/22/2002 12:04:48 AM]

[Edited by RON - 8/22/2002 12:07:27 AM]

 

Ron

That looks absolutely gorgegous

Well done m8

 

Sunday

Looking to build top Inishowen possibly, so all in Euros

Have regs & planning permission seemingly not a prob (Cat 2 area)

Knowledge of architect in Derry, but not fixed, but reckoning £70 sqft?

Obviously well windy that way. Building on a hill so springs/damming poss in case of water power.

 

There is a germany company called huf-haus.

They do the most amazing designs! lots of nice big glass windows - and everything is included in the price.

They even have an evergy-saving house, that uses solar panels and special heating so it costs nothing to heat..


www.huf-haus.de

I thought about it for a while, but the cost of the land is so bloody expensive!!

 

I have to confess it was easier to get someone else to build this for us



Pic taken about a month ago, should be finally finished in about 2 weeks......