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Building a house

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:18 am
by Gareth
Anyone had any experience of building a house pref. from scratch?
Guess I'm looking to find out the approx time for:

1) Drawings to be made
2) Planning permission to be granted
3) Time to build a house
- brick house
- timber framed
4) Plumbing/electrician etc.

If anyone is a (good, creative) archeitecht (spelling?) give me a shout. ;)

Cheers
G

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:20 am
by mac
IIRC Del has.


There used to be a link from the SE1 front page site


HTH


Mac

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:22 am
by ed
The planning officers tend to meet every 6 weeks IIRC, if i were you id get your architect so handle the app. because its a right royal pain in the ar$e. Ive been told to build a timber framed house i should expect a build time of between 8-12 weeks. Most decent builders have waiting lists. From start to finish i would say atleast 6months. HTH cheers Ed

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:42 am
by kenny
ed wrote:From start to finish i would say atleast 6months. HTH cheers Ed
Not a hope in hell of finishing in that time mate.

Best advice is be realistic and keep it simple. Expect it to take as twice as long as you think and to be at least 25% more expensive than you imagined.

Have a look at this http://www.stevecarter.com/build/build.htm

From Steve Carters website (Pistonhead 'er) it was always going to be a long process for him due to the remoteness and it being a bit different in terms of construction but his blogs contains al the obstacles you are going to meet on the way. Its a fantastic read so have a look.

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:52 am
by ed
I had assumed it would be somewhere other than in the middle of the nowhere, with mains water and services etc all ready to go. Of course ive not done it myself yet! Mums place in Strontian took almost a year... :( That link is just what i was looking for, cheers for that! :thumbsup

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:54 am
by GregR
now that's a hoose :)

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:54 am
by Gareth
Kenny,
WOW!
Thanks for that.
Look forward to reading it later!

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 12:03 pm
by ed
There are also some German kits that go up in no time at all and are very reasonably priced. Ive got details of them at home, i'll post up more info later! :D

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 12:20 pm
by mac
There's a couple of Kit makers in scotland and ireland too

just need to google for them :)

Mac

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 12:23 pm
by Gareth
ed wrote:There are also some German kits that go up in no time at all and are very reasonably priced. Ive got details of them at home, i'll post up more info later! :D
Hoff or Huff houses as seen in that program Grand Designs.
Too modern. Think I'm going to have to put a little granite into my house to match surrounding houses.

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 12:55 pm
by thinfourth
Never underestimate the hassle you will have finding a piece of land Unless you already have found a piece

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 1:00 pm
by ed
That is one sort but there is another, cant remember off the top of my head.

Ive just finished reading that blog and it makes a brilliant read, a truly stunning house and he also drives a V8 vantage! :twisted:

Loving his work! :thumbsup

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 1:02 pm
by Gareth
thinfourth wrote:Never underestimate the hassle you will have finding a piece of land Unless you already have found a piece
:wink:

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 1:07 pm
by tuscan_thunder
gareth, mail me as i'm currently renovating/building a house

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 1:12 pm
by max1966
Gareth,

Plan for it to take a year and hopefully you won't be disappointed,budget for 25-30% more than you think and/or get told, find an Architect that you like and get them to point you toward work that they have done and be clear what you want and don't keep changing your mind.

The statutory planning regulations are subjective, what you want and what you are allowed to build may not tie up, some compromise maybe necessary to allow the planing process to be smoothed over. Remain pragmatic , clever design costs big don't let anyone convince you otherwise, simple is almost always best and 'cheepest' and most importantly, likely to be successful.

Kits have a much shorter build time but you can only,generally, build what they make, some alteration is always possible but economically you have to build it as intended. Traditional build leaves you free to do what you want but construction time is considerably longer.

We can discuss till your bored rigid on-line.

Malcolm