building a house

[clarshack]

Hi all, any advice appreciated. Just wondering what the views are on the building at the minute - I am planning to start in a couple of weeks (no spade in the ground yet) and am wondering am I wise in the head? Mortgage, PP, BC, etc. all approved.

Is there anyone in the thick of it at the minute and what are prices, availability of materials, etc. like? Are these likely to come down? House is near touching 3000sq ft. Building in the north.

Built my house for £65 square foot that we project managed ourselves in 2020 but that will have increased significantly since then. Was actually talking to someone yesterday who reckons it's now at £175 just for a basic finish, but that was getting a builder to do it all.

[RedHand88]

Hi all, any advice appreciated. Just wondering what the views are on the building at the minute - I am planning to start in a couple of weeks (no spade in the ground yet) and am wondering am I wise in the head? Mortgage, PP, BC, etc. all approved.

Is there anyone in the thick of it at the minute and what are prices, availability of materials, etc. like? Are these likely to come down? House is near touching 3000sq ft. Building in the north.

Built my house for £65 square foot that we project managed ourselves in 2020 but that will have increased significantly since then. Was actually talking to someone yesterday who reckons it's now at £175 just for a basic finish, but that was getting a builder to do it all.

Ours was about 95-100 for basic builders finish but then we got a few extras. It's a money pit no matter what way you look at it!
65 per Square foot is good going, even if it was a few years ago.

[Will it ever end]

Clarshack I think you should clarify the £65 psf comment as it can be quite misleading to some posters.

Is the £65 psf you paid only for the superstructure? Was a majority of the work carried out by yourself & therefore labour for various trades not factored in to this so it looks artificially low? Does it include utility connection costs?

It's an extremely competitive build rate you achieved.

[marty34]

Will the price of raw materials ever go down now though?

[clarshack]

have a question on claiming vat back on a new build in the north. is the cut off point for buying and claiming vat on materials the date when you get the building control certificate? or can you buy paving stones and kerbs etc after that date but as long as the claim is submitted within 3 months of receiving the completion certificate?

How much did you end up paying per sqf?
We have a 2900sqf 2 storey with the planning department at the minute and would like to have an idea of what's coming.

Believe it or not we built a 2700sqf (2 storey) in 2020 for £65 per sqf in Tyrone area, and that's it painted, tiled and wooden flooring etc and I think it's a decent finish. This also included electric (£3k) and water connections but didn't include any other fees such as architect's. Expect to pay 20%+ extra in 2021 however.

Should add that we Project Managed this ourselves and the best thing we ever did was get a QS to do up costings and this meant we didn't go over budget as too many people lose the run of themselves when building a house.

I posted this last year.

I should have said the price per sqf excluded the purchase of the site, and any landscaping.

We got the different tradesmen in at the relevant stages. Only thing we really did ourselves was the loft insulation as nobody else really wants to touch it as it's a horrible nasty kind of job.

[trailer]

Hi all, any advice appreciated. Just wondering what the views are on the building at the minute - I am planning to start in a couple of weeks (no spade in the ground yet) and am wondering am I wise in the head? Mortgage, PP, BC, etc. all approved.

Is there anyone in the thick of it at the minute and what are prices, availability of materials, etc. like? Are these likely to come down? House is near touching 3000sq ft. Building in the north.

I'm all set to build and am going to give it to the end of the year. I have the site cleared, but no founds dug just yet. I might be silly but I can see trades becoming a bit more freely available and certainly grounds work men are handy got at the minute which tells its own story.

[illdecide]

I'm managing an extension atm and it's hard work TBH, the Contractor is yapping daily about prices of materials and he's doing my head in. We know the price of the materials but it's out of our control. If i was planning a build atm I would def be holding off as there is no way this is going to continue like this and I believe there is recession coming which will soon tumble the price of everything...of course that's just my opinion and I may be wrong.

On a separate note...why do people build these mansion of houses when doing a self build and have 1-2 kids and sure it's only a short time down the road when they're gone to Uni etc or married etc and the two of you are in this massive house, why build them so big?.

[WT4E]

Someone said to me recently that it might be cheaper to heat the hot water with immersion heater (Electric) in summer when no other oil is needed rather than put (now expensive) oil on for 30-40mins in morning and evening for hot water. I thought this sounded wrong but don't have the expertise to figure it out. Anyone any idea.

I came from a home where if you left the immersion heater on by accident you got a right big slap!

[blewuporstuffed]

The trouble with waiting is the cost of building is increasing quicker than you can save, which I have found out to my cost.
I have put off building for a while now, but I am now in a worse position than if I have just pulled the trigger 2 years ago. (although Covid was the big issue there too)
So hard to know what to do, and house prices in general are starting to get silly again too.

[JohnDenver]

I'm managing an extension atm and it's hard work TBH, the Contractor is yapping daily about prices of materials and he's doing my head in. We know the price of the materials but it's out of our control. If i was planning a build atm I would def be holding off as there is no way this is going to continue like this and I believe there is recession coming which will soon tumble the price of everything...of course that's just my opinion and I may be wrong.

On a separate note...why do people build these mansion of houses when doing a self build and have 1-2 kids and sure it's only a short time down the road when they're gone to Uni etc or married etc and the two of you are in this massive house, why build them so big?.

Would agree with you on this front. Is it a case of keeping up with the Jones'?  Granted with covid and a lot of now hybrid WFH type jobs, an extra bedroom is good for an office space, but as you say a lot of these houses are mansions for the general family size now. 

Although maybe with the price of houses and building now, the children might be living at home for a lot longer!

[clarshack]

Someone said to me recently that it might be cheaper to heat the hot water with immersion heater (Electric) in summer when no other oil is needed rather than put (now expensive) oil on for 30-40mins in morning and evening for hot water. I thought this sounded wrong but don't have the expertise to figure it out. Anyone any idea.

I came from a home where if you left the immersion heater on by accident you got a right big slap!

That will probably be the way to go. Keep as much oil as you can heading into the autumn/winter.

[johnnycool]

Someone said to me recently that it might be cheaper to heat the hot water with immersion heater (Electric) in summer when no other oil is needed rather than put (now expensive) oil on for 30-40mins in morning and evening for hot water. I thought this sounded wrong but don't have the expertise to figure it out. Anyone any idea.

I came from a home where if you left the immersion heater on by accident you got a right big slap!

That will probably be the way to go. Keep as much oil as you can heading into the autumn/winter.

Put a solar panel on the roof, great job.

[TabClear]

Someone said to me recently that it might be cheaper to heat the hot water with immersion heater (Electric) in summer when no other oil is needed rather than put (now expensive) oil on for 30-40mins in morning and evening for hot water. I thought this sounded wrong but don't have the expertise to figure it out. Anyone any idea.

I came from a home where if you left the immersion heater on by accident you got a right big slap!

That will probably be the way to go. Keep as much oil as you can heading into the autumn/winter.

Put a solar panel on the roof, great job.

Has anyone here any experience of solar water heating tubes on the roof? Would be interested to know cost/payback on those. My house is pretty well insulated so the heat does not be on from April to about October usually. But between us the hot water requirements is probably four showers a dau on average. At the minute the water is all oil heated so I a thinking those tubes might be good for summer?

[WT4E]

Also interested in the solar but didn't have the money when building to provide for them

I wonder will there be grants coming back on renewables with the way the world is heading or did Cash for Ash finish this!!!!

[bigarsedkeeper]

Someone said to me recently that it might be cheaper to heat the hot water with immersion heater (Electric) in summer when no other oil is needed rather than put (now expensive) oil on for 30-40mins in morning and evening for hot water. I thought this sounded wrong but don't have the expertise to figure it out. Anyone any idea.

I came from a home where if you left the immersion heater on by accident you got a right big slap!

That will probably be the way to go. Keep as much oil as you can heading into the autumn/winter.

Put a solar panel on the roof, great job.

Has anyone here any experience of solar water heating tubes on the roof? Would be interested to know cost/payback on those. My house is pretty well insulated so the heat does not be on from April to about October usually. But between us the hot water requirements is probably four showers a dau on average. At the minute the water is all oil heated so I a thinking those tubes might be good for summer?

I put them on when I built my house 12 years ago. Similar to you I wouldn't have much heating on from May to September. My hot water and heating are separate though so I knock off the oil completely from now to usually mid September. Mostly during that time there's more than enough hot water to do everyone. I'd say a month either side of that you only need to boost the hot water for 10-15 minutes per day to keep the water hot for everyone's needs (family of 5). I think the rest of the year I have it on 20 minutes in the morning, then another 2 boosts of 10 minutes later on.

Cost wise I got them for a lot less than you'd pay today no doubt. I can't remember the exact price but it was around £2k and the plumber did it with the rest of the house.