Building a house

[Maguire01]

Have you considered your water supply? Might be worth considering drilling a borehole, especially with water charges on the agenda in the south.

[mylestheslasher]

Have you considered your water supply? Might be worth considering drilling a borehole, especially with water charges on the agenda in the south.

I think some Co Councils are now insisting on planning permission for people to do this to ensure that they have to be on group water schemes and of course pay fees. Maybe it is not law yet.

[Main Street]

For example rooms only loose about 1-2 degrres in heat during the night with no heating on.

Any fresh air allowed into the house?

+1 on the hollowcore. I work shift work and never hear a thing from downstairs during the day.

People are well pleased with their hollowcore.
I would add as compulsory, sound insulate interior partitions, plus extra soundproofing for kid's rooms. No joke, use hotel standards of sound insulation for those rooms. Lead walls preferrably

Put in cat6 cable to all rooms. Even if you dont use it now you might in the future. Think hard about how you wire sound and tv in rooms. I had a go at this myself and made a lot of mistakes. I reckon id make a great job of it the second time.

Planning this was probably more taxing than playing a chess grandmaster.
I eventually settled on attractive enough, home made wooden, easy accessable external conduits, running mostly just under the window shelf in the tv room & office, where there were lots and lots of cables (sat/net/speakers/hdmi/rca etc.etc). Not only can you easily update/recable but you have much more flexibility re positioning.
Around the rest of the house, net/tv/telephone cables were hidden behind panels/lists that were purposely made for easy access to the cable conduit.

[Radda bout yeee]

For curiosity purposes

If you were to start to plan a reasonable size house how much would it approx cost to get plans done - approved (given no hitches copuld be forseen) - footings in and sub floor poured. No purchase of site required.

[Jimmy]

For curiosity purposes

If you were to start to plan a reasonable size house how much would it approx cost to get plans done - approved (given no hitches copuld be forseen) - footings in and sub floor poured. No purchase of site required.

Radda,

I'm sure there are variations throughout the country but I'd say you need the following:
Architects fees of around £1.20 per square foot split into 2 payments (1 usually at planning submission and 1 at building control submission). Was around £1.40-£1.50 at height of the boom. If you know someone who can do it as a homer job rather than through an architects office you could get it cheaper.

Full planning permission fee of £651.

Building control fee of £75 if the house is lees than 250m2. If it's more than this then the fee is worked out on a rough cost estimate. Can be beteeen £200-£300.

In order to have the building control application accepted as valid you have to submitt a SAP calculation with the building control drawings (basically an energy assessment of how your green you house is. You have to achieve a certin level of energy efficiency). This can be an extra £100 if you architect can do it hime self or he might get an external consultant to do. Would still be about £100.

Depending on the design of you house, a structural engineer may be required to size any beams that are needed. Even if your intention is to just put in the founds and leave it for a couple of years, you have to submit the building control application in order to start on site and they will go ahead and access the plans. They will need any beam sizes to pass the plans. If you don't provide that then they can refuse the building control and you'll have to submitt an new building control application at a later date. Some councils are strict on this and some aren't.

Wouldn't have a clue about how much to put the founds in.

There could also be an inspection fee from building control to come out an inspect the founds. Around another £200. This is how it would be done in the north anyway.

[balladmaker]

There could also be an inspection fee from building control to come out an inspect the founds.

Had to pay building control £1165 following their first visit to the site to inspect the foundations.  This fee covers all of their visits throughout the build.

[Orangemac]

As most people are saying Jim, Insulation should be your no1 concern.

We built 4 years ago and although there are many things I would do differently, the house keeps heat in well which is useful if we are going to have more winters like last year.

We got a contractor and obviously you will pay more for it but the house was finished in 10 months and stress was kept to a minimum.

Wood pellets might be something to go for if oil eeps on an upward spiral.

Agree with keeping things to what you need, although we didn't build a garage and still haven't got round to it.

Also a big garden looks great but who will be cutting the grass every week?

All the best with it.

[heganboy]

Wood pellets might be something to go for if oil (k)eeps on an upward spiral.

Count on it- not only the base price but tax on oil and derivative products will accelerate sharpish

[jodyb]

The better half and I are going to start building our house within the next year or 2. We have got the land and roughly looking at around 100-150k mortgage to use for building.  I haven't a clue about building houses or any of that construction craic so I am looking a bit of advice. What would you do differently if you were going to build your house again? What are the latest things that you would include in a house (underground heating, solar panels on the roof for example)? Who are good men to use for getting a stone finish house? Is now a good time to build? Early days at the minute but we are looking to get on the ball early and try get some of it at least started. Sorry for all the questions lads, any advice would be appreciated.

Jim, There's lots of replies so far that as a two time self builder myself i agree with. The only thing that hasn't been covered as far as I can see and its the most important piece of advice of all.......Hold money of every b@st@rd tradesman that comes about the place until you are entirely satisfied with what they have delivered.

That may sound a bit harsh and apologies to every decent tradesman on this board, but Jim, no matter how civil or how helpful your tradesmen appear to you, if things go t!ts up, you're only chance of getting your job done to your satisfaction is to have more money in your pocket than is left on the job!

If there is more work to be done than the tradesman is owed, his interest naturally lessens and if there are any disagreements (or fiascos/acts of God/vandalism etc), you will struggle to get the job finished. If you want to stay in control of the situation, you need to hold money until the t's are crossed and the i's are dotted. Once you over pay, you've lost control and if you do, you can curse every time for the next 20 years when you look at a bit of plastering or tiling etc that wasn't done right.

Be warned, it will take a hard neck on your part from time to time, because even the tradesmen on here will all admit that they are no strangers to a wee bit of conflict and will be well ready to make demands of you, but hold firm and you'll get what your paying for. Apologies if this sounds patronising, but its business, not personal and although they will all appeal to your sensibilities, they know that its simply business too. They are in this game all the time, you are only in it for a few months or a year.

Oh and get site insuarnce too. Few hundred quid is well worth the piece of mind it gives.

[lawnseed]

Something like this lads. Sorry about the size, i dont know how to make the images smaller.

jim thats a beautiful house but consider the size try to keep it as small as possible. i know a lad who was selling houses in a posh area of armagh he had a big show house and several medium ones and a few that i would have considered pensioners houses he was very up beat at the time me that he was sure he had two "victoms" for the show house she was a barrister and the hubby was a head teacher they both landed while i was there so i cleared. she was driving a bmw coupe and he had a bmw jeep- both new. your man was delighted. i rang him later that evening to ask how he got on. they went straight to the small houses and never even asked the price of the show house when my mate suggested the show house he was told they had a 'lifeplan' and both intended to retire in their early fifties and paying for a huge house wasnt part of their plans they wouldnt be able to buy new cars etc.. we both laughed at the time and i think the term stingey bastards might have been used once but how wise they were, had they bought at the time they would now stand to loose around 130grand if they wanted to move. think 20 years down the line a big house will need gutted doors will need changed or fashions/mrs.stynes may demand new stuff it could require another mortgage

[All of a Sludden]

Something like this lads. Sorry about the size, i dont know how to make the images smaller.

jim thats a beautiful house but consider the size try to keep it as small as possible. i know a lad who was selling houses in a posh area of armagh he had a big show house and several medium ones and a few that i would have considered pensioners houses he was very up beat at the time me that he was sure he had two "victoms" for the show house she was a barrister and the hubby was a head teacher they both landed while i was there so i cleared. she was driving a bmw coupe and he had a bmw jeep- both new. your man was delighted. i rang him later that evening to ask how he got on. they went straight to the small houses and never even asked the price of the show house when my mate suggested the show house he was told they had a 'lifeplan' and both intended to retire in their early fifties and paying for a huge house wasnt part of their plans they wouldnt be able to buy new cars etc.. we both laughed at the time and i think the term stingey b**tards might have been used once but how wise they were, had they bought at the time they would now stand to loose around 130grand if they wanted to move. think 20 years down the line a big house will need gutted doors will need changed or fashions/mrs.stynes may demand new stuff it could require another mortgage

The above is a typical, thoughtless Irish house. 4 bedroom dormers with a sun room stuck on the side seem to be all the rage with people with no taste.

[thebigfella]

Something like this lads. Sorry about the size, i dont know how to make the images smaller.

jim thats a beautiful house but consider the size try to keep it as small as possible. i know a lad who was selling houses in a posh area of armagh he had a big show house and several medium ones and a few that i would have considered pensioners houses he was very up beat at the time me that he was sure he had two "victoms" for the show house she was a barrister and the hubby was a head teacher they both landed while i was there so i cleared. she was driving a bmw coupe and he had a bmw jeep- both new. your man was delighted. i rang him later that evening to ask how he got on. they went straight to the small houses and never even asked the price of the show house when my mate suggested the show house he was told they had a 'lifeplan' and both intended to retire in their early fifties and paying for a huge house wasnt part of their plans they wouldnt be able to buy new cars etc.. we both laughed at the time and i think the term stingey b**tards might have been used once but how wise they were, had they bought at the time they would now stand to loose around 130grand if they wanted to move. think 20 years down the line a big house will need gutted doors will need changed or fashions/mrs.stynes may demand new stuff it could require another mortgage

The above is a typical, thoughtless Irish house. 4 bedroom dormers with a sun room stuck on the side seem to be all the rage with people with no taste.

Agreed, country is overrun with houses like this

[JimStynes]

jim thats a beautiful house but consider the size try to keep it as small as possible. i know a lad who was selling houses in a posh area of armagh he had a big show house and several medium ones and a few that i would have considered pensioners houses he was very up beat at the time me that he was sure he had two "victoms" for the show house she was a barrister and the hubby was a head teacher they both landed while i was there so i cleared. she was driving a bmw coupe and he had a bmw jeep- both new. your man was delighted. i rang him later that evening to ask how he got on. they went straight to the small houses and never even asked the price of the show house when my mate suggested the show house he was told they had a 'lifeplan' and both intended to retire in their early fifties and paying for a huge house wasnt part of their plans they wouldnt be able to buy new cars etc.. we both laughed at the time and i think the term stingey b**tards might have been used once but how wise they were, had they bought at the time they would now stand to loose around 130grand if they wanted to move. think 20 years down the line a big house will need gutted doors will need changed or fashions/mrs.stynes may demand new stuff it could require another mortgage
[/quote]

Wouldn't want a big massive house lawn for the very reasons you have pointed out. The pic is just an example of the type of house i would be after (this may change though). Mainly because I love the stone finish on it. Definitely wouldnt go any bigger than that.

All of a sludden/bigfella, as i said earlier we are only getting ideas at the minute.   Post up some pics of nice houses to give us an idea of what else is out there.

[All of a Sludden]

Jim despite what the doom mongers will tell you its a good time to build a house. Labour costs have been slashed, materials are much cheaper and builders need the work. Architects are doing nothing, you`ll get a free consultation and a look at their work.
Your best bet is to go for a drive in a good area and have a look at what is out there, find out what you like. It would be a shame to end up with a boring 4 bed dormer when there are so many options available to you.

When you decide what you want have a chat with the local planning officer, get an idea of what he wants and will allow. Mention rain water harvesting, solar panels and the likes and you are half way there.

[JimStynes]

Jim despite what the doom mongers will tell you its a good time to build a house. Labour costs have been slashed, materials are much cheaper and builders need the work. Architects are doing nothing, you`ll get a free consultation and a look at their work.
Your best bet is to go for a drive in a good area and have a look at what is out there, find out what you like. It would be a shame to end up with a boring 4 bed dormer when there are so many options available to you.

When you decide what you want have a chat with the local planning officer, get an idea of what he wants and will allow. Mention rain water harvesting, solar panels and the likes and you are half way there.

Cheers for the advice .  I probably sound boring but I honestly like that type of house and so does the fiancee. We have had a drive about the country and this sort of house appeals to us at the minute. We could see something else though and change our minds completely so i am keeping an open mind at the minute. If you know any good sites with examples of different designs send us a PM sure.