On Jan 9, 1:23*pm, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
John Williamson wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
John Williamson wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
John Williamson wrote:
Just out of interest, like, does anyone know how much it costs to
build a house on a plot that you own in England, or anywhere I can
find something like a guesstimated cost per square whatever for
building a bungalow?

£60/square ft of habitable floor space *for very basic shell used to
be the guide. Thats Barrat Superhutch building tho.

more like £100 *for any level of decent finish and fittings.

It can cost that much to refurbish an interior without a shell.

A lot depends on 'feetchas'

I went for dormers for example. Each dormer took almost as long as
the main roof did..

There are plenty of references to costs in Leftpondia, but nowt I
can find for this side of the herring pond.

I'm in the market for somewhere to live, and there are a couple of
empty plots nearby.

If it comes up almost as cheap as buying somwehere older and doing
it up, I'd maybe prefer it.

Its *hugely laborious but ultimately satisfying experience.

I can also do things like soundproof a room properly so I can do some
recording without paying a fortune to add on soundproofing to
somewhere that's already too small. A quadruple glazed window is much
cheaper than taking an existing double out and putting a triple back
in. Putting a good, solid ceiling in costs very little at *build
time. Yes, I see where you're coming from.

Another useful guide is 30% materials. 70% labour.

So using decent materials doesn't add much to the price, but fiddly
features do.

A final tip. The money really starts to go when the house is built
and your wife moves in.

Ah, now that's where I'm on a winner. I'm not married... ;-)

Yet....

Go for it

uk.d-i-y saved me 6 figure sums I reckon, *but be prepared for a long
build especially if your project manager is as bad as mine was. I
fired him after 2 years and finished it myself.

Cheap mobile home/ biggish caravan on site, and I'll be there most
nights. I also used to work as designer/ estimator/ project manager for
a landscaping company many moons ago, though I'll be employing either a
sole contractor or site manager. As the site's being sold by an
architect/ design firm, I'll *have a chat with them tomorrow. I'll be
wanting a good, solid patio, about the size of a large extra bedroom, I
reckon.....

Must find that drafting board..... Rotring to the rescue!

I used COREL draw, these days Rhino CAD plus an A1 inkjet.

Yes, it will cost 2 grand to get that lot together, but should save you
5 grand in architects fees.

And it will save a LOT more if you can draw up pretty diagrams for the
electricians and the plumbers showing pipe/wire runs: with 3D CAD you
can even make sure the buggers will fit into the walls.

STRONGLY suggest satellite cabling and CAT5 cabling into EVERY room
ending up in a massive area in the loft where you can patch. Even if you
do wi fi etc, it still helps to be able to put a wifi point IN THE ROOM
on the end of a cable, rather than relying on crap propagation through
foil backed plasterboard etc.

Also plan drains carefully. You can never have too many drains..you can
move a bath. shower, sink *or a basin, *but bogs are a ******* to
relocate.It may take you three days to draw something up, BUT if it
saves three men three days because the job is well thought out its a
decent time /cash tradeoff.

I spent two days knocking up some nice Rhino D view of proposed bedroom
fitted cupboards. Good thing I did cos SWMBO said 'oh no, cant have
that, must have floor length curtains' (Why I will never know. The cats
**** on them if they can). Anyway in the end the answer was to relocate
* the curtains to the front of a window alcove...

Seehttp://www.templar.co.uk/downloads/Bedroom-web.jpg

You can't do THAT with a Rotring..

I really do advise, IF you know how to do a drawing board, to get Rhino.

Spend ages designing the house, down to the last detail. You very soon
acquire a suite of library objects like bogs, cookers and fridges
etc..take time and get them right - and then you can quickly assemble
while layers of structure, fixtures, plumbing and the like, and see the
house before you even build it.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

It's not possible to put all detail in. A lot has to be decided on
site.
If you want to cable out for ITT, don't. But put in (buried)
conduits and outlet boxes ready for it. Technology changes, you might
need to change stuff a few years down the road.