Self-build

[Leon]

Has anyone here ever self-built a house? or know someone who has?
Ideas, suggestions etc gratefully received!
:D

[Amdathlonuk]

Yep, wifes father did it.
It's definately best to buy your own land and build the property you want.

Basically work out how many bedrooms..etc. you want including bathrooms...etc.

Get a GOOD architect to draw up some plans and work out/ change ANY thing you have doubts about.

Make sure you think about the layout of the rooms...i.e do you want South facing bedrooms to catch the sun in the morning.

It's good to have a South facing Garden aswell as this will catch sun ALL day...

Personally I don't think you can have TOO many plugs/sockets in rooms either, i.e at least a double on EACH wall, do you also want Phone points and T.V. connection points in the walls as well to minimise cables??

Make sure that you also plan all of the FIxtures and fitings like, radiators...etc so the pipes can be chased into the wall to enable ease of decorating and it makes the house much tidier.

I once built a house as well where the bottom radiator pipes were put through the floor of EVERy room, the pipes were in a wooden channel with a screw on top and inbetween the channels the floor was screeded, but in the winter when the Central Heating was put on it gave under floor heating as well and it was REALLY effective and cheap to run.

My Wifes father spent about 60K buying and building a 4 bedroom house with en-suites ...etc.

He sold it for 300K.

HTH.

JJ

[onionboy - s12]

my dads just built the house/bungalow we are living in at the moment... it started as a 70k bungalow, never touched since the war.... weve totally gutted and rebuilt everything, gone out back by about 20-30 feet, out the front 6-10 feet, and built all round the sides and in the loft... the loft now has 4 bedrooms an en-suite and a bathroom...

i say go for it... they have spent about 40k on this place and built it by his own hands... taken a long time, but its been valued at about 350-400k and it isnt even finished yet...

go for it mate :D

were gonna sell this and buy a big lump of land and build from scratch within the next year so its well worth it... do it before the government clamp down on it all.....

then buy property in spain and sit on it :D

[Filmidget]

Would love too! - but have trouble finding a bit of land round here I could even afford...

Don't fancy selling up and living in a caravan for a couple of years either...

Get the local authority Building Control involved early - go to them and seek advice, and they are usually (more) helpful from my limited experience.

Cheers, Phil

[Leon]

Cheers guys, much appreciated!
I've just spotted a rather sizable plot in France that isn't too expensive (considering) and that includes woodland, pastureland and 2 lakes!!!! But that isn't for me, I'm staying in this country...
I really want to do it, it looks like a cheaper bet than buying my own place plus I get what I want. The only problem is that what I want might be a little on the pricey side... :(

[onionboy - s12]

take a look at demolission mate... sometimes properties go seriously cheap as they are run down... if you get a team of cheap labour it can be worth it... its a good way of building in cities etc