Stupid idea probably, but there’s a plot I’m looing at with a scabby house on it. I’m wondering what would be involved in bulldozing it and building a nice modern big ass house on that there bit of green? It’s in a village, and let’s say the total budget might be £250k plus purchase of the plot.

There will be stress involved but it is very doable. My sister has almost completed a good sized (8.4m X 8.5m) three bed detached house and by the time its plastered I think the cost may be under £120K not including the plot. It wasn’t the simplest build and the plot only had electricity so services have added to the cost. This is in SE England

What’s the floor area of that one rubber buc?

It’s an option but not for the unwary.

It can be a much cheaper option than buying off the shelf but you need to earn that saving by jumping through a few hoops to get it.

It can also be a much riskier and more expensive option than you first planned for if you don’t get it right. Pay for the advice of professionals if you’re not sure.

Can’t really offer any personal experience as my housing tastes are far too retro for a new build to appeal.

You have a few major obstacles to overcome that just don’t exist in the same form when compared to getting an existing property.

Design – someone more knowledgable will be along in a minute to give you better advice on this than I can. My only advice would be to try and maintain clarity of vision. Be clear what your requirements are from the outset and stick to that vision as much as you can. Changes on the fly are where unscrupulous Quantity Surveyors such as myself earn the big bucks.

Planning – A whole world of hurt awaits if the council / neighbours don’t share your vision.

Funding – Lenders tend to be reluctant to fund self builds.

Execution – Finding a contractor to carry out the work and then managing the process can be a stressful ballache.

Lots of people think they are capable of project managing a build. Lots of them turn out to be wrong.

About 70m2 per floor so 140m2

Be prepared for some stress, depends what sort of person you are whether it will be an enjoyable process. Funding-make sure you know how to fund it , sequencing and contingency. Take good advice and get it well designed. Structure your building contract to manage risk. Don’t be overly ambitious on spec, floor space or time ! Did it once, needed to put a lot of time in to make it happen with lots of practical decisions on the hoof when details didn’t quite work as designed.

🙂 I think it’s a non start for us to be honest, just had a tiny bit of me go ‘ee eck I wonder…’. Nice 1/4 acre plot with services right where we want to buy!

Note that everyone has used the word stress.

£250,000? That’ll cover the windows imported from Germany. What about the rest…..?

Oh… and is your wife presently ‘with child’? 😉

My dad built 3, and for that reason I never will!

We never lived in a finished house as kids, and can remember skipping across open floor joists on the landing to get to my bedroom.

He loved all the DIY though and did all the wiring and plumbing, and at nearly 80 he still can’t help tinkering with his current house, and there was always a few tons of sand and gravel on the drive (this made for an awesome place to play with toy cars though!).

Some people love it, and thrive on it. If you get a bit concerned if your plumber doesn’t turn up to fix a fault it may not be for you.

building a nice modern big ass house on that there bit of green? It’s in a village,

A small detail that may be worth checking

There’s a builder that’s just done 3 big ass houses a block away on what was undeveloped land, so I’d expect planning could be gained one way or another.

Do a pre-fab – so much easier….

http://www.huf-haus.com/en.html

No, but it would have been easier than renovating the oen I’m sitting in. Next time I’ll get a quote for demolition costs.

Timber frame with cladding would be very easy to build.

I fancy one of these if we ever find a plot…

http://www.hebrideanhomes.com/

If the fabric of the current build is something like then it’s worth thinking of utilising it in some way. It’s not like a standard extension as you won’t be living in it so a lot more can be done.

did mine. best thing I’ve ever done (apart from kids obvs)

Stress esp if it goes wrong. My folks did everything right and it still went wrong when the builder screwed everyone over. Guarantees mean nothing! Lawyers doing well though.

We built a 4-bedroom detached house after buying a delapidated bungalow that was ripe for knocking down. I used to be a civil engineer so designed the layout of the house and then handed it over to a timber frame company for the main build. I also handled the Planning and Building Control applications which I had had experience of in the past but it’s easy enough to find someone to do this.

We basically acted as the main contractor and lined up all the necessary trades after the frame was up. However, if I were to do it again (and we are now thinking of it) I would hand the whole job over to a builder/construction company and get them to do the lot. Acting as main contractor the main stress was lining up the various trades and at times there were gaps of a month or two before we could find a plumber for instance so the whole build took about two years.

We lived on site in a large mobile home which was interesting in the Winter but worth it in the end and we look back and laugh at some of the things that happened.

I am quite handy as well so did a lot of the finishing myself including the dry lining, building the staircase and decorating inside and out. I wouldn’t do all that again either though as I am getting a bit long in the tooth for that.

How much is the plot?

There will be stress involved but it is very doable. My sister has almost completed a good sized (8.4m X 8.5m) three bed detached house and by the time its plastered I think the cost may be under £120K not including the plot. It wasn’t the simplest build and the plot only had electricity so services have added to the cost. This is in SE England

£120k, does that actually include ALL the costs? 😯

Only as we’re currently converting one of our outbuildings into a granny annex for my folks, all in about £150k for a fully managed build of a well-specced one-bedroomed place. Even ignoring the conversion-trouble costs we’d be hard-pushed to do it for less than £100k but if you’re the ‘labour’ then I’m sure it could be a lot less.

Also we can’t get back the VAT, but I believe you can on a new-build.

Would definitely do it if the plot was good. If nothing else a well done well planned self build should make you 30% profit minimum. Way more if you get it right in certain locations.

£120k, does that actually include ALL the costs?

Yes but that will only be a plastered shell with kitchen, bathrooms, decorating, etc still to do. We have done the management but not much physical work. It is very easy for costs to run away but with the right people and a clear idea of what you want they don’t have to

Buy yourself a copy of The Houebuilders Bible: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Housebuilders-Bible-11-Mark-Brinkley/dp/1905959559/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1460581430&sr=8-1&keywords=housebuilders+bible
Really useful book – we found the costing sections particularly helpful (AKA reality check…).
It’s a great idea by the way – in our experience it’ll just take more time and money than you first think!