Am I mad to try and build my own home?

[tuftyfella]

So i have been looking into buying a house for some time now, a detached house as i hate living in a semi (although sometimes beggars cant be choosers...). Anyway i cant find a single detached house that i like, bearing in mind my budget for one isn't huge so i'm somewhat limited with choice. Then i had a thought, could i build a house and went off Googling and found the following...

https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/diy-icf-self-build/

i like the look, the layout (although i'd be changing it somewhat), doing away with the dining room and garage section for a start. The idea of working with ICF seems kind of fun and much more user friendly for something like this and for someone like me with literally no experience in any building trade, although i'm more than proficient at DIY. Coupled with the fact it does seem very DIY inclined it could save a tonne of money on the labour costs of the usual block build wall as i should be able to build it all and get it filled with concrete myself?

I'm working through some of the costs and volumes of materials, structural stuff i.e. concrete, re-bar, facing bricks, roof tiles and various other stuff, roughly accurate estimates for something that would be 10 x 8 meters (may drop down to 10 x 7) as well as drawing up plans on graph paper (anyone able to suggest some free software that doesn't have any 30 day trial crap).

By the way, i realise i'm probably underestimating how hard this is going to be but i'm up for the challenge.

So... lets assume i have the land with the planning permission, plans etc... am i mad to attempt something like this?

 

[Lumeycom]

Possibly mad, yes. If time is at all an issue then don't do it. The project management part of the job is not to be underestimated as far as arranging different trades at different times etc etc.

The only thing that springs to mind is whether that build method comes under "traditional construction". I would say it doesn't and as such it may have buildings insurance implications once built much like a "prefab" does. I'm not saying this is prefab btw, just there may be more things to check than you think,

 

[tuftyfella]

The only thing that springs to mind is whether that build method comes under "traditional construction". I would say it doesn't and as such it may have buildings insurance implications once built much like a "prefab" does. I'm not saying this is prefab btw, just there may be more things to check than you think,

well going by http://www.icfa.org.uk/content/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/CML-Letter-2012.pdf from this http://www.icfa.org.uk/association-membership/ site it would seem so, i would obviously check with whichever insurance company i go for...

amateur response i know, again, still researching all this stuff, want to be as prepared as potentially possible.

 

[McPhee]

That's one seriously impressive house for £128,000 total. I'd want more information than that article gives before even considering it though. Was that 19 months of spare time? Or 19 months of long days and having no other income coming in? Who were his mates that helped him? That bit is glossed over, but I've seen stuff in the past where houses have been "built" cheaply by people with no experience. You then find out that their father-in-law is a builder, their cousin is an architect, they have mates in construction, plumbing, carpentry, etc., meaning the person who "built" the house basically just paid for it and then helped out on site while the professionals worked for tea, biscuits, and eternal gratitude.

 

[Glaucus]

not mad at all, but that's the "easy" bit, finding a bit of land, planning permission and financing it( you generally require a very large deposit, and the way the funding is released after you've built upto a certain stage so have to fund that stage initially), unless you are rich is almost impossible. Unless parents sale half their garden or similar.

and unlike grand designs, factor in and plan every single cable, switch, light and furniture. Not go spend 200k on the shell and now have no money and didn't think about fitting it out.

looked at so many different ways to not have massive debt for living and, pretty much every one requires luck or more often help.
the only one which doesn't is van dwelling which is easy to achieve, but obviously has its own issues. Especially if you need a second vehicle.

 

[thezappa]

Personally I think it's a brilliant idea and would love to do it myself, problem for me (amongst some other rather significant things) is land prices in the south are high.
Buildstore are probably the best known self build mortgage provider and at one time (might still) offer accelerator mortgages which fund stages up front as opposed to you stumping up the initial cash:
https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/self-build-mortgages-2/ might be a good start.

For quickness prefabricated panels are up there (could go full modular for ultimate speed) something like SIPS or timber frame could be an option as well. If I were doing it I would consider a project manager given the time involved and getting proper drawings. With those you can approach a lot of different companies to see what they say about timescales and costs.

 

[the_r_sole]

Absolutely not mad, the only advice I would give you at this stage is to do loads of reading and speak to people that have done it before, there are plenty of ways self build can go sideways so the more you understand about the process the better you can avoid these.
Icf is a really interesting way to build imo, you could look at other ways of cladding it rather than just facing bricks...
I know you want to do the drawings yourself but i would really advise getting a good set of drawings done by someone experienced, that should make it easier to keep a handle on costs and allow you to get other trades to accurately price works. With a structure like that i would also be tempted to get building regulation approval before breaking ground rather than working on a notice - but that's just me.
IMO the more you put into the preparation the more you will get out of the project, if you just bash on you need some serious luck to come in on time or budget, if you are funding it with a mortgage also check what their requirements are for releasing funds (some self build products rely on builders valuations are architects certificates)

 

[SPG]

No hallway.... A house needs a hallway.

 

[tuftyfella]

thanks for the replies and suggestions folks

the drawings i'm doing at the moment are just to help me visualise measurements and work out volumes of materials, also to make things easier when getting in touch with and potentially meeting an architect to draw up actual plans.

i have considered other cladding than bricks like for example http://www.brick-clad.co.uk/tier-naturalstone-cladding/ - (i like the slate) although i expect that would be rather expensive.

my plans have a somewhat of a hallway

 

[Buffman]

No hallway.... A house needs a hallway.

Is that based on the OPs link? There's also no doorway to the kitchen .

I think building a house is a great idea! Depends on if you have significant spare cash capital incase things go wrong, and a good architect or your own ideas.

I also don't agree about the hallway being a *must have* but it depends on the layout of your house. If I was making a house I would also make it as physically large as possible... Surely economies of scale kick in to some degree?

 

[SPG]

I really like the idea of it, but then how we build houses in this country is a little backward to say the least in this day and age.

Or, you could just build it in a day.....

http://www.archdaily.com/806742/build-your-own-3d-printed-house-all-in-one-day

No doubt the council "look after my own job" building permissions people would kick it out on the grounds lack of brick or something.

 

[bayo000]

Can always brick clad it

Definitely want to do it one day myself, though leaning more towards buying a small farm but gf is against living too far out of town. Helped my sister to built hers and one of my brothers also built his house.

 

[JRJ]

I'm working through some of the costs and volumes of materials, structural stuff i.e. concrete, re-bar, facing bricks, roof tiles and various other stuff, roughly accurate estimates for something that would be 10 x 8 meters (may drop down to 10 x 7) as well as drawing up plans on graph paper (anyone able to suggest some free software that doesn't have any 30 day trial crap).

I've been using this for my project https://home.by.me/en/

 

[Psycho Sonny]

if your planning on building your own home. account for HUGE delays within the process. for instance a 6 month project can easily turn into a year then into 2 years.

also account to overspend on the budget by up to 100%.

this doesn't always happen but it does happen a lot. unless you get everything watertight and contracted. for instance completion date is XX of December and for every day over this completion date you will be fined £1000 per day.

 

[the_r_sole]

this doesn't always happen but it does happen a lot. unless you get everything watertight and contracted. for instance completion date is XX of December and for every day over this completion date you will be fined £1000 per day.

Put that in a tender for a house and you won't have any contractors returning prices, you can also only usually claim for actual loss and can't have a punishment clause in your building contract... if you start off with things like that in a contract you can guarantee that the contractor will have extras in his prelims to cover the hassle for a qs to deal with it and will be claiming for extensions of time all the way through