House Build Thread As Promised
Discussion
OK, as promised in the “what does your house look like” thread – here is my build thread.
First some background:
When my mum died in 2005 I inherited the old family home. This was a bungalow my dad began building in the 1960’s & where I lived in from about 1968 to 1977.
Now, to be fair, dad never quite finished the build – there were lots of the “little” things he never got around to. Living there, it was also clear he hadn’t quite thought out some of the design - rooms all slightly too small, doors & electrical sockets in the wrong places, etc,etc.
Consequently, when we decided to go for the build, I wanted to over-size the rooms so one of my instructions to the architect was that, whatever size he thought the rooms should be, I wanted them bigger!
The original idea was to go from a 3 bed bungalow with single garage to a 4 bed house with a double garage. As I said, that was the idea! The local authority planning bods disagreed and insisted it had to be a dormer!
Oh, well, it was worth a punt!
However, 3 applications later (including one appeal), we still had a refusal on our hands! At that stage, I engaged a planning consultant. Frankly, he ripped into them and on the 5th November 2009 we received notice that we had won the second appeal – woo-hoo! - (best £1,000 I’ve ever spent!).
The builders began work at the end of March 2010 so here come the pics.
This first one is my dad & me working on the original build - note the H&S compliant scaffolding & footwear! ;-)
|http://thumbsnap.com/5BezF7EL[/url]
First some background:
When my mum died in 2005 I inherited the old family home. This was a bungalow my dad began building in the 1960’s & where I lived in from about 1968 to 1977.
Now, to be fair, dad never quite finished the build – there were lots of the “little” things he never got around to. Living there, it was also clear he hadn’t quite thought out some of the design - rooms all slightly too small, doors & electrical sockets in the wrong places, etc,etc.
Consequently, when we decided to go for the build, I wanted to over-size the rooms so one of my instructions to the architect was that, whatever size he thought the rooms should be, I wanted them bigger!
The original idea was to go from a 3 bed bungalow with single garage to a 4 bed house with a double garage. As I said, that was the idea! The local authority planning bods disagreed and insisted it had to be a dormer!
Oh, well, it was worth a punt! However, 3 applications later (including one appeal), we still had a refusal on our hands! At that stage, I engaged a planning consultant. Frankly, he ripped into them and on the 5th November 2009 we received notice that we had won the second appeal – woo-hoo! - (best £1,000 I’ve ever spent!).
The builders began work at the end of March 2010 so here come the pics.
This first one is my dad & me working on the original build - note the H&S compliant scaffolding & footwear! ;-)
|http://thumbsnap.com/5BezF7EL[/url]
Up until this point things had been going swimmingly but here is where it all started getting difficult.
We had planned on using the majority of the interior walls but, when we started to take down the ones we didn't want, we discovered that dad had built them first and THEN laid the floors room by room - so the interior walls (block construction) effectively had foundations - wonderful!
To cap that, while we knew the (solid) floors weren't exactly level (dad didn't do level - everything was "by eye") once the walls came down we realised just how "not level" it was - 5½" drop diagonally from the north west corner to the south west if you know what I mean.
The builder decided to have a go at levelling it by using a big circular grinder-polisher-type machine with a view to lower the level at it's highest and then filling in at the lowest - he said it wouldn't be perfect but would be a lot better.
When the machine disintegrated in a cloud of smoke and a big bang we discovered that dad had also used rebar in the flooring - the machine had hit one of the bars! Ooops!
End result was all the floors had to be dug out and relaid - apparently it should have been about 4-6" thick but they had to go down 18" at one part! The good news is that the finished product was completely level and well insulated!
We had planned on using the majority of the interior walls but, when we started to take down the ones we didn't want, we discovered that dad had built them first and THEN laid the floors room by room - so the interior walls (block construction) effectively had foundations - wonderful!
To cap that, while we knew the (solid) floors weren't exactly level (dad didn't do level - everything was "by eye") once the walls came down we realised just how "not level" it was - 5½" drop diagonally from the north west corner to the south west if you know what I mean.
The builder decided to have a go at levelling it by using a big circular grinder-polisher-type machine with a view to lower the level at it's highest and then filling in at the lowest - he said it wouldn't be perfect but would be a lot better.
When the machine disintegrated in a cloud of smoke and a big bang we discovered that dad had also used rebar in the flooring - the machine had hit one of the bars! Ooops!
End result was all the floors had to be dug out and relaid - apparently it should have been about 4-6" thick but they had to go down 18" at one part! The good news is that the finished product was completely level and well insulated!
Ha! That's a good question!
If I'd known then what I know now I may well have flattened it and started from scratch but (and it's a big but) that would have raised (a) further planning difficulties and (b) issues around VAT.
(a) We had enough problems getting planning for what was effectively a renovation (albeit a major one)- the chances of getting it for a new-build woudl have been less
(b) The old bungalow had been empty for over 3 years so most of the work benefitted from a reduced rate - if we were going down the new-build route we would have had to pay VAT in full and claim it back at the end - given the overall tiem the build took this would have caused serious cash-flow issues!
If I'd known then what I know now I may well have flattened it and started from scratch but (and it's a big but) that would have raised (a) further planning difficulties and (b) issues around VAT.
(a) We had enough problems getting planning for what was effectively a renovation (albeit a major one)- the chances of getting it for a new-build woudl have been less
(b) The old bungalow had been empty for over 3 years so most of the work benefitted from a reduced rate - if we were going down the new-build route we would have had to pay VAT in full and claim it back at the end - given the overall tiem the build took this would have caused serious cash-flow issues!
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