Grand Designs

[psi310398]

I might be being dim, but would anything major (money apart) stop them from taking the cladding out in the big room and replacing it with the glass they intended to fit when they have recovered a bit financially?

I mean apart from having the floors poured etc which proved to be a problem when fitting the glass that did go in ...

[C Lee Farquar]

We had ply sheets above and below the insulation on a copper warm roof

[anonymous-user]

C Lee Farquar said:

We had ply sheets above and below the insulation on a copper warm roof

Thats what he probably did BUT from the TV shots it was less than conclusive.

[Mark Benson]

garyhun said:

C Lee Farquar said:

We had ply sheets above and below the insulation on a copper warm roof

Thats what he probably did BUT from the TV shots it was less than conclusive.

Surely it wouldn't have been signed off without something within regs (maybe it wasn't signed off and they're still not living in it......).

[pistolpedro]

Having an interest in American Modernism I was really looking forward to this episode thought the final result was pretty disappointing, echoing what others have said the large room was really impacted by the loss of glazing from the original plans, the room seemed quite gloomy, and the plywood clad sections broke the horizontal lines making the room appear a lot smaller than it actually was, the bedroom wing was also pretty poor had a bit of care home feel to it

Think he would have been better designing from scratch in response to the plot (IMO this is the first rule of all good buildings )

That said he seemed like a nice enough guy and credit for seeing it though especially with a young family I struggle to find time to even decorate cant even begin to imagine building something on this scale

[hairykrishna]

"We think the glass will cost 30k. We've got one quote for 80."

How does someone with that much sense run a business and end up with 400k of savings?

A house where the whole point is a big steel frame full of glass and he's not got enough money, or decent estimates, in the plan for the frame or the glass.

[monthefish]

FredClogs said:

I don't really understand how or why people embark on these things without first spending a relatively minute amount of money on a decent quantity surveyor to tell them what they're original plan would cost. I mean it's not rocket science.

A QS will probably tell you the accurate costs of everything, and in a lot of cases, that would put a lot of self builders off ever starting. (In some cases, that would be a good thing.)

However, part of self-building is pushing boundaries, finding a way to achieve what, on the face of it, looked impossible. That's part of the fun. You need to be a bit foolhardy to embark on a self build I think.

It would be easy for a self-builder to say, "I've got a build budget of £500,000, I can comfortably afford to build a basic square 2 bedroom bungalow with plenty of contingency, so that's what I'm going to do". In reality a self builder will attempt to build as much as they can for what they can 'just about' afford to build, in the faith that things will work out in the end.

Sometimes that will mean compromise during the build, but there are areas of a build to compromise on, and areas of a build that are sacrosanct (key, defining features of a build), and I think the chap last night simply got that choice wrong.

Bonefish Blues said:

Ours had a lower budget but everything, and I mean everything was costed and specced up front - and not changed.

Without meaning to be rude, I expect that you overpaid for your build. A QS will estimate the going rate for services and materials (that's all they can do) however a shrewd self builder should be able to cut costs -vs- a QS's proposal.

Edited by monthefish on Friday 28th September 12:47

[monthefish]

garyhun said:

C Lee Farquar said:

Why would anyone want to be on Grand Designs? I see no upside unless you want to sell, which they usually seem to end up doing.

That or a egotistical need to be ‘on the telly’.

When I did my self-build for years back, my other half asked about being on GD. My reaction was ‘why would I’?

We also talked about it (briefly).

The upside was it would be a nice video record of a significant project, but we concluded the downsides far outweighed this.

[anonymous-user]

monthefish said:

Without meaning to be rude, I expect that you overpaid for your build. A QS will estimate the going rate for services and materials (that's all they can do) however a shrewd self builder should be able to cut costs -vs- a QS's proposal.

I had a builder friend build mine and he had pretty accurate estimates except for things like the glazing (lots of and oversized) and the roof (thee mono-pitched zinc roofs).

I took the build regs drawings to a variety of window companies and roofing companies and spent the time getting estimates and doing negotiating where possible.

It’s not rocket science, it’s about being prepared and informed and putting in the time to achieve both.

[Bonefish Blues]

monthefish said:

Without meaning to be rude, I expect that you overpaid for your build. A QS will estimate the going rate for services and materials (that's all they can do) however a shrewd self builder should be able to cut costs -vs- a QS's proposal.

We negotiated with the builder from that baseline, including me sourcing stuff myself. Overall I think we got fair value

[monthefish]

Bonefish Blues said:

monthefish said:

Without meaning to be rude, I expect that you overpaid for your build. A QS will estimate the going rate for services and materials (that's all they can do) however a shrewd self builder should be able to cut costs -vs- a QS's proposal.

We negotiated with the builder from that baseline, including me sourcing stuff myself. Overall I think we got fair value

I thought you said it hadn't changed from what the QS said?

[Mabbs9]

Slagathore said:

All those houses are infinitely more practical to live in, cheaper to run and far easier to maintain.

I caught up on it last night. Was a nice end product, but so much money for such a compromised living space.

As said previously, that's more of a weekend/holiday home. Far too impractical for young kids as well, bet there's been plenty of tears already!

He's an architect. It's a challenge and a feather in his cap. Not the intention to live there forever. GD do spin it all a bit. I know them btw.

[Bonefish Blues]

monthefish said:

I thought you said it hadn't changed from what the QS said?

I meant the materials, finishes, designs etc we costed up - lesson loud and clear from GD was that if you change on the fly you get reamed - so we didn't, once we'd agreed the fixed price, that was it!

...well, until the builder suggested an 'enhancement' that meant his team had to handball some tonnes of concrete downstairs, because he didn't do his due diligence, but he took that hit

[Adam B]

hairykrishna said:

"We think the glass will cost 30k. We've got one quote for 80."

How does someone with that much sense run a business and end up with 400k of savings?

A house where the whole point is a big steel frame full of glass and he's not got enough money, or decent estimates, in the plan for the frame or the glass.

Some of these are have sympathy with the owner, this one i had none - he was a plonker (albeit seemed a decent guy) who didn't do the minimum of accurate budgeting.

Loved the 3D CAD diagram of the house, result was poorly executed and the main feature (the glass) was half removed - a real shame, I also hate too much interior wood, that was too much like living in a sauna, properly plasterboarded and decorated it would look great

[CAPP0]

hairykrishna said:

How does someone with that much sense run a business and end up with 400k of savings?

I believe they sold a house in London previously? Not difficult to pocket £400k of equity from that.

[outnumbered]

I had a feeling it wasn't going to go well right from the beginning, where the bloke was explaining "their" vision of the house from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. And his missus was just standing there looking slightly indifferent.

[anonymous-user]

CAPP0 said:

hairykrishna said:

How does someone with that much sense run a business and end up with 400k of savings?

I believe they sold a house in London previously? Not difficult to pocket £400k of equity from that.

Correct!

[Muncher]

hairykrishna said:

"We think the glass will cost 30k. We've got one quote for 80."

How does someone with that much sense run a business and end up with 400k of savings?

A house where the whole point is a big steel frame full of glass and he's not got enough money, or decent estimates, in the plan for the frame or the glass.

Precisely because when someone tells them something is going to cost £80k, they at least try to get it closer to £30k. The ones who hear £80k and pay £80k are they ones left with no money!

Despite what you make of the result, they have probably earned themselves another few hundred grand of tax free capital.

[BoRED S2upid]

Fair play to him for bringing it in closer to £400k thank £1,400,000! A building that size could have swallowed a lot of money very quickly it goes to show that you can build cheaply. A few years down the line they could always redesign it and get closer to the original dream.

[anonymous-user]

For all the cuts he made, especially the glass, I still have a sneaking suspicion that his claimed spend of (iirc) £550,000 was possibly a little inaccurate.