First time home builders

[Mammyofonlyone]

We're about to start planning/ building our new home. We've got pre planning and have an architect who has drawn up plans to be submitted.
I'm looking for advice from anyone who has done this, on pretty much the whole process. Do you have any fantastic tips? Things I mustn't forget? Things you wish you'd done/not done? Places to use for kitchens/bathrooms etc?
Any advice would be fantastic.
For context, it will probably be 5 beds and we are in Yorkshire/Humber area.
Thank you.

We built a Potton timber framed house a couple of years ago - best thing we ever did! Lots of learning curves..

1. Get a professional project manager. Costs ££ but saves the hassle and potential legal problems if contractors let you down

1. If you're planning a wood-burning stove with external chimney, arrange to have it fitted before you put any cladding/render on the outside walls.

1. Have a soil test way before anything else so your ground workers can work out how deep the foundations will need to go based on soil type and water table properties.

1. Think about access from house into garden. We didn't want a step so we have level access but it means we had to have a gravel channel around the house between the walls and the patio, to ensure adequate drainage.

1. When you arrange electrics, mark on your floor plan IN FULL what different sockets you want (eg telephone, USB, LAN) don't assume the electrician knows what you want!! And don't let any contractors bully you by saying that all their other clients have/don't have something 😀

1. DIY kitchens are FAB. But get decent joiners to fit it, and be there on site the whole time so you can be sure they're doing it how you want (our joiners were 2 gorgeous young men in their early 20s. Very talented but have no idea about family kitchen functionality and layout so I had to explain stuff that might have been ambiguous)

1. Take photos at every opportunity. Nice memories later but also very useful if you need to know where a joist/pipe/cable was laid after the wall's been plastered.

DM me if you have any qus

Oh great thread mammy! We are just starting this as well so will look for tips. Our planning has gone, we are very much on a budget and it will be small but hope not to cock it up!

AtSea thank you so much, that is literally exactly the type of advice I was looking for. Brilliant, thank you.
I was thinking of using a main contractor to manage it for us - is that the same as the project manager you described, or do you think I need to step up to the next level? Sorry I'm a bit naive about such things.
I have heard about DIY kitchens so am pleased with the feedback. We've spent a fortune on kitchens in the past only to end up moving after a couple of years so I don't want to make that mistake again and am hoping to go for something more affordable this time.
Thank you again, and I'm pleased you are happy with the results.

Good luck Humphries. Have you broken to ground yet?

No Mammy, planning just gone in and nothing will happen before december.
We have very much taken the easy way and have a constructor so we dont have any project managment to do. We are not in the the uk so felt it would have been too much for us. I have already made mistake about where i put windows so hope i dont cock it up too much!
Diy kitchens look fab and great reviews.
Currently looking at floors since i have made some awful flooring decisions on floors in the past! Expensive mistake to make. If anyone has advice on vinyl colours to chose would be great. Currently stuck on chosing between two or even three!
Good luck

I recommend Karndean, having had a K kitchen floor for 15 yrs that still looked like new (and I only mopped once a month or two). New house has K in kitchen and bathrooms. It's slate grey tiles, looks like slate, is amazing (and works well with underfloor heating)

Construction company managing the job will be fine! Make sure it's staged so you pay in instalments and that you have adequate insurance for the site, the contractors and the build. BuildStore are good.

Be prepared for decision-fatigue ("have you thought about the lintels" - no I can honestly say I have NEVER considered lintels for one second). Have a decent contingency. We had wet underfloor heating throughout, solid walls throughout (no plasterboard) for heat and sound insulation, and a built in vacuum cleaner. Miss them badly. You can never have too many power points. If you have a large square footage consider a pumped hot water circuit. Buy every magazine. Demister pads behind any mirrors in bathrooms.

To light a bathroom mirror you need two lights either side of the mirror at eyeline and an overhead downlight in-between the top of your head and the wall.

Be prepared to be firm: when the plumber put the very modern shower fitting in the very traditional bathroom and vice versa he actually said "do you really want me to swop them back, it will be a lot of work". FGS.

Also agree on Project Manager if you've never done this before, he saved ££££ multiple times over.

Architects come in a spectrum: the very creative ones who are not so good at the practical stuff and the very practical ones who are not so good at design. Work out what type you have and make sure the opposite skills come from somewhere (eg does the creative one have an architectural technician to back them up, can the practical one incorporate ideas you've seen in magazines etc)

Aah I learned sooooo much...

Ha! @PurpleWithRed I say don't buy any magazines!! They just make me confused and think there's lots of choice and Id never make a decision YY on lots of plug sockets and have some of the USB ones too.

We drew our own floor plans based on how our family lives. The architect at Potton then turned our sketches into workable (and affordable) reality. No one but you can ever know what's important or not in a house.

Like we have huge hall and landing - lots of people think it's wasted space but for us it means there's never overcrowding when we're all leaving/arriving at the same time. And we iron on the landing which means the board always gets put away afterwards. And the lift hatch ladder can be down and never in the way of a door or room. Different strokes for different folks!

Think i already had decison fatique with the kitchen! Was awful getting quotes and suddenly plumped for a lower end chain one over a high end quality one for almost the same price! Still cant believe what i did so hoping that does not happen again!

From my niche bit of construction:

Make sure that you/the architect /there contractor get the SAP calculations (by a good assessor!) done at design stage - that way you know if you are passing Part L1a and how much/how short it is. If you're well over, you can explore where you can cut back and if you are short, it's expensive to leave until the end when all the cheap options are no longer available.

Also, make sure the builder has the air tightness test in mind from the early stages and is ensuring that trades are sealing up behind them.

Thank you AtSea and Purple, both really useful pieces of advice. Have shared them both with my husband (although it's my project really).
Do any of you have any thoughts about going into the attic? Our plans have only two floors but am wondering if we should go into the roof to maximise the floor space for when we eventually sell up and move on

If you intend to board the attic floor and use it for storage you need to decide that before the construction is planned because of load-bearing and roof trusses. We planned for our attic to be unusable for storage and have the simplest (cheapest!) form of internal roofing (the trusses basically fill the lift space) Our reasons were that the house and garage are big enough to store all our crap and a loft space makes you lazy about de-cluttering and this is our forever home.

However we do have a huge loft hatch with decent integral ladder with handrail so that we can get up there safely to attend to the aerial or the ventilation system which is housed in the loft.

If you plan to sell and future buyers might want to use loft then it's sensible to have it boarded and put in a velux window from the start - it will make it more saleable for sure.

That's a good idea AtSea, thank you. Really useful advice. I aware people may want to convert into additional room space as this has been done a lot in our village (including in our current home) so a velux is a good idea to highlight potential

We are converting a building into a house. because it was a divorce settlement, its pretty stressful, I probably should have sold up and taken less cash! However, on a good day, it seems exciting!

That sounds stressful Jeepy, what stage are you at? I hope it is progressing well??