KIT HOUSES - Turnkey companies - honest experiences needed!

[cheesecakeandchocplease]

Hi everyone, please tell me your honest experiences of self build using a turnkey service.

We have viewed a house on a plot that is perfect for us in every way in a very popular Herts town which we live very near to and love. We have young DCs but location ticks boxes for primary, secondary schools, lovely area, somewhere we would be for the long term. Completely derelict house so would need demolishing and starting over.

We are lucky that we have a healthy budget but properties where we want come up rarely, and when they do they need work anyway. From research online it seems turnkey experiences seem to be quick, hassle free and work put cheaper than buying a house and doing the work. Plus the savings on VAT and opportunity to make the house how you want it are appealing, with the opportunity to be involved in design but hands off the build, which is what we want. We would be prepared to rent for the year given it would be a long term home for us.

DH is convinced it is all too good to be true and we should not even consider it. He thinks building from scratch is too risky. We don't know anyone that has done it. Please let me know any experience, good, bad or ugly!

I've never done it, but some companies can build very nice (and expensive) houses - check out Huf-Haus.

@eightlivesdown thank you😊

There was a grand designs episode on a huf haus and I fell in love with it! They are not cheap, and that has probably been made worse with Brexit but they are amazing and totally done to your specification.

One of my friends did this and her house was fabulous. I think a few of the neighbours objected to it when it was in the planning stage, but the way the outside was finished it didn't look much different to the other houses on the road (which were in various different styles). I can't remember the company name, it was German but not Huf Haus.

Huf Haus are super expensive and quite a particular look. They wouldn't work on a modest suburban plot!

There are plenty of cheaper and more boring options, like Danwood, WeberHaus, Baufritz.

Just get a great architect and working with SIPs panels and a main contractor, cheaper, you'll have more control and it's great fun!

Aldo stressful but the fun part outweighs this.

Look at border oak if you want something with character.

Thank you so much for your input everyone!

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar did your friend find the process stressful?

Has anyone else done this?

Our neighbour has just put up a Danwood house. Ugly AF but once the ground was prepped it went up in a few days

Does anyone know if these houses can instead be used as an alternate to expensive brick extension?

No, I don't think she did find it stressful except for the planning stage. I'm pretty sure that she and her DH flew out to the company to do the house design and pick the fittings, so that part of it was quite quick.

If you want to go the architect plus main contractor using modern methods of construction (e.g. SIPs or ICS) then forum.buildhub.org.uk/ is a good source of experience and anecdotes. People.on there often do quite a bit of the work themselves, which obviously saves money and extends timelines.

We've done two self builds but avoided kit houses as although they would have worked out far cheaper, we couldn't achieve the look or quality we wanted. If you can afford it, find a fabulous architect to achieve your dream design, use a main contractor for a wind and watertight build and then manage subcontractors of your choice to achieve a high end luxury finish. We didn't do any of the work ourselves because frankly, we couldn't be bothered. We made a 30% profit on our first self build which was a 'trial run' for our forever home. I'd highly recommended it.

@AaronStampler really interesting, thank you! Sounds like a similar set up but you would really need to trust your main contractor.

@MapleMay11 wow congratulations, 2 seld builds, I am in awe! Did you have to get overly involved in sub contractors? Is it really possible to build a house and not find it stressful?

Thinking more and more I need to convince DH! X

@cheesecakeandchocplease It's definitely possible with lots of research and planning and good project management. We managed all the subcontractors ourselves without any prior experience - anyone can do it, I promise you. Go along to the Build It Live weekends and talk to lots of people before making a decision. There's so much good advice on forums as well.