advice needed quickly!!!!! anyone converted/had converted a barn?

[belcantavinissima]

we have found a plot (its mahooooosive!) with a barn with pp for conversion toa 4 bed house on it. we are very very interested but we have to deicde/put in offer by end of weds (we only saw it advertised on saturday).

i quickly need to find out approx how much it will cost to convert it? i have been guesstimating iro £100,000 but generally have no idea.
also, how does one go about finding a suitable builder to do it?
also how do we go about funding it?
do we need to sell our house then hire a mobile home to live on site whilst we wait fro the thing to be built? we cant afford to pay two big mortgages at the same time!
how do you ensure it stays on budget? tips on keeping costs down gratefully recieved.

sorry for so many questions but getting unnaturally excited and it probably wont come to anything but just need advice! and quickly!
thank you

In the first instance I would try and speak to a builder and/or architect who has experience of barn conversions.

There are often restrictions on what can be done on barns that can have massive cost implications (eg. use of materials, style of joinery etc) so more expensive per square metre than the renovation of an average Victorian terrace for example.

My dh helped his cousin do a barn conversion but its impossible to estimate without knowing loads more details, and that was several years ago too and they did most of the work themselves! I know that they couldn't get a mortgage on the barn until it had certain basics installed such as sink, toilet etc. they invested cash, lived with family whilst working on it and had to get these basic things done before they could get the mortgage to finish the conversion. It was great though, but it sounds like you need to do alot more homework before you're ready to purchase. I would find a bulder through word of mouth, and seeing completed projects. You can hire or buy a mobile home which you then sell afterwards. Costs depend alot on finish too, using traditional and reclaimed, or modern, and how much needs doing. Ask around quickly!

oh blimey dont think i have time to find a builder through word of mouth!
i did speak to the mortgage chap earlier who said getting a mortgage on it will be fine. i can get 95% upront to buy the plot and barn then another 95% to do the build which you get in bits and bobs as the work progresses.
anyone know any suitable builders in the south west?
it would be so amazing esp as it comes with- wait for it- 8.6 acres of land!!!!

Hi we are having a barn converted currently. Looking in my homebuilding & renovating magazine "Barn Conversions" book costs vary from £15K to £500k. It really is how long is a piece of string. If you buy a renovating/converting magazine they usually give you an example of square foot costs, then just work out the size of your property and hey ho an approximation of costs to convert. Sorry unfortunately I can not find one of mine at the minute

As an example I have just been shopping round for a kitchen for our house and was quoted £8k by one showroom and also told by one shop that if my budget was less than £28K they would not bother quoting for me.

Use word of mouth for a builder and make sure you get a quotation not just an estimate and do not NOT pay in advance and get invoices for all stages. Can you tell I have been stung.

You can also claim your VAT back, if you use a vat registered builder you get charged at 5% then claim it back, if you buy materials yourself you pay the full 17.5% rate and claim that back at the end.

Things we are just shelling out for are £1300 water connection, approx £300 gas connection and £1200 electric connection. Our builder is digging the trench and laying all pipework prior to them coming out this is just to connect to mains from edge of driveway.

You may need a specialist mortgage lender as my current mortgage provider would not lend on the property until it is a weathertight shell with utilities connected. Luckily we had a lot of equity in our existing house so remortgaged that to the hilt and paid for a large chunk of costs/work from the equity released. That meant we had somewhere to live whilst work in progress. We are now getting a mortgage on the new place in anticipation of utility connections pre Christmas.

www.homebuilding.co.uk/
www.mybarnconversion.com/

I live in a barn conversion, didn't convert it but have spent a fortune undoing the shitty on-the-cheap DIY conversion that was here.

To give you some ideas of basics, an oil fired central heating system strong enough to give enough heat £8,000.

New handbuilt, hard wood double glazing (it is listed/restricted/aonb?) £800.00 per large window plus VAT (unpainted)(I have had 14 large, 4 small, a stable door, 2 'french' doors and a front door replaced)

Rewiring for half the property £6,000 (solid stone floors/no downstairs floorbords to go under meant channeling out vast areas of wall)

Fencing (child/sheep/pony proof nice looking) on 3 acres £7,000.

Personally I wouldn't want to do it on £100k (you need a 20% contingency fund anyway) but I'm sure it is possible.

Recently gutted a house and converted small barn on the side. £100k sounds on the cheap side.

It depends on size and state of barn and what you want to achieve (also location - how much choice you have of building suppliers/contractors etc, access) but £1200 p sq m would be doing pretty well.

You can get lots of funding options from building societies and lenders who specialise in "self-build" projects (I know you won't be doing the work but still called self-build). Homebuilding & Renovating magazine is widely available and a really good starting point, carries loads of advice and adverts from people wooing self-builders - in fact they have piece about a barn conversion in this month's (ie Jan) issue.

From top of head, a company called BuildStore specialise in self-build loans that can sometimes mean you can stay put until the work is finished if you have good amount of equity in current house.