Living in caravan while building house

[Spirallingsometimes]

We’re thinking of buying a new mobile home and siting it on a driveway while we build a house. I don’t know if this is a crazy plan, I’ve looked into the cost of getting a new caravan, about £28k which is doable for us. Looking for experiences of people who have done this. What is the toilet situation? I’ve read most of them have a cassette system which you empty weekly, I have no idea where I’d empty it to and don’t really like the sound of this 😂 can you pay companies to empty? How much do they charge? Also a bit concerned about the resale value of the caravan, and was even thinking about keeping it and renting it out to people doing building projects to recoup some of the money invested, but again, the whole toilet emptying issue puts me off of this…

Our neighbours did this successfully. They sorted the water, sewage and electricity on site first and connected the caravan. The central heating system used bottled gas and that was horrendously expensive to run.

Based on my experience, a cassette loo might need emptying as often once a day if you have a family using it.

Thank you, ok didn’t realise connecting the caravan up to existing sewerage would be an option so that’s good to know- I’m so clueless on this type of stuff!

Another thing, if you are only going to be living in it for a few months why not buy a secondhand static? Unless you are lucky, I think you might take quite a hit when reselling a new one.

We bought one secondhand for less than 2k (plus transport). We still have it 20 years later.

Yes will definitely look at secondhand ones as well, or even renting one.

We are renting a small bungalow next door to our build site. It barely passes the minimums required for it to be legally let BUT it’s warm and safe. It costs us £800 per month plus bills. We also looked at long term Air BnBs.

My family has a caravan. It’s fully winterised and newish BUT it’s not pleasant to be in during the winter. They are so energy inefficient that they spend a huge amount on heating each year and it’s not even used full time - weekends and holidays only.

You might find that renting a small property or flat actually works out cheaper and is much nicer than a caravan on site. Trust me - the mud never ends and the builders are there all the time. It’s nice to be able to escape!!!

There used to be mobile home adverts in Homebuilding and Renovations magazine specifically aimed at self builders.

We've done it twice. Connecting up to mains electricity and sewerage is well worth it. Winter time can be tricky- bottled gas for heating and cooking causes quite a lot of condensation, and the gas can freeze if it gets really cold. Also your water supply may freeze up in winter, so make sure it's got loads of insulation. We covered over the bottom of the van, which helped to keep it warm; no wind blowing underneath! We used 2nd hand vans which were perfectly OK, just not up to caravan park standard. You do need to think about access/ transporting issues. We had to get permission from the council for temporary siting of the van.

How is it crazy, loads of people do this?

I wouldn't buy new, 5k should do. How big is the drive?

You can get old static caravans for free that are life expired ( most sites have a 25 year rule) as long as you pay the removal fees.

I think my neighbours had to get planning permission for a temporary static caravan to live in while they tore down the dodgy old bungalow they'd bought and built anew.

This was about 20 years ago - the house still isn't finished - the caravan is still there but the neighbours have bought a little house in town, theoretically until the house is done. I suspect neither us nor them will live to see that day...

A tourer will have a cassette and if 2-people are using it as the only loo then it will need emptying daily but that is just a case of tipping it down the inspection cover, giving it a rinse and topping up the chemicals.
A static would be a better solution (more space for one) and that would be connected directly to services. As a PP stated, these can be picked up as cheap as chips as most leisure sites have an age limit so residents have to pay to have them removed. Biggest cost is likely to be the transport as you will probably recover your purchase cost when you sell on.

You can get old static caravans for free that are life expired ( most sites have a 25 year rule) as long as you pay the removal fees.

Some it’s as low as ten years, I believe. Ours was slightly younger as the previous owners needed to give it up urgently and were reluctant to sell it back to the site owners for the pittance they were offering.

We insulated under the floor with foam boards as the floor had no insulation at all.