Grand Designs Extras Doing It For Themselves

Date Published:

06/11/2008

It’s a polar opposite approach to Dominic’s, who sees self-building as a political act – a way of untangling yourself from the tentacles of a mortgage and an obsession with property value – but it’s no less fuelled by hard work and passion. Mike project-managed the build, which took nine months, while holding down a full-time job as an RAF wing commander, with his wife looking after their two children and sourcing materials for the interior.

‘You can expect to be burning the midnight oil quite a few times, getting your head around various problems,’ he says. ‘But because it’s your project it’s amazing what resources you can find within yourself to do it.’ And with project management costing between 10 and 15 per cent of your build budget, it’s not a bad money saver either.

The couple used an all-in-one package company, Design & Materials, which did all the drawings and arranged for materials to be delivered on site, leaving them to hire the tradespeople. They financed the build with an Accelerator mortgage from Build Store, which ensured ready cash flow throughout the process to pay the tradespeople as soon as the work was complete.

Mike advises to spend as long planning as building, considering room layouts, and using a contract to avoid misunderstandings. He used a Small Works Contract from the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), but says similar contracts from the Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT) are ‘equally good and valid’.

‘Using this contract meant I knew exactly where I stood with builders and tradespeople, so we didn’t have many disputes,’ he says. In fact, he left them to their own devices during the day, visiting the site in the evening and taking a video diary, sorting out anything over the phone.

By contrast, Dominic had trouble getting tradespeople to his site in the first place. ‘It was a challenge getting a plumber out to do this slightly strange job, when he’d rather be plumbing five semi-detached houses every day,’ he says. ‘We’ve probably been through about five plumbers throughout the years.’

But perhaps things will change. Dominic has noticed more interest in DIY building – a local course on how to be your own architect is popular, and more of his friends have taken the DIY plunge. Amazonails, which runs self-build courses and projects using straw bale, also reports a growth of interest, with an increase in the number of projects, which were at 10-15 each year not so long ago, then grew to about 20 last year, and have risen to 40-50 projects this year.

‘It was an extraordinary amount of work,’ says Dominic, reflecting back on his build. ‘And you question all the time why the hell you’re doing it, but you’re left with something you’ve worked hard to achieve. A house is a hard-won thing.