Building mistakes

Dathaigh

Hi All,
I'm just about to build a house in Westmeath. Its going to be 2,600 sq. ft. approx. Before we launch into selecting builders, engineers, etc I wanted to know what tips you all have on what to definately do (cool tips especially welcome) and more importantly what NOT to do or what to avoid!! I know you all would love to vent and get it off your chest where you went wrong - so heres your chance!!!

Do-more

Small thing, but assuming you are having radiators, pipe them out of the wall rather than the floor. It is a bit more grief for the plumber but it will save you lots of grief cleaning floors and will eliminate dust traps. We wall hung all our toilets are basins also.

ircoha

Dathaigh wrote:

Hi All,
I'm just about to build a house in Westmeath. Its going to be 2,600 sq. ft. approx. Before we launch into selecting builders, engineers, etc I wanted to know what tips you all have on what to definately do (cool tips especially welcome http://www.fridge-freezer-prices.co.uk/index.php?category=610&gclid=CO-B-K34o4cCFQ3-VgodEgLh4Q ) and more importantly what NOT to do or what to avoid!! I know you all would love to vent and get it off your chest where you went wrong - so heres your chance!!!

Tell us a bit more about the house so as we can be more specific.

The most important thing is energy efficiency,
so insulate the fcuk out of the house,
best quality windows and external doors
keep your pipe runs from the hot cylinder to a minimun.
maximise ur south facing windows and minimise the north facing ones.

have a good quality porch so as when u open the front door u dont freeze the house [ v windy and cold in WM:) } same fro back door.

have a big larder unit in ur kitchen for all the food, open shop type shelving, rahter than a raft of skutty little presses

stjindigo

Have built two houses in the greater Dublin area over the last eight months as part of a property investment. One thing I didn't expect was the time it took to get utilities in e.g the delays from order to completion for ESB can be 14-16 weeks in Dublin and longer in the country unless you have an inside track with the companies involved. Unfortunately I did not. Projects went really well withan excellent builder and that took away a lot of the stress.

ddea

I have just built using a contractor but would advise going self-build. When a contractor gives you a price before building I believe that you can never really tell what you are getting for that price. It is impossible to cover the complete spec of the house in a contract and you will find that wherever there is a short-cut to be taken or money to be saved most contractors will do this if they feel they will get away with it. Thay normally will get away with it as once they've done something it is usually very hard and very expensive to put right. I don't blame contractors for this as they will usually try to give the most competitive quote for the job and will have to spend their time on the project trying to keep to this price so they can make a profit and a living.

Whether going with a contractor or self-build I would advise you to visit the site everyday work is being carried out to ensure you are happy with it.

Don't rely on your architect/engineer to spot problems. From my experience they miss a lot unless things are actually pointed out to them.

Allow for the build to take a lot longer than you expect and cost more. Make sure the mortgage you apply for is significantly more than you think you will require. Otherwise you will end up with higher bank charges and interest rates if you do run over.

As a previous poster mentioned your insulation is extremely important along with your heating system. Spend extra now and save an awful lot in the future.

artieanna

Put in a decent size bathroom and utility room, in most houses they are tight (couldn't swing a cat). nothing worse than stepping out of the bath and into the toilet:D and between hanging jackets, mop buckets, laundry baskets a bit of space is never wasted in a utility...;)

If its a bungalow and you can afford it put in heavy joiceing so you can claim the attic as a living space in time if you need it (light joiceing can't withstand much weight).....

and above all Best of luck;)

smashey

Make sure you withold a good percentage of the builders fees at the end. This will encourage him to come back and put good those defects that you will only notice when you move in.

Dathaigh

ircoha wrote:

Tell us a bit more about the house so as we can be more specific.

The most important thing is energy efficiency,
so insulate the fcuk out of the house,
best quality windows and external doors
keep your pipe runs from the hot cylinder to a minimun.
maximise ur south facing windows and minimise the north facing ones.

have a good quality porch so as when u open the front door u dont freeze the house [ v windy and cold in WM:) } same fro back door.

have a big larder unit in ur kitchen for all the food, open shop type shelving, rahter than a raft of skutty little presses

House will be a 2 storey building - some good tips there already -like the one with the radiators 9may do themupstairs - going for underfloor downstairs - what do you know about underfloor heating? - Is it worth it? As for the Sustainable energy front - i am leaning towards the combo of solar and wood chip burner -not getting great reports on the geo-thermal. At present i haven't left enough room internally to house all my heating stuff so will either have to sacrifice one of the following: playroom (one kid on the way in Nov), Dining room (lots of room in the kitchen for the table anyway), Study/Library (only spoiling my testoterone needs!) or house all the aparatus in an external shed/garage - will this mean i will lose energy from there to the house??

Dathaigh

ircoha wrote:

Tell us a bit more about the house so as we can be more specific.

The most important thing is energy efficiency,
so insulate the fcuk out of the house,
best quality windows and external doors
keep your pipe runs from the hot cylinder to a minimun.
maximise ur south facing windows and minimise the north facing ones.

have a good quality porch so as when u open the front door u dont freeze the house [ v windy and cold in WM:) } same fro back door.

have a big larder unit in ur kitchen for all the food, open shop type shelving, rahter than a raft of skutty little presses

House will be a 2 storey building - some good tips there already -like the one with the radiators (may do them upstairs) - going for underfloor downstairs - what do you know about underfloor heating? - Is it worth it? As for the Sustainable energy front - i am leaning towards the combo of solar and wood chip burner -not getting great reports on the geo-thermal. At present i haven't left enough room internally to house all my heating stuff so will either have to sacrifice one of the following: playroom (one kid on the way in Nov), Dining room (lots of room in the kitchen for the table anyway), Study/Library (only spoiling my testoterone needs!) or house all the aparatus in an external shed/garage - will this mean i will lose energy from there to the house??

ircoha

I know some of what I am going to say next may provoke some harsh responses, but you are the person asking the questions:)

Dathaigh wrote:

House will be a 2 storey building - some good tips there already -like the one with the radiators (may do them upstairs) - going for underfloor downstairs - what do you know about underfloor heating?I dont like it, maybe I am too old fashioned, and I think it will come under pressure once the EPBD directive comes into force: www.sei.ie etc - Is it worth it? As for the Sustainable energy front - i am leaning towards the combo of solar and wood chip burner -not getting great reports on the geo-thermal. jury still out on some of this stuff which is still first generation, at least the stuff being shown here in Ireland, I would perhaps plan/cater for it but use oil or gas for the moment.also I think people are being conned with the grants idea, all that happened is the grants went directly to the bottom line of the installer/provider and the customer go zero benefit At present i haven't left enough room internally to house all my heating stuff so will either have to sacrifice one of the following: playroom (one kid on the way in Nov), Dining room (lots of room in the kitchen for the table anyway), Study/Library (only spoiling my testoterone needs!) or house all the aparatus in an external shed/garage - will this mean i will lose energy from there to the houseyes??

however if u are planning for a wood chip at some point then it wont look good in the study beside ur Bang and O speakers:)

On the insulation issue, new building regs came out in May 2006 {TGD Part L} which I think u should meet, ur advisors will tell u they dont apply till july 2008 because of your PP dates but I would at least meet them, if not exceed them.

Do-more

Another thing to think about is the stairs, I have seen many nice houses spoiled by badly planned stairs, i.e. too narrow, too steep, tight turns, poor head height etc. Make sure it's planned correctly.
Ours is a two-storey also and although the attic is not converted we put in dormer trusses and heavy joists for the attic floor, it only cost €2000 extra at the time but will save huge expense if we do decide to convert in the future. Ran up central heating pipes aswell and just blanked them off. We have a large closet upstairs between the two back bedrooms, again we ran in hot and cold pipes and blanked them under the floor so that the closet could be converted to an en-suite for one of the bedrooms if wished in the future. All these provisions add very little cost to the initial build but could avoid a lot of expense down the line...

Viking House

Are you building with blocks or Timber frame?

One thing that is beneficial, is to build as airtight as possible and install a heat recovery ventillation system (on top of shedloads of insulation).

Try to orientate the roof so that one side is facing due south to maximise solar gain if you plan to install solar panels, position tha back door on a wall facing away from the prevailing winds (NE as opposed to SW) otherwise you'll get the wind blowing into the house the majority of the time each time you open the door.

If the house is not timber frame use precast concrete floor beams, much quieter.

Most importantly if you are DIYing it, don't be over ambitious, some jobs are just TOO hard single handed :eek:

prospect

I know it is early days, however, DO NOT put white tiles on the floor. I put them in our bathroom and 2 en-suites and my god what a fuk up that was. They show every teeney weeney bit of dirt.

Best of luck with the build.