Building Your Own Home : The Essential Guide for Anyone Wanting to Build, Renovate, Convert or Extend Their Own Home in the British Isles

by Unknown

• ISBN13: 9780091886196
• ISBN10: 0091886198
• Edition: 17th
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2002-03-01
• Publisher: Random House UK

Summary

The essential guide to building, renovating, converting or extending a home in the British Isles.

Table of Contents

Foreword	8	(10)
Introduction	10	(6)
Money matters	16	(32)
Setting the initial budget	16	(5)
How much can you borrow and where from?	21	(4)
How to approach a lender	25	(1)
Types of mortgage	26	(1)
Family money and Inheritance Tax	27	(1)
Capital Gains Tax	28	(3)
Stamp Duty	31	(1)
Value Added Tax	31	(2)
Insurances	33	(5)
Building Warranties	38	(7)
Where do you live whilst it's all happening?	45	(2)
Council Tax	47	(1)
Finding the site of your new home	48	(16)
Estate agents	49	(1)
The media	50	(1)
The land-finding agencies	51	(1)
Local authorities, English Partnerships (formerly the Commission for New Towns) and plot-creating companies	51	(1)
Being generally proactive, asking and looking around	52	(2)
The public utilities	54	(1)
Local authority planning departments	54	(1)
Replacement dwellings - new for old	54	(4)
Do you already own the plot or part of it without realising it?	58	(1)
Self-build clubs and associations/Internet and discussion forums	58	(1)
Self-build jungle drums	59	(1)
Joining in with others	59	(1)
The self-build industry	60	(1)
Local builders and developers	60	(1)
Farming and rural enterprise plots	60	(1)
Change of use/conversions	61	(1)
Renovations and extensions	61	(3)
Assessing and understanding the potential	64	(47)
Planning permission	64	(5)
Access and roads	69	(2)
Ransom strips	71	(2)
Shared access	73	(1)
Visibility splays	74	(1)
Gates	74	(1)
Parking and turning	74	(2)
Construction traffic	76	(1)
Trees	76	(4)
Ground conditions	80	(1)
Foundations	81	(4)
Radon gas	85	(1)
Contaminated land	86	(1)
Sloping sites	87	(2)
River frontages and flooding	89	(3)
Plot details and site dimensions	92	(1)
Drains and sewers	93	(6)
Services	99	(1)
Diverting drains and services	100	(1)
Easements	101	(1)
Covenants	102	(1)
Footpaths	102	(2)
Adverse possession and unknown owners	104	(1)
Neighbours	104	(1)
Property for conversion or renovation	104	(1)
Adjoining sites and surrounding land	105	(1)
Wildlife	105	(1)
Values	105	(1)
Preliminary budget	106	(2)
Site details checklist	108	(3)
Buying the property -- the legal bits	111	(8)
England and Wales	111	(1)
Scotland	111	(2)
Northern Ireland	113	(1)
The Republic of Ireland (Eire)	114	(1)
Solicitors	114	(2)
Legal options and conditional contracts	116	(1)
The Party Walls Act 1996	116	(1)
Undisclosed problems and final checks	117	(1)
Insurances and Legal Contingency Insurance	118	(1)
Fees, disbursements and registration of land	118	(1)
Planning for, and designing your new home	119	(30)
The budget	120	(2)
What do you want it to look like, externally?	122	(2)
Could you go for freedom of expression, internally?	124	(1)
How long are you going to live in your new home?	124	(1)
Energy efficiency	124	(1)
Energy conservation	124	(4)
The entrance and hall	128	(1)
The lounge, living areas and family life	129	(1)
Cooking and eating	130	(1)
Utility rooms and storage	131	(1)
Conservatories or sun rooms	132	(1)
How many bedrooms do you want or need?	132	(1)
Bathrooms and toilets	132	(1)
Windows and window styles	133	(1)
Heating your new home and the hot water	134	(1)
Active solar power	135	(1)
Ventilation	136	(1)
Lighting	136	(1)
Basements	136	(1)
Attics	137	(1)
Contents and furniture	137	(1)
Granny flats	138	(1)
Home offices	138	(2)
Designing for the disabled	140	(1)
Security features	140	(1)
Renovations and conversions	140	(2)
Do you need a garage?	142	(1)
Gardens	143	(1)
Driveways	144	(1)
Pathways and patios	145	(2)
Walls, fences and hedges	147	(1)
Sheds, summer houses and greenhouses	148	(1)
Fuel storage tanks	148	(1)
Unusual features	148	(1)
Making the choices -- how to move forward	149	(31)
Architects	150	(7)
Designers	157	(1)
The package-deal companies	158	(5)
Timber frame	163	(7)
Brick and block	170	(4)
Going it alone	174	(2)
Alternative construction methods	176	(2)
Renovation and conversion	178	(1)
Project planning - stage one	179	(1)
The initial drawings	180	(11)
Architect's drawings	180	(1)
Package-deal design	180	(11)
The planning scene	191	(20)
Making a planning application	192	(7)
Designated areas	199	(1)
Permitted Development Rights	199	(3)
Re-submissions	202	(1)
Highways	203	(1)
Demolition	203	(1)
Agricultural consents	203	(1)
Group self-building as Village Housing	204	(2)
Listed Building Consent	206	(1)
Appeals	206	(3)
Unauthorised development and enforcement	209	(1)
Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (Eire)	210	(1)
Building Regulations, working drawings, specifications and contracts	211	(13)
Building Regulations	211	(3)
Applying for Building Regulations approval	214	(4)
Amendments	218	(1)
Inspections	219	(2)
Specifications	221	(1)
Contracts	221	(3)
Builders and subcontractors -- finding them, contracting with them, working with them and getting materials for them	224	(42)
Builders	224	(2)
Subcontractors	226	(1)
Project planning - stage two	227	(11)
Project planning - brick and block	238	(2)
Project planning - brick and timber	240	(15)
Health and Safety	255	(1)
Building Control and warranty inspections	256	(1)
Creation of a new access, alterations to a highway and connections to sewers	256	(1)
Site foremen	257	(1)
Builders' merchants	257	(5)
Plant and scaffold hire	262	(2)
Self-build site safety	264	(2)
Trouble-shooting and problem avoidance	266	(13)
Getting off on the right foot	266	(1)
Site problems	266	(1)
Selling the existing home	267	(1)
Accidents	267	(1)
Coping with death	267	(1)
Domestic problems	267	(1)
Problems with the authorities	268	(2)
Difficulties with professionals	270	(1)
Forgetting about insurance and warranties	270	(1)
Problems with suppliers	271	(1)
Problems with builders	271	(1)
If your builder goes bust	272	(3)
Problems with subcontractors	275	(1)
Depending on others	275	(1)
Final checklist	276	(2)
Problems with neighbours	278	(1)
Pragmatism	278	(1)
Self-build stories	279	(17)
A Grade II Listed farmhouse in Surrey	279	(2)
A barn conversion in Sussex	281	(4)
A detached house near Bristol	285	(3)
A replacement bungalow in Gloucestershire	288	(2)
A split-level family house in Wales	290	(3)
An `arts and crafts' house in Oxfordshire	293	(3)
Further information	296	(4)
Index	300