As the name would imply, this category is all about how to build your own home. To start with a self build home, you need to find some land and may plot search agencies are around to help you. Many times however, land is not available in the area you have chosen to live so most people these days are looking for an existing property where the bricks and mortar only represent a fraction of the value of the total package. They then knock the house down and build their own. This has great advantages as the services such as gas, electricity and water are already on site and it unusual to find a property without some sort of access road or drive allowing you to get to it!
Kit houses will allow your construction to go up more quickly
Further advantages of self build is that now you cab be almost carbon neutral with the incorporation of solar panels to generate electricity or warm your bath water, or both, ground and air source heat pumps to get a head start for the condensing boiler. You can add your own wind turbine and even sell electricity back to the national grid.
You can manage the build yourself or call in a project manager such as Kevin McCloud from Grand Designs. You can start from scratch with concrete foundations or you can buy a kit home and put it together at weekends.
You would be as well to look at guidelines for employing architects and structural engineers and there is some good advice on the channel 4 website
You should get advice on the pitfalls of buying land and set an achievable schedule for your self build program. Designing a house is good fun but there are many practicalities that need to be built in such as clearance for stair height etc. There are also legal aspects which need looking at. The positives far outweigh the negatives and our pages will help you through the maze that is self build.
