Building Costs

I had a fund of £175k available and near the end had to pull in £20k more

Read loads more detail about my costs

Do I include infrastructure charges into the build cost? Or professional fees?

My total of £195 includes architects and professional fees of £6k, infrastructure £15k, furniture £11k, flooring £10k and a  road worth £15k but it cost me only £6k

My own labour for 163 days cost me nothing other than a few grey hairs. It could be added in at £40, £50 or £60k depending how you feel about my worth at the time.

The build includes a basement, central vac, high tech lighting, computer monitoring and control, solar hot water , granite worktops, marble kitchen/diner floor, rainwater recycling, oak joinery, mega expensive windows, MHRV, very wide cavities, lots of insulation, the list goes on… All of which should push up the costs.

Still on a self build basis including everything worst case £815 per m2 Basic self build cost £700? depending what you include.

Add in my time and we get anywhere between £980 and £1050 per m2

Take your pick but all these figures are very low considering the standard of finish that I have

Reasons why my costs are low:-

Basement total cost £35k to ground floor on stage.  Most basements cost three times that before the ground floor is put on.

Fitted kitchen quotes £25 to £35k and what I built looks like £30k. It cost carcasses £1000, granite worktops £2300, frontals, £900, oak £250 appliances £3500 , labour other than mine £600, other stuff £250. So including the utility room £8800.

Road Quote £15,000 my cost £6,000 (did it myself with a paving machine and drivers)

Patio and landscaping Quote £5500 and £4500 my cost less than £2000

Plumbing labour and bathroom fitting = zero ( did it all myself)

Insulation materials £1200 above a normal build

Heating system = zero ( NB 200m of ufh pipe installed but not used )

Some materials came in from my left overs from being a builder for 30 years but their worth was only max £900.