W

hatever kind of house you’re building, before you crack on with the works, you’ll need to sort the preliminaries (known as prelims in the trade). This covers all the bits and pieces that will enable your project to run safely and efficiently. On a typical plot, provisions might include securing the site, creating a suitable access for deliveries and plant, lockable storage for any materials and tools kept on site, setting up welfare facilities for your contractors and dealing with waste. Any scaffolding you’ll need across the project is usually bundled in with this area too. Here’s a quick guide to some of the key elements to consider before you build:

Check the access

A building plot is not a building plot unless you can access it by foot or car – which means you need to have a right of way. It’s also not a viable site unless it has access to the essential services. These include electricity, water and drainage or the potential for an off-mains solution. Ideally, you will have determined all of this before you exchange contracts on the plot. But there are some self builders who are still wondering where their electricity will be coming from halfway through their builds. Don’t be one of them, as it could cost you a fortune!

Investigate soil conditions

The big unknown with self building is what happens when the first shovel hits the earth. The sort of foundations you will require will be dictated by ground conditions or the proximity of trees. If an engineered solution is required, this can hike your build costs right up, without adding to the house’s finished value. It’s therefore a very good idea to have a thorough site survey done before committing to purchase; or at the very least before you break ground. Knowing what additional costs your plot’s soil conditions might prompt makes this a sensible use of funds; you don’t want to face delays and extra fees at the start of your build.

Sort your CIL exemption

If you are building under a local authority that applies the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), you will no doubt have applied for the self build exemption as part of the planning permission process to avoid a hefty CIL charge. It is vitally important that, before you actually start any work on site, you also submit CIL Form 6 (Notification of the Commencement of Work). Unfortunately, failure to do so could result in full CIL liability being payable.