Self build in Caithness - Please Help!

[Chippypete]

Hello everybody!
My name is Pete and I would really appreciate some honest help and advice. I currently live in Romiley which is in Stockport, Cheshire and after many, many conversations with my parents, we have decided that we would love to live in Caithness.
We aren't well off financially so we can't really afford to pop up a lot to get a feel for the place but I've spent the last few months trawling the internet for videos, photos, history and property available in Caithness so I sort of feel that I know the area!I'm a country person at heart and always have been. My Mum grew up on the South Downs in Surrey and my Dads side of the family had a farm in Derbyshire so the country is in my blood and the calling is getting stronger for all of us every day. If you want to know more about me then have a quick look at my profile page.

Right, now to the matter in hand. I want to build a house on my own from scratch and I need advice from anyone who has done a self build either flat-pack style or from raw materials or anyone else who may have local knowledge on the subject. I have never built a house before but between my Dad and I, we have remodelled, rewired, replumbed and practically rebuilt the house we are in now and big projects don't daunt me in the slightest.

I already have a design and rough layout for the house (nothing too big or fancy, a 1 1/2 storey traditional crofters cottage is what I aiming for) and I'm totally flexible about wether it's made from timber, bricks or blocks. Whatever is easiest to get planning permission for is fine by me as long as its considered a permanent dwelling (I don't want to be forced out of my own home for two weeks every year!). I would prefer to build from timber as its the material I have the most experience with but as long as I end up with a home then I don't mind.

I'm hoping that anyone else who is thinking at going down a similar route will find this thread useful and informative but if you would rather PM me about certain things then go for it. Anyway, I'm sure that I will have a lot more questions but here's a few for starters.

1. In your experience, how flexible is Caithness Council regarding planning consent? For example, if I submitted a plan that specified natural slate tiles and due to finances I had to use man made tiles, do you think this would be a deal breaker? I know it wouldn't be allowed in conservation areas in England but I'm hoping that Caithness CC are more open minded.

2. Nothing to do with house building but what are broadband speeds and reliability like in Caithness? The sales side of my business is mainly online so this is quite a major consideration for me.

3. I've read a lot about this next question and there doesn't seem to be a consistent answer for anywhere in the U.K. How much does it cost to get electricity, water and a phone line connected? Let's say it's around 50 yards between the mains connection and the house and I dug the trench for the water and electricity. It sounds like some suppliers just think of a number and multiply it by 100! I've seen prices for hooking up electricity range from £500 to £35,000 and it doesn't always cost more if the house is further away from the mains connection.

4. Has anyone used Norscot either for a kit home or components or do you work at Norscot? If its not possible for me to build from scratch, I would like to put my money into the local economy if at all possible.

5. Which builders merchants would you recommend? The most important thing for me is one that delivers when they say they will.

I think that will do for the moment and if you need any more information from me, just let me know. I've never posted on a forum before so please be gentle with me! I've been reading a lot of other posts on here and you all seem like nice, friendly people and I hope that if everything works out, I can thank you in person one day!

[starfish]

we are building a traditional caithness stone croft we had no electric on the site it cost £3500 to get it connected from a post at the edge of our property as we needed a new booster box or what ever it is called and the water cost £500 and the main pipe runs through our property the council took 18months to approve our plans as they seem to like kit houses for some reason . A freind of ours bought a grade 2 property and have no end of hassel so i would say steer clear of any list property.but saying all this caithness is a lovely place to live so my advise is do you home work first and get every thing from the council in writing and keep all the letters as we found one person will tell you something then say they never said it so we now put pen to paper and email all the time

[Chippypete]

Thanks for the info, at least it sounds fairly reasonable to get connected. That was one of the major worries for me. We are all geared up to get things started in motion but we are going to take it slowly and make sure that we don't get tripped up at some point. Yes, I'm definitely going to avoid listed properties, I don't like the idea of having to ask if you can change the slightest thing or being forced to use specific materials although I do understand why it has to be like that, it's just not my cup of tea. The more I think about it, the more I think I will end up going with a flat pack and just assembling it myself, I've been on the Norscot website and the prices are so reasonable that I don't think I could build a similar house for the same price and definitely not as quickly!I'm going to contact the planning office in Caithness when I have a more concrete plan and see if I can get things moving and I will make sure it's all down on paper and safely filed away!

[madmax]

From a supplier point of view I would recommend going around and meeting the staff in person as I feel its better face to face than by email / telephone.
William Wilsons the Plumbing and Heating merchants are very helpful with knowledgeable staff. They offer a free heating design service and also free delivery to site.
As for Builders merchants Rembrand or Travis both offer similar services although they possibly charge for delivery.
If you need any contact names / addresses give me a shout.
I can also give you Heating Engineers names and numbers should you need them.

[Chippypete]

Thanks for the info Madmax, local knowledge for good reliable tradesmen and suppliers is priceless as I'm sure you know. I'll be in touch for the contact details in the future and definitely for the heating engineers details. I've seen that many dodgy ones on Rogue Traders that it will be a relief to be able to use an engineer that is recommended.

[Skerries]

Be very careful about choosing your plot if you need broadband.

I need it for work and, like many others, have to have satellite broadband which has latency issues and has expensive hardware. Downloading software can be impossible for me sometimes with bigger files, and I have to use a friend's house for these files as the satellite latency issue corrupts the files.

Make sure you are near a telephone exchange and don't believe what the BT website says about your postcode and likelihood of getting broadband!

Ask neighbours near your proposed plot to make sure it is available through phone lines and ask about down and upload speeds. You should also be aware that 3G mobile coverage is not available everywhere so you can't rely on that method of connecting to the internet in all places.

[Spring Flower]

Hi there

Just for information our water was around £500 to get connected with the electricity around the £3000 mark. When we built the council were strict with things like the colour of tiles, we live in the country and wanted grey with a red fleck for example but they would not allow this it had to be plain grey - although after we built our house another one popped up that had the red fleck in it! They also changed a few other minor things but it was no big deal. I know companies have to make their profit but I know with a couple of places in Thurso that if you can get someone with a trade card to purchase things like kitchens/bathrooms you obviously get it at trade price - otherwise you are paying quite a bit more for the same goods.

Good luck with your move!

[ducati]

Hi Pete, I live in Bower very close to Norscot and they can be very helpful. They offer a complete service including plans and consents. Also a one-day build to weather tight and this saves you the VAT over building yourself. There are also quite a few plots for sale in Bower just now, close to, or already with services onsite. The only thing is we are quite a way from the exchanges and we only have a choice of BT for reliable broadband. That said, I use it and generally it is OK.

[George Brims]

Well if you're going to be building in Caithness the first thing I would suggest is you buy a really good pair of wellies!

[gillsbay]

Duke, there is a system whereby self builders can claim back vat on the build, it is some time since I did this but the paperwork was fairly straghtforward and they even corrected a couple of things I got wrong which meant I got about £3 more than I claimed. There were some strange things like you could claim for a doorbell (necessity) but not for a chime (luxury)!

George, I guess the OP would have had more need of wellies where he is this year than he would have in Caithness :-)

[Chippypete]

Thanks to everyone for the help and information! I have looked at broadband coverage and 3G coverage and I know for a fact that 3G coverage maps are optimistic at best. In Derbyshire where I used to do a craft fair a while ago, orange was supposed to have a strong 3G signal but in reality, I couldn't even get a signal for calls! I switched to O2 and it worked like a charm. Broadband is something I am going to need so I will definitely be doing my homework on this matter.With regard to planning consent, it seems like there's no hard and fast rule which is what it's like here. It just depends on what sort of mood you catch them in. We wanted to build a modest, timber framed porch that would have stuck out from the front of the house by 2 feet and were told in no uncertain terms that we could not build past where the front of the house already was and yet about a month afterwards, I watched a huge upvc porch being built on the front of the house across the road!?! I can only think that they didn't get planning permission as the houses are all identical round here so one rule should cover everybody.I'm glad that getting services connected seems to be priced a lot more realistically in Caithness than some quotes I have seen from around Britain. Some of those quotes terrified me!I'm also glad to see another recommendation for Norscot and the tips for reclaiming VAT and getting someone to buy with a trade card, every little helps!I'm sorry to hear that you guys have the weather that we've had for the past few months but I bet the plants are loving it! Every day without fail while the rain has been bouncing off the windows, I have looked at the Met office website to see what the weather was like in Caithness and turned a little green with envy (although with the amount of rain we've had, it may have just been mould!). Caithness was always a little bit cooler than here (I can't handle hot weather) and usually had clear skies. That suits me down to the ground but if I am honest, the rain doesn't bother me really. I know Scotland has a reputation for the amount of rain it gets but trust me, with living near to the Pennines, I am used to it, in fact I think that I'm developing gills!

[squidge]

Hey Chippypete I mived to Caithness from rochdale in 1997 - not there now sigh and sob sob - but I remember that the weather was better almost every week than it was in Rochdale. After moving I spoke to my mum every couple of days and we would compare weather and Caithness would trump it everytime. I also remember a guy I worked with used to say "wait until you see the winter" but I think he thought Rochdale was in Devon or costa del Sol. When it came it was colder but often clearer and we got snow in rochdale which snowed us in so I wasnt too phased by it. The ever present wind was different and so was the Haar but I loved living there and would go back in a blink

[Chippypete]

Hi Squidge, I bought the car I've got now in Rochdale! Yeah, it's not exactly tropical there is it? I'm looking forward to lower temperatures, cold, crisp winters and I'm even looking forward to being snowed in! Although it doesn't happen like it used to, I can remember trying to walk through 3-4 feet of snow to get to the shops when I was a kid and I enjoyed it. I really miss proper winters, I know it's not all fun and games but It's what should happen in winter. I'm more worried by the some of the recent winters where I've been out shopping in the first week of January in a t-shirt..... That's just not right.Right now, it's 23 degrees in Romiley and it's 15 in Thurso. In sat typing this with a fan going like the clappers right at the side of me and I'm only wearing a pair of shorts and I'm still too hot. I'll take cool, breezy summers, crisp springs and autumns and icy cold winters over a few weeks of hot, humid weather and indistinct seasons with completely random weather every time!I love seeing countryside through mist, especially when it sits in the valleys but the trees and hills poke through the top like they are floating on clouds so I'm looking forward to the Haar. It's spooky and mysterious but peaceful and beautiful too.I hope you get the chance to move back to Caithness one day.