What goes in to making a house?

Dinah93

I'm curious. I work as a planning officer and so deal with plans every day. Many of these are drawn by the applicant or a CAD technician, no agent or architect is involved. How do they go from getting these plans approved to actually starting to build their house? How do they know what materials are needed, and in what quantities? How do the first time builders know all the parts that are even required, and not risk getting to the watertight stage and realising something should have gone in along with the foundations?

Enlightenment greatly appreciated.

Ebe_Scrooge

Could be several methods, but the usual way is to hire a Quantity Surveyor - it's his / her job to translate plans into actual physical requirements, so he would tell the builder "For this house, you'll need 20,000 bricks, 10 tons of concrete ....." etc. etc. This is what they're specifically trained to do, and is quite a specialised job.

Cknocker

Mysedlf I do plans and full project management as a sideline, my knowledge comes from several means: -

I'm a qualified engineer as well as a surveyor, so I can deal with the structures.
I spent several years working as a site manager fro a construction company, so I know how to build a building.
I produce the drawings.
I have to submit plans as part of my current job, so I know the system.
I have a lot of trade contacts.

Generally the work I do is for people who are building extensions etc, who do not know the builoding process. Its frightening though how much cheaper quotes come in when builders know they are dealing with someone who understands building as opposed to joe public.

Kiran

As mentioned above, alot of it comes through experience, people that do self build gain quite alot of information through the trades they get to tender for the work. Technicians that draw up plans do it everyday, so whilst they may have no idea what a cavity looks like in reality they'll have drawn them on enough plans to know that they need to be there. You can buy some quite good books on self builds, check amazon out.

My knowledge came through being a qualified civil engineer and working within the construction industry, but we all started with little or no knowledge at some point.........Im still waiting for mine :rotfl:

ormus

there is computer software available that will work out all the quantities and even the costs etc..
once you input the basic details.

we used to use a spreadsheet for estimating/costing our specialised line of work. (medical gas & pipework).

27col

In my case I bought a few books from the building research place in Tottenham Court Rd. I do not know if it is still there after 30yrs. There is a lot more information about now then there was 30yrs ago.

benyboy

After the planning stage, building regs drawings are obviously required for structural calculations / thermal calculations e.t.c. An experienced builder can proceed with these drawings if they specify enough info - e.g. window product numbers e.t.c.