Construction has started

Yes, finally the construction phase has begun! It's been almost 12-months to get from purchase completion to this point and almost 18-months from our original offer.

So, what's happened since our last posting?

Contractor Selection
The contractor selection process worked well, although a certain contractor who shall remain nameless attempted to strong-arm us - he was subsequently dumped from the selection. To get things moving, we decided to tender separately for piling and construction. Our thought process was that we could get the piling work moving faster and could take more time deciding on the main build contractor. Upon verbally awarding this contractor the piling work (to give you a hint their trading name has "Foundations" in the title), he decided to drag his feet on providing a contract! After pushing for almost 2-weeks he responded by telling us he would only do it if he got both the piling and construction! Knowing we were pressed for time on making the decision to allow us to hit the December move in date. We reviewed our options and went back to the piling contractor that came in 2nd - they were prepared to mobilise quickly and it's those guys that will start piling tomorrow.

Next up was the main build contractor. We were now down to 3, though quickly 2, as after the site meeting day we realised one of the contractors hadn't cropped up in our conversations over the next couple of days - a sure fire indication that they hadn't done enough to impress, even though they were number 2 in terms of costs. In the end, it came down to budget, as whilst we'd built decent rapport for both the final runners there was no denying who on paper appeared most cost-effective and we appointed MPR projects to manage the build. Though it was a close run thing with Bassett Homes (they don't advertise it, but they do full builds too).

Building Regs
The next step, before we could start was to get the Building Regs through and the final planning conditions discharged. Building regs went through fine, though it was touch and go with the final planning conditions as Environmental Health questioned whether any vibration tests had been conducted by the appointed piling contractors and if not, there needed to be good reason why.

Luckily, the appointed contractor, Able Piling, had conducted the piling work on one of our neighbours, so were in a good position to explain why one was not needed - Our biggest concern was what would have happened if tests were mandated? We were guessing it would have taken weeks to arrange access to neighbours properties to perform the tests!

This and the report from the Arboroculturist (Tree chappy), that our planned landscaping changes were okay and we were ready to begin work!

Making friends of our new neighbours
To smooth progress, our first task was to send personal letters to all our neighbours, introducing ourselves, indicating when work was due to begin and our contact details in the event of any issues/concerns. We used the planning application list of consulted neighbours to target our letters, and a couple of websites that provide electoral role info to personalise them (which was done through some clever cross-referencing of two websites that provide differing partial electoral role info).

Service Provision and pre-start activities
Make sure you allow plenty of time dealing with the Utility companies, though in all fairness both electricity and water were fairly responsive. the latter even more so, when I expressed that I thought there may be a leak on-site from the demolition work! ;-) It was a bit cheeky, but saved my skin as once the engineer was on-site and I chatted with him, he quickly sorted out getting the existing standpipe and new metered supply back up and running (it had been done by the builder of one of the other properties in expectation of winning this build too).

Also, ensure when having the temporary build electric supply, you specify that it will later provide the residential supply - this can possibly save additional cost later.

All of that lined up and the Ground Worker in place to lay the piling mat (Able Piling don't do that, or the setting out themselves) and we're good to go. Trees removed from site, piling mat down and the construction phase is about to begin.