[6] 5 hard lessons from a 44% overspend

Location

South West England

Build Start

~1998

Architect

David Shepard

Total Floor Area

337 m²

[Source: Estimate ]

If you only take one thing from this case: staged lending and loose costings can sink even the most determined self-builders. Gavin and Jane’s chapel shows what happens when an old building is renovated while the finance sequencing goes sideways. The lesson is not to fear conversions, but to over-prepare for cashflow gaps and hidden issues.

Site Purchase Price

£ 341400

Site Area

2425m²

Site Cost Per m²

£ 141

Initial Budget

£ 493600

Total Spend

£ 715600

Budget Overspend

44.98%

Cost Per m²

£ 2126

Site Coverage

9.25%

Plot Ratio

13.88%

All Figures Indexed To

02 May 2025

Construction Type

Blockwork, Timber Frame

Materials

Concrete, Steel, Wood

Features

Become a (free) member to keep reading

This post is free to read but only available to members. Join today to get access to all posts.

Already a member? Log in

Acknowledgment:

This is a non-commercial review carried out for the purposes of study in developing an understanding of the requirements of self-build in the UK.

The views and opinions expressed are my own and is not affiliated in any way with Grand Designs or Channel 4. All information on this page has been gathered from publicly available sources.

The plot/site information was located using Land Registry and The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities Data which contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

The lessons learned are derived from my interpretations and observations of a publicly disseminated case study and are in no way meant to be a substitute to the original.

Click here to view the original case study on the Channel 4 website.