I'm hoping to refurb and extend my 1960s house aiming for a Passivhaus standard of air-tightness and insulation. I understand enough about this to understand it is too complicated for me to hope to tell a "normal" builder what to do and achieve good results. Plus I am at the bottom of the learning curve myself.

So, as I have yet to find a builder in S Yorkshire savvy on this sort of thing, I am contemplating trying to employ a builder from outside my area, e.g. 3hrs+ drive away.

I have no building experience and wondered if it is considered bad practice to not use a local builder. I.e. it may increase costs considerably, they won't know local trades etc. Or is it fine for me to be considering this? Do I even have any other option?

Perhaps a local architect would be the best place to start for the plans you will probably need plus project management and access to their contacts. Will whisper some suggestions.

I would get an architect to do the spec drawings to exactly what you want. Then get a younger builder in and keep a very close eye on things throughout the build. You might think about getting a contract which says 'each step of the build will be checked and corrected when not exactly correct but a bonus for every thing done correctly first time.

Finding a good builder who is quick and does a solid job is not so difficult but finding one that will take on new ideas and then do them is very hard. GOOD LUCK

Jonti

That's interesting thinking Jonti.

Posted By: SwarmThanks for the replies everyone, some great info here and whispered.

I should have mentioned that I'm in the west side of Sheffield and already have an architect. It's still at early stages so I've not discussed builders with them yet and was wanting to do my own research first.

3 hours seems a bit OTT, but if there good then maybe, if your west Sheffield you are less than a hour from Manchester/Stockport/Cheshire and Birmingham/Liverpool not much further. As tony said keep looking