9 great Christmas gifts for self-builders

Know someone that’s interested in building their own house (or you just want to drop some heavy hints about yourself), here’s a round-up of the best Christmas gifts fro them.

1 Housebuilder’s Bible

The title says it all. This in-depth guide to all things construction is a brilliant gift for anyone contemplating their own self-build project. It’s packed with useful information such as up-to-date trade prices, planning guidelines, and the latest building regulations, plus considered insights into how and why we chose to build the way we do and how we might do it better. The latest edition – the 15th – has just been published.

2 Grand Designs subscription

Obviously, no self-builder should be without a subscription to Grand Designs magazine, with each issue of the print magazine arriving through your letterbox.

3 Learn a new skill

For anyone keen to improve their craft skills, what about a gift voucher for a Wecandoo welding or woodcarving workshop? Wecandoo offers a wide a range of workshops with local craftspeople and artisans where you can learn anything from how to make your own chair to how to make a ceramic bowl, basic butchery to hat-making. Lots of them would suit wannabe self-builder who want to improve their skills, such as the Discover the craft of welding and MIG and TIG techniques course in Much Hadham. All the course available are listed on the Wecandoo website, along with info about how to purchase a gift voucher for a course.

4 Posh builders’ tea

Building sites run on tea. So, what about a caddy of Babingtons tea of character to keep on site? All-natural, sustainable ingredients in a super cute caddy. The perfect choice for the self-builder with a refined palete.

Image credit: Babingtons

5 Ultimate cup

Talking of hot drinks – and cold ones, for that matter – Klean Kanteen insulated drinking bottles are the ideal way to cut down on disposable-cup use, and keep your drinks hot – or cold – during long days on site. Made from 90% recycled steel, they have a range of different lids available for different drinks. That means you can use the same cup for hot drinks, cold drinks and iced drinks. They promise to keep drinks hot for 14 hours or ice cold for 47 hours. So, no matter how long the build lasts – whatever the season or the weather – you’ll be able to keep your drinks the right temperature in the ultimate reusable cup.

6 Sleeping solution I

Here are a couple of ideas for when the build is nearly finished, and you want to spend as much time as possible on site, but you didn’t go for the caravan option. The Selk’bag is a wearable sleeping bag that will keep you warm on the coldest of sites. And, at the end of a long, tiring day, you can just roll over and go to sleep in it.

7 Sleeping solution II

BundleBed, meanwhile, is a self-inflating mattress, sheet, duvet and pillow combo in its own bag. Perfect for camping out in a half-finished build. Or anywhere else.

8 Home Truths

There are still a few tickets left for Kevin McCloud’s live show Home Truths early in the new year, and they’d make a brilliant gift for any self-builder or GD fan. In his first one-man live show Kevin promises to share off-screen secrets and wisdom gained during a quarter of a century watching self-build projects up close.

January 5: Barbican Centre, London. Book tickets here.

January 7: New Theatre, Oxford. Book tickets here.

January 8: Liverpool Philharmonic. Book tickets here.

9 Power bank

Yard Force’s LXPB21 solar-powered charger is perfect for charging your electronic devices on site or anywhere else that doesn’t have easily accessible power. The included cable has micro USB, lightning and and USB-C outputs. Once fully charged by the sun it will provide up to 14 hours’ of charge.