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Depends on definition .... I have purchased both prints and originals and it’s fair to say a lot in that range will appreciate in value. Around 4 years ago I got offered a Lowry original, 6x4” pencil sketch, for £18,000........ I declines, despite it being available on 36 months interest free etc ... 18 months later it resold for £28,500...... same with Christian Hoook, originals were £2-3k and then he won Sky Portrait artist of the year and some of those original works are now worth upwards of £35k. You either buy art for investment or pleasure, never both ..!! I’d never buy from a glazing showroom either ... buy via a decent gallery or dealer and at least get the provenance on the pieces..!!

So ! As I think ahead for our bathroom- the old problem of ‘towel storage ‘ comes up . They are relatively big and bulky . We won’t really have room for a corner unit ; so ..... https://www.dolle-uk.co.uk/smart-storage-ceiling-system-beam-it-up/

I'm paying £1200 for a SE to design the insulated raft for me - approx. 170m2 for total area of slab.

We keep one set of spare towels in the vanity unit under the basin. Everything else will get stored in the airing cupboard, when I get around to building it. That has always been where we keep towels etc.

Pretty sure similar was suggested to me for the pockets but of course, me being me I took heed of the words of Lindsey Buckingham.... Don't want towels over the wc and impractical in the wet room corner: White painted wall too high? No good on this wall: Over the bath maybe?

https://www.pureadhesion.co.uk/wet-room-and-bathroom-accessories/recessed-storage-units-for-bathrooms-and-wetrooms.html

Really screwed up with the new bathroom storage wise I think. Just got the big cupboard. Would have liked some inset towel shelves for effect. Hindsight etc!

All MVHR systems, without exception, need two external ducts, one for fresh air intake, one for exhaust. I installed a very expensive active MVHR system (it includes an air-to-air heat pump, so can cool and heat the house) and the total installed cost was about £5k. A more basic MVHR could have been installed for about half that. This was for a 130m2 house.

Our experience has been that a large roof overhang is OK in summer, but summer isn't the problem. The really BIG problem we have is in Spring and Autumn, when the weather is relatively mild and the sun is low in the sky, so penetrates deeply into the house. We are in a sheltered spot, and the lack of wind where we are definitely contributes to our overheating problems, but I'm still kicking myself, 6 years on, for having been obsessed with heating, when the reality has been that heating is a complete irrelevance, the main problem we have is cooling. We start actively cooling the house in March, and will carry on using active cooling through to at least October, so cooling is far and away our biggest energy consumer, accepting that most of that energy comes from our PV system. FWIW, SAP showed that we had about a 5% overheating risk, which is massively in error. We don't like the bedroom to be warmer than about 21 deg C, or the living rooms to be above about 22 deg C, yet even today, when it's been cloudy here, we're sitting with the air cooling running flat out since about 7am, (it's still running) and the bedroom's at 21.5 deg C and the living room is about 22.5 deg C. We've had the cooling systems running every day for the past month or so.

Clever idea. More here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK3s_qJ-BW0

Our lower ground floor was the same as @PeterW @joe90. One of the simplest elements of the build and cheap with 300mm of EPS beneath. Our beam and block section is much more complicated in comparison and we've had to switch to Kooltherm 103 £££ to get a similar result for half the thickness.

I’ve used uPVC and the frames were no thicker which I suppose is a benefit of that sort of system.

Like @PeterW I went strip foundation and slab with UFH as per https://www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk/golcar-passivhaus-ground-floor-foundations/ the only thing we altered was lowering the internal DPC to floor level to avoid plaster cracking above the skirting. No SE required and BCO happy.

Depends how you do it. If you buy materials and get someone to fit them (or fit them youself) then yes you have to pay the VAT at standard rate and claim it back once the house is complete so you will need more money to cover this. If you get a VAT registered builder to work on a supply and fit basis then both the goods and labour will be zero rated meaning you don't need to find the additional VAT money. Lots of info about the VAT reclaim scheme here:

Shop around Like architects SE costs vary wildly

Then I'd shop around. I have the breakdown of costs from Kore and that's the SE cost element from 2013 (total was £10,800 for a ~7m x 12m slab).

Because its a standard detail and doesn’t need an SEng or anything that you can’t buy from a builders merchant. Also, it can be done by any builder, the only amendment I make is to full fill the cavity below ground level with EPS (as did @joe90 ) which reduces the losses through the slab edge more. Ground bearing slab is ok but needs an SEng to design and sign off.

@K78 I have a suspended timber floor which was specified by our engineer. We did the insulation ourselves took a while. Biggest pain was hopping between joists and not being able to store stuff inside. Slab would have been cheaper and lot less work. You also have a workable surface once it has set.

Cheapest way is a ground bearing slab, with insulation under the concrete slab and blockwork on strip founds. Are you going for brick and block or block and render ..?

Thanks. Fitted the new cable today, works a treat, trickling away with the light off! Thanks everyone.

Re' fixed price or day rate, it has to be a trust thing. If you've screwed someone down on a fixed price and think you're getting it cheap, trust the price but dont trust the work!

put a dehumidifier in there, It will suck the moisture out of the air, and add some (waste) heat into the cupboard.

I have purchased a Grohe Thermostatic shower with an exposed bar mixer and have been trying to get my head around the fitting of the mixer bar to the hot and cold supply with the 1/2 to offset 3/4 BSP threaded parts supplied. This is the only helpful video I could find from Grohe showing how to fit the shower but it does not go into detail about the fittings needed to connect the 1/2 to offset 3/4 part to. I was going to ditch the offset fittings supplied by Grohe and get a Bristan Bar Valve wall mount as in the pic below which would enable me to fit the bar mixer with its 3/4 fittings directly to it. After getting the Bristan part home I realised that the 3/4 BSP threads had a measurement of 30mm in length and I need at least 34 - 42mm so I returned the part back to screwfix and started searching for a shower wall plate that had the 3/4 fixings but with the longer thread but I cannot find such an item. It seems the standard length is 30mm all the fitting kits. So back to using the parts supplied by Grohe which are: So with my limited knowledge of plumbing which stretches to JG speedfit what parts do I need to enable me to fit these stupid Grohe parts. I'm fitting the shower to plasterboard wall with a tile covering so the thickness should total about 24mm and will have no access to the rear as its a solid wall. Any help would be fantastic as at the moment as I feel like having a nervous breakdown from the week I've had.

If you have a wife (customer) who is only 5 foot 2 you tend to get asked to set worktop height lower.

What is this? I like it.

We’ve been using K Rend for about 20 year Cem 10 years before that We do work for a large company that specified Weber and we had issues with colour match on two jobs One was a synagog Over 2000 mtrs with a lot of detail There Rep came out and immediately said we had used contaminated water Left it uncovered in the sun tubed it to wet to dry Caused a load of hassle 12 months later different rep same excuses There batches vary wildly especially the darker colours K rends reps Total opposite I don’t know if it’s an Irish thing They are just very reassuring to the customer Never look to blame the contractor We use all the through coloured renders K rend is the best Fantastic back service also

I disagree If asked to quote for a (wiring) job and give a fixed price, I have to assume the job us going to be a b*****d and I am going to have lots of hassle taking floorboards up, and anything that can get in the way will. On the other hand I much prefer to give an estimate and charge the job by the hour it actually takes. Almost always the hourly rate job is less than it would have been as a fixed price and the customer is happy. It is trust. I am honest and don't just skive and charge them by the hour for doing nothing. I would be very annoyed if my mechanic charged by the hour to skive and he would not get any repeat business. It is no accident I have been taking my car to the same garage for the last 13 years, and it is not the closest garage, it is the one I trust. If you mistrust your tradesman to the point of thinking he is goinf to deliberately rip you off, you probably need to find another tradesman who comes with a recommendation so you can trust him to be fair.

This thread might be useful to read

Fraud. That is obviously unused.

I think you need the automated version, perhaps:

£2 and 5 mins... Get a couple of each of these, PTFE and a spanner and thread into your wallplate fitting and Robert is your grandmothers son in law...

Up here we use loo roll...

Another milestone reached! With a house full of girls I was forced into the new bathroom to properly maiden test the wc. I can confirm that it happily shifted last night's beef shatkora! I did have to use the brush after...another first!

Yes. Feed comes into isolator and earth terminates. Cable that goes onto fan, its earth wire is connected to the same point in the isolator.

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see link https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intumescent-Pipe-Collars-4-Hour-Fire-Stopping-Protection-Sizes-45mm-to-500mm/251893776743?hash=item3aa60a0167:m:mG9-F1b-rbVup7RsIOSPRKg check if your BC officer wants them and if you need 2 hour or 4 hour

I went with the Roflex grommets that Jack linked to, plus some Airtightness tape: This image is from the outside, and my airtight layer is the outside sheathing board. The membrane then just overlaid this with a hole in in for the duct. You'd need to fix the grommet to the inside.

Just check you do not need a fire collar. As the skin on ours is brick the BC asked for them