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Thanks all. That's it decided. 2g it is.

You can shutter the verandah bit off completely with 6 x 2. Concrete either side, with one side 40mm lower then remove the 6x2 before the concrete completely goes off and infill the gap. Threshold would be easier to just scape off when it has set a bit. This is not that hard to do.

There are too many potential complexities here for me to even try and answer - never mind the COVID regs changes. eg "His 12 month tenancy ended" depends on the tenancy type - if it is an AST (the default) then it would not have ended but evolved into a rolling Statutory Periodic Tenancy., unless it was brought to an end through normal process. But the only way the tenancy could end at present would be by mutual agreement, since COVID restricts notice you could give unless certain circs, and he did not (I assume) give notice ... that does not seem to be the case as he continues in occupation. Just him being there will count as a change of mind on anything he said before anyway iirc. If that is the case and the tenancy has ended, then you have to either enforce (which COVID stops you doing for now unless various exceptions) or accept rent (which will create a new tenancy with god-knows-what terms unless he signs something). If you do nothing it could later be argued that you consented by letting it persist. The pragmatic way might be an exchange of letters continuing the existing tenancy, and you would at least have a defined situation. You need to decide what to do about him lying about your position to the other tenants. One way is to write to them when you know where you are telling them what the situation is. It may be important to communicate your non-consent to what he has done, either explicitly or by doind something else. I would recommend going to a specialist LL forum, or even better joining an LL organisation and asking the helpline. NRLA currently have what I think is an offer of 12 months membership for £75. https://www.nrla.org.uk/join If you evict him without following the prescribed processes it could be criminal. I have no idea what liability you would have if the other tenants chucked him out. HTH slightly. @pocster may have things to add. F

So now the new kitchen is in, it was time to renovate the room which was the old kitchen in to the first part of the dining room (I say first part, as the second part is going to be in an extension which i'm hoping to build next year). And then the real messy work begins This is the house that keeps on giving! Found two redundant (but live) gas pipes buried in the plaster on the wall I knew nothing about, to go with the other two which have been made redundant over the years (1 for back boiler and 1 for hob). Plumber is coming this afternoon to service the boiler and put a brand new gas pipe in direct to the boiler which will get rid of all of these. There was also a really ancient plug socket which was mounted in the skirting board, I always thought it was dead, but no, its live, and part of the ring main. Well, I say ring main, it would be a ring if another cable I found was actually connected... Picked it up, could see it had some fabric tape wrapped round it, and it just fell apart in my hands. Stuck some Wago's on just to protect it, and when i turned electric back on, both sides were showing as live, so they need reconnecting at some point, but will go into a new plug socket on the back wall. Once the remaining 3 joists are out, i've got a new wall to build to support the new joists, and I also need to relocate the water meter, next to the old cupboard, which is going to be made bigger to house that, and the MVHR unit. The old joists were very bad as predicted, and full of flight holes from the dreaded woodworm, so another room ridded, and I've fully vacuumed under the floor as thoroughly as I could. New joists have come without treatment (despite me paying for treated wood!! Builders merchant won't reply to me since querying it!) so I've bought some treatment which I will paint on before putting the insulation in. Hoping to have the floor down by end of next weekend, just praying that the main stop tap at the end of the driveway will move, it has been moved by Yorkshire water in the last 10 years so I have hope. Won't be able to completely finish the floor til Yorkshire Water have been to inspect the meter, which hopefully won't take too long.

The main laying up of the GRP does not look to bad, just the edges and corners that look rough. Basically what they did was use the cut edge of the roll on the trim. They should have used the torn edge. It is hard to tell if the trim was properly prepared before they started as they seem to have tried to cover up mistakes with extra flowcoat. Not a hard job to put right to be honest, just a bit time consuming and messy.

The SAP score is a cost index, higher values, B rather than C indicates a lower fuel cost. SAP uses a cost 0f 13.19p/Kwh for electricity and (where a value is not available on the PCDB, product characteristics database) a default COP of 1.7 for ASHP or a cost of 13.19/1.7 or 7.76p/Kwh. For gas SAP uses 3.48p/Kwh for gas and primary energy factor (a measure of the amount of gas to give 1Kwh of output) of 1.22 and therefore a cost of 3.48 x 1.22 or 4.12p/Kwh. Thus gas will give a higher SAP score than an ASHP.

Not required as long as they inspected the chimney and it was in good condition.

Just cut some 40mm thick timber and screw to the shuttering. Would take me 30mins.

Do the pour and let it start to go green. Then you need to dig out the excess down by 40mm, and put a piece of wood either side and level between. Get a sheet of polystyrene insulation and weight it down between two bits of wood that mark the gaps you need.

It would be normal to use shuttering to stop the concrete flowing into the area where you don't want it. 40mm is not very much. If you post the drawing and a picture of the excavation someone may suggest the simplest way.

Don't expect the Buzzard enjoyed it much either.

Should be at least double that. Roughly min of £1000/m² for a new build. A developer can build it cheaper, but that's not the market rate for rebuild. The BICS estimate is closer to reality.

Thanks for the replies everyone. The builder is adamant that the warranty value is correct and that the issue is with the lender. His view is to get a new lender. My issue is that, whilst we have an agreement in principle with a new lender, we are likely to hit this problem if we ever wanted to sell within the first 10 years. I just can't understand why the certificate value can't be upped? We've obviously invested quite a bit already and have had discussions about walking away from this purchase with the builder. Does £150,000 for a six bedroomed, three storey house (approx 2,800 square feet) seem excessivley low to everyone? I'm ashamed to admit that I honestly have no idea.

Have to be a right sucker for that sort of money...

A couple of weeks ago by daughter and her husband got pulled over in her car when her husband was driving. She was convinced that he was insured, but turns out that I had renewed her insurance and not realised he had to be added. The police had ANPR that automatically shows the insurance status and they saw that it was insured for 2 women (her and me) and spotted it was a man driving. Anyway, the police were very nice about it and just said for her to drive home and make sure he was insured before he drove the car again. Why were they so nice ? She is an intensive car nurse looking after Covid patients in a major hospital in London and he is a surgeon and she is 8 months pregnant. I think they were worried that if they stressed her out to much she might just give birth there on a roadside.

Looks good. Borg have visited in pic 4. Then a good result. There's always an upside. You can identify the gluttons by their our inability to exit after being fed.

I spent a few hundred on a detailed Sap via our Architect I needed to get one in a hurry so I went the online route 89 score It made me realize how pointless a sap is I could have told him anything It’s a toss up between the sap and the air test as to which is the biggest Scam

If Tenant X is receiving monetary gain from the new tenant, aren't they in effect sub letting? That surely is is breach of their tenancy agreement?

...get the blood off etc?

@Critical Path I went with SAPeasy who were £168 inc vat for their expedited (24hr) service and have turned the report around in about 5 hours. Seem very good and helpful discussing spec levels etc in order to meet our required 85+. Their usual 4-5 day service is currently taking 7 days apparently as they're really busy and is £108. Good luck!

Well done mate, makes me feel tired thinking about how much you have done,!!!

I have often topped up the sale prices for new build warranties to the actual sold value. Have done this with NHBC and Premier Guarantee. I imagine they all do similar. I will be pessimistic about the resales when I get the cover so it saves up front costs, then pay the extra as sales are agreed. You are better off getting the developer to up the value with Buildzone than getting a 3rd party top up.

I was randomly doodling and came up with this work in progress for a future, super warm, garden room section. The only thing stopping me going ahead is time, money (£££££ I'd guess) and the probably need for pp that would likely be rejected anyway (AONB)! I've got loads of drawings like this, for numerous projects that'll never happen..... ? I was trying to see if a section was possible using stock heights of timber, pir, plaster board etc without cutting.

Devon, Cornwall or at a push Lincolnshire fens (the fens are flat as a pancake, so the plot should be less of an issue (apart from the usual peat and clay issues), plus Lincs is cheap for housing at present).

We got all our tiles from mandarine stone, have a look at their website. We are very happy with them!

The Cardiff branch supplied for a Swansea job of mine, and the prices were staggeringly expensive. Spoilt second wife half the age of rich client said that's what she wanted, so off he went with his cheque-book like a good little boy. Total waste of money, just don't be lazy and shop around for the same products by name and you'll save thousands. @Taff Ask your other half if she likes setting fire to money, as that is what you will be doing, plain and simple. A well thought out and neatly installed room will look the same, regardless of what you spent on the items. I have many champagne jobs in my library achieved with lemonade money, and they still look a million bucks .

Yes. A 180l tank with an indirect coil and a PV element hooked up to an Eddi diverter. Had there been the space without knocking quite a few things around I'd have gone for a larger tank. That being said I have only been in trouble for a bath running cold once. We've used it in a few ways and am slowly refining what the lasting solutions will be. The following will be too interventionist for many and for me too in the longer term but right now I'm experimenting. First: Electrically heated only, after had made the wondrous decision that hot water and no heating was a suitable time to move back into a building site. No smart meter and thus no cheap rate at this point so, rather than heating a full tank, by checking the hot water contents indicator you could see if you had enough for the next draw. I do not recommend living this way but then we also had an 8m2 hole in the back of the house at the time so.. Second: Electrically heated overnight on Octopus Go tariff, typically to 100%. Set to maintain min 20 max 40% via the indirect coil through the expensive electric part of the day if we got down this far. Upped this to 50% after a few 'complaints'. The ability to select which sources should be used at which times is useful here. So if I see the tank is at 30% and want more for a longer shower I can press the button to select the desired percentage (in increments of 10). It will then trigger the heat source I have said should be used for that time period. Thirdly: Baby 2 imminent and thus hot water not being immediately available wasn't a player, Solution: Look at the weather forecast for the next day and either set it to charge to 100% overnight on the cheap rate or let the sun do its thing or a mixture of the two. Fortunately March and April this year were atypical British weather months so all well. Clearly it doesn't have the heat loss characteristics of the Sunamp but it does let you know where you stand with hot water availability and has a host of available measurements and options. Happy to answer any questions (if I know the answers) but please accept my apologies for any delay as a newborn is running the show.

MBC used something like these https://www.orbitalfasteners.co.uk/products/8mm-x-110-express-anchor-steel-zinc-plated as you just need to hold the timber against the concrete, drill through both and hammer this home - there is no additional fixing and the timber goes where it is supposed to - quite quick way of working. They're pretty sturdy as I saw when one needed to be removed - did not come out of the concrete.

The exterior membrane is in place, next I need to seal around the window appatures. Looking online there are a number of ways of doing this, with some suggesting specialist membranes. How did you do yours? Is there a right way of sealing around the window appature? Do you use special tape, or a combination of membrane and tape? I had this approach in mind.

I have 20mm of packers taped on an old 800 level and do the same ratio to a 6ft level when I lay drains. When the bubbles right the fall is good

I claim to have no understanding of saps calcs. I have only ever had to get One. I got a reccomendation from a house building mate. When i spoke to the sap bloke he asked me what i wanted it to say. I said i didn't know but that the council BC bloke said i had to have one due to large bi-fold doors, and a very large roof light in the roof on an extension at my daughters. £149 quid and he emailed it to me that afternoon. It was several pages of math stuff, and the last page said pass,pass,pass etc. When i offered it to the BC bloke he simply asked me did it pass, and handed it back to me. Did'nt even look at it.

Thought it your bathroom thread for a mo...

Cheers mate. This has definitely been the hardest room so far, i always knew it was going to be though! Glad its done now. Few weeks off, and then the master bedroom floor is getting ripped up! But that should be a straight forward, everything out and everything in job...he says lol

I thought the @pocster just blackmailed them with the CCTV footage he saves for such occasions?