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I think you need to realise that if you are doing a build of say 250-400k you will be spending way way more than your average builder who does extensions etc ina given year so could be potentially one of the BMs top clients. Go open a few accounts at each of your local builder merchants. Have a discussion with each of the managers at the store and say you’ve got a build on in the region of say 300k and are looking for competitive quotes and will be getting quotes from all the other BMs. For the the first few orders try and make them large and email them to the manager so he knows it’s you and see how they come back. We eventually found within a few months that one consistently started beating all the others and as your relationship builds you get better and better deals as you spend more and more money with them. You still need to keep them on their toes by getting quotes elsewhere and calling them out every now and then as they then realise you are keeping on eye on them and they don’t want to loose your custom. My builders who have been in the trade 30 years couldn’t believe the discounts I was getting.

Well well..... Following internal discussions we have agreed that we can exclude the access track from your impact assessment and issue an amended provisional IACPC based off the RLB for the site up until around where the track begins (see below). This would be a non-standard approach as would mean that your licence would not cover any effects your development may have on the track e.g. widening, etc. I believe this would result in there being 8 ponds within the 250m buffer instead of 14 and would bring costs to around £1,800. If this is agreeable for you please let us know and we shall issue you with a new certificate. Kind regards, A rare glimmer of hope in the self-builder's gloom.

And my SE report had several errors on it. Blindly following what you’re told whether it’s the medical profession or the building profession is a folly in my opinion. The very best professionals should be happy to explain what/why/where/when/how. You’ve already questioned why render over lathe has been specified for my block wall for example.

The document is written in terrible hand writing. At some point someone needs to read this and turn it into material and installation for the build. If you’re paying a professional the presented work should be clear and easy to read.

Is this a leasehold property aswell, do you have permission from the freeholder and other owners in the building? this could also get expensive and messy. There are so many things wrong here However, 650 does seem a good price for the property. I would love to live in Camden. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/details/england-81279772-11663236?s=3f879f603b1de1ec213d7cb9e0d67dde6bb7fd55656843129274795cf8e6c34d#/ This one on your road went for 1.635 million for a 4 floor house. With some detective work I found your contractor/ 'friends' company information. For the last few years they have been 200-300k in the red on companies house. This year they are 100k up, maybe they found a gold egg to milk and are looking to line you up as their next one The projects on their website are very high end, but these are all in areas that are MUCH more expensive than yours that command higher budgets with their underground swimming pools and the like, none of your neighbours would be spending that kind of money. It is Kensington and Chelsea and Mayfair money not Camden. Kentish town is not even the nicest part of Camden.

It won’t help you now But for anyone else Don’t use private companies for BC Local Authority are cheaper and will call out the same day Your best and cheapest option is to go back to your SE and ask him to verify the work that’s been carried Once your inspector has that bit of paper he can crawl back under his rock

Sounds like the landlord has taken out a policy which isn’t much use. Do you have an agent? They usually have a list of decent trades

Can you explain this. Surely you reported the fault to the landlord or the letting agent and they sent this man to fix it, so what is this "newly tendered essential maintenance company"?

I've made it clear, and the written quotation confirms, the requirement for a pukka consignment note

Take your time (unless it’s class Q) think about if there’s a way you can live or at least stay on site in a static caravan or similar. It’s an unbelievable pain not being nearby and rent will eat your budget. A lot of things need to be decided on site and if a builder is presented with 2 choices, you can guarantee they chose the one you didn’t want. One way to manage the budget can be to get a part liveable and signed off and do the rest later

The tangled webs we weave

I rebuilt part of my rented house plumbing with help from here during my build. As it happened, I was renting from another BH member who I'm now helping with his new build that's replacing the site of that now demolished rental, but that's by the by 😂

Yeah post your question in the relevant section and see if you can get an answer to your issues.

What thickness screed have you allowed for? If its 100mm, you can easily get away with 50mm insualtion then 50mm liquid screed. I wouldn't even consider your other two options, you can just for the UFH directly to the floor I'd there's no room for insualtion.

I didn't think you could get modulating oil boilers but I've just been told by the heating chap about a fifteen stage modulating oil boiler. Every day is a school day. https://sapphireboilers.co.uk/

Yes I use most systems Mainly BG Only because some contracts specify it Same with deep head track Some jobs do and some jobs don’t BG I’d heavier gauge But they all look and perform the same once finished Arrowa a good choice About a third saving on BG

I doubt the staircase company will care. It is your building control inspector that will care at completion. If not 2M headroom it will not pass, so make the ceiling stepped or whatever is needed to achieve 2M headroom.

At least you only have to keep renewing your insurance. I had to bung building control another £100 each year to extend the building warrant.

Quite right too. Don’t stop asking. It’s your house and money. Sometimes it takes three attempts at asking why to get the answer.

Just be a bit cautious as some policies have a right for the issuer to cancel if work is not completed in a timely manner. Check the wording.

I saved my mum from being given the wrong combination of drugs due to terrible hand writing and the general confusion between departments in hospitals.

Doesn't the heat recovery aspect of an MVHR compensate for this somewhat? This crossed my mind . If I had an oil boiler this is what I'd choose. The 250l Maxipod TS I put in my parents house is working really well. All the benefits of an UVC ( on oil or gas) and no G3 requirement or expansion vessels etc. Easily tied into a solid fuel boiler cooker in their case too. They're not much use with an ASHP unfortunately as they require ginormous volume to compensate for the lower temp.

Always a good sign. A beam calculation is everyday stuff and doesn't need a computer programme. Good to be interested of course. I expect he could sit you down for a lesson if you paid for his time. The bco does not check calcs, or have the training. Trust the SE.

As a single I would be questioning it, but as a tied double, terrace house so no racking, pretty standard two storey my gut feeling is it’s ok. Obviously I wouldnt put my name to anything without running the calcs or FEA.

EW is the load Fa = b means the load is uniformly supported at a & b (ie spread evenly) m is the bending moment of the steel (ie its material strength) ♾️(or similar..!) is the maximum deflection of the beam, usually in the centre @Gus Potter ..??

James you are having your pants pulled down here and are being rogered left right and centre 50k to an architect to design a maisonette is absolute batshit crazy I cannot beleive you paid that. You could get an architetural technician to provide you with some good plans for 3k. It's just a maisonette there is only so much you can do with it. I knew the quote was crazy when I got down to the scaffolding line and it's 17k + vat. A tinhat roof and scaffold in London is 6k maybe less. It should cost 300k maximum and I know builders who could do it for that. The mistake you made is telling the builder how much you're willing to spend, you should never do this. I went to Wren kitchens and told them I had a 25k kitchen budget and guess what they designed me a 25k kitchen.... ended up getting it or half that in Howdens. Also those taps you posted are not even mid range they are low end garbage. Mid range would be crosswater/grohe. You should put this on hold and do a lot of learning and researching or this could end very badly, if the architect hasn't done the work yet you should cancel them and pay them 10k and start from scratch with a new architect and builder. I'm sure everyone here would be willing to help and give you advice.

+1 There must be dozens of different solutions. Oak posts and rail with glass panel. Ditto but metal posts and rail. All glass, no posts or rail Numerous styles of wooden bannisters and railings. Wrought iron. Curved brickwork with holes in Glass bricks to the ceiling. Hugely expensive curved polished copper panel 🙂

in a cavity wall, the structural bit is always on the inside. the outside wall is not really holding any weight from above, so not that much to worry about. having said that, if I was you, I'd have it done properly, using a catnic lintel.

I've used hardwall plus multifinish on high suction clay bricks. DIY and no cracks. The way I approached it was to liberally spray the bricks with water, let it soak in and then spray again before applying hardwall. With the hardwall, I keyed it and left to set, then wetted and applied the multifinish24 hours later. No need for pva or anything like that, just hardwall and multifinish.

Ben Adam-Smith House Planning Help

I don't know if this translates into the building trade, but in my previous line of work I would've asked something along the lines of "is there anything else I can do to make the job more attractive?" There are other motivations than money. Are you going to be a PITA client? Is the site going to be cold, wet and miserable? Can you do other payment terms? Is time-and-materials vs fixed cost an option that's attractive to you both? On the supply side I was given sagely advice to never drop my prices unless I got something in return. We were doing IT consultancy, so if we offered a discount it was often in return for better working conditions for the staff, better payment terms, offering a testimonial, that kind of thing. If you're asking a supplier to drop their price, it might be worth thinking about what you can do in return. Beyond that, @ToughButterCup's lines all look ace!

No, there is a vast variation. What the main dealer car showrooms specify is a 2 part epoxy that goes down several mm thick. When it fails ig comes up like vinyl flooring. It costs about £60/m2. Or there is middle market stuff about £40/m2. All a bit excessive for the purpose. All it has to do is stop oil from soaking into the concrete. As my motor clients said, our vehicles don't drip oil. So when they had a choice we used single part floor paint at about £20/m2. All probably gone up 50% since then. The cheap stuff worked fine then, after a couple of years of commercial use, they touched up abrasion at doorways. I'm sure the cheaper kind will work for you. Watco is the go-to name for concrete repair and paint. But I think you should find cheaper.

We’ve had massive issues with the Arts and craft roof design What I thought would take me a week Ended up taking me a month Eight valleys and two doors that shouldn’t have been there Everything birds mouthed including the trusses and far more loose rafters than intended I had to cut masonry hangers into the walls in places I can take some photos if it would help But would have to go to an email As I can only place one photo at a time on here

Or use one of the LVT brands that have underlay built in - we chose the Malmo Rigid Comfort range as it comes in tile format as well as plank format.

Bare in mind you won't be able to reclaim any vat that the builder has incorrectly charged you. You'll need to go back to them and reissue invoices and something like a credit note that can be balanced off your next payments to them. If buying materials yourself, make sure the invoices / receipts have your name and the site address on them.

That made me check my facts, but I can only find the 2 year rule, ie. Reduced rate of 5% VAT for properties empty more than 2 years, which can then be recovered at the end if it's a self-build. Ref. 8.1.1 https://www.gov.uk/guidance/buildings-and-construction-vat-notice-708#section8 Have you got a link to the 10 year rule? For the 2 year rule, the property has to have a residential Use class. Since the cottage itself has been used for a significant time with an agricultural Use, it may be considered that its Residential Use has been abandoned. Not that that's an issue though, as the whole property would then fall into the conversion of non-Resi (Agricultural) to Resi, and so it qualifies for the reduced rate at 5% anyhow. What type of planning permission do you have for the works? Is it a "Conversion of X to Y", or "Change of Use to Residential", or is it an "Extension"

As the cottage has been unoccupied for more than 10 years it's renovation should be zero rated to you. A barn conversion would normally be 5% rated to you but you can reclaim itnat the end. Because you have a combination I'm not sure what the rate should be. I would ask on the HMRC VAT forum. Im away from my PC at the moment so don't have the link handy but I have posted it before. Important you get this sorted now because if HMRC decide it should all be zero rated you may not be able to reclaim any paid in error to the builder from HMRC. They may refer you to the builder. I think it likely the whole lot should be zero rated to you.

In my opinion , not knowing the site... If you get a quote from an approved demolition company they will include the risk assessments and disposal. They will give you a certificate to show proper disposal to licenced tip. That should be the end of that. My construction company did this without specialists and even had an hse spot check once. It is easy. But we took to using demo cos just to avoid insurance issues. It is dismantling, not demolition. Don't grind it up and snort it and you are 90% there. Oil in the ground is normally only an issue for lawns and playing fields. Last time I checked it was preferred to cover with buildings or hardstanding (not permeable) than to take it away. Sounds like your consultants are pushing their luck, to be polite. Find another?

Self build insurance has come through “ if not complete , what are the reasons for the delay ? “ cheeky (expletive deleted)s ! You come and build it !

Yeah ; do like me . Have loud music on . Think you’re John wick . Then fire those bad boys like you are in a (expletive deleted)ing matrix movie .

Yes

Give a dog a bone ….. 🤔🤣

When I worked fir BT donkeys years ago I managed to get a 16ft pole on the roof rack of my Ford Corsair 😱