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newhome

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Everything posted by newhome

  1. newhome
    @ultramods volunteered his age in his blog and is also under 40. Good to see this forum helping some in that age group with their projects, and equally people sharing information to assist others. It’s the only way it can work here in what is a virtual, voluntary community.
  2. newhome
    Install ASHPs. Money to be made there it seems!
  3. newhome
    I’m also not sure what this forum can really do about addressing the fact that many of those under 40 don’t own their home. So if someone on here does manage to build a home for under £1000 m2 (since that’s the supposedly magic number being quoted) how does that help the issue anyway? With 30 years in IT (stated elsewhere) @epsilonGreedy can’t be under 40 and if anyone does build a house that is worth more than the build costs they will just take the profit when they sell so how does that benefit anyone except that individual? The cost of houses per m2 in the UK is almost twice what it costs in the second place EU country (France) but both countries have about the same level of home ownership at about 64%. Germany is much lower at 51% but their houses cost only a 5th of what a UK house costs per m2 so there at least owning a home isn’t the be all and end all. I’ve actually considered renting when I retire simply because it would provide me with the flexibility to move more easily. It really wouldn’t bother me if I found the right property.
  4. newhome
    Personally I think that would be a lot to ask but you could ask to pay the incremental cost of the electric for the combined quote with them paying the amount they expected to pay and see how you get on. I rather suspect they will be looking at splitting it 50 / 50 though ?. If they can’t afford to pay you rent then I don’t see how they will be able to pay out additional monetary costs to cover work on your plot tbh. If the welfare benefits are important to you then accept and see anything else as a bonus. If not then work out what the rent might be and negotiate some ‘in kind’ value to cover it.
  5. newhome
    We’re apparently all old and building niche houses though .... I’ll provide another reason why self building doesn’t tend to be for young people in their first house. Self builds are almost exclusively detached houses. My first house was a small Victorian semi, then a terrace in a more expensive where I was caught in negative equity for years. It wasn’t until 13 years after buying my first house that I was in a position to buy a detached house and even then in a cheaper area than where I was living to begin with. The only way I could see that self building could be for the young not much in the way of savings group would be for something like a cooperative to build a row of terraced houses, or similar. Or an idea like the Hedgehog coop in Brighton, but even then it requires a lender to agree to fund the project.
  6. newhome
    I would try for a collaborative deal on the utilities. How much would it cost for both electric connections at once for example. Better for you than your 12k quote? And get the water pipe laid at the same time. The below ground work always seems much more of a nightmare than fixing trees for example, but I would have no qualms about negotiating with them to collaborate over the work in common whether they were using my land or not. It seems like the sensible thing to do. Even if you had to pay for the rest of the site clearance it still might be cheaper for you than going alone.
  7. newhome
    So cut the top strip off by scribing and snapping as a trial then?
  8. newhome
    You would think ?
  9. newhome
    Know nowt about digging but wouldn’t you dig out the central hole first and then the shallower outer bit afterwards?
  10. newhome
    Doesn’t that only work if you are signed up to receive FIT payments though? If you are not, or you have a mix of FIT and non FIT there would need to be a different way of measuring it. And what about solar thermal? How would you measure that?
  11. newhome
    Absolutely if it’s in terms of delivering excellent service to a customer, and in contrast poor service is the most annoying thing. But in terms of what we want from our lives and homes to service our own needs? Mostly that’s where people see labour saving as one of the most important things (which is why my dishwasher is running for example).
  12. newhome
    Well possibly because in that example those are not exactly mainstream options for most folk. People don’t have horses and many don’t have sizeable gardens. The majority of people also want an easy life. They want to come home and have heat that is, to quote Frank the Tortoise, “easily turn off and on-able”. They want to flush a loo and have water there for the flush. So solutions that take much effort will always be on the fringe. If I could get an ASHP installed for reasonable money I would do that to reduce my reliance on fossil fuels but as the only quote I’ve had is 14.5k and I can’t get anyone to fix my solar thermal I’ll stick with my all electric system and stuff it. Greener options have to be within reach of mere mortals and practical too otherwise the majority of folk won’t engage. When it’s easier to tip into landfill that’s what happens in the majority of cases too.
  13. newhome
    Think these are the standard sized tiles that look like mosaics aren’t they? White grouting was mentioned so I assumed so.
  14. newhome
    There are lines of them down the wall too. Even so I still don’t see what the stress is about.
  15. newhome
    It that was an easy swap for my crap one I'd have it like a shot but it's not
  16. newhome
    No more than you keep banging on about yours .... and you ain't even built it yet! And it's hardly a cavernous mansion
  17. newhome
    I think that one of the reasons why the scaffolding is put up too close may be that many scaffolders are used to erecting it against an existing structure (for maintenance) rather than trying to envisage where a structure yet to be built will come. So they work off the slab, and don't factor in enough space for the TF and then the blocks or whatever skin is being built. Clearly you can't have it too far out either though so accurate measurements are important. I think it happened to mine as the owner left some inexperienced guys to erect it and then went off out for the day. We were away but could see it going up on the security camera, then taken down, and then put back up again. That was very surreal!
  18. newhome
    That's BS frankly. My house isn't built to passiv standards and I did deliver it for under £1000 m2 and I've never felt sidelined because of that. And there are others here who have managed their builds for under £1000 m2 just fine. Why therefore is that anything 'significant'? It's not on everyone's agenda to deliver under £1000 m2 and much of that is often to do with what I call the vanity items. Those can add significant amounts to a build. Maybe however how someone is perceived is more about personal style than the type of build?
  19. newhome
    Wow, you would have thought that the TF company would be fitting their own components at the very least. I'm willing to accept that mine fell down the cracks as we used an unconnected builder and had made too many assumptions. Validating assumptions is one of the key points I try to get across simply because we assumed too much and were caught out more than a few times.
  20. newhome
    Not just slab pours but almost anything that goes wrong is shared by so many for the benefit of others. Even more remarkably I even got a Welshman (and a Midlander) to visit bonnie Scotland to help me with my heating disaster. That was beyond the call of duty on any level!
  21. newhome
    Ensure that they break the figures down into erection, dismantling and hire. The first 2 can be zero rated, the hire charge cannot. Ensure that you know exactly how much it will cost if you need the scaffolding to be there longer than you initially envisage. Understand what their service includes, eg does it include them coming to fix things that the builders mess about with? Probably not so you will need to understand how to handle those situations. Ensure that they put a 'ticket' on the scaffolding that should evidence the insurance cover and formally mark it as 'on hire' rather than in a stage of erection when it should not be used. I say this because my scaffolders were crooks for want of a word and didn't put the insurance cover in place, then when there was an accident tried to say that it wasn't formally on hire at that point despite it having been up and used for weeks before! We didn't know it should have had a 'ticket'. Don't let them erect it too close to the house! Sounds obvious but there are a few of us on here who have been caught out by that. Expect them to be challenging (that might be unfair but it was my experience).
  22. newhome
    Noooo, there were discussions about not having the loos back to back!
  23. newhome
    That was apparently 'not included' in the quote that we received (we found out after the frame was up) so had to pay extra. The TF erectors said that they considered that to be a roofing task (they weren't doing the roof). That surprised us TBH as the sarking boards arrived as part of the kit, but we had to pay it to get the house watertight as the roofers weren't coming for another couple of weeks or so.
  24. newhome
    I love this house. Really looking forward to seeing it emerge like a phoenix into something amazing.
  25. newhome
    Bit different to round here then when they will ask if you can deliver it ?
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