newhome

Do it when she’s at the shops, hide the tin, say tin was empty and has been chucked when she asks. Job done.

PMSL! At least @Nickfromwales and @PeterW have made it less crazy now, plus it works! I will keep the door closed to the services room when I come to sell

I am considering having an ASHP fitted but at some point will want to sell this house. Have people found that having an ASHP has been attractive to buyers, put people off, or they haven't been generally bothered either way? I'm on all electric here so was wondering whether it might be a selling point or the reverse.

Yes I believe it may be something like the bath is assessed at 50% full and shower to bath ratio of 80 / 20. Don’t quote me either as you will need to look it up! There is a weird calculation for flushing loos like 4. something I seem to recall. Maybe you have to share the loo flush by doubling up with someone if you go a 5th time lol. 5 times if you’re at the office is a lot unless you have a weak bladder I guess

Not that I am ever likely to be fitting an ASHP but just so that I get this right in my head having followed this thread from the start, is10l per minute +/- 3l from 7l per min to 13l per min? If so 14l per min is more ?. I’m clearly missing something very obvious to those who understand it more ? Good news though as this saga has dragged on for a while. Must be a relief to have it sorted. And now you can start that promised thread on system performance .

Something to keep in view. Just a proposal at present. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44759150 This would be relatively straightforward for a property with its own drive but could prove challenging for those that don’t.

I have the comically enormous bath and never use it because it’s too damn big. You could probably fit 4 people in it if that’s your thing but for the avoidance of doubt it’s not my thing! I only ever use the bath in the other bathroom as it’s smaller. We did give our spec to the TF company and the joists were altered but whether that was driven by the bath alone or simply because the area underneath is very open plan and it was altered because of that (we changed 3 rooms downstairs into one large open plan one) I can’t say. Possibly both. In hindsight however I would not buy the comically enormous bath as it’s a white elephant. I have used it twice in 9 years and that was only for the novelty value.

Yeah possibly! And I live abroad now of course (or I will if certain folk get their way). I certainly pay 'abroad' tax rates!

No passport opportunities here (beginning to feel in the minority). Parents and grandparents all from London. I think there is an Irish G. Grandfather but I imagine that doesn't count.

Welcome John! We have a few members from your part of the world.

Probably because most are planning to build a replacement dwelling? What were your mother's heating bills like out of interest?

If it's any consolation (I'm sure it isn't) our scaffolding company did that too!

I think that would be a great idea as since being on this forum probably the most reported issue involves cost.

If their quote included an oak staircase with glass balastrade can't you just ask them to show you the one the quote was based on and then go with that? Sounds like they've made an error, not you. We did pay extra for the staircase and the internal doors because when our TF company showed us what they had quoted for we wanted something slightly different but the ones they picked would have met the spec we gave them.

I think it's great for people to use the experience of others to roughly price up a task but it can't be consistently applied to our own task because most of us need what we need in the here and now, or close to, and something that was on offer 3 weeks ago may not be now. Conversely it may now be on offer but that doesn't help the OP unless we all have access to a time machine. So as a useful guide this sort of information is great, but if people really get pleasure in saying their widget was 50p less than someone who has laid their costs bare it's a reflection on them, not you! There's nowt so queer as folk. And where labour costs are concerned you definitely do not always get what you pay for. I've winced at the amount I've paid for some incredibly poor trades, and others who did a really great job I would have paid a lot more for. All we can do on this forum is share knowledge to the best of our abilities, and that includes the things we would rather curl up and die over and never speak of again, as that's what helps, not the jobs that go fabulously to plan. I have made endless mistakes in the course of building my house, many of which can't be undone, and this forum has been a really positive place to help me see what can be done to at least mitigate the issues there are here. This has been done with humour and banter that provides some light relief around what can sometimes be soul destroying. Only once did someone on this forum make me feel like a complete idiot to the extent that their comment still grates on me now, so remember people, your words are important on here. Choose yours well. For status items that's definitely true. And perversely the value of a house is the one most likely to fall into that category alongside cars, yet some people belittle others for having spent more on a widget that formed that particular house. All humans are weird, but some humans are more weird than others .

Excellent news - now go ask them for a refund for the June payment. Get in!

Why would you need to remove the battens? Surely you would just fit the Nulok battens at this stage ready for tiling?

+1. When we made trips to see house things we tried to do something interesting in that area too. For example we went to Loch Lomond for the first time when we visited a SIP manufacturer in the west of Scotland. It rained of course and we didn't order the SIPS.

Thanks. I just wanted a low maintenance able to withstand high winds in a coastal area garden. Never dreamt that I would need to add drought tolerant to the list as it's generally the excess rainfall we have to worry about here ...... Thankfully it's clouded over here a bit this afternoon. Never thought I would be happy to see cloudy skys!

PS. It's good to see you getting stuck into the 'making the house a home' jobs rather than having endless stress over the build completion. I imagine there are still some annoyances but hopefully the nicer aspects dominate now.

Not quite the same thing but since you mention heat tolerant ... It's never been heard of up in Scotland but we are now at the stage where it's almost a mini drought here. Like 8 weeks without any rainfall pretty much other than a little overnight on a couple of occasions and it's been unseasonably hot and sunny. I was wondering how to mitigate against the plants drying out in the planters without constantly watering them. The established plants in the main garden don't seem to suffer from this, or not yet at least. I read a few articles where it said that if the compost was mixed with the hydrogel contained in babies nappies it would 'store' water for a time and release it slowly as the rest of the soil dried out. Other articles said that the opposite happened as the hydrogel didn't like to give up its water so it had the opposite effect. So I did half the pots using hydrogel and half without. Will see what ones fare best lol. I bet @JSHarris already knows the answer to this

Lol, I won't be buying it either. I tried a robot vacuum once before after returning from a trip to my brother and they were raving about theirs. Mine spent its entire life either humping the metal base of the kitchen stools or finding every stray wire that might be around and trying to suck it up. So I returned it. Might be of interest to someone though, but probably mostly for the novelty value

Not sure if this is any good (for the price probably not) but it's definitely cheap. If it's rubbish you can just leave it lying around gathering dust . Vileda Robot Vacuum https://www.homebargains.co.uk/products/14194-pre-order-vildea-vr101-cleaning-robot.aspx

Bloody jobsworths! Can't you apply directly to the VOA and ask them to remove it from the register alongside sending the council your evidence? They cant charge you council tax if it's not on the register.

Yes ASHP. Like you say I was thinking more of getting the water to a reasonable temp rather than it not needing the boiler at all. Would it work with the ST (assuming that is fixed and working)? Would need advice on what to get and getting it installed mind and am vaguely worried about the thing getting wrecked by the wind here. Not sure how robust they are in mega windy conditions. If I had a time machine I would have chosen PV and ASHP, and now be looking at Sunamp. Ain't hindsight great!