newhome

I've got some 'Miracle-Gro 4 in 1' stuff here already. Is that any good (although it seems to contain nitrogen) and if so should I do this first (instructions say to scarify after 2 weeks to remove dead moss)? Or seed first, wait a while and then treat the lawn? How about this seed? https://www.thegrassseedstore.co.uk/supplier/lawn-seed/overseeding-repair-without-ryegrass/? I don't mind the grass not being putting green perfect but at present it appears that there are so many mixes of grass in it that it grows at different rates and looks crap. And the weeds keep coming ...

So are your neighbours going to prefer multiple vehicles delivering stuff going up and down the road vs one large load delivering a timber frame in one go? If it was my road I think I would prefer the latter as long as there was no damage.

P&K? N? I'm no gardner I'm afraid so very basic info needed please . Do I literally just sprinkle it into the grass? And then leave it to germinate? How long do I leave it before mowing it after seeding? I tried 2 ways last year. The first was to mix it into potting compost, water well and leave it somewhere warm so that the seeds germinated before I sprinkled it on the lawn. Not much of that took so I tried sprinking the seed directly onto the lawn but then nothing seemed to germinate. Green fingered I am clearly not! I don't really have an agricultural merchant near here without going on an hour's round trip so tend to buy at the garden centre or from Amazon. Is this any good (couldn't find pure fescue on there but this seems to be a mix)? I don't think I want huge amounts as my lawn area isn't enormous. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grass-Seed-Covers-sqm-380/dp/B00YB4YPKC/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=fescue&qid=1558816215&s=gateway&sr=8-2

It's not really a minefield although it can seem that way if you don't know the rules. Don't expect all builders to know them either! Amazing how many VAT registered builders will charge you VAT when they shouldn't, or order things in their name for you to pay for that results in you not being able to claim the VAT back. Understanding how it should work can pay dividends later. There are at least a couple of things that I didn't realise that I could do personally that meant that I overpaid VAT.

@selfbuildaberdeen your post count has grown quite rapidly and you now have enough posts to see the VAT sub forum. As a distraction from MVHR you may want to take some time to read through the forum guide to the VAT reclaim process to ensure that you get yourself off to a flying start when the invoices start arriving. There can be a few quirky things in relation to the VAT rules so best to know what you can and can't claim for, and what can be zero rated from the get go to avoid paying VAT where you don't need to. Guide to the VAT reclaim process

And bloody bugs and flies! That's the main reason for me keeping the doors etc shut here TBH. Leave them open for 30 mins and I seem to get a swarm of flying insects making a beeline for the house!

I used the electric lawn raker yesterday and it got out a ton of thatch and moss. I then mowed it and now it's raining and I guess that's good as it may encourage the good grass to grow hopefully. Is there any merit in sowing seed into the existing lawn to try to get some better grass coming through? If so how should I do that and what seed would be best? I did try sow some seed last year but none seemed to germinate despite me watering the lawn every day for a couple of weeks.

Have to admit we wimped out and got the granite installer to fit the undermounted sink. My hubby did everything else in the kitchen himself but the granite and the sink were the 2 things he got someone else to do.

You might not if it says kitchen cabinet. Unless it says freestanding who’s to know?

How are you planning to build your house? Timber frame? ICF? If it's timber frame does your TF company not do a supply and fit option with you sourcing other trades to do the finishing off? You might be able to source a different TF supplier to supply the kit for less. I know @ultramods who is up your way looked at a few different companies, and I believe he sourced his windows separately as the TF company price was much greater for those. So there are some ways in which you can look to bring the cost down but we will need more details of what you are hoping to build etc to be able to help much more with that. As you've seen above @Christine Walker brought her build in at £1000 m2 which is very good going but they have the benefit of it being their third self build plus they were pretty hands on especially in terms of the management of the build. Christine has a blog so might be worth having a read of that.

I have one here that my hubby fitted so it was just the price of the kit in terms of cost. Maybe you could look at how much it costs just for the kit itself and see if you could fit it yourselves to keep the cost down a bit. Unless you are going mostly turnkey self building is all about constantly rejigging the budget. I ended up compromising on a few thing here (some of which I would not have done if I'd had the benefit of hindsight and been on this forum at the time!). My kitchen ended up taking the biggest hit but it's actually fine and I really don't miss having top end units TBH. Oh, and welcome to the forum!

As others have said £1300 is pretty impossible unless you do substantial amounts yourself. Heaven knows what your architect is thinking of! I assume that the £1300 is for the build cost only and doesn’t include the land because that would be highly unrealistic. Size matters too. If your house is 150 m2 then your quote is £1000 m2 over budget. If it’s 300 m2 then it’s £500 m2 over. As others have said realistically you are looking at closer to £2000 m2 for a turnkey project excluding the land and £1000 m2 if you do significant amounts yourself. @Christine Walker what did you end up paying per square metre in the end? Some of our NE members (Aberdeen?) may be able to advise where else to get quotes from but realistically you are going to have to be much more hands on to get even close to your budget. As someone else said if you post the plans there may be areas where the design can be altered slightly to bring the build cost down. Architects don’t always have that at the forefront of their minds unfortunately.

How much per square metre is your budget and where are you in case someone can recommend a builder they have used.

What do you actually want to do with that end of the garden? That will determine what needs to be done to a degree surely?

Very sensible advice. There seem to be quite a lot of plots available where the price of the plot plus the cost to build is in excess of what you could buy a house for there (Graven Hill for example). That might be acceptable to someone if there are really good reasons for wanting to have a house of their choosing in that location but alongside that there has to be an acceptance that you will likely lose money on it if you ever come to sell.

Unfortunately there are still some idiots around who claim that the health risks are exaggerated Trump ?

They believe there is a genetic susceptibility to it but are not sure exactly what. They are doing lots of testing on it currently to try to identify the gene(s) responsible. As an example there was almost an ‘epidemic’ of mesothelioma in the Cappadocia region of Turkey where families were exposed to erionite (the mineral has properties similar to asbestos). Whole families were affected by it and died whilst other whole families who lived alongside those affected escaped it. I imagine most of us have come across asbestos inadvertently but most of us will escape being affected by it, but for those who are affected by it it’s devastating. One of the most painful and aggressive cancers you can get and always terminal. If you know there is asbestos there it must be treated with respect and is not something to cut corners on.

As someone who doesn’t have enough insulation in the floor here it’s still an area of massive regret and not one I can now fix so I would definitely take the advice above and see if you can incorporate more insulation, and definitely see if you can get a quote for the whole ASHP supply and install as that should just make life so much easier for you in terms of ongoing support. The minute that chain is broken somewhere it starts to get tricky. It may cost a bit more than people here think is necessary but I think it will be worth it.

And another unlucky person was my husband who never worked with it directly but came across it in his job years ago and died a horrible painful death. If you are susceptible to the fibres it only takes a single breath which is why teachers are dying of mesothelioma because older schools are full of it and in the past they would have been in contact with fibres simply by pinning children’s drawings to the wall. I wouldn’t wish that death on anyone having witnessed it!

What you doing in there? Just paint to finish?

I guess £100 deposit on a credit card would cover that off to a degree but I wouldn’t pay upfront without that protection.

Another thought. Are you eligible for the VAT reclaim? If so a full supply and fit sounds more attractive from a cash flow perspective as you will only pay 5% (reclaimable) instead of 20% on the materials only (also reclaimable but still another couple of grand to find initially).

At those prices I would want to be going down the RHI route so you’d need the MCS install and documentation. How much are they charging for the ‘Support Option’ or is that included in 10.5k? Ideally you should approach an MCS installer and ask them to quote for the whole job including the supply. As a comparison I was quoted 14.5k for an ASHP, UVC, install and MCS paperwork (including VAT). That was for an 11.2KW Mitsubishi Ecodan ASHP and 300 litre UVC installed as a retrofit. I didn’t go for it as I thought it should be nearer to 10k. My concern with a split supply / install / commission paperwork approach like you are suggesting is who is responsible for providing the warranty / support if something goes wrong. You may end up in a ‘not my issue’ scenario. If you get someone to do the whole thing that argument disappears, or does the ‘support option’ cover all of that? The other consideration with fitting an ASHP is the availability of the installer to provide a responsive call out service if something goes wrong. When I was struggling to get a quote the Energy Saving Trust told me to cast the net wider and ask for quotes from installers much further afield. My concern with that was getting someone to come out and fix it if it went wrong. No one wants to be without heating in the middle of winter. For the UFH ask Wunda for a quote.

I wouldn’t worry about it. You know there are a few areas where you can improve and you haven’t artificially lowered the result by sealing everything to within an inch of its life only to remove the sealing afterwards. If yours is a figure in ‘ordinary use’ what’s not to like?

I don’t think Bulb are ordinarily expensive TBH but check your tariff. You will probably have things in the new house that you didn’t have in the rental, MVHR for example, not sure how much those things will add. You really need to check your own usage every month. I enter all of mine into a spreadsheet religiously as Scottish Power ‘deleted’ all of my readings and bill history and then couldn’t restore it so it was lost forever. Keep my own spreadsheet now!