newhome

Me too. Every plant I have put in here has been evergreen apart from a handful of bedding plants for pots to provide a bit extra summer colour that get replaced each year anyway. I asked for advice on a screening hedge on here as next door had planted around 100 cherry laurels and all but a handful have died as it's just too windy for them here on the coast. One of the suggestions was Griselinia. I had never heard of it but it's thrived well here so far. I bought a mix of variegated and non variegated and the variegated variety breaks up the monotony of a wall of green. https://www.hedgesdirect.co.uk/acatalog/griselinia_littoralis.html Other than that some of the plants that I've been able to just shove in and leave have included Ceanothus, numerous different types of Hebe, Cordyline, Phormium, dwarf conifers, Italian Cyprus and Bay. Euonymus and Spotted Laurel should have been good too but they didn't grow / survive here. Where you are should be ok though I imagine. The staff at a proper garden centre generally offer good advice if you tell them the type of plants you would like (my remit was evergreen, low maintenance and suitable for a coastal location). The lady I spoke to told me what ones to go for and what to avoid.

You can't reclaim any VAT via invoices a builder supplies you with either VAT registered or not. Those that are VAT registered must zero rate their labour and materials when they invoice you. Those who are not VAT registered zero rate their labour but cannot zero rate the materials so you will have to pay the VAT that the builder paid on those. So the builder is wrong I'm afraid. He also can't order any materials on your behalf and give you the invoice to reclaim the VAT as the invoice MUST be in your own name for the reclaim scheme. The only way of working with this guy (if he is not VAT registered) is for you to have an account at the builders merchant and for him to order materials that you pay for. He may not like that as he will likely make a bit of profit on materials if he buys them. The VAT reclaim scheme is for qualifying materials only that you buy yourself during the course of the build. No labour, no services, no 'jobs' can be reclaimed. It should all be explained in this thread:

Similarly the main builder can provide the scaffolding (and any machinery) as part of his package of work and it can be zero rated, but if you hire any of those separately you will need to pay VAT although even then there are some bits that can be zero rated. Scaffolding erection and dismantling fees can be zero rated but the hire charges cannot, and if your hire machine arrives with an operator it can be zero rated and if not you will pay full VAT. It's a minefield and often builders won't know the regulations that well so if they charge you VAT @ 20% on everything they believe that they are covering themselves in case they have made a mistake and undercharged. Do think things through and ensure that the price you are paying a builder to have all of these extra things included isn't more than you could hire them for yourself even paying the VAT. Builders are going to want to make a profit - they aren't going to supply these things to save you money ordinarily. Paying the appropriate amount of VAT is important but getting the maximum amount zero rated is not THE most important thing in the great scheme of things so keep your thinking flexible when it comes to deciding how to source these things that ordinarily have VAT added to them. I don't want to tempt fate but the idea that you may have the same groundworker back later may not be how things turn out. Sadly there are many occasions where you end up parting company with a builder for various reasons or resolve not to have them back. I wouldn't want to have tied my builder in to do anything beyond what I had originally asked him for on the strength of him having left some Heras fencing on site for me. Every job really needs to be specified and quoted at the appropriate time and you need to retain the flexibility to choose who you use at every stage of the build.

Wow that looks great! Must be amazing to be out of the caravan and the dogs must be happy too now. Whatever else needs doing can just get done as and when now that you are in the house.

Lol, that’s one for the blokes surely? ? ?

Guess @Onoff might have access to one on a weekend huh? Heat gun and a J Roller might be more his style!

So for clarity the builder should charge the VAT rate appropriate to the main element of his work (in this case the groundworks) and all other elements should also be charged at this rate as long as they are needed for the job and invoiced as a 'package of work'. So a groundworker who is charging you for groundworks and needs skips, machinery, security fencing should be able to charge zero rate as part of the arrangement as it is necessary for the job and "closely connected to the construction of the building". You start to push the boundaries if you ask him to provide Heras fencing and leave it up for the duration of the build because you can't argue that the work he is doing requires fencing to be installed for months after the groundworks are complete. So if you are strictly following the guidance in VAT Notice 708 (that VAT registered builders are obliged to follow) then no he can't really zero rate the Heras fencing beyond the point when his job has completed IMO. That said what matters is what the builder is willing to do for you. I had a couple out to quote who refused to zero rate anything at all. I think they thought I was on some massive fiddle and no attempt at explaining the new build rules would persuade them otherwise so I didn't use them. If you use a non VAT registered builder (for others who may be reading this as I believe that your prospective builder is VAT registered) although they won't charge you VAT on their labour they will have no choice but to pay VAT on the skip hire etc so you will end up paying the VAT on those things too. Similarly if a non VAT registered builder supplies materials. So ultimately you need to have a chat with the builder and agree the rules of engagement in respect of the VAT for your build. As I found out you can quote what you like at them but if they are not willing to do it that way then you are stuffed.

Me too! Those stick on solar things might work maybe? And I’m with you about falling down. You’d likely bounce at 20 but do real damage a ‘few’ ? years later. One reason why I would no longer ride horses ?...

That should come under work closely connected to the construction of the building in VAT Notice 708 so can be zero rated as long as planning permission is in place. If the builder provides equipment such as skips etc and it is all invoiced as part of the main work then that should also be zero rated. If it's on a separate invoice it can't be. When you say Heras fencing are you meaning that the ground worker will bring this in and remove it again when he has finished the groundworks as you will then need more for when the real construction starts presumably? https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-708-buildings-and-construction/vat-notice-708-buildings-and-construction

Some stuff for you http://www.homesafetyguidance.co.uk/downloads/fall-prevention-checklist.pdf The sign should be good I imagine. Too late to put some leds there too I guess?

There must be countless rented properties with changes in floor levels surely? One for a landlord and tenant forum I guess, or maybe @Ferdinand can advise. Clearly it's not wheelchair friendly but a renovation doesn't need to be afaik?

Too slow then - need to be fast in this game

Ya missed the point, what a tragedy ?

The point is that the new buyer is not allowed to remove it whether they want to or not regardless of whether you are paying the £25, plus they have to commit to having an internet connection. Many buyers won’t want to be tied into something like that because they may want to remortgage or sell the house on and such an arrangement will limit what they are able to do. I believe that you will need to enter into an assignment of rights contract with the company. You should probably take legal advice before signing such a contract. If you sell, the buyer will have to agree to take on that contract unless you buy out of it. And they don’t own the system, you do, but you will have assigned the rights to the RHI payments to them so you have contractual obligations to meet in return. No doubt if the company went bust the assignment of rights would be transferred on to another company.

Yes, we had a screed put down before the Karndean was laid so it was pretty level but there was still an area near the French doors that showed up a small ripple in the floor when it was sunny. Someone I worked with had Karndean laid (by the company I used) and it was clearly done badly as they could see the patterns of how the glue had been spread all the way through their lounge. The company agreed that it was substandard and ripped it up and relaid the floor.

Mine is Mapei but still discolours unfortunately

As opposed to them lobbing them in the back garden whether you are there or not a la Hermes?

Looks good? When do people move in? I am trying to visualise those rooms with 50 odd bottles of p*ss on the floor . Hope your tenant screening process is better this time .

Someone suggested one of these to me but I decided against because if I wanted to sell in the next 7 years while the RHI payments were running (I believe that ownership probably switches to you after that time) it might complicate things. I imagine there is a 'buy out' clause in the contract but that might be expensive if the buyer didn't want to commit to the system until the end of the term. Having read many examples of people who were caught out by the 'free solar panel' schemes and were now having difficulty selling their homes, getting a remortgage or equity release I decided not to progress it. Plus many of those companies went bust to complicate things even further. If you plan to stay there forever and never remortgage it might be worth considering I guess. They will probably only take your house on if it meets a certain RHI payment level I imagine so if your house is very well insulated they may not be interested as it may not generate enough income for them.

Wow, that's all looking amazing!

And (no disrespect) you don't do this type of work professionally so it should take you longer than a professional. I know these guys need to make a living but some of them just take the proverbial. As an aside I looked up the local trader who has ripped off various people and his FB page is full of political posts condemning anyone with money, but he is happy enough to take money off people who have likely saved hard to afford to have their bathroom refitted (or whatever). Such hypocrisy!

I did use 2 coats but it still stains over time. A darker grout colour would have been better probably. Light cream doesn't cut it in a kitchen / utility etc when that floor is constantly being washed.

My grout is 'jasmine' and still gets dirty, sealed or not. I use a grout spray to clean it off and on these days. The grout colour was probably a poor choice with dogs TBH.

The tiler I had here for the extension that it wasn't necessary to seal the grout. I showed him a can of the stuff I had used elsewhere and he said it wasn't needed. I did it anyway after he left as wasn't comfortable about leaving it but I still don't know whether it's needed or not ...

Let me fix that for you ... “Beauty £££££ is in the eye of the beholder” ??? And I think you already had your hat trick with one of @lizzie's G&T's