lizzie

Be very careful who you choose if you go down private PM route (your option e may be closest)........your context is exactly ours MBC house, renting 10 mins away, no experience etc etc. Go and talk to previous clients face to face...ones where the job is finished not part way through ideally as then they can give you an honest opinion without needing to keep anyone on side to finish the job. I wont go into the nightmare we ended up in as everyone on here is bored with it. Suffice to say I have things that are still not right and never can be now plus a huge cost over run due in no small part to errors and mistakes mainly caused by lack of proper supervision and knowledge from those who were in charge during the construction process. That large cost over run was on top of the many tens of thousands paid for management fees. On a nicer note where are you building? Tell us a bit about it.

Mine is not chinese but it does the same and I cant get up a ladder to find the brand....electrician fitted and brand is not specified on the bill, it will have to ask him when he comes back. Ive done the resetting turning on and off thing......

Ive just seen this in a newspaper......it relates to panes produced between 1997 and 2003 so quite old but thought it worth mentioning just in case anyone has one.

Yes you have to pay the vat and claim it back at the end. Only the supply and fit things will be invoiced without vat. You will have to cash flow the vat on your materials purchases until you make your vat return. Make sure to keep the receipts safe as you go along.

I have an Internorm flat door and no problem with rain.

I have just read that Bathstore are preparing to appoint receivers as early as next week.

Complete madness, I feel for you. Our planning was only approved as we have a very modern single storey construction. They turned down flat a proposal for a 2 storey ‘vernacular’ and said only a statement modern house would do in the context of it being in the garden of a Georgian house (which is not listed but is noted as of special historic interest). I think it is all at the whim of the planner in charge. I hope you can get a resolution and get on and build it and get it done whilst your parents are still young enough to get some use and enjoyment out of it.

just the once pre fitting. ours was done in the factory and came delivered ready done - so much easier.

Thank you. They say minimum 50 years for good siberian larch.....will see me out I hope!

I have just noticed today that my larch is starting to ‘weather’ over a year on. The Silvalbp coating is doing what they say. Shame really as I loved it ‘new’. What is interesting is that I have a bench in a very exposed part of the garden. Seat made of left over Silvalbp larch. Been there about 9 months so much less than that on the house. The larch on the bench has gone a beautiful silver colour almost without me noticing it changing. The house larch which is more sheltered is a long way behind on the weathering when you compare the two. Photos don't really show it that well.

Early on I had an electrician bill (not the one I ended up using for the main part of the build but one who did some early work). The bill had vat on and I paid it on instruction of PM (electrician contact of PM). It was only later I found out vat should not have been charged. Have e-mailed and written to electrician and guess what no response, cant raise on phone either. Looks like a lost cause but I will keep pecking away for a while yet. Its very naughty its no cost to supplier they claim it back via their vat return so its just money paid in tax needlessly ....... as if we don't pay enough!

We are in England so may be different but we needed the access sorted...level path/driveways, we didn't need the final surface on though we just had compacted binder on the drive ready for the resin and concrete slabs outside doors waiting for the tiles. Inside we had all heating and ventilation working, bathrooms and kitchen installed and we had to provide the gas and electric certs. I dont think we have the habitation cert here its either signed off or not as far as I know.

There is a company that can supply spares for all sorts of bathroom things....not used them for a few years but will have the details somewhere. They sourced me various things over a few years, once got me some replacement hinges for a V&B toilet seat that was very unusual with limited numbers made.

pc ali header strip we had fabricated to match windows

If you still have some to do I would get the Sioo x on it before you put it up, much easier to do it on trestles

@AnonymousBosch thank you :-))

Thats it! My historical eras running amok

About to start on the garden....if the rain ever stops....got some basics done while builders were still here last year now I need to go on and get it finished. Too many ideas rolling round in my head so off I go to BBC Gardeners World Live at NEC today (free tickets) looking to refine my ideas. The weather was atrocious. The wildflower meadow gardens looked an utter mess, the lawns were seas of mud. There was an eco style garden with grassed roof building....it looked horrendous, think it was just turf.......the best show areas were those with artificial grass!! I felt so sorry for all the exhibitors. We diverted into the Good Food Show (also on today) for a dry out and a warm up, got nabbed by slick salesman into watching a video presentation for retirement villages. And there was I thinking we didn't really look our age!

@vfrdave they look very Victorian...or do I mean Edwardian! Nice look.

Mine is not fixed either just stays under its own weight

Watching the evening news and they did a feature on Theresa May legacy projects. Hoping to get through with her last gasps is the climate change bill. They focused on the house of the future the so called ‘eco house’ (don’t you just hate that expression)......they showed off the big 3g windows, the walls thick with insulation and then the very clever system that kept the house warm with no central heating.....known to us Buildhubbers as MVHR of course! We are all living the dream, well the TM dream anyway, in our eco houses. The rest of the country may soon start to catch up if she gets her bill through....for those that have not started work yet worth keeping an eye out for the incentives that are bound to come too.

Yes not cheap but its lovely worth every penny

Mine was all hand nailed. The silvalbp larch is grown in the Alps .....Annecy area. Its factory coated and dried and comes wrapped in plastic. They are a french company.

But the rain comes in that way?

@eekoh ok sorry had not realised you did not have a current property. Good luck.