lizzie

Don't do it if you can possibly avoid it. Shared anything is always a potential problem.

WOW @vivienz is that the best air test on this forum! Fantastic result I must have missed it. Well done.

Need a wow button @JSHarris!

Ive got quite a big slope down to the house (pics dont show it), I had four separate companies quote for the resin and not one of them mentioned the slope as a problem. Your must be very steep if they didnt want to do it @JSHarris but installers know best.

@success1980 we have resin bound. Its permeable. We have about 150sq m I think. Much less maintenance than block paving....swore I would not have blocks again having had them for last 30 years....the weeding the resanding after cleaning etc etc. Resin is pretty much maintenance free but its not cheap and you need to make sure you get a good installer.

@Christine WalkerI think her lawyer is correct. I am not familiar with the detail of the Scottish system but I think it runs the same way as England & Wales SDLT. If her shared ownership property runs the same as E&W schemes then the Association that owns the other part of the property usually has the right to set the price and to have first shot at selling it (we are going through this with nephew at mo). This is how his sale works If the price set by HA is not acceptable then he would have to appeal, if they failed to sell it in the contracted 12 weeks then the right to use an open market Estate Agent can be taken up. The HA usually have waiting lists of people wanting to buy they dont usually go to open market and the price is the price not up for negotiation by buyer or seller. In nephew case he wanted to move from Hants to Wales for family reasons and so didnt want to 'staircase' (buy any bigger share even though he could have). HA were instructed to sell last October - we are now March and on the third buyer with hopes of an exchange this week. He is in danger of losing his purchase due to the incompetence of the HA in qualifying the buyers they sent! So back to your friend.....she has enough savings to buy outright but not for the fees and/or SDLT. She will still 'own' her share of the co-ownership property until it is sold. Presumably after 18 years she has some equity in it. Why not go to her bank explain the situation and ask for a personal loan to cover the shortfall....could be secured or unsecured but I would have thought her bank would help her out with this then she can repay when property sold and she recovers the tax. Or take a zero interest credit card and do it on that. Seems to me she is not short of money but has a temporary cash flow issue.

@Jak I can see you are in the Midlands. E H Smith local builders merchants have a brick matching service. Not sure where your nearest branch is google will tell you. I used the one in Shirley Solihull big brick match dept there.

+1 for @Crofter solution

@DreamHouseDreamer nope that extortionate fee was just for H&S first part...the overall cost was for H&S was quoted to be about 8k (she faints) and I had to pay the first bit and then they pick up 50% of the second bit as I recall so still about 6k plus vat for me to find. Big deal! I hope they do accept your caravan their contracts state all sorts of things and they will walk off site if its not exactly to their requirements. Those flights to Germany to look around factory and choose things are 'free' hah as if, its all loaded on the price. Its a b gravy train! I hope the groundworker is as good as he seems...my first one was a nightmare. Second one was a lot better and cheaper.

I only envisage using it in extremis.......may get a glass case with a sign saying break in an emergency LOL

@DreamHouseDreamer I got quite a long way down that route before changing horses. Paid thousands to their pet H&S person (one of their ex salesman who has set himself to do the H&S) couldnt get it back. He was paid over £3k for a few pages of rubbish I could have done myself but they wont allow that you have to use their people ditto on all the stuff including site welfare facilities...I dont think you have an option they won't compromise. So do the best deal you can on one of those swanky welfare units with not only loo but seating area with cooking facilities (microwave) and hot water hand wash etc....sky sports go down well too LOL....but seriously I found some for hire at circa £100 a week but that was 3 years ago. You can't claim the vat back either unless you can get someone i.e. your groundwork contractors to do it via them and do it vat free to you. At least with the Germans its for a limited time and so you wont get a huge bill for it.

@DreamHouseDreamer are you using a German kit builder e.g. hanse?

Given I've needed all sorts in the last few weeks - and not had the right tools - I have just ordered this set. You will probably all tell me its rubbish but it sounds good...and it's cheap! https://www.coopersofstortford.co.uk/housewares/st10054i/?sessionid=40efea22195a16c54301bab20c3bc2a0f3a2517b

@scottishjohn I have insect mesh fixed behind my cladding

I’m not absolutely clear on what the issue is but if I have it right its the gap between first and second floor windows? I’m single storey but think the same priciples apply. At the top I have a metal header to match the windows and the vertical cladding comes down flush to that, have a matching piece of cladding across sitting under the header to make it look neat. At the bottom it is just cut off in a straight line all around and sits off the griund.

I have never tried this broker as didnt have a mortgage for my build but they are at the shows and seem to have a handle on funding for self builds....as I say not a recommendation but just a possibility to try. Good luck. http://www.pfmassociates.co.uk/mary_riley.html

Hello and welcome.......first thought what about budget over run/contingency have you factored that in to your costings. Essentially from what you say if i read it correctly it looks as though you have what amounts to a 400k£ building plot fully mortgaged and want to borrow to build with little or no equity in the plot and a relatively small amount of savings against the overall cost. Your savings of 170k seem to be approx 20% of your overall costings 400 plot 400 build......from your final value figure it looks like the third/third/third ratio which has recently been debated on this forum. If you were buying a ready built property for 800k and put your 20% down that would get you back to your affordability of 630k but building loans dont work that way.....nor sadly does the now mythical third profit ratio. It appears from what you say you have a plot with possibly little equity so not much security for the lender to advance funds against to build. In the majority of cases the plot is purchased outright and a mortgage taken for the build so that could be why Buildstore wont help you. If you have a decent amount of equity in the plot then that may help. Have you spoken to the people you have your current mortgage with (they will need to give permision for you to demolish their asset) or your bank......or a good broker with expertise in this area? Apologies if I have misunderstood your scenario and good luck.

Well folks 11 months of living in this house with hellish low humidity not to mention other problems caused by poor mvhr set up finally seem to be sorted. A week on from the change to enthalpy exchanger and rebalancing the system to the guildlines from you guys in here the house feels good to live in for me for the first time since moving in last April. Humidity in living areas running at 39-40 and bedroom at about 42. Temps pretty constant at 22.5- 23. Co2 levels up to between 500-600 as now not overventilating (I never knew there was such a thing!) The house feels much warmer and ufh is not kicking on as much. We are running on my system Level 2 (absent) which is 70% building regs and using Level 3 (living) which is 100% building regs, as bathroom boost. Level 4 blow your socks off rate is now not used. For the first time I now get what you all have been talking about with the MVHR benefit. Got the same people coming back in a few weeks to help sort out the UFH which has never been set up properly. Thank you lovely people I’m grateful for your help.

Last weeks house in Claverdon...I pass it most weeks and have watched it going on. The builders used were ones I had a chat with before going down the MBC route. They are good builders but not cheap. Looking from the road its a nice job but it sticks out like a sore thumb in the row of houses how planners gave permission I don't' know. Its on a busy main road so maybe that helped as its not a great road to live on with all the traffic, its a rat run to the M40. I thought the whinging about the cost was a bit much considering they got the house for nothing.

@JSHarris humidity...low levels more cracks that explains a lot! Thank you.

I have some of those.......following with interest.

I’m interested too...this summers project is hopefully the garden office.

Well done Moira huge congrats to you. xxx

I was signed off in April vat claim in July. I still had men on site doing hard landscaping in August. I bought all materials prior to sending in vat claim...some between April and July and they were allowed. I had non vat reg labour so it worked out ok. About to do some more hard landsaping this spring not able to claim vat back on any more materials, I have some stored from last year but not enough to do all I plan. I didnt have the issue with disabled access for sign off as my whole build was done with disabled access to the entire building inside and out.

Mine gives out a fair whack of heat. Pantry not ideal really.