MikeSharp01

An unenviable position. A couple of things come to mind mainly around stepping back and looking at the big picture. Firstly is the builder situation getting worse or has it always been like this, IE overall progress to date is / is not an indicator of future performance. Secondly you have a mass of options at this point were you to decide to split with the builder - EG appoint another full builder, appoint a PM who pulls in trades as needed, do it all yourself, take on and employ an 'apprentice' in association with the local college to provide an extra pair of hands, go back to the University's engineering / construction dept / school / faculty and see if you can find an experienced mature student or two who would like occasional work, be your own PM and bring in trades as and when, get your architect a bit more involved for support, lots more. Thirdly have you paid VAT as part of the builders bill because you will need his invoice to claim that back? You can chase this through HMRC if push comes to shove, he is obliged to give you a VAT invoice. Finally, perhaps most importantly, is there anything else going on in your life that is going to / likely to take your emotional energy / focus off the build - suggests ways forward and / or is the current situation having effects in other areas in which case time to get back control.

Clever, not seen one that thin.

Got one of these on Saturday. Not cheap @ £20 but amazing! It's a stiff brush with both plastic and metal bristles. Got the green and slimey pond deck clean alost as new in no time and cleaned the patios of moss looking for other things to clean now. (No offers) Exhausted but much quicker than the pressure washer.

Be positively negative - I think the modern generations would call it passive aggressive. You know: "Great company to deal with as they gave me a full refund when I pointed out that sadly the hole saw was not quite able to cut the depth it said it would on the website and was not an own brand product as they also said." Service review +ve product review -ve.

Just a chance here but did your legal team not spot this and give you a heads up? Might be a case against them if they did not.

Ooops One course wont be a problem - did I miss that in your description.

Hi Ian. You won't want to hear this, and it may not be a problem, but in case it has not been addressed there is also a toppling force on the wall which needs to be 'managed' which may or may not be why the pull out resistance of the rebar needs to be good and the number of them high enough. As depending upon how high the next pour is you will have a weak line along the join which could, in some weather conditions, put pressure on the top of the wall and cause a failure. If there are corners in the pour or a good number of castelations (you picture shows a few) the risk is lessened. Sorry!

You can make any construction type deliver a grass roof so it comes down to preference, usage and cost. Do you want to graze your elephants on the roof or is it just ornamental and taking no more load than the grass + snow?

Just one thought, which I am sure you have thought through, in the WC pipework you have the heat / pipe under the pan and most pans are fixed down with screws so extra care needed when drilling the fixing holes! An alternative, given the other pipework in the room as @PeterW says heating the WC area, you could delete that section of the loop or at least ensure no pipework is anywhere near where a drill might be used to fix down the pan.

I think that if you insist they have no choice but to provide a VAT receipt, if they don't offer to report them to HMRC who will wonder if their VAT system, which must be vast, is sound. As I understand they have a duty to show you, the customer, how the cost of your purchase is split between goods and taxes - its an EU law so perhaps they think brexit has already happened!

Welcome. Looks interesting, can't see a problem putting the upstand on afterwards but you could just move the formwork out 100mm and put the upstand inside the formwork, might be simpler! Also you have about 300mm of insulation under the floor and only 150mm in the walls so your overall U value will be relatively low with the floor performing better than the walls. Might be worth thinking about thickening up the walls, with some PU, on the outside of the SIP as you have room over the ali flashing, will cut your bills in the long run.

Looks great, wish i could work at this pace.

Welcome and what a lovely situation to be in. I only know what I have picked up in along the paths of life but you could perhaps look at putting the 2nd property into your company pension fund, assuming you have a self administered fund, this might be tax efficient but won't allow you to realise instant profits for the staff. If its a true part of the business you will be liable for corporation tax on the profit not capital gains (a tax for individuals) unless you are keeping the property privately - in which case you will need to ensure traceable payments are very carefully made by private individuals and on the VAT reclaim side you will need to declare your relationship to a VAT registered company when you make your return to claim back the VAT on the first house IIRC. There is is also a possibility of setting aspects of the build off against tax if you handle parts of it as R&D (EG Developing innovative energy systems), training and development of the staff (EG air tightness skills perhaps - wholly and exclusively naturally..) and possibly apprenticeship(s) unless you are big enough to be paying your CiTB contribution already! Given all the options your accountant would perhaps be best to provide insights.

I got my PHPP free with an introductory course at BRE and it was well worth it. Think it was around £500 for the one day course and the software was free.

Yes around 6.5 - 7% - you can usually afford more than you think because the interest is only a proportion of the payment (assuming you have a repayment mortgage.)

Hi and welcome. I think you could look at your business model and see if you can optimise it around the stuff people, even here, really struggle with because I suspect we would all either have paid for, or will pay for, support in those areas - the high stakes as @recoveringacademichas said above. So for instance we all struggle, and evidence is more than abundant on this forum, with getting the energy systems design and installed to meet our needs. Even the omni competent @JSHarris(that's a compliment Jeremy) had a couple of goes at several aspects of this - you can read his blogs, a great resource, all about it here. The choices around UFH / DHW / Vented & non vented / GSHP / ASHP / Phase change energy storage / battery storage / PV arrays etc take a great deal of understanding in the first place and is high stakes as most, unlike Jeremy, will not be treating the build as a research project. So being able to offer project support in this area, and others, would, I expect, have value for self builders for which they would be prepared to pay. This could then be rolled up into the budgeting programme stuff you have already mentioned. If you work your away around the various topics here you will see where the needs are and how the cost / value equation might pan out for customers and hence for you.

No they will be looking at the big stuff and will use your credit file to check things like outstanding credit card balances and the like. Essentially they will look and see if you can afford it even when the mortgage rate rises - I think current stresses are set at about 7% so provided they think you can afford the monthly repayments at that rate, with everything else squeezed they will go for it. If they don't they may come back to you and ask how you would go about affording it. Given what @ragg987 has said I may have misconstrued your post!

They call this 'Range Anxiety' according to a friend of mine at FORD. There was some research in the states a while back that said people look for a range about twice their round trip commute / typical journey - which is daft but that was the range anxiety effect at work! They have a special training pack for the sales teams to help them get across the message about how people actually drive and that you only use the fuel when you are actually moving (other than the ancillary gear EG headlights!) Also I am with you @jack my Micra has now done 184000 miles and I wont get rid of it until it falls apart, which it is showing no signs of. (touch wood) When I do it will be time to get an electric replacement.

If you don't want a screen what about a groovy curtain on a rail you just pull across you can get some great looking ones. We use such a system in our downstairs wet room to keep the splashes off the loo. Works great, looks great (arty), easy to install and very cost efficient. When it gets grubby we just wash it an hang it back up to dry!

Bit harsh Ian - referring to your workforce on this way.

Yes but which Technology and Why is it complicated? I am not quite with Jeremy and others on this. I think, can probably prove to most peoples satisfaction, that where we are now is not a particular indication of where we will be in the future. This because although the future itself is not predictable the Soft systems (humans) perhaps soon to be aided by AI that underpin development are predictable in their unpredictability. Although high costs are indicated in moving from one technology to another and vested interest is a serious challenge to change we have, as humans, often demonstrated that such changes when provided with enough pressure (push or pull) our ability to make such changes. So from the time the flint knappers were wiped out by the bronze using hoards to the railways replacing the canals, to the Jet engine replacing the piston engine (and the attendant move from wooden air frames to metal ones) and so on we have demonstrated our propensity to move quite quickly and find the money. Many loose their proverbial shirts while others clean up (pardon the pun). Was it ever thus?

Singular!

Also you can probably be confident that the next technology, the one that will take over from the one we have now is already being developed along with very many that won't make it. In the end it will be about picking the winners - au revoir Flash player, Beta Max, HDVD, VCRs.....

I am confident it, or something like it, will happen the mood music is all in one direction and in 23 years it will be avalanching. What we 'more mature' coves tend to forget is that the younger generation will be well in charge by then and they are, for the most part, more planet friendly that our contemporaries. This means that they will adopt this and many other ideas and make it happen because it is in line with what they want. Already car makers are moving and the oil companies are beginning to diversify even further. The number of new build oil refineries across the planet is down by a significant percentage and, although we have yet to get any significant control over it, micro generation is making inroads. When I look back across the past 30 years I am reminded of my colleagues in the senior common room who said that my mobile phone (brick) would never catch on and now I look at my Samsung phone and realise that in 1986 you cold not have predicted the Samsung so by 2040 I think you can be confident that you won't recognise it.

Is that good or bad?