jack

We have (or will have once we get around to finishing it!) a drying cupboard in our utility room. There'll be a slide-out frame with drying racks and two hanging rails. It has an MVHR extract and will draw warm air from the adjacent plant room through from bottom to top. Depending on how well it works, I may add in an extract fan on a timer to provide a bit of an extract boost of warm air from the plant room when we have a lot to dry.

It's all completely random in my experience. We had accounts with the local branches of Trevis Perkins and Jewsons. My wife was on really good terms with both of them - first name terms and a chat every time she called about pricing and stock. Whenever we needed to buy something, she'd dutifully ring both, try and get their best prices and then compare the result. Sometimes one would be 20-30% cheaper than the other on exactly the same type and brand of product, but there was absolutely no consistency about which would win out! We ended up liking the TP people a bit better, so tried to give them the business where we could, but a couple of times they turned down reasonably big orders because they couldn't or wouldn't get anywhere near Jewson's prices. We had a Buildbase about 3 mins walk from where we were living at the time, but after a couple of ridiculous interactions with them early on (literally 50-60% more expensive than TP and/or Jewsons and refusing to budge), we gave up on even bothering with them, despite the convenience for small urgent items. When we had time, we shopped around online. We weren't always able to find it cheaper, especially once delivery was factored in, but it was pretty common.

I remember the feeling well. It's criminal that they'd try to push through something they know they have no authority to insist upon. Well done for sticking to your guns!

Speaking of squeaking in: Having 8.5kW of PV didn't hurt, and the shower waste water recovery probably helped a bit too. From memory, we'd have done slightly better if we'd had full modelling of the wall and roof structures, and the 3G windows. We were in a tearing hurry to get our FITs application submitted before the rate dropped again, so couldn't wait to figure out better values and had to use default ones instead. I think our electricity bill will be of the order of £800-900 for the first year. Not bad for a large family home, especially given I made absolutely no effort during this year to optimise anything. Not sure about the FITs payment, but it must come close to rendering us cash neutral over the year. The very experienced guy who did it said he'd never had a higher number, which was lovely to hear!

Thanks @Ferdinand This seems more in line with what the surveyor said. He suggested that the plan she's asked for is really just making the job easier for the Land Registry, and isn't compulsory (and certainly doesn't need to be a formal document prepared by a surveyor). He said that you could just mark up a copy of one of the other plans, for example, and refer to that. The horse, in this case, is presumably the Land Registry (rather than, eg, the solicitor)? Will they talk to me directly about a particular application? Thanks

Thanks. The solicitor has proposed to do this herself based on the current plan, but is suggesting it might be rejected and she won't be responsible if it is.

Just reviving this thread with an update: As I think I mentioned, we needed to get a solicitor involved due to the fact that a mortgage exists on the property next door. We've had a surveyor draw up two new plans: one showing the new shape of our plot (including the bit we nabbed from next door) and another showing the new shape of next door's plot. Both are edged in red. The solicitor has just come back and said that we need to provide a red-edged diagram showing the bit that's being transferred, to accompany the TP1 form. I called the surveyor to ask his advice and he seemed to think that the plan accompanying the TP1 was just a courtesy to the registry and didn't need to be overly formal (eg, me or the solicitor could just manually add the relevant lines and scan). The solicitor got a bit antsy when I passed this on (maybe she felt the surveyor was trying to tell her how to do her job?) but my only goal here is to get things under way as fast as possible given that a sale of the property next door is suddenly on the cards. She did warn that if the Registry didn't like what we'd done they could reject the application and we'd have to resubmit and go to the back of the queue. Any thoughts about who's right, or indeed any other advice? I may ask the surveyor whether he can turn around the formal plan she wants, but I get the impression he's flat out at the moment.

Thanks all for the comments. Playing phone tag with the roofing company at the moment but hope to speak to the managing director tomorrow.

Must it be loose? Could you use the EPS in solid pieces and carve some rough channels to fit around the beam? Or is it already in place and enclosed, so loose fill definitely required? If so, perhaps consider bean bag refills? That's loose polystyrene beads.

I used Good Energy and they processed my application within about 6 weeks (bearing in mind this was during the lead-up to the last big drop in rate earlier this year, so they apologised that it took that long!)

Might that be to do with the fact that a vanishingly small proportion of houses in the UK actually have them fitted?

Actually, I may be the worlds' most passive aggressive person!

I think it's more accurate to say that they heat "things" rather than "air". Knowing what I know now, I think we'd have gone for electric UFH. I suspect you only need it on for a short period to take the chill off.

As I've posted before, we have an MBC house and have found our upstairs bathrooms to be undesirably cold in winter. Tiles just feel cooler than they actually are due to the way they suck heat from your feet. We actually had MBC install the bathroom floors in our house 50mm lower than the rest of the upstairs floors, to leave space for underfloor heating. In the end we decided not to go for it, and it's one of the choices I regret. We're going to look into infrared heating panels. I wonder whether having one of these come on for a few mins in the morning before we wake up will take the chill out of the air (and off the tiles) to make the bathrooms a bit more comfortable first thing.

Agreed, hence my comment: I understand why they want to do this (indeed, their insurers may require this behaviour from them), and I'm happy to put a line under this myself. What I'm after is opinions on what's reasonable for me to ask for or expect in the circumstances. As it is, I haven't asked for compensation for the two days I spent on a ladder dragging sodden newspaper insulation into bags and driving them to the tip, or for the hours spent trying to figure out what had happened to cause the leaks, or for the inconvenience of having to abandon our bedroom for weeks while everything dried out, or the 20-30 vacuum cleaner bags we've gone through cleaning up at various points along the way. I haven't even allowed for the cost of replacing a small area of plasterboard in the garage, because we have a spare bit hanging around and can do it ourselves easily enough. Compounding my frustration, some of you may remember that I had queried the adhesion of the membrane at these joints when the job was first done and was repeatedly assured that everything was fine. I have no interest in punishing anyone, or of making money on the situation. I just want to be put back into the situation we would have been in had these leaks not happened. As I'm not an expert, I can't assess the longer term risks. That's why I suggested getting an expert involved. Thanks Ian. I'm genuinely trying to be reasonable (and so, in general, is the roofing contractor), but it's hard to be objective.

Those who've followed my saga will know that we had some leaks in our flat roof a few months ago. In the end, it transpired that the roof covering failed at 4 out of the 5 of the aluminium outlets through our parapet wall. I haven't had a clear explanation of what caused these problems, but I'm not sure the installer knows entirely himself. All outlets (including the one that didn't fail) have now been replaced with plastic and seem to be holding up well. We're now at the point where we've had quotes for repairing the damage. This involves repairing and replacing the airtightness membrane, repumping cellulose insulation, tidying up and re-boarding the affected ceilings, skimming and painting. To their credit, the roofing company have immediately agreed to the quotes we sent. What I'm less happy about is the wording of the document I'm being asked to sign in return. It basically says that what they're paying is in: "full and final settlement of the repair works to water damage caused at ... . This offer is made on the clear understanding that, if accepted, neither you nor any associate company will take any other action to enforce or pursue further claims and costs in any way whatsoever and that we will be released from any liability." I queried this, as read one way it could be interpreted as releasing them from liability from anything going wrong with the entire roof. They confirmed in reply that it's only in relation to the current water damage. I appreciate that they want to limit their future liability in relation to this matter. However, I'm concerned that I didn't see the state of the timbers when they replaced the outlets and covering membrane. I'm not able to tell whether the leak got further than it appears it did (eg, what if water dripped down inside the wall without us knowing?) In the absence of having someone who really knows what they're talking about do a fairly invasive review of what's happened, I don't see how I can meaningfully sign away these rights. My plan is to go back and more or less say to him that I won't sign away liability unless they also pay for an expert review and report. Alternatively, I'll agree that this is the final costs for damage that I have personally been able to identify (and list exactly what that is). Thoughts?

Let's face it, communicating via a forum isn't always the best way of getting one's point across. IanR and Sensus, you both clearly know a lot about this topic. I think what's happened is that you're talking about slightly different things, or perhaps have different focuses on what's important in this conversation. Please, let's pause for a moment, take a deep breath, have a cup of something hot and/or strong (it's 5 o'clock somewhere) and

You could do worse than start with these documents: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/456656/domestic_ventilation_compliance_guide_2010.pdf http://www.ncm-pcdb.org.uk/sap/filelibrary/pdf/Check_Lists/MVHR_Installation_Guide_Final_11_02_11.pdf There are also several "best practice" type guides from MVHR manufacturers/suppliers, such as: www.nuaire.info/bpguides/BestPracticeInstallationGuide-MVHR.pdf https://www.bpcventilation.com/media/download_documents/bpc_.installation_of_a_heat_recovery_system_with_unit_info_2016.pdf

I don't think it's particularly intuitve. Basically, you want to: - Click "Quote" under the first post you want to quote from - Type your response, including editing the quoted part if desired - Put the cursor where you want the next quote to appear - Click "Quote" under the next post you want to quote from - Rinse and repeat as necessary One thing I find very annoying about the quoting system is that if you're not careful when editing the quote, you can lose the ability to get the cursor underneath/outside the quote so you can comment. If that happens, CTRL-Z to undo until you get back past the edit that caused the problem. As far as possible, I always type at least a couple of characters under the quoted section before editing the quote, as it avoids this problem happening.

Mark Brinkley describes exactly this in the Housebuilder's Bible.

Just the kind of person we love to see. Welcome! When does the next build start?

It wouldn't be relevant to the architect that I could get it built for half the cost, because their way of estimating their charges is nothing to do with actual build costs. I suspect it's as simple as the estimated floorspace multiplied by a rough number representing typical build costs to the standard initially suggested by the client. It's just a massively easier way of coming up with a number than working it all out from scratch every time. I'm sure @Sensus can explain how far off I am with that assumption. I'm surprised no-one would agree to just do the design. I get the impression it's pretty rare down here for the architect to be involved all the way through unless it's a pretty special job. Could well be wrong about that though.

We spoke to 7 or 8 architects, and not one of them wanted to charge based on what the final bill actually was. How could they even know that unless they were involved beyond planning? I suspect we have hundreds of invoices from our build. Will the architect really want to go through those to figure out how much we spent? If I decided to do £20k worth of work myself or with the help of a mate in the trade, how are they going to value that? And why should the fact that I change my mind later in the build and decide to install a £100k kitchen instead of a £5k kitchen have anything to do with the architect unless they're actively involved at that stage? Surely if they're only taking the job as far as planning (which I suspect is as far as most people on this forum who uses an architect will go) the architect's final bill will already have been paid long before work even commences onsite? Indeed, I asked the first two or three about why they used the percentage of estimated costs approach. They all said that it was just the easiest way of doing things. A couple expressly gave the kitchen example, and said that the reason they'd expect a higher fee if they were involved with the design and installation of an expensive kitchen is that more expensive kitchens usually result in more management on their part (more appliances, higher expectation on finishes, more lighting and electrics to consider etc). But they all said that if they weren't managing the build at that point, they didn't see why they should expect more money just because we decided to splurge on a kitchen. Maybe we had an unusual experience, but I'm very surprised at these comments!

Is that usual? None of the architects we spoke to require a QS to price the build. They nominally used a percentage, but it was based on an informal build cost estimate, usually agreed in advance (especially where the architect isn't involved beyond the design stages). The estimate is at least partly based on the fact that you'll have given the architect your budget in advance anyway, but will necessarily be hugely rough given how hard it is to do a real estimate anyway.

No. All rooms to the south and west have some form of overhang or shading via trees, so it isn't really necessary. Also, with many of the rooms we've decided we like the effect of the blinds being down but 70-80% open. Nearly all the blinds are programmed to come down at sunset. Many of the downstairs ones are programmed to open or partly rotate first thing in the morning. The rest (eg, bedrooms) we operate manually as needed. Amazing, isn't it? As a company they have a few flaws (their GBP pricing model drives me mental), and the cost of their proprietary products is at times silly. But if you have any sort of technical or programming background their block-based programming interface is awesome. Have you looked at the Loxone google groups mailing list? Two places: the wire guide holes and the edges. I don't know whether there was an element of safety built into the measurements, or an allowance needs to be built in to allow installation, but on most windows there's at least 20mm lateral allowance. In some cases it's 25+mm. That means you have a total of around half an inch gap both sides, on average. I personally can't see why such a big gap is needed, but at the time they were installed there were so many other issues that this particular one didn't seem that important.