jack

Same here. We have a Panasonic monobloc. The unit itself is very high performance and good value. But as soon as you get into accessories it gets eye-watering! Pre-plumbed cylinders were more than twice the cost of a much better insulated equivalent from a third party (and there was no way of getting better insulation on the Panasonic one).

We'll be extra careful about boundaries and will certainly keep a close eye on the solicitors, but in this case the new boundary should be very easily defined. Also, both us and our inlaws have gone through searches etc for both properties as part of their respective purchases over the last few years, so I'm hopeful there shouldn't be much to go wrong.

That's all hugely helpful Terry, thanks. We want the split formalised before it goes on the market, so no probs with any potential purchaser asking to buy. Our own redevelopment is finished (we moved in before Christmas) and there's nothing else we might consider in the foreseeable future that would require planning permission. I was hoping to avoid using a solicitor, but given that there's a mortgage on the house we're grabbing the land from, it seems we may be required to have a solicitor handle things if we want them to go smoothly anyway. We've just remembered that the husband of a good friend's wife is a chartered surveyor, so we're going to ask him for some input too. Thanks again for all the help.

Very interesting. It's pleasing to perhaps have identified another potential contributor (on top of your local microclimate) for the apparently very different performances of our houses in warmer weather, given the similarity in construction type and window performance. As you know, overheating isn't something we've yet experienced to any great degree. I was showing a friend of mine around yesterday and we noted how the overhangs to the south on many of the windows completely shade them through the middle of the day. We then have external blinds that come down in the afternoon to the west, and then trees to the northwest shade us for the rest of the evening. As a comparison, when I got back from a walk this morning at about 9, the house was a little warmer than I like, especially upstairs. Since it was still cool despite the sun, I cracked some windows upstairs. The house cooled down fairly quickly and has remained cool all day. On the flipside, I believe we need quite a bit more heating in the winter than you, so it's swings and roundabouts. It'll be interesting to see whether this film changes the balance for you (ie, less cooling required in summer, but more heating required in winter).

Thanks Ferdinand. It looks like we need a combination of that and conveyancing.

I get the "general" nature of land registry documents. I guess that's why I'm asking about how best to ensure that we get what we're after! Having done a bit of reading, it appears that measurements are made from structures that won't decay and are likely to still be there in at least 10 years. A house is a good example. Re: covenants, my inlaws have already been hugely helpful and generous in relation to both next door and our own build, so I don't think it would be about compensation. Their main concern would be whether a particular covenant would be likely to affect the ease with which the house can be sold. To be honest, my opinion - rightly - isn't going to factor too much in this question, as it's their house and they have every right to do what they can to get the best price and quickest sale. Can't hurt to ask though!

Ah, interesting. My wife just finished telling me that you "can't speak to the land registry by phone"! Definitely no building plot potential. This is solely about increasing the size and usability of our own plot. Our original plot had a steep 2.5m step up just behind our house. Although there's a reasonable garden at the top of that, you can hardly see any of it from downstairs, so you did feel a little like you were at the bottom of a ditch. The bit we've acquired extends directly out to the side of the rear half of our house, in line with our kitchen and large sliding door. So instead of a 4m wide flat area looking onto a hedge, we now have a 15m flat area with an additional raised section of garden added to what already had. I'd love to have built a wall, but given the height we wanted and the length we needed the cost would have been prohibitive! Thanks again.

Very much so, thanks!

Yay, first topic in this subforum! We had an amazing stroke of luck a while ago. Our neighbour's house came on the market at the perfect time during our build. My wife's family bought it as a family project, largely to allow us to buy the rear part of the garden that's adjacent our house (which is set back from the road relative to next door). While they were extending and tarting up next door, we fenced off the relevant part of the garden. They've nearly finished and the renovated house will be put on the market in a few weeks. We now need to update the land registry for both properties. We've downloaded the relevant forms and they seem simple enough. Still, I have a few questions: 1. Is there anything in particular I need to consider when defining the boundaries? For example, if we wanted to own the fences, I assume we just show them as being clearly and wholly on our property. Is that just a matter of making sure the line on the plan is clearly in that position? Should we mention distances (eg, "50 mm from the face of the fence")? 2. When doing the drawings, I know that there isn't a great need for perfect accuracy as long as the boundaries are clear when read in the context of what's on the ground. I assume that means we can do the drawings ourselves. Should we show measurements on the plan (eg, showing boundary and cornerdistances from permanent structures such as houses and hard landscaping features)? 3. I'm not sure how enthusiastic my inlaws will be about the idea, but we're considering whether to ask them to include some covenants. The main one would be no biomass burners. Others might be things like not building structures within a certain distance of their rear boundary (would overshadow us), not attaching things to "our" fence without permission, that sort of thing. First, do you think covenants like that are likely to have much of an impact on people's decision to buy a property? Second, if not, what other covenants do you think might be useful to consider? In case it matters, this is South East England, and it's almost guaranteed that the house will be bought by a DFL (down from Londoner) moving here with young kids for the schools and their first back garden. The house has been renovated to a fairly high standard and the garden is still pretty big despite us snipping off its bottom. Many thanks in advance for any thoughts, advice or info.

Welcome. Sounds like an interesting project. I have a friend who's a O&G project manager who's just taken six months off work to project manage a significant extension to his house.

Not pure wool you won't!

Actually, it was me cursing the plasterer! I requested, and was assured, that the outlets would be cut just below flush before the plasterer started, so imagine my surprise when I returned home from work to find that he'd just plastered around them! But then, I was also assured by the people that did the plasterboarding that they'd fill the large gaps around some of the outlets before the plasterer started, and they didn't bother with that either (boarders and plasterer were contracted via the same company). Long story why I didn't bother forcing the issue. Surprisingly, the skim finish is perfect around all outlets. To make it clear, I certainly wouldn't recommend this approach, particularly if you're planning to skim (rather than just tape and fill). My point was more that using a multitool to cut off the excess is pretty easy, whenever you do it.

Great post. It's frustrating that the entire building trade is so busy at the moment that even complete numpties and charlatans can make a living off those who don't (and indeed can't) know better.

That's what we did - piece of the proverbial!

Looking good Dave - really clean finish you're achieving!

I somehow missed this awesome post - what an inspiring project! Really great attitude to building.

I know a couple of estate agents (one high-end architectural, another South-East England commuter belt). Both have had instructions pulled since the Brexit vote. The latter had 4 separate instructions pulled on Friday alone. I also know a developer who tells me that several large projects he knows about have either been postponed or canned since Friday. Interestingly, in at least a couple of cases this was achieved by invoking a "Brexit clause" in the contract.

I'm slightly surprised they fought it once you appealed - those objections are rubbish! Well done for seeing it through.

You'll need several loops, but you don't really zone this sort of system (in the sense of setting different operating times and flow temperatures for each zone). That actually makes things a lot easier. I personally just turned the temp right down on the manifold mixing valve and left it to the the ASHP to supply 25 deg C water to the slab as required (I put in a small heating curve so that was a bit higher when it was very cold, but not sure if that really made much difference). My issues were with upstairs heating, specifically in bathrooms. I thought we could do without, but we found it just a little too chilly getting out of the shower over winter. The tiles, in particular, are surprisingly chilly underfoot, as much because they are conductive as due to their actual temperature.

I assume all councils have something similar, but certainly in our case we had to submit a notice of demolition. It's just a formality.

Sounds about right (our place is almost exactly the same size). We briefly looked into it and realised they were basically charging day-rates approaching those of skilled trades. The people that did ours were friends of friends and I think a deal was done.

My parents in law kindly gave us the gift of paying for someone to come in and do a post-build clean. They did a pretty good job, although no-one told them not to scrub the hell out of our oak window frames with heavy duty cleaning products. The frames are now in many places somewhat darker than they started, although it isn't noticeable unless you know what you're looking for. The other thing is that even when the build is finished, residual dust seems to magically appear for weeks afterwards. I have a (completely baseless) theory that it ends up adhering to ceilings and high up on walls. You can't see it, but it's slowly released back into the house over time. Personally I wouldn't have bothered, and would have been annoyed if I'd paid for it out of my own pocket. YMMV.

I believe (but don't know for sure) that Fermacell is another order of magnitude harder to cut.

Sounds about right. I spent part of my youth in Australia, so am pretty familiar with Kevin Wilson and Rodney Rude.

By coincidence, it's a Honda engine, but I haven't looked at the manual. The manual for the mower itself is mainly about health and safety, and recommends a maximum of 15 degrees' slope. I'll have a dig for some info about the engine itself. Thanks