puntloos

To be clear I have different nail varnish every 3 days so we need at least 2 sets of cameras. Does it say installs specifically, or labour? Because for installs that seems high, however the programming of an advanced smart home system (that includes heating, cooling, awnings, blinds etc etc) starts to become a bit of a task..

Gone are the days of 2500/sqm - and that was 2019 Yes, my understanding is this is everything included except a few professional fees and misc small things (contract admin, QS, asbestos, utilities) Ha, well, keep me up to date, any insights always welcome although I suspect my decision on all this will come soon. One very tough question is if it's ever going to be cheaper (again). It's rarely a good idea to put your life on hold for such things but you know... covid and brexit are "somewhat" on the way out.

Ah, contractor 2. I was trying to understand what you meant. And C2's labour is much more expensive. 1000/week vs 1500/week on the foreman for example. Well to be clear, the architectural lighting is 23k all-in Quote detail is here When it comes to AV - Quote is here - yep, 60K.. Financially, yes. But phew. I don't think I have it in me (time, but also, risk, expertise)

Ha, well, I do have "air conditioning" so internal blinds could work but in my current house the amount of heat that gets caught between glass and blinds is huge, and it clearly leaks into the house to a noticeable degree. Perhaps the recent heatwave made me extra paranoid about heat being trapped inside the house unintentionally but..

Yep, I started another topic on this one but not knowing much about practicalities of putting panels into a roof (rather than on a roof) - shape, size of trays, how are they connected? One tray per panel or one big tray with multi panels etc, I think I can do away with a bunch of slate as you mentioned. By "internal" I assume you mean inside triple glazed? Or oldschool, inside the house?

I haven't really done storage math yet but I am expecting that I will at least be able to use my car's battery - which is 62kwh - https://eepower.com/news/nissan-to-leaf-could-power-your-home-with-power-control-system/# - and only leave like 20kwh for my driving trips (unless I am truly planning something meaningful) Surprisingly, tesla powerwall are quite wimpy in comparison 13.5kwh..

Doing some advanced 3D sculpting I figure i could theoretically fit 38 panels of 400W on my roof, not taking into account many practicalities such as that I'd want to sink the panels into the roof rather than bolt them on top etc. https://www.zerohomebills.com/product/tsc-powerxt-400r-pm-400w-solar-panel/ 38 panels at 216 ex = 8200 quid, total rating of about 15.2kW (400w panels) Of course that would be achieved if all panels face directly south, and in fact none of the panels face south, rear faces SSE.. not likely, but perhaps I can achieve 12kW? Still pretty hefty. Am I right that that's overkill unless I buy tons of batteries? When is it 'too much'?

What's the deal with SMA (and others, then?) where you can't fiddle with things yourself? Not sure I'd want to I suppose but why are they locking you out of your own equipment?

My situation: I have a crown roof design, so flat on top and SSE facing roof side (45 degree angle or so) So I also have a 45 degree E-facing and 45 degree W facing roof. Have some windows in the roof as well. - How can I maximise (without going nuts), so not N-facing side etc..) the output - How many panels can I fit around the windows, or should I reconsider the windows - flat panels on top, or no panels, or panels on stands at an angle (10 deg maybe?) Would love an advanced calculator that would let me play with these features? Or is there a professional who can help me with this?

Yep - I might pivot to slate, and certainly taking a quick look how much PV I can staple on to my roof effectively, the shape isn't ideal for it, I could consider removing the sun-facing velux windows.. Might start a separate topic on advanced PV yield calculation Yeah, I'm suspecting maybe I should do away with my upper floor UFH (UFCooling) given my FCU's can certainly heat as well as cool, but heating rarely is an issue. Yeah I'm going with awnings downstairs and in-window blinds are at least high on my list.. external blinds.. tend to look somewhat ugly but I could be persuaded

That indeed sounds.. suspiciously low.

First, thanks for looking, it's a lot to go through. Well, I agree that I could use fancier materials but from a functional perspective I didn't see a benefit (and given how far away the tiles are from eyelevel I don't think the difference in visuals isn't big enough to notice so I care(d) more about practicalities such as availability. What material would you suggest? Slate? Any particular reason? Meaning the cost suggests it's large but if it's one measly panel it would be expensive? Worth reminding myself again, absolutely, off the top of my head it's covering the sun-facing side completely, 21sqm but they have to work around the windows so effectively I guess 18sqm, but not the flat roof. True, but this was quite a deliberate choice back when I made it. At this point it is certainly worth value engineering again though, so thanks for reminding me. The reason is simply that overheating is the number one problem I see with these high insulated houses, and the additional cost of doubling up on the outside devices (2 smallish ones vs 1 bigger one) is pretty low, you still have to dig the path, pour the foundation etc. More importantly, with lots of glazing, and well, global warming, I expect urgent cooling, especially on the 1st floor to be important. I've been hearing very mixed stories about switching water(UFH) ASHP to cooling - condensation is tough to avoid. And water-based FCUs also are not as efficient as A2A ones (since we are really talking A2W2A vs A2refrigerant2A which is a big difference. It's certainly an item I could axe if I need the money (and yes, I need to be cost conscious, this build cost far exceeds what I was hoping for when I started this project)

Let's see how this goes

My house design is here - as a reminder - 300sqm house (excludes loft) - High insulation, high airtight, SAP 100A+ - Close to the center of a sought after commute-to-London town. (wonder how much that plays into the quotes, but nothing I can do there) Here's the two quotes I received so far, combined into one comparison doc by my QS - contractor 1 is overall cheaper, so the combined doc is using them as the 'focal' point, but some things stand out where c2 is cheaper. Inquiring minds want to know if we can talk c1 down to c2's price on those items, but I imagine contractors build various cost buffers into their quotes to make it work, and being too rough with them on particulars is unfair? Or? My questions of course: - Are any of the (larger?) items of contractor1 outlandish? I'd love responses such as "you can buy xyzitem today at abccompany for mnomonies" - Do the provisionals seem right? - Anything missing or any other obvious weirdnesses? - Why is it all so pricey when people who live further out can reach 1500? 2000/sqm? - Sure, labour is more pricey because cost of living for the builders is higher, but that's only a smallish part of the full price. What are we doing wrong when it comes to materials? Thanks for taking a look. I've tried to keep things anon out of respect for the quotes, so if I let any names through please respect their privacy etc.

Dunno, I suppose I'm okay with it, disclosing financials (amounts of GBP you're thinking of etc) is a bit private so it feels a bit 'eh' but I was primarily wondering if it's even allowed on the forum, I guess calling out contractors by name is another matter but I doubt people can identify them from the quotes after I anonymised ..

I've gotten back the quotes for my build from full-service contractors. Design was done by architects/SE/etc, a few minor changes but https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/24283-critique-my-finalish-design/ is pretty close to reality, if interested I can post the final-final designs too. Everything in the quotes is in there, preliminaries, some professional costs, labour, demo, removal etc etc, itemised down to actual amounts of concrete. Is it advisable (and allowed?) for me to post the quotes I got, of course anonymised so I'm not putting the actual builders on the spot? I can probably PM anyone directly interested separately, the benefit I'm looking for is understanding if any particular piece is unreasonably high, so a sentence like "GBP12345 for thisandthatgubbins is crazy, you can get it here: http://coolshop.co.uk for half that" would be very welcome FWIW, this is a high quality, near-passivhaus build in hertfordshire, so yes, it comes out to about 3500/sqm. I didn't quite expect _that_ high but it already was 2500/sqm in 2020 as the rule of thumb.

OK so I've called HMRC, and they referred me primarily to https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/private-residence-relief-hs283-self-assessment-helpsheet/hs283-private-residence-relief-2022#residence-provided-for-a-dependent-relative The read of the guy on the phone was that I get 24 months of relief, and then any day I'm not living there is a day I pay CGT over. (as a percentage of the final sale gain) So let's say I finish my build and sell immediately and everything takes 4 years, then I pay 50% less CGT over the actual gains - the build/buy cost is not included I hope that @Happy Valley is right around the spirit of the thing so I might call them again, I am to blame for some of the delay but obviously covid has not been kind Also I'm still somewhat unsure what my primary residence is - I can even nominate one (if I have 2), but sadly that only counts if I have lived at least a few days in there. Finally wondering if knocking down a house counts as a reset somehow, but given that a plot only still has the same rules - probably not.

Thanks all, I think I know everything I need to but might give HMRC a call like @Happy Valleysuggests.

To be clear though it is absolutely intended for ourselves, we've just been living in a rental because the house is.. well, livable but we have a small kid and preferred to stay in a more modern place etc. So I guess a crucial question is 'when does the house become PPR' in my situation of renting-while-rebuilding.

We purchased the house in 2019, intending to knock down and build a good one on top of, but I've lived in a rental the entire time (sigh, time flies). So have not lived in it yet. I intend to move in to the owned house the moment the house is built, but "today" (if I were to sell the current house and not build) I assume(?) it is not exempt. But if I were to move in after build, and then live there 2 years or more, at which point it will be my PPR I take it, and then sell it, will it be completely CGT exempt, or will we have to do fancy calculations around when it became my PPR and what gains it had while it was not my PPR etc etc? OK so at least the build cost (investment) is exempt.

Can these 2 years also count after building? I haven't lived there before we are building but certainly intend to live there after...

Perhaps a strange question, but imagine, with a few easy to work with numbers 1/ Buy a crap house (say I pay 100,000) 2/ Knock down, build nice house (say build cost 100,000) 3/ House valued at 225,000 right after build 4/ Sell house sometime after build for 250,000 -> Does capital gains tax apply here? Presumably "converting" my build cost into "house value" is not a capital gain, so if I sell it for 200,000 immediately after build I would pay 0 capital gain? -> but what if I sell immediately at 225,000 - is that 25,000 already capital gain? Or is the value I get from going through a build not taxable? -> If the house gains value due to market movement in a few years, does that mean I have to pay CGT on the 25000 when I sell? -> How do we separate the "value right after build" from "value the house gained by market movements"? -> In both cases, how do I prove the build cost me the 100,000? Does anyone have documents on this, or how can I understand this process better?

What is this tax you speak of? Critically though, you are talking about plumbing the house to make use of the water? That part I wouldn't do anyway... But but but Zombie attack. Mad Max preparedness. OK. I guess I'll invest in more solar, but just mention it as an aside.

Thanks for the insightful stuff. Hm. Perhaps I should stick with this approach. I guess I was thinking a little bit about droughts as well. Perhaps one approach I could consider is just sinking that tank into my garden and only connecting it if and when it starts to make sense...

Yeah, but with a teensy garden I have very little option but go down. Like the idea of gravity etc but eh, not a dealbreaker to pump, I imagine? One of my worries is indeed "crap" (literally bird..) accumulating at the bottom of such a tank, especially if it's deep underground and hard to get to..