Jump to content

Appleco

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    33

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Appleco

  1. Appleco
    Good advice - many thanks.
  2. Appleco
    Excellent idea with the vaccum bags. Will have to invest in some of those.
  3. Appleco
    I'm on the North East of Scotland - weather probably not quite as bad as yours but its pretty exposed here and weather tends to get pretty wild. I think double glazing is going to be a must. I have heard that putting a skirt around the bottom of the caravan helps significantly.
  4. Appleco
    Ok sounds like I need to be on site. I definitely want to avoid having to pay for them to re-do things to my liking.
  5. Appleco
    Many thanks Bitpipe. Great info. The laundry facilities are a worry as our site is undeveloped woodland in the middle of nowhere so no buildings to put the machine in and closest laundrette a 40 minute drive away. If you could have got cheap rent nearby (in the region of £500 per month) would you have done this or do you think being on site is more important?
  6. Appleco
    This sounds truly grim. Did your van have double glazing or are they all cold and damp?
  7. Appleco
    Many thanks Crofter. Doesn't sound too bad.
  8. Appleco
    Anyone fitted a wood burning stove in their caravan? Is it an easy job?
  9. Appleco
    I too like my home comforts and it is the one part of the whole build process that I am dreading. We are in the fortunate position of not having to do it with kids though.
  10. Appleco
    As project manager for the build then I guess I could call myself a site worker then?
  11. Appleco
    Smart move. I would have to live in mine though so don't fancy doing that without the electricity. I had no idea they sent people round to snoop around caravans!
  12. Appleco
    I don't relish the thought of wintering in a caravan but our budget is so tight that if it saves some cash I fear we will have to. We have permission for a caravan on site but due to an error by our architect we didn't realise until it was too late that this was only for use as a site office - might just chance it though.
  13. Appleco
    Many thanks Joe. I thought that might be the case.
  14. Appleco
    We have to vacate our long term rental home in 2 months. The plan had always been to move to a static caravan on site but there's no way we are now going to have the required services installed in time. We are having to consider moving to a cheap rental flat at least for a few months and wondering if there is really any financial benefit to then buying and moving to a caravan. Anyone know if you have to pay council tax for a static? Any advice about the benefits one way or the other would be greatly appreciated.
  15. Appleco
    I have outsourced all the contestable works including all the trench digging and the moling to a local groundworks contractor who I am also using to lay my foundations (I am in Scotland). I was lucky that he has his own mole but I did get quotes from other small scale local groundworks guys who all seemed to have someone they used for moling. Are you doing the trenching yourself? It is very costly to have your power company do it. Might be worth asking around locally for someone with a mole but also I believe they can be hired by the day.
  16. Appleco
    I've managed to reduce mine by outsourcing the digging and getting a company to mole under the road which is only about £700-£800 as apposed to thousands for closing the road, then digging and replacing it. Also I have successfully managed to get a reduction from SSE by arguing about the need to replace the pole for the new transformer. I went and had a look at it and it was a stout (the biggest one they do) and in perfect condition. I made a pest of myself until the agreed to send an engineer to look at the pole and they eventually backed down. It's worth looking at everything and questioning it all.
  17. Appleco
    I filled in the online form as best I could explaining I was a self builder not a developer and I did get a response online quite quickly but it would appear I have still been registered as a developer so I'm not sure how to avoid this. They have made it very difficult - I spent a good 45 minutes going round and round on their website and couldn't find any way of registering as a self builder.
  18. Appleco
    Many thanks Peter.
  19. Appleco
    Ah okay - thanks a lot Peter. I will call them and put them straight.
  20. Appleco
    Thanks ProDave. I did think if there was a fee payable someone would have mentioned it somewhere. Think I'll have to give them a phone and dispute it.
  21. Appleco
    Looking for some advice about arranging my new connection. Have read everything I can online and so far just getting confused. I originally contacted BT who said yes they could organise the connection but not until I signed up for a phone package. Decided to go straight to OpenReach and filled in the registration form. I now have an email saying they want to charge me a non-refundable £299 to send someone out to survey the job and that they have a 25 day lead time. Is this the standard response or have I done something wrong? Can't find any info regarding this fee for surveying the job anywhere. I thought it was free up to £3400? Any advice welcome.
  22. Appleco
    Many thanks ProDave. If I could dig it all myself I would but that's not an option for me.
  23. Appleco
    Can anyone help please?
  24. Appleco
    UPDATE - no luck getting SSE to budge at all on the price quoted for connection (£12k+) so looking into outsourcing as much as possible to an ICP or IDNO. Looking down the enormous list of possible companies is rather daunting - who to approach for quotes??? Can anyone recommend any particular companies. I have Clancy Dowcra doing the trenches for water connection - has anyone used them for their electricity? Thanks in advance.
  25. Appleco
    Hadn't thought of that at all MrP. I am a newbie at this building malarkey. Will look into it though - thanks.
×
×
  • Create New...