Trw144

No I could nt stand a tenant in my current house, and I also don't want to move for a good few years. We live in a nice village, it takes me 10 mins to get to the childrens school, and 10 mins to get to work. So, some additional context/info. We have not had to pay for the plot - we have been given it (it is land next to my inlaws), the only condition is we cannot sell the property whilst they still live next door - that's likely to be 20 years or so, hence why we would rent it out. End value of the property is probably £400k+, and I think I could build it for £150-160k. I can just about cover the build costs from savings, and raising some from equity in other rentals. Rental yield for this house is likely to be £1,200 per month as a single family, so a nice yield on the outlay (only build costs), plus the profit we will one day make on the sale of the property. We may decide to go for a holiday let - we would need to do the sums to see if the extra work is justified with a higher cost. This latter route does have tax advantages.

So, just over a year after finally finishing our house and vowing I m retiring from self build for a while, we ve acquired another plot for a four bedroom house. We don’t intend to live in it, but build it to let out. This obviously brings with it some issues - I have some ideas on answers but am not 100% yet. Perhaps people could chip in to the below if they have some thoughts.... Vat - as it won’t be a selfbuild then we can’t reclaim the vat back. Two options seem to be 1) Get everything as zero rated as possible (ie supply and install) 2) Set it up in a vat registered company. Downside of this means the final house will be sat in in the company which might give me other tax issues with the rental (or it may be beneficial). CIL - I m assuming I can’t get a CIL exemption Mortgage - I don’t believe a build to let mortgage exists, or even if I could get a second self build mortgage. This means finding the build of cost which whilst doable, just is nt quite so straightforward. House Finish - Whilst we don’t intend to live in the house, it would be a fall back position if we ever needed to sell our current one if we did hit harder times. However I would nt want to spec it like we have our current one just as a plan b house, as it will be rented out. Thoughts are to get the external finish to a high standard (as it’s hard to change this), and then go price conscious internally on kitchens and bathrooms - these can always be changed. Any thoughts, input welcome.

I believe the 270mm loft insulation and cwi (if possible) is a requirement needed before they will accept your application.

No, threaded - i did nt see what they did but assume they must have used a tap

Here s some of it being done which should help....

Hi - the oak treads came from the floor supplier, Blueridge Flooring, so it matched the white finished floor they installed above. If this is nt an issue on yours, I m sure a good local joiner could make them for a lot less. In terms of the glass attachment, it’s essentialy clamped to the side of the steel tread with some rubber washers, and the outer piece of is simply silicones onto the side of the glass to cover everything. I ll try and find some photos to show

I don’t think build control care about planning coming conditions (admittedly it may depend on your BC officer). I certainly don’t have a cycle rack in my garage for instance

@Hecateh I m not sure you have to have your final drive covering in order get to obtain sign off (I m assuming this is building control we are talking about)? The downside to getting signed off is it puts a deadline period for your vat claim - so some of the unfinished items you would nt get your vat back on. The plus side is it might get some pennies back in your pot. And also, my plans showed permeable suds driveway and I ve put down gravel with no issues from anyone.

@Hecateh Does the drive need to be finished now? Could it be done in a a few months/years when finances allow?

ok, rephrase - what do you think your water tights costs will be - including windows, doors and internal walls? Also, what is your m2?

Hi, would you be happy splitting out your costs to date and what he is asking for?

I don’t think you can get your RHI without it affecting your sap score as that’s what the payments are based on.

When I was setting up my solar thermal on the home automation system I asked my solar supplier for the logic they programmed into the controller (no point re-inventing the wheel after all). One line of code was to switch the pump off when the sensor was above 125 degrees - I never had chance to ask exactly why - I assumed it was to do with safety or the pump not liking temperatures that high.

Same tiles as inside my house (except they are the non slip version).

I was thinking it would look best as if it’s part of the building as opposed to a separate construction sat next to it. I probably need to take a look at Pinterest for some inspiration

I might need to check - it’s only a year or so ago but you ve now made me doubt myself!

Yes, I have a friend who can produce me it in aluminium and powder coat it. What I m not sure is how to link it with the house - do I run a horizontal box section along the side of th house and have the cross beams/shades linking into this. Also, any ideas on how to next fix into the cladding. Do I just find one of the battens where the existing cladding fixes to (effectively the timber of the frame)?

Hi All I want to build a veranda off the side of my house. However, not sure how best to achieve this - ideally I want it to look built as part of the house, rather than a separate structure that abuts the house - and therefore I m thinking the supporting pillars only want to be on the one side, with the slats either individually connected to the house, or to a horizontal piece running down the side of the house. Here s some pictures of the house and a veranda I m currently looking at for inspiration (and before anyone thinks about breaking into my house - I have a house sitter looking after the house and dog!). I m thinking timber construction would look best and also be easiest to build, coloured in the anthracite grey to match the windows and create a contrast against the lighter grey cladding.

Sounds exactly like my story at my old house - took 8 months, unknown amounts of visits, to connect make my 30cm connection.

Yes but if you read the post it’s not one room - it’s really three rooms opened out into one large area, and therefore the lighting needs to adapt to each of these three uses - kitchen/dining/lounge. What I have done with automation is actually the opposite of your photo - that is the solution with lots of light switches on the wall. What I have is more akin to having no wing mirrors, but a single reversing camera capable of looking at any of the space behind.

In my view the benefit of home automation is to simplify and automate - not just to be able to do the action on a mobile phone. I think I ve said before - I have home automation and I ve used it to make my life simpler - example, my kitchen/dining room/lounge which is open plan has 12 different lights or groups of lights - it differs in want I on depending upon what the room is being used for. I certainly don’t want 12 light switches on my wall and don’t want to waste 5 minutes remembering what each one does whilst I try to change the lights. Instead I have one switch and four pre-programmes moods - this is nt complication, this is simplification. I m also sure someone in Russia could probably hack in and switch my lights off when I m eating my tea but I ll assume that I m not particularly high up there current list of targets.

@BuildHub I was chartered before I started getting involved in burning wood and building houses. Might be able to help

I m another one who has used the new age Gris silvabp - I ve used the Cedar version. It’s been on just over a year and I m pleased so far - it’s also be used on a large shopping centre near me - that’s probably been in three years and I have nt seen any signs of discolouring/fading/weathering.

I found the tiles I liked at the grand designs exhibition and then managed to blag a trade account direct with the factory in Spain. UK retail was £65 per m2, and I paid £19 , it worked out at another £2 per m2 to get the pallets shipped (I did order about 500m2 of tiles altogether though).

Yes, it is arse about face but it’s aim was nt to make new builds greener, but improve the emissions from our current housing stock. As with any subsidy scheme, it gets taken advantage of and I know of numerous examples where the homeowner got the Epc undertaken for their RHI calculation, and then made all the energy improvements to their property (windows, insulation etc). Making new builds “green” should come from raising the bar of regulation as, as most of us on here are aware, minimum building regulations are nt particularly high. My personal opinion is that energy is too cheap in the UK and that is why our housing stock is so poor in terms of energy usage. Increase taxes on energy and this would change. Admittedly this probably is nt a vote winner as, in the short/medium term, its going to hit those on lower incomes harder.