LSB

that's what Alan Carr and Amanda Holden did, but I expect they had lots of legal peeps behind them and no mention of a limited budget to do up. Then being sold for charity I believe

is the conservatory a single skin plastic type thing which gets very hot in summer and very cold in winter. If so and this is open to the house then you will have insulation issues because of this. If it has a solid roof, cavity and good windows then you may be fine. Did you have an EPC when you bought the house as this may be affected.

the site near us, built about 8 yrs ago only got planning by agreeing to graze their sheep in the same field. I walk past there at least once per week with the dog, never been a sheep near the place, only agreed to get planning. But, the alternative was wind and the solar is so much quieter 🙂 Of course it's impossible for me to tell if it's even running as it's silent, just lots of cameras.

It may be that he did this deliberately to get the work. But, that said I think he is right, if you were not entitled to the reduced VAT rate, which you won't be if the house was occupied in the last 2 years, then I think you will need to pay up. Less the £1600 which he owes you, does that also need VAT adding to that. Just checking, is he definitely VAT registered, if he isn't then he can only charge VAT on materials where he pays it, not on his work.

no electrics are separate.

he was certainly vey 'yokel' 🙂

we are in East Suffolk. This is a standalone phase and not part of anything else. Where are you and when was this. I wonder how much difference the drainage field size makes and the fact it's quite a slope that needs levelling. We were quoted 9k by one company, but I discounted them as they had no idea when they could do it and were in Norfolk and a one man band so I wasn't confident with the support. The others were all more professional in their approach, above supplier didn't even come to sight.

We have been quoted circa 10k from 3 difference suppliers for the following. Waste plant, air blower, 30m sq drainage field, pipe from outside the build to the plant, commissioning and installation. Two of them have suggested a Marsh Ensign and one a different one, but can't remember which, will find out (not a Klargester) They all have 25yrs on the treatment plant and 10 years on the installation. We know that as DIY builders we could do this ourselves for less, but time is dragging on and it will take us a long time, not least to dig out the drainage field. We have the space, but it's on a slope and they all said it needs to be level for the pipe installation. No muck away as we can use / spread on the fields anything dug out. How does this sound for costing.

but what rating did your rental get

one of my family is looking at buying a house with a budget of circa 850, she doesn't want new as the gardens are too small. So, not one of the properties that she's looked have an EPC rating and it isn't something she particularly cares about. Of course listed houses don't have to have an EPC, so that also limits the control. I live in a rural area with lots of old cottages, most inhabited for decades by the same people, now retired. I doubt any of these meet EPC C+ rating and increasing them will be extremely expensive and impractical in many cases as they are single skin with small rooms. I think it's admirable to want all properties improved, but I think this needs to start with properties being built, renovated, extended when the homeowner is already spending money, but expecting people who have a low income or are retired or just don't have enough money to do this is unlikely to happen.

I get that this was about ceiling height, but I thought OP was talking about putting sockets at skirting level, maybe I mis-understood

how does this work with planning, if you have higher rooms them isn't the whole house hight. also, isn't there something now about sockets being 'accessible' i.e. in the middle of the wall.

that name is not on my list. So far booked is Les Cotton (laxfield), Mantair (Frinton) and Gilson environmental services (Ipswich). A couple of others didn't come back to me so I won't chase unless these are all rubbish. Hubby dug a percolation test hole today so we'll do some testing this week.

I've got a couple of companies coming out this week to discuss treatment plants and the expected water that needs handling from rainfall and how to handle, slightly smaller and on 20% clay and rest sandy loam so not exactly the same. But, I'll share with you what I find out.

if you ask an SE then I guess you will pay if you have a 'friendly' builder then ask him, depends on how you are planning to fix. you may need an SE / surveyor for fixing, but for an initial question then builder.

we were visiting Blackpool last week to visit family and went to many of the local place. Fleetwood was cheap as was Morcombe, Lytham St. Annes, not so much. North is generally much cheaper than the south. Where are the family.

This is a barn conversion and we don't have an SAP report. The SE drawings don't specify in detail either, just mention Catnic ones, although they also mention other suppliers who are the most expensive you can find.

Following on from my questions above, I've read on other posts that you shouldn't use lintels over 2mtrs, but should use steels. Is this 2mtr in total or 2mtr including the overhang. We have 2 doorways, one is 1860 gap and one 1750, both of these will be over 2 m with the overhang. But, is that okay? One is our front door and the surround, door 1.2m and side panels of 330 and one 'gap' of 1750 to have a barn sliding door at a later stage. Will these be okay with lintels. TIA

we bought one from Travis Perkins, solid wheel so no punctures. It was about £40 (with trade discount) and has been brilliant and very hard wearing. We do use an old one through for the mortar

This reminds me of when I lived in France for a bit, the house had the only toilet in the corner of the large garage / shed open to all when the doors were open to the street The other family 'house' had one like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in a shed at the end of the garden. This one was just a hole in the ground.

I'm in IP17 like Alan, but work in Needham Market so definitely in your neck of the woods. Welcome to us lot. We are converting an old pig barn on a DIY basic, taking years 🙂

surely the Building Control inspected whilst it was being built. They check at various times such a foundation pour, floor slab etc. Do you know who the BC was and can you get anything from them. Surely it couldn't be built without inspection, if it wasn't then despite looking good maybe it should be avoided.

they are great fun, at our recent one a hire company had gone bust so huge lots for sale, probably all serviced etc. but we didn't need anything they were selling. Cheffins near Cambridge are good because you can have a really good trial. That's where we bought our excavator, hubby drove it around for 20 mins, dug in their ready pile for testing. Not cheap, but we wanted one for the whole build and to sell again after when we'll probably get the same back. Watch our for VAT if it has belonged to a business and our local auction has 25% buyer fees plus VAT Years ago we found them more honest, we bought our lawn tractor with AF (all faults) label for £200 and rebuilt, not much wrong with it. Nowadays nothing is labelled. Ours also regularly has building materials like heras fencing and scaffolding towers which are always useful. I feel the days of genuine bargains has gone, we bought a 'lot' of 3 mixers for £30, 2 worked one was repaired and 2 were sold for £50 each privately. We are still using the other one for our build. Good luck and enjoy yourself.

we buy lots from auction, it really is buyer beware and we've been seriously bitten once for about £200 when we were assured by the auctioneer that it was fine and didn't obey our golden rule, always view. It was pretty much a pile of parts. Hubby did get it going, but probably took a whole week of hours to do so, Other than that we stick to better quality stuff, Kubota excavator, stihl chainsaw, dumper and lots more. There is no honour amongst farmers to outsiders, maybe to each other, but they just want as much as possible. We like deceased estates as the stuff is more often working. Do ask yourself 'why are they selling', they will never tell you the truth and if it was good then they would sell privately as auctioneers fees are huge. So, after rambling my point is, buy if you can climb all over it, pull the starter to check it's not seized and you can fix it if it doesn't work.

I feel that there is a risk that the 'big boys' will just put money into DAC and then not do anything about what they / we are creating in the first place