Thedreamer

Was expensive when we looked at it. We fitted three big top hung velux windows. I'm 6'3 and I can just stand outside when the window is open, but this might depend on the pitch of the roof and where the roof windows are placed. I originally wanted a balcony, but this was a lot cheaper, ultimately I just wanted to enjoy the view whilst feeling outside.

Just watched that episode. Surprised that building control allowed her to live at the house for so long without the essentials. Fair play to her, lots of determination.

Can't say on the insurance. But similar length for our access and before I started locking the house. I would park the car at the front of the gates if we had materials on site and that provided sufficient security to me.

We hired a telehandler with truss jib as a crane would be expensive. Managed to get this one for a couple of weeks to do the heavy lifting for loads of jobs. It was around £500 for two weeks. I think the cost of a crane hire for single day could be that.

We used frametherm 35, in the walls, but I would probably go for frametherm 32 if I could do it again.

What are the ground conditions and expected foundations? As mentioned above costs are usually in m2

Probably Russwood, so can't promise it will be cheap.

It was actually building control that suggested timber. The key part was that the timber needs to look permanent. I'm hopeful it will do 10 years or so and then I can reassess from there.

We used some old timber. I put it into our wood shelter for a year or so to dry out. The chap who installed our fire place then planed the beam. We are still to put some oil on it.

It’s coming up to a couple of months since I last posted. With the upstairs now a contractor-free zone, we soon had many Ikea flat pack kits to construct for the kids bedrooms. Our joiner fitted the utility worktop and units in February and we have since been applying oil to both this and the kitchen worktops. The last bit we needed done to be able to get the house habitable was for the plumber to do second fix. This work had been scheduled for the end of March. The majority of the bathroom and en-suite was delivered a couple of weeks or so before the lockdown started but all of this has now been put on hold. The joiner was able to do a day installing the bathroom furniture. That is now the extent of the inside of work and it’s now a case of waiting till the restrictions are lifted. Given that we cannot order any materials or have contractors working, I decided to move my attention to outside tasks and do what I can with a shovel, barrow and metal bar. The first job was to clear away all of these scrap materials up the access road to the shed. I don’t have a van or dumper so did this with a wheel barrow over a few Saturdays. This took longer than I expected, just moving a pallet and half of dense concrete blocks burned a lot of calories! Some of the good sized left over broken slates will be useful for other projects but the rest and some smaller broken blocks were used as hard core to build up the path at the gable end. I plan to order a lorry load of chips which will be spread around the perimeter house. The next job involved pulling out loads of rushes using an iron bar and log to lift them out of the ground. I plan to add some additional drainage around the garden so have also started work on a French drain. Building control have given the okay to a timber ramp. I have bit more height to make up than your typically self build because of the suspended timber floor and to meet the regulations regarding the flight length this will need to be extended around the front inspection chamber. I plan to clad this ramp in Siberian larch with non slip decking. The next exciting job is going through the ground here to pick up hundreds of stones in preparation for grass seed. It’s not been the most interesting entry and I am hopeful the next one will be a ‘we are now in’ entry. In the meantime, to ensure progress, I’m going to pull together a list of jobs that I can do and others that I can plan for when the lock down ends. Stay safe and healthy.

As others have said if building a cold roof, then slates onto membrane and then sarking is fine. That's the traditional method. For ventilation obviously a breathable membrane, the other point is that being in a windy location the natural profile of the slates will allow air to go under to provide ventilation. If it helps I paid £1.05+VAT per slate 40 x 25cms

Ohh I remember that series about his portable home on wheels. I don't remember the trailer being that well insulated or including ducting etc.

I had this idea also. My doubts would be that you don't typically want compost close to your house so would you lose a lot of the heat for the pipe to travel back to the cylinder? I would be up for this if it was just me. If this was going to be done properly, prehaps in a basement with a good composting unit linking up to composting toilets and with a heat exchange ducting system. Would it be possible to heat a passive house from your own ??

Yes that would do nicely.

I like hot bins but they are quite expensive. Has anybody tried to make a DIY one, I was thinking of using PIR insulation scraps?

Few comments earlier about showers running out of water putting customers off etc Depends whether it is marketed as being off grid.

Heritage, hydro lock Net £115 - 2.4 m x 1.2m per sheet

Waiting on a multipanel as well via William Wilsons. I put this in a few days before the lockdown, who knows when I will get it.

You will pay less NI as a self employed tax payer. SSP is not really a benefit to an employee, it's next to nothing same as statutory payment such as paternity pay. At the end of the day it's your choice to be self employed. I would like to have risks and rewards of being self employed but having a young family I prefer the safety of employment.

I don't understand what you mean, how are you taxed on turnover?

Your accountant can clarify, but I expect your national insurance bill has been less for many years compared to that of the same taxable income of a employee or self employed individual trading. The less you pay into national insurance the less you benefit. As example if you paid £50 for property insurance you would clearly expect less from the policy than if you took out a policy for £500. It is a national insurance policy for the tax payer. National insurance contributions really serve two purposes, to help people as a safety net in the present but also to help in the future. Your prior contributions would provide qualifying years for a future state pension. Unfortunately what you have paid previously won't make any difference to the present. I don't think it is correct to say that no one really knows about SE and property income, most competent accountants would know how to deal with it on a self assessment and I have also applied some logic as to why it is not covered under the government schemes. I have to go back to the books now!

I think in your case it would sound as if you might benefit indirectly from the government schemes. I would assume from your posts that the majority of your taxable income has come via property income. I would expect you have not paid class 4 national insurance contributions (and just a small amount of class 2). This would have saved you a lot of national insurance over the years compared to if your total income had been through class 4 as trading self employed or PAYE. National insurance was designed to be safety net and those who contribution most to NI are those who stand to benefit most when in need! If your property income was say £40,000 and I earned the same amount as employee but had to pay significant more national insurance, how would this be fair and just on the employee?

I went with Protect TF200 Thermo worked well for us. Makes your house look nice and shiny too! ?

The 7 tenants should receive theirs wages as normal from their employer, it's the employer who will have the time delay in reclaiming. I would imagine although employees may be earning less, there day to day living costs should also be less (commuting, motoring, disposal income on nights out etc). My understanding for the self employed scheme was that you needed just to have the 18/19 year filed (assuming the other criteria are met) so they should be eligible if they have filed just 18/19. Depending upon their circumstances they may qualify for the government backed loan, grant, or be able to delay a VAT/Self assessment payment for example which might free up some cash for the rent before being able to reclaim the government funds in June. The tenant that just left are you able to claim from his deposit. I'm not familiar with tenancy agreements. I wouldn't panic just yet, worth having a calm chat with each tenant to see what help they are able to access. As mentioned before I would have a chat with your accountant to see if they have any further suggestions for you personally.

For this scheme it's the HMRC that will contact you. As accountants it's been an unusual week as usually we get a while to inform clients how changes will affect them. The last few weeks we've had information on schemes but have been waiting on more detailed guidance. In our office we have been working with a skeleton crew, one employee on each floor.