Happy Valley

Was this in between his filming of Baywatch 😉

The 3 brackets (all with different cut outs) together with hidden stainless fixing points behind and all the box work (everything galvanised) was in the region of £3000

Yes, they hold up a warm flat roof of about 1 meter. There's a hidden steel box section on top of the gallows running the full length along the front.

We have a 10 degree monopitch warm roof (not the garage). It's steel. There is no noise at all inside. It is very well insulated and there is a void between the roof and the ceilings. BTW you'll need oversized gutters/downpipes.

Thanks for the kind comments. Yes we went for frameless because when you are sitting down in the kitchen/diner you don't want a balustrade directly in your eyeline. I think if the views weren't there it would not matter. The water drains between the plastic planks.

Another shot

We are close to completion with just a few internal items to complete and the landscaping and driveway to do. Electric and water in. Surface water drain to do but not urgent. Hoping to be in within 3 to 6 weeks depending upon the purchasers of our current house next door. Balcony was an off the shelf purchase from Diomet in Sheffield:

Well we are now connected and Octopus are here now to fit the meter. Much more stressful than it should have been. Have had to delay contractors and a house sale because of this. Will be looking for my money back at least!

We used ICF directly on top of the raft foundation. Put a water bar in the raft and used waterproof concrete. ICF was then faced in stone or block work - some of the block work was back filled and tanking slurry was used on these blocks.

Update - was contacted yesterday to say they will be doing the work starting this Thursday. Octopus Energy putting the meter in the following Friday. Fingers crossed all goes to plan!!

Maybe, but only if you know in hindsight that they are not turning up with them. You pay them a four figure sum to connect you expect them to do the job property - this is down to sheer incompetence.

It's a private driveway owned by my neighbour to which we have a right of access and connection. Don't want to antagonise an already upset neighbour because of our build.

To cover up the holes they dig so people can get out in their cars.

We are coming to the end of our build and applied for an electricity connection in early June on the understanding it would take around 8 weeks. We were given a date of over 12 weeks - not great but can work around that. The date was last Thursday and ENW subcontractors O'Connor Utilities came to site about 1.00pm. It soon transpired that they did not have any boards with them for us and our neighbours to retain access despite them being asked by ENW to take them. I told them not to start the job until they had the boards. They said that the yard was too far away to get them now. Told them I would expect to see them tomorrow. No show Friday and ENW ring asking why I sent them away. Told them the facts and asked when they were returning to which they did not know. Monday comes and no show. Calls and emails to the manager at ENW finally gets a response yesterday stating that they have massive "delivery" problems at present with a backlog and problems with their subcontractor. If I were at the back of the queue it would be November!! Manager says he's got to rejig some jobs and will call me Monday hopefully with a connection date at the end of this month or early next. As we have sold our house and the new owners want to get in the pressure is certainly on! In short get connected very early - these guys are in a shambles.

Our house is built into a hill. One side has a staircase going up the side of the house. It is L shaped with 3 steps from the bottom to a landing. We are planning on putting a safety rail on the landing. The next flight up has walls to either side. Is there any regulation outdoors for the requirement of a rail up the 1st 3 steps to the landing?

The stairs are going in this week and I need to treat them. We are not carpeting the stairs but keeping the solid oak treads and therefore require a good none slip finish. Ideally don't want anything that darkens the wood finish. In boats we used to add very fine sand to varnished teak and holly cabin soles to provide grip. So what would you use?

A property that you rent does not count as a PPR as you do not own it. PPR is relevant when you are on Land Registry title documents for more than one property. I would say that as you do not appear to own another property at the same time you should be exempt. You can always call HMRC to discuss if wish to get clarity from the horses mouth.

Is this house your PPR (principle private residence)? If so then you are exempt from CGT. Otherwise put simply it is your sale price less your purchase price, costs and annual allowance (currently £12300 per individual per annum). So your £250000 sale less £200000 (purchase and build costs) less your annual allowance (assuming not used elsewhere) is £37700. You can also deduct purchase and sale costs such as solicitors and agents fees so you may get this down to around £35000 of taxable gain. If the property is in joint names then two annual £12300 (current tax year) allowances can be added together. Capital Gains Tax then depends on which income tax you are in but basically you pay either 20% or 28% on the taxable gain.

We had an existing combined drain from an annex that we demolished but UU would not let us have combined on the new dwelling. In the end we put the foul only in the existing drain.

United Utilities (North West England) would not allow us (despite pleas and numerous conversations) to use combined connections as there were separate foul and surface water drains nearby. This is despite the foul going into a combined drain at the bottom of our close. This is costing us almost £10k more than anticipated as UU do not connect the surface water drain in the adopted road and you have to use an outside contractor to do it. Hope your outcome is easier than ours.

What did you decide to do in the end? My self build insurance runs out at the end of July and we are due to move in 3 weeks later. I have obtained standard quotes and there is an option to include work being done at the property which for us now is minor.

Best way to clean white UPVC is with Jif (sometimes known as Cif) - it scours and got rid of all our 18 year old discoloured frames easily earlier this year. Looked good enough to sell the house!

Yes I have asked for clarification but presume it is one or the other.

I have been asked by the supplier for our electric whether we want a single or dual meter installed soon after we get connected. We are in the house most of the day. Do not (yet) have any PV and will be running electric only cooking ASHP and MVHR. Question: is there any advantage in our situation to have a dual meter?

I would speak to the manufacturers of the rubber warm deck roof for clarification. We have a warm metal roof on the house and a warm rubber bond roof on the garage. Both have at least 100mm Kingspan or similar and both have vapour barriers installed.