LizG Cambridge

Has anyone retro fitted a smart lock on an aluminium front door? We're looking at Origin doors and are interested in fitting a smart lock afterwards, but want to be sure this will be possible. Neither the manufacturer nor the supplier/installer seems very clued up on this, the only answer we've really got is that the door could be supplied with no lock. This sounds fine, but we'd need to know we could get a smart lock to fit the door before we invest in an expensive door! My next step is to follow up with smart lock suppliers but it would be great to hear of any first hand experience from people on here. Many thanks, Liz

I’m sourcing 3 flat roof lights for the ground floor of our self build extension. One of them is on a fire exit route from the first floor so have been informed by our architect that we need glazing for this window with a 30 minute fire safety rating. Does anyone have any recommended suppliers? It will be 2100 x 800 in size, fixed pane. many thanks in advance!

Looking to cover the whole of the neighbouring property - I guess in extremis, if everything goes horribly wrong with our build, given that they're attached, we could knock their house down!!! More likely is causing cracks etc to appear in their walls, ceilings. As ever, I'm finding the insurance area a bit of a minefield - lots of exclusions on the liability of contractors etc. To complicate things further, we don't have a main contractor as my partner is doing that role ...

Has anyone taken out party wall insurance? We've agreed with our attached neighbour to take this out to give them peace of mind while we build our extension and renovate our house, which is attached to theirs. We have a Party wall Agreement in place with them and they are very amenable. This type of insurance seems like a bit of a niche product" I've got a quote as an add-on to my quote for site insurance from Protek. It doubles the price of the premium and I'm having difficulties getting a clear picture of what it actually covers. Would love to hear if anythone else has bought party wall insurance from other providers and whether as part of site insurance or a separate policy. Many thanks in advance

Thanks Tom, that is really generous of you to offer to share your experience.I think we've found a firm now who work closely with the SIPs installer we've been having discussions with - not quite in-house if I've understood you correctly, but used to working in partnership alongside each other. Fingers crossed!

We're pretty attached to SIPs but it's always good to consider other options as solutions to a problem so your reply is a good reminder of that, as it's easy to get your head stuck in the weeds, thank you!

Thanks John. While it always feels comfortable to have a local firm who can do site visits etc, you're probably right that they don't actually need to be and I appreciate you sharing the firm you used.

Thanks Ryan - sounds like your project might be similar in some ways as the 'steel tweaking' is what flummoxed our current SE firm and at one point we seemed to be building a steel house with SIPS as wall decoration! ? What SIPS company did you use, if you don't mind sharing?

We’re building a two storey extension with SIPs. We have a final architectural design, which includes a floating first floor and a sedum roof. We are in urgent need of a structural engineer who can design the structure, leveraging the SIPs structural capabilities and including any supporting steelwork needed. The property is in Cambridge. We commissioned a structural engineer before deciding on SIPs and while they said it wouldn’t make a difference, we’ve really struggled to get them to produce a design and now they say they need someone else to design the frames and they won’t take professional liability for the structure if we go with SIPs. Any recommendations of a structural engineer experienced in working specifically with SIPs would be much appreciated.

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Really helpful, thank you BitPipe! Has helped me get my thinking in order, especially your idea of separating into two buckets. We will definitely need the 'during works' site insurance. The post works thing is definitely less clear and having read a few policy documents I see exactly what you mean about the caveats and exclusions. But the lender aspect that you and others have raised is hugely relevant, so I am following up on that angle which will hopefully give me a clearer steer on what type of product I need for the post works aspect and then I can focus on which specific product is the best value given my needs etc. All very boring but potentially critical stuff I guess and just part of the overall project!

Thank you! I'm pretty sure we do have the approval of our mortgage provider but you and PeterW have got me thinking now so I will need to double check that as a priority ... The regular insurance company does know as we're not living at the property and have a specific policy for that. At least!

Ps Love your user name, Tough Buttercup!

Good point. I've gathered quite a few quotes but I think they're all from single insurance providers rather than a broker ... some of them positioned themselves as brokers but are actually just selling their own products. So I probably need to delve further into the detail before acquiring yet more quotes to find a firm that actually can offer independent advice rather than just throw more and more products into the mix and confuse me even more!

We do indeed have a mortgage Peter (a big one!). Thankfully we're not living there, we're staying in rented accommodation, probably until the end of this year (at least ...)

I have a very broad question in that we are doing a combined refurb and extension of a house and I'm totally confused by the array of insurances on offer. I've been reading various blogs and websites and I'm now completely bamboozled by whether we need Self Build Insurance (as it's not a whole new build), Renovation Insurance (as we are doing lots of structural renovations to the existing property but also building a new two-storey structure on the back that is actually slightly bigger than the original house), Structural Warranty Insurance (does that apply to hybrid build/refurb projects like this? is it needed for lenders if we refinance or sell it?) ... Do we need all of them? None of them? A combination? I realise some of this might come down to personal choice and attitude to risk but I'm finding it hard to get clear on what's legally required and none of them is cheap so while I don't want to expose us to a high level of risk I also don't want to over-insure or to buy inappropriate policies that wouldn't cover us anyway if the worst should happen! I know there is Site Insurance as well and we will need that. A rookie question I know but it seems like a tough one to unravel as the insurers themselves seem happy to sell you an unlimited number of policies! Thank you in advance for any insights! Liz

I am so pleased you asked this question! Could you share what you found out? I have a very similar question in that we are also refurbing and extending a house, although we don't have a main contractor. I've been reading various blogs and websites and I'm now completely bamboozled by whether we need Self Build Insurance (as it's not a whole new build), Renovation Insurance (as we are doing lots of structural renovations to the existing property but also building a new two-storey structure on the back that is actually slightly bigger than the original house), Structural Warranty Insurance (does that apply to hybrid build/refurb projects like this? is it needed for lenders if we refinance or sell it?) ... Do we need all of them? None of them? A combination? I realise some of it might come down to personal choice and attitude to risk but I'm finding it hard to get clear on what's legally required and none of them is cheap so while I don't want to expose us to a high level of risk I also don't want to over-insure or to buy inappropriate policies that wouldn't cover us anyway if the worst should happen! I know there is Site Insurance as well and we will need that. A rookie question I know but it seems like a tough one to unravel as the insurers themselves seem happy to sell you an unlimited number of policies! Thank you in advance for any insights.

Hi, Just joining Build Hub today. We bought an unmodernised 1930s semi detached in September last year and have planning permission for a new two-storey extension to the rear and major renovations to the original property. Much to to do, navigate and learn and I'm sure we can learn a lot from you experienced self-builders on here. My partner is project managing everything (long term dream for him which I'm sure he already fears could turn into a nightmare!) and also getting stuck in himself where he can. I know we will need help! Liz