Ferdinand

Halfords have some surprising prices on socket sets at present, especially second tier brands. But they also have really expensive ones. No idea whether they will meet your need, but I bought a set just for the extension piece recently as it was half price and I had filed all my sets in the garage. Go via web or sales or vouchers / cashbacks or click and collect, and I usually nurdle a quarter or third off. Even British Cycling or some similar memberships gives you an extra 10% off the whole lot. https://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SearchRouter?storeId=10001&catalogId=10151&tabNo=1&action=listrefine&pageNo=1&pageSize=21&sort=we_recommend&srch=socket+set F

Not as bad as it sounds - there was a gap of about 50mm between the plug outlet and the top of the pipe. It is on a slab, so that had wet much of the tile screed. That came up anyway as we were retiling the floor with non-slip tiles, and a couple of days of one of my industrial dehumidifiers dried it out quite a bit. Since a screed was going back down, it would be rewet anyway.

One of the more interesting things about mine was that the drain connection had been off the bottom of the bath's plughole perhaps since 2012 ? . Due to coupling not being connected tightly enough. Plumber reckoned that 20% of the bathwater had been going into the slab. On the upstairs there was minimal sound insulation, and the use of a non-flexible grout over electric ufh. Ferdinand

The answer is no, you don't. @pocster is the bloke who sold Tower Bridge to the Yanks. (Allegedly.) But they did not take delivery when it turned out to be a couple of defective skylights. They are double glazed so you could make a tall fishtank for anorexic fish. I have a standing offer of £2.01 in, so you will need to pay £2.02. And welcome.

Worked example

Welcome.

Three comments: 1 - Take as much time as you need to understand it all, as I have argued before. 2 - When you discover unexpected things underneath, then fix them properly. I am sure you will. 3 - I have had 2 bathrooms done this summer, which were inherited from the self-builder and were the wrong way round (bath downstairs) with basic problems. I have written about one so far in exhaustive detail, with links here. There may be useful information there, (If you pay much more than about £100 for a normal 8mm shower screen plus steady bar, you are overpaying. Ditto about £250 for a walk in shower tray, Ebay. Unless you have a specific requirement.) As ever, the moneysaving ethos is to find products of an acceptable quality less expensively and being set up to exploit that (eg advance purchase, storage space, some flexibility in spec etc), rather thank getting cheap products that turn out to be nasty. F

Pun of the DAY. (will remove annoying owl later)

Welcome Andrea.

A full Uk basic state pension is very roughly the equivalent of a 200k pension pot, plus you get the extra security. Approximating using pension value x 30 .. recently I have seen index linked Final Salary Pensions being bought out at multiples of close to 40. I think Uk minimum wage puts you well into to the top few % globally, but watch out for cash vs PPP. Cannot finds source which is not spinning the numbers.

Even my penknife has a glass breaker on it. they normally would be targets in my experience. Ferdinand

welcome.

Much due diligence needed, at least. Was created less than 6 months ago. Essentially an investor buys 90%, you buy 10%, of house. You pay 5% interest to investor on their share, which increases at RPI (not CPI) plus 0.5% (which is the investor hook).You get an increasing % of the gain (not the capital itself) if you sell the house, but to increase your % you have to make separate capital payments. It is all quite silent about ownership legalities and charges etc. eg what happens if the company goes bust? Suspect the people running it make their money from fees to both sides, but needs much more digging. The people running it have umpteen companies, but that is normal in property. It may be fine once you have understood. Their illustration widgets seem to make overly personal claims for general calculators. An opinion from @PeterW and @iSelfBuild would be instructive. Personally I think it is just too intricate for me. In this scheme compounding over years could have very big effects, and so if at all would be one to use then trade out with a traditional mortgage quickly. F

(Was planning to comment on this, but I got diverted down an internet rabbit hole by Serge the Llama. ( ) Comments: Basic idea looks fine. Need to consider orientation wrt overheating etc. If that front porch bay is not already there, I think it would unbalance your facade. Rethink to be symmetrical? On the porch the outer door is hinged on the wrong side imo. Not convinced by the spaces around hall / utility etc. I think you want a straight path through, preferably in line with the hall. So swap over the walkthrough and divider at the back of the utility space.Depending on whether you have side access, I would consider a door at the back in line. if that utility includes washing machines etc, you may have noise problems - suggest putting those away behind a door somewhere. I would lose the side door (looks too much like progressing through a pinball machine but maybe OK), and turn the loo into a proper downstairs shower. If not rearrange the loo there to fit a shower at the back of the existing - looks as if it will fit. I would also lose that middle cupboard if you can, and extend the utility space across to the downstairs loo wall, and door off the snug. Potential light issues with the bit of the L-kitchen in the middle of the house. Perhaps bigger skylights at the back of the L as far as poss - leaving enough walking on the roof space to maintain your wall. F

Another option could be a swivelling boom at 2.5m.

Value added to parkatmyhouse service for the other houses in the street at the one with the parking space. Or landlords of garages. (Notes that chargeatmyhouse.co.uk was regstered back in 2013) F

Agree with much of that. The journos have also incorporated I think the Private Chargers in their headlines. Norway, with the highest penetration, has roughly: 2.5 million cars. 300k electric cars. 12k (assuming public) charging points in toto, which means one per 25 cars. The stats above at one per 25 cars suggest a UK electric car population in 2050 of 25 * 2.7 millon, implying just under 80 million electric cars. Given that we are more densely populated than Norway, i would suggest that the estimate of public chargers is over-estimated by a factor of perhaps 5. I think what it also misses is that as public transport improves (eg rail passengers up 130% in just over 20 years), it should be practical to shift car modal share to rail, bus, bike over time. I would like to see buses recover and bikes at 10%. Rail and especially light rail are doing well already. 500k public chargers in 50 years is 45 a day, or 150 a day if it is to be done by 2030 with a ramp up. Entirely doable. Paxman: Why are these lying bastards lying to me? F Humbert Wolfe: "You cannot hope to bribe or twist, thank God! the British journalist. But, seeing what the man will do unbribed, there's no occasion to."

The FT will raise you 4000 charging points a day !!! https://www.ft.com/content/9cba0522-f564-11e9-b018-3ef8794b17c6 The report it is all based on was commissioned by Scottish Power from Capital Economics. (Worth a note that this is all based on zero carbon footprint by 2050 - not the 2030 demanded by the recent demonstrators.) Link to their Stats: https://www.scottishpower.com/news/pages/uks_net_zero_pathway_revealed.aspx Quote: Those UK wide numbers imply that 22 milliom heat pumps will cost £8400 each to supply / install). Personally, I prefer careful government regulation and market implementation. We could end up with another version of the "Plugin Hybrid Cars bought for tax avoidance that never use their electric drive" problem.

Cheers for the reply. I may comment further a little later in general. I had LPAs dinned into me by one of the most formidable individuals I have ever had the pleasure to work with but not met ... one Susanne Cameron-Blackie, aka Anna Raccoon, a lady who obtained a double first in Law in her 50s, and worked as an Investigator for the Court of Protection, then worked for their reform, and finally stood in the 2017 Election against Mr Corbyn whilst on her deathbed to highlight the £56bn (in 2016) overhang of compensation costs for medical negligence etc in the NHS. An interesting life - imo interesting is more important than famous. Who wants to be Serge Lama anyway. F The passage below reminds me of the two phone calls from my local hospital I received within a day of raising the issue assuring me that as mum is assessed by the LA as self-funding, I am not entitled to any funded intermediate care from them either. (By law it is not means tested.). Run by accountants? (Need to revisit that assumptions joke. The chaos was not created by an accountant, as God in his mercy had decreed that there would be no accountants. (With apologies to any self-building accountants on the forum ? )) --------------------------------------------------------- Just how pressing the issue is was brought home to Susanne last month. After spending days in the cancer high-dependency unit at the Norwich and Norfolk Hospital, she had been prescribed the Fentanyl and ketamine, but an error by a nurse meant she was given a tiny dose of a much weaker drug – a prescription meant for another patient. She shudders at the memory. ‘I can’t even begin to describe the pain I was in,’ she says. ‘It was a descent into hell.’ No wonder: a scan revealed that the erosion of one of her vertebrae had left her spinal cord exposed. But for Susanne, worse was to come. ‘Excruciating as it was, the mistake was recognised and put right. But afterwards, I had a visit from someone in the hospital’s legal department. She wanted to know if had I engaged a lawyer, and was I planning to sue? ‘I was flabbergasted. Why? What would be the point? I know why the mistake was made: because the nurses in that unit are rushed off their feet. If I were to sue, the only thing that would change would be my husband’s bank account in several years, long after I’m gone. ‘If I sued, I would be taking away yet more money from the NHS, so making it more likely that a future patient would endure a similar ordeal"

Then it could be hellishly difficult, i am afraid, if something happens. ☹️

Lasting Power of Attorney is also of critical importance. We got those in place for mum last year, and it is helping. From an investment point of view, this series of 5 vids from property tribes about the 'Wealth Pyramid' is interesting. Don't necessarily agree with all of it ... but interesting. https://www.propertytribes.com/taking-personal-responsibility-for-the-future-t-127640668.html (I somehow feel that this new car of @JSHarris's should wear purple.) Ferdinand

In England, October is free will month. You have until Wednesday. ? ? ? ? If you last that long ? Google it. Everybody else has free will month at different times. F

Are you happy with a chainsaw? We used to use a table saw or pillar saw or circular saw - which imo are safer since they are not waving around. Ferdinand

Mine was exemplary, and I will forward you all the info in a minute. I had a couple of hours on the initial survey, followed by qs and consultation. A proposal and design, 2 quotes, one revised quote, not just model numbers but data sheets for everything (Optimisers, Inverters, Panels) attached to the two versions of the quote using Black and Normal panels. The Proposal was a 13 page document including method statements for both the panel installation and scaffolding build. I do not think it would make difference to the documentation supplied, which looks standard, but I did have quotes for 3 houses at once, which may have given it a little more attention. As an indicator of price competitiveness level, one was under £5k for a 4kWp black panel installation on a bungalow for an Oct 2015 quote. So they were potentially after a £20k order. They also gave me details of 3 other largish (7-8kW) similar customer installations within 5 miles I could drive by if required. If I was concerned I would have gone and knocked on the doors and asked for an opinion. The only problem was a couple of cracked roof tiles. But I spent perhaps 3-5 days of my time on all the stuff. Even though I was rushing, the process still took an elapsed 4 months, I think the single most important lesson for Self Builders is not to do anything you are not sure you understand. Once you do that, then the demand for detail will follow as part of that learning process. Take your project seriously and give it the time it needs, and a good contractor should do the same. Take the time, or have someone on your side who is a trusted and competent adviser. I think taking a detailed interest from the start is critical. I had some requirements like the potential to move a lot of panels onto the South side and needing the install to support that without buggering it all up, and interesting wire runs due to rooms in roof. I would add that the way to save money is always to find ways to reduce price for a good product or supplier without shafting either of you, rather than going for a cheap option due to price. Price opt8misation is step 2. My 10kWp system - perhaps not dissimilar to @Home Farm's with 35 black on black panels, Solaredge on the lot, and two SolarEdge inverters - came to £11.8k in Jan 2016. That was with them including all the paperwork for the larger G2 grid connection, and scaffolding. It is also 3 aspect on 3 E and W roofs - one with 28 panels is a big roof from 2.5m level with about 6 rows of landscape format panels (easier), the other two (3 panels and 4 panels) are difficult and high. I had 2 or 3 men for 4 days. I also got 2 spare panels and 2 spare optimisers as freebies when I asked just before signing the dotted line (following Jeremy's example). But that was a very good price I think - better than I thought at the time. Bluntly, I would estimate the equivalent at £6.5-6.75 k in 2019 for a 6kW system - based on £1100 per kWp in 2019 rather than £1180 per kWp in 2016 based on tech improvement but a smaller order, for my local company in our cheapish area (North Notts) for my particular house. I have ignored the probably unchanged scaff price, but been cautious on the improvement in panel prices. Would be negotiating to aim for just under 6k or less. Finally, @Home Farm, you need all the docs for the future: If you are registerinng the system (was it long enough ago to be done for FITs - I think before end of Match 2019?) then you will need follow up paperwork, commissioning etc. Another reason for needing your invoice will be guarantees etc as proof of purchase. And if you did not get what the equipment supplier thought was designed, you may end up with problems with future support etc. Sounds as though your supplier might not be friendly - mine has refocused on batteries so may still be around for the next decade or so. Not trying to grand stand here .. this is one I got right so far. And aiming to help you for do well on the next thing. Ferdinand

Incidentally. Ode to a Plecostamus. https://www.wattpad.com/245031034-a-book-of-themed-poetry-an-ode-to-my-dear-pleco-4 (Quite touching). Ferdinand