Ferdinand

This is an interesting one, with a number of difficulties. There have been one or maybe two occasions on which this has worked on BH. The biggest issue is perhaps that we are a herd of cats spread out in time and space. My comments 1 - I reckon BH could perhaps have groups of size 5 - 30. That is too small to work by mass-bludgeon. Instead we need to supply a notable boost and/or other benefits ie treat them as our customer too. 2 - Any group buy needs to offer savings enough to cover the work of doing it, and to out compete what any individual can achieve by surfin' and lookin' . BH supply side is mostly about more appropriate products, cheaper individual sources for the same thing or alternatives who do not price gouge. This needs to be better than that for the cases where it is used. 3 - Effectively we need to find things where we can help the business take out cost from *their* process, add very little extra (ie manage there being 20 customers), and perhaps us do things they would normally do. 4 - Perhaps the group within BH (or an audience segment we could develop) would be around those who are slightly risk-averse ie not those of us who are wheeler-dealers. May be custom or PM-ing types rather than those of us who start with a tree and a quarry and a computer and do it all ourselves. 5 - We need suppliers who will play ball. 6 - We need suppliers where the product is standard, or BH experience suggests the supplier is reliable. 7 - We perhaps need to think in terms of other than money - eg making real slates affordable rather than relying on a Chinese import. One might be stabilising cost and reducing risk in markets which are volatile in their pricing. 3G or kitchens? 8 - What is there that is out of reach for most of us, but would come into range for a good deal? Quite a challenge. Think we need to focus on particular things within the self-build process. Which brings us to: eg Kingspan are not going to give us 30-40% off insulation by buying orders for even 50 houses. It would need to be a big reduction because you can get nearly that much off by just shopping around, and for say Kingspan we would need to put together a regional-developer sized long term order, and some way to make it like dealing with a very few customers. The counterparty risk for KS on a big enough order would negate the benefit. So I have this as my guide as to where this might work: 1 - Look for products or services where we can take cost out of *their* process, or be significant to their business. 2 - Suggests places where the cost of customer acquisition is high, the value / margin is high, the process is complex (and BHers - whilst being awkwards sods - perhaps know more than average so can save there), or a smallish group will add a significant chunk to their business. 3 - Things where a knowledgeable customers may be a help not a hindrance. 4 - Smallish suppliers where say 25 orders at once or 25 orders spread out over 6-18 months would be beneficial. Are there semi-craft businesses wanting a bit more turnover? 5 - Look specifically for win-wins. 6 - We need a mechanism to prove that BHers are BHers, so they are getting a known customer. 7 - High value / small size. Also well-defined so we avoid rejection risks. For me this is saying "not commodities" are the lowest hanging fruit. So where does that leave us for areas that may be amenable? My immediate thoughts are double glazing, front doors, some services eg soil testing, small suppliers or those with innovative products, product trials / research exercises, maybe house shells eg MBC or Scotframe, "luxuries" some of us want eg Sageglass, importers who could get a bigger wagon, smaller suppliers, helping create a simple and durable new House Management system, AliG swimming pools, unusual roofs or high quality rainwater goods? Plus windfall opportunities eg job lots of things. That probably needs the prices to be 10-20% of retail or less. Current example of this might be these. We may perhaps trigger some to offer "Buildhub versions" of their product or service. Think this will need to be an action-learning thing, as a route to create a template as to how to do it. Ferdinand

Is that not a game that anyone can play with any country? Though I would probably say that the UK is perhaps very eclectic in diet, even by Western European standards, if we manage to avoid the attentions of some of our aspirational militant beef banners. For Germany perhaps starting with the real brick-like black bread, or some of the more distinctive offal dishes, or the Germoline Pink Herring Salad. Horse, for example, is delicious and still I think common in France but unpopular here - and that is mainly a matter of fashion / prejudice. Put a hunk of horse in the fridge in a student house, especially say a named variety such as Dartmoor Pony, and it may have interesting results. (Apparently Asian supermarkets in Gernmany are the place for teabags). Ferdinand

A weekend thought about design ideas. Given an extra 1 sqm of space, where would you put it in your house for most benefit? Either the current house, or the previous house. I am exploring opinions on which constraints are most beneficial to release very slightly. I have three answers: 1 - To make a small hob a big hob with a bit of extra space at the side. 2 - Inside the shower, to make a shower cubicle into a walk-in shower. 3 - Into the staircase to change the angle from 42 degres to 37 degrees. The first two are spaces where we spend a lot of time in a small space, so the extra benefit is perceived often. The third is again making something we use multiple times a day feel more relaxed. Any other ideas? Ferdinand

@Onoff is a One-off. Kyrie eleison . (My iPad cannot even get liturgical Greek right without mangling it. Lord, have mercy ... since no one asked.)

I'm not dealing with the "thick northern racist" thing, through I think that is perhaps an underlying cultural perception for some at the BBC - see for example the 'personal' twitter feeds of some presenters and staff. The Guardian has no external regulator, and would need a team of dozens just to keep track on the pratfalls imo. It has cost them their reputation. Now, on the BBC being held to account - imo they are tenacious in refusing to correct when challenged, and get a large number of things wrong. For example, you remember this graph from the Euro Election months ago, on the BBC - where they got a 'majority for remain' by pretending that the Tories were not pro-Brexit. From this page (now removed): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48403131 To hold them to account for this took three rounds of complaints, and a threat to go to OFCOM, before they switched from dead-bat tactics to admitting an editorial "misjudgement". And this for what they finally claim is a minor mistake. The history is here: There was another one iirc last week where the BBC extensively reported on "the need to stop eating beef" as a prioirity to stop climate change, entirely out of context of the actual international report which also included many other things as equally, or more, significant. No time to round that up now. This concerns me as they are the UK's media monopolist, with around a 40% share. They are just not very good at news istm, and refuse to be held properly to account short of extreme efforts. Not good enough for a tax funded setup. Ferdinand

Imo mainly by being realistic and talking. This is largely a bit of a self-feedback screed from mine, but touches on the q. 1 - You do not know completely what you will need, in the main. (In your case, you can perhaps predict eg some aspects of hand-grip - or lack of - to design for, just as I can predict possible ultimate blindness, preceded by eye conditions, and maybe an amputationor two from my Type I diabetes). I would argue that preparations now need a bit more flexibility than 'strong points for grab handles' - say to allow for different heights etc. You may have this covered. 2 - You also need to cater for other users. eg I am now more than a foot taller than mum, who has shrunk by nearly 6 inches over 15 years as her back has collapsed after a career as a physio and a hobby maintaining a 2 acre garden for 40 years. We are used to this in our kitchens (eg no wall units iirc from one of our BH 'one and a half' couples). But it also applies in spades to things like shower seats and steadying rails; if you put he seat at the height for a taller person, the shorter person may have no purchase on the shower tray with their feet. OTOH a relation who is sometimes here has just had an early hip replacement, and is 15-18 stone. So my downstairs shower seat needs to cater for the larger person "plonking" onto it, because the consequences of an injury for someone already more vulnerable are unthinkable. And so it has 100mm bfo screws into breeze blocks. 3 - Aesthetics vs the best safety possible. Ultimately imo it must surely be function over form, but you can be creative. I speculated about chrome handrails, and my fitter pointed out quite bluntly the potential extra likelihood of slips, and the devastating potential impact on someone in her 80s of say a fall in the shower, or a trip over a door threshold onto porcelain tiles. Bye bye chrome rails except where they are "lean on" only. It may be that be as younger older people you can get away with a different compromise first time around. 4 - What do you get if you cross a growing-older person with a shower cubicle? Bloody great screw holes all over your multipanel. Once you have put grabrails and things in, your nice pristine shower will be a complete mess should you ever move them. I have largish tiles, and no fewer than 12 of them now have almost 30 screwholes drilled for adaptations. What happens if it changes? Will you gut it and start again, or have you a strategy planned for repairs? Being strictly practical, I have the advantage here that my older person has already gone beyond incidental adaptations, so I know that the next stage is likely to be residential care and probably will not have to move it all around again. Ideas for Flexibility? A - One thing that has been manageable but not thought about, is that currently we are sharing a shower due to the other one not being refurbished yet. And requirements are very different. Mum needs the shower head at my belly-button height to match the seat, which would make it annoying to move around every day. Fortunately it is a dual mode rainfall / shower head thing, so it is OK. You will need the shower head to wash your feet when you stiffen up. B - Take time thinking, which you do anyway. We spent a couple of hours in the shower room talking about grab rails and other things, and working it out afterwards. It has to be done sitting there. The closed loo was a good convenient guide to height for us. C - Places where most force will be needed are where you need the best grips. These will be ribbed plastic, but for aesthetics knurled stainless, rubber sleeves, or rubber inserts can be OK. The latter three are probably better for 'first time around'. Careful positioning really matters. Inside our front door I have installed an oak handrail to match the banisters as it is just a 'hang on whilst opening the door' thing. For aesthetics such could be part of a built-in umbrella stand, for example. Or a walking stick stand, of which I am suffering a plague like Egypt. How can one have 6 walking sticks, and they are all always somewhere else? Ditto mobility equipment (Sholley, Skimmer, Zimmer, Chair .. Wheelchair, Imo mainly by being realistic and talking. This is largely a bit of a self-feedback screed from mine, but touches on the q. 1 - You do not know completely what you will need, in the main. (In your case, you can perhaps predict eg some aspects of hand-grip - or lack of - to design for, just as I can predict possible ultimate blindness, preceded by eye conditions, and maybe an amputationor two from my Type I diabetes). I would argue that preparations now need a bit more flexibility than 'strong points for grab handles' - say to allow for different heights etc. You may have this covered. 2 - You also need to cater for other users. eg I am now more than a foot taller than mum, who has shrunk by nearly 6 inches over 15 years as her back has collapsed after a career as a physio and a hobby maintaining a 2 acre garden for 40 years. We are used to this in our kitchens (eg no wall units iirc from one of our BH 'one and a half' couples). But it also applies in spades to things like shower seats and steadying rails; if you put he seat at the height for a taller person, the shorter person may have no purchase on the shower tray with their feet. OTOH a relation who is sometimes here has just had an early hip replacement, and is 15-18 stone. So my downstairs shower seat needs to cater for the larger person "plonking" onto it, because the consequences of an injury for someone already more vulnerable are unthinkable. And so it has 100mm bfo screws into breeze blocks. 3 - Aesthetics vs the best safety possible. Ultimately imo it must surely be function over form, but you can be creative. I speculated about chrome handrails, and my fitter pointed out quite bluntly the potential extra likelihood of slips, and the devastating potential impact on someone in her 80s of say a fall in the shower, or a trip over a door threshold onto porcelain tiles. Bye bye chrome rails except where they are "lean on" only. It may be that be as younger older people you can get away with a different compromise first time around. 4 - What do you get if you cross a growing-older person with a shower cubicle? Bloody great screw holes all over your multipanel. Once you have put grabrails and things in, your nice pristine shower will be a complete mess should you ever move them. I have largish tiles, and no fewer than 12 of them now have almost 30 screwholes drilled for adaptations. What happens if it changes? Will you gut it and start again, or have you a strategy planned for repairs? Being strictly practical, I have the advantage here that my older person has already gone beyond incidental adaptations, so I know that the next stage is likely to be residential care and probably will not have to move it all around again. Ideas for Flexibility? A - One thing that has been manageable but not thought about, is that currently we are sharing a shower due to the other one not being refurbished yet. And requirements are very different. Mum needs the shower head at my belly-button height to match the seat, which would make it annoying to move around every day. Fortunately it is a dual mode rainfall / shower head thing, so it is OK. You will need the shower head to wash your feet when you stiffen up. B - Take time thinking, which you do anyway. We spent a couple of hours in the shower room talking about grab rails and other things, and working it out afterwards. It has to be done sitting there. The closed loo was a good convenient guide to height for us. C - Places where most force will be needed are where you need the best grips. These will be ribbed plastic, but for aesthetics knurled stainless, rubber sleeves, or rubber inserts can be OK. The latter three are probably better for 'first time around'. Careful positioning really matters. Inside our front door I have installed an oak handrail to match the banisters as it is just a 'hang on whilst opening the door' thing. For aesthetics such could be part of a built-in umbrella stand, for example. Or a walking stick stand, of which I am suffering a plague like Egypt. How can one have 6 walking sticks, and they are all always somewhere else? Ditto mobility equipment (Sholley, Skimmer, Zimmer, Chair .. Wheelchair, Walker, Self ... like firemen in Trumpton); nearly needs an extra garage. D - Think rails not just handles. And whether they will need to take full bodyweight or just steadying. I would suggest two tall rails either side of the shower apparatus is a good idea and unobtrusive - perhaps textured stainless for now, and you can add a very grippy sleeve when needed. E - Occupational therapists and eg Age UK will offer excellent advice, as may the Council. We had a free visit. Prob would not get priority, but it would probably help them too to think about possibilities in custom builds. F - Ultimately you will need to think about moving around the whole house comfortably, but that is a different can of worms. G - Standalone stools can be OK in the shower eg for putting feet on to wash - say from bamboo or other material. May be a good compromise. H - I have an inkling that flexible handles as seen used by straphangers on the tube may be an interesting discreet interim idea, or leather versions thereof, or even rope. Perhaps not for showers. Have not seen this, nor tested it. Loops to tension against on the wrist can be better than things that have to be gripped with fingers. Just thoughts. There is quite a lot of this touched on in my accessible bathroom stuff, and a list of links here. Ferdinand

Is this not up with John Harvey Jones in Morgan: “I am surprised they do not start with the tree.” I dread to think of the fear inflicted on future partners. “Good morning darling. BTW I converted your car to run on porridge while you were in the shower. Cornflakes for you this morning.”

Peers down Alice’s rabbit hole. Thinks about going to have tea and come back a bit later... (try a few searches, perhaps via a google with +Buildhub in it. There are a lot of threads about this.) To me this is the impossible question. The answer depends 80% on the client, what they want and them knowing their own requirements and criteria. Briefly, an architect should supply inspiration and wow if you need that, provided that you know your own mind well enough to choose one well and be an assertive client, otherwise you may get their vision rather than yours as they have more weight in the debate; it is like a seesaw needing equal balance. An Architectural Technologist should supply drawings plus a bit more if you choose well, but will not have the same hinterland. An Architectural Designer is not a specific registered thing. It means that somebody who is not a Chartered Architect or Registered Architectural Technologist wants to offer that service. You need to judge them solely on their rep. and portfolio. For the other two the title means something. Architects sometimes get really narked about ADs, because they feel it as a bit close to the bone when they themselves in the UK have had a long training of 7 years .. shorter elsewhere. As to whether they are good value .... all of that is in your own hands and judgement; I do not think I can comment on that in general terms. Ferdinand

There are several contrasting examples on this thread. The idea is that it is a tool to think about what you want and need, that you can then feed into the process, and come back to to keep yourselves on track.

if you are going for the clearance stuff expect to paint it. May be worth a call just to check that it is suitable for your application.

This is the Guardian headline: And this is standfirst and the 2 key paras of the article: Can one of our financial gurus confirm that a "net return" of a bond incorporates the value of the original capital, so that these returns are indeed all that is left? There seem to be several definitions of "net return" around. Cheers F

A nice thing about oak is that it grows hoarier, cracked and weatherworn, and more characterful as you live with it over the years, just as you do yourself. THere’s a Tolkien quote that matches sort of, just like my office. F

Beading. Can you use hardwood quadrant as used for edging laminate floors? But you will need to check the suitability of the product. There s nothing to stop you eg protecting it first by soaking in whatever in a 3m chuck of gutter. Need to consider carefully, plus your painting etc may make a difference. Curries are quite good on this. They have red hardwood beading being cleared at about 60p a metre in bundles of 10 2.4m for about £15. I had about 150m of it for my next house or two, which is now in the garage. Their prices are Ok for the rest eg oak for 1.80 ish a metre for 12mm. https://roncurrie.co.uk/dark-hardwood-16mm-quadrant-mould-decorative-trim-moulding-2.4m-bead-wood-timber?search=Quadrant They may also have beading beading, but I have not asked. F

I do not know if anyone has numbers, but I would think you should be at perhaps 1k-2k for the window, and about the same again to fit it ... not the 3k+ that other one was going to cost just for the window. All I am saying is take a long hard look at your costs and check here. once you know what you want, someone may have a recommended supplier at half the price you get. It is that variable. For cleaning, accessibility matters ... I can clean most of mine from the inside, both surfaces. Choose carefully. Plan B is that your window cleaner may charge 50p-£1 a time to clean the outside, and may have a wotsit to do the inside in his van. F

Yes, but I think because the deal on VAT recovery is better if it is all encapsulated with a single supplier. See post 782 (or the appropriate number ?) on the VAT thread.

One aspect which is totally unclear as yet is how the providers of the plots manage risk and long term risk, of which they will get a lot more than before due to the extra upfront investment, and deal with the peculiar decisions of local authorities. Some people view plots as bottomless pits of tax money waiting to be harvested, others view LAs as bottomless pits of bureaucrat costs. That is not resolved. And in reality it is really really difficult. One of the interesting things about Gravenhill is how long it has all taken. Kevin McLoud’s street of 10 houses took iirc 6 years from first mooting. And Gravenhill was set up by the Planning Authority ... imagine a developer trying to do the same with hordes of yammering NIMBYs everywhere demanding that they are suddenly interested in the welfare of foxes.. Or look at something as allegedly simple as Build to Let. Legal and General have everything they have built so far targeting the top 10-20% of the market at rents about 1/3 above the General market afaik. And it is taking years longer than the initial commitment. The first lot of plots at Penkhull, Stoke the LA ended up spent 450k on getting them ready, then made 590k from the sale, with potentially 200k to come depending on a further road being built. Sales prices were higher than expected. Is it built yet ... project started in 2013. https://selfbuildportal.org.uk/case-studies/stoke-serviced-plots/ It is .. like everything ... about money and risk and matching the two. We do not have more than half the jigsaw imo. But then increasing self build to say 50k a year from 15-20k was always going to take a generation. Ferdinand

That is interesting. And is a recommendation like me waiting for Doctors to be having laser surgery and there being no specs at Conferences for Opticians before I will consider laser, type I Diabetes and my sod of a prescription. Notwithstanding. Architects are always more creative when the customer is assertive enough to give them some but not too many constraints, or buys a right bugger of a plot that is an intellectual challenge. I think the Golden Brick is effectively a way of handling the VAT exemption , whilst giving the site provider some more cash. I do not think anywhere has a standard and simple way of handling the self-build exemption on a larger pre-provided plot yet. I keep asking Councils how they would handle S106 for a large site subdivided for self-builds later, and no one has a real clue yet that I have asked - it is all btsoyp. I am not aware that anyone has ever run cost-benefit from the point of view of the customer at Gravenhill. I can see that the houseprices being London cummutable will be OK in a decade for builders now, provided all the tickboxes are ticked.

Does this work with all AICO alarm systems? Look useful - mine are hardwired interlinked. Ferdinand

Harrumph! Opportunity to learn new skills !

(Updated - spotted that they are hard wired). It is the case that fire alarms sometimes go off for spurious reasons. Usually test and no need to worry. Aico are a good recoognised brand, and it sounds as if you have the 10 year rechargeable battery wired interlinked type. I would check that your system has what is needed - especially CO by any gas appliances and a Heat (toast proof) alarm in the kitchen (use the one from there somewhere else if appropriate). Who knows, by 2027 you may want to do sprinklers instead. I can see an argument for sprinklers in a house like yours - relatively isolated and old, and by 2027 Wales may have made the general market price lower. You recently expressed wallet-pain, and a full set of kit could be (guestimating) about £500 or more, depending what level of features you go for. When I did AICO wired in my mst recent refurb (5-6 rooms plus hall), the bits were the best part of £250 or a little more. Ferdinand

Welcome to the forum, Paul. Hmmm. Interesting. I'll be as interested as you to see an anwser. The thing that springs to mind is put it on small stilts or some sort of light footprint foundation (you know - eggcrates with gravel type things) in holes you make Or piles. Do you have neighbours? What did they do? What is the rest - can you bridge it in some form from the edge? Ferdinand (Apporve of people who use tags!)

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit....

?

Welcome Roger. Florianopolis sounds like an interesting place. It would be interesting if you were to post pics of a few buildings you find interesting, and projects you have done ... especially low energy houses which we are keen on, and th3 different challenges in Brazil. Perhaps once you have settled in. I very much like this F-something-opolis way of naming things. All I need now is somewhere willing to become Ferdinandopolis. I would try it with Nottingham, my local City, but that might cause an increase of exactly one in the crime rate. Ferdinand

Welcome. A photo of the existing roof light with say a few feet of surrounding roof would really help, if you have one. Cheers Ferdinand