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....

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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

Sorry. No - the people who own the land through which the proposed pedestrian pathways will run have not been approached.

To help you get to grips to the extent you need, here are a few links. it really is all sweat sweat sweat and detail detail detail. Our forum colleague on Gravenhill, @Visti, did a really good cost control process at the point you are at now more or less. For a 184sqm house on Gravenhill: They ended up getting it back down to £265k or so. The ss he built he made available here. https://drive.google.com/file/d/13-diCE3Iu8WrtFUKLe9ZNJs_pwR_ZEB7/view And look at: You at plot 290 seem to be somewhat close to 156. F

Thanks both. Still getting to grips with this. There is a certain amount of nice features that have a look of being designed to be taken out later - eg those nice permeable paths are quite emphasised, yet the people who own the land have not been approached. That is probably normal at Outline, but I have seen other developers salami slice backwards later.

One slightly different way to think is to apply the traditional recycling list to the building itself, building elements and finishes, then work through the cost and lifestyle implications. Prevent Reduce Reuse Recycle eg say an Internal Wall. Just not having it there saves a chunk. Or fence -> hedge can save several £k. Or a lot here save by having a house that is well enough specced that it can be one or two heating zones, so things like boilers and much of the control gubbins just vanish. BTW does that mean that ufh piping and slab insulation is already in situ or are you not that far yet? Ferdinand

We have a new outline proposal for a housing estate nearby, and I will be making some comments - supporting principle but pointing out inadequate quality features in the scheme. This is a clip from the "Illustrative Master Plan". We all know how "illustrative plans" proposed at Outline without full compliance, somehow turn into the final plan and the non compliances can get forgotten about at Detailed. 1 - Is it normal to bury large 'lecky cables under a Balancing Pond in a housing estate? (These are *big* - they may be 33kV ,and serve thousands of people)? 2 - That looks a little close to the houses, assuming the brown road is about 5m wide. The scheme is not dissimilar to another one taken through planning nearby; not sure how the cables ended up there.

Asking a further q. May have made too many assumptions. Is the culprit the gap around the exhaust, or that the exhaust is letting air in out because the shutter is open, or that the cupboard is actually a real part of the ventilation route? Could you clarify?