Ferdinand

Have been watching this this morning wrt my main bathroom due for replacement in the autumn. The most interesting item for me was freestanding baths which seem to be going at about 1/4 to 1/3 of retail, and things like cabinets and mirrors. Wall mounted tall thin rads are inexpensive. And there are still some interesting looking kitchen taps to be sold that are £250 Soak jobbies that look like going for perhaps £50. On those I think I prefer to buy online from suppliers I have used before. F

Not married here. Swings and roundabouts !

Bout £75 for doors like that -Geneva, Cottage Oak or whatever, perhaps plus VAT, from Todd or TP or wherever? Plus doodah give-you-a-blinding-headache-if-you-do-not-ventilate oil? They also seem to infest ebay. But it may be past that now. I have the egg-crate-in-primer ones upstairs 'cos he ran out of getting-his-money-back, and they still aren't painted. If I paint them they may never get replaced. F

Winding up aside, it does seem like quite a lot of oneoff work to save about £50-60 on an oak veneer door over the cheaper version. But I guess that would also tie you in to a design. My approach might be to make bathroom doors subtly different to the others. Ferdinand

It means they are 8 miles away when you may get cross ?.

Get a good door?

I cannot see what going into the existing loft has to do with planning. Unless there is some special circumstance, I would consider applying for the kitchen extension only, and treating the other as a Building Regs Application only afterwards. Why give anyone a potential spanner to put in your works? Ferdinand

Subject to the fun of "pre-commencement conditions".

And so it begins ... the refurbishment of my downstairs bathroom to be a shower room. The self-builder who added an upstairs and extension to the bungalow got a few things wrong, and one of them was that he put a bathroom downstairs, and a shower room upstairs; exactly the wrounf way round for when a frail relative or disabled visitor needs to have downstairs facilities. So this summer both bathrooms are being overhauled - starting with the downstairs one this week. I was expecting a few things to emerge from the shadows, given that there have been a couple of idiosyncracies in the way elements of the house have been done. The downstairs bathroom has been gutted this morning, with FOUR surprises. Firstly, and I am probably unwise to admit not finding this in up to the last 5 years or so, it turns out that the plughole was not connected to the waste pipe .. or rather, became disconnected from the waste pipe at some point between 2009 and now. I moved in in 2012, and have never had reason to burrow under the bath. And I don't mean the overflow, I mean the plughole - where all the water exits. You could have blown me down with a bicycle pump on that one. It seems that originally it was not pushed on by the self-builder who did the house (treat self-builders like Mr Brezhnev - trust but verify !), in that the little flange around the male half had been treated as a "push pipe up against here" thing, rather than a "push pipe over this flange to make sure it grips properly and stays on" thing. Interesting. So the waste pipe was in mid-air below the plughole and a portion of the bathwater had been missing the entry to the pipe. The effect was a moist slab, but apparently no humongous harm has been done, other than a need to run my medium sized dehumidifier overnight. (The room dimensions are roughly 3m x 2m.) Photos: Damp patch in screed caused by plug-disconnection. And secondly, a huge crack in the sand-cement screed - caused we think by expansion-contraction as the ufh cycles. Fibres, Fibres, Fibres ! Davina the Dehumidifier doing her thing. Thirdly, for some reason the chap had painted the wall behind the bath with some kind of water-impervious gloop, which guarantees that the tiles were not very well attached as the strength is that of the weakest layer. And fourthly, there was an interesting recessed trench round the end of the screed, perhaps for pipe-tidy and "flat floor" reasons. And that photo shows a better view of that crack. I am now hoping that the already identified crack in the floor of the upstairs bathroom is in the screed not the subfloor, as that will perhaps save me hoicking out quite so many of the underlying layers. Come back tomorrow for the next enthralling episode of ... the Saga of Badezimmer Zwei. And - if you have not done so recently - check that your drainage pipe is properly attached.

We had kitchen units in the bathroom when I was growing up and they lasted 25 years and were still there when we left. Is a bathroom really much less humid than a normal small kitchen? Or you could use wooden kitchen unit doors on stud, which should last OK. Anyhoo, let us know if it worked in 10 years ?. Ferdinand

Wall units from kitchen ranges can be a good thought.

That is a nice phrase. I wonder what I could deem it to mean ? ☺️ "Things that by rights should not be standing up".

My parents did some of this. Often it will look more attractive if you just leave most of the beams there. One warning - COs have very long memories and very deep filing cabinets. When we lived as a family in a listed Hall for nearly 4 decades, it was in a copse and dad did various useful things that would cause a blizzard of paperwork now. We had one CO visit, who was a chap dad had fallen out with a decade previously, and they never returned for 30 years until we were selling. They even had trouble finding us when on the way - and it can be seen from the M1. Ferdinand

One tell take for whether it is intended to be part of the main house is whether there is an external door or door frame is to external standards between the existing and the garden room. My "sun lounge" (which is actually a modified conservatory) deliberately has that done so that I can wave away enforcement should they ever turn up. It means that the superior insulation there did not count to the EPC, but there are always swings and roundabouts. If no building regs were required does that mean you can get a Lawful Development Certificate without a need to meet any standards? An LDC might scare the critics off and convince the EA. And there is nothing stopping you upgrading the insulation - not expensive or difficult. Is the EA who sold it to you x years ago still around? They may remember even if it was years ago. I also do not understand what this has to do with the other freeholders. Ferdinand

I know. I want some.

Do they have xtra charges to deliver to England ? ?

As a serial renovator I reuse trades sometimes, which makes a difference. F

I find that considerable savings can be made by paying a lot of attention to making Tradesmen's jobs easier to do / more productive. That is things like doing easy buts ourselves by agreement, having materials on site, placing sockets etc where they are easy to install. Something I did on my last refurb that the jury is still out on was to run all cables and pipes in a void under the floating floor before it was installed. So almost no drilling of holes in walls or routing out tracks. Seemed to work, and I will try it again next time.

@Powerjen Putting this here because this is where your plans are. I hope you are feeling resilient, having had more attention here than the pandas get at Edinburgh Zoo. Anyhoo. We have talked about QSs and costs, but not about design and PM. I think the point made by @the_r_sole ,that the movement around the house and linking of spaces and light was important, has been lost a little. So, what to do? I quite like the division into 2 halves, although it is a bit too rabbit-warreny for me - but that is the house. I think your big space at the South End should be spectacular if done well. Here is your sketch: The only structural change I would make *now* would be to remove the wall between the kitchen and living in your parents new flat, leaving the pillars of brick necessary each end to support an RSJ. And if they want to keep them separate for smells etc I would insert a significant amount of glass in that wall (= floor to ceiling at least half). The reason is that that will give a double aspect living space. The issue with 2 rooms is that one is East and the other is West facing, and usually we want Kitchen to get breakfast light, and living to get afternoon-evening, and these are the wrong way round. So you want light and interest from somewhere throughout the day. And - obviously - it needs to be quick for your timescale. So, thus: You'll need building regs for that. Though it should be doable on a Building Notice (though I am not sure if such exist in Scotland). I might consider is enlarging a window or two by taking the sill lower, or exceptionally enlrage one if it really needs it. That saves any need to bugger about with lintels. The other thing imo you need is to make the project smaller to give it a pork-chop's chance in veganland of being done by the end of the year. Separately comment on that. Personally I would consider targetting just what you need to move in, and ignore the upstairs and possible all the outbuildings for now. Ferdinand

I think an important aspect is to plan for resilience if it turns out to be worse than we expect; there seem (anecdotally) to be far too many occasions when post-facto adjustments are needed. Personally I am not keen on those funny ladder-frame wooden or ally briese soleil at nearly roof level. I am not clear exactly how I would do that yet, as a mix of 'fabric' and 'system' measures. And I do not think that an identified toolkit exists yet, nor exactly how to use ihe different tools.. Perhaps we need a list. Ferdinand

I suppose another way would be to run your ufh through it,

Alternative would be a traditional loft heater. I would be tempted to plumb in the dehumidifier in that situation, and fit a humidistat so that it switches, and / or a timer. F

I think numbers are impossible to come up with for all-inclusive, because the starting point is always different. The only place you could refer to would be either your own research, local self-builders, or your architect, or SPONS. What is your price standard? - There isn't one until you create your own. On materials etc I tend to treat current Wickes headline price as my standard, and aim to dip about 35-40% below it on average. Ferdinand

Theres loads of information on the forum - you need to go and look for it.

"The Last English Rose". Original owned or exhibited by Saatchi I think https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-The-Last-English-Rose/393151/2446991/view "Harper & Deyong offer a range of luxury artworks suitable for every room in the house. If you like this piece but are looking for a different colour speak to the team on 01494 722 880. " If I had that sort of money to spend it would not be a print; I would be looking for an original, or to commission, or something more like an original Moore or Frink where I know it will not get commoditised or rejected later by the artist (see Banksy); I think the contemporary art market is a racket, both in galleries and auctions, and especially in IP. BTW f you sell this print on, you will have to pay 4% to the artist. Ferdinand