Ferdinand

These are in Sheffield. Still need anything @Hecateh ?

A temporary cheap kitchen may be less complex, and save more money. For now.

There is good advice here. My comment is that is far better to do all this in your head and on paper than once it is built wrong and needs to be sorted, or if you have spent 60% of the money on 40% of the house. But you know that. My suggestion would be to self educate a bit more., then have it costed by a QS. The process itself will mean you cover everything thoroughly. My general opinion is that if you are working from a professional estimate careful thought and careful buying and self-project management should save 15-20% or more, but saving that cost will possibly cost you 1000 or more hours of time. More savings are possible, but they need to be identified. If you have a contractor things can still be done, but you are working at one remove. In the case you may want to hav3 a bonus clause. Two plan comments 1 - Including the garage in the insulated envelope is a no brainer because including it takes less cost than excluding it afaics - compare the length of wall - and saves megapfaff with insulating the ceiling. Put heating and insulation in the floor and make it the same as all the rest of the slab. Cost saving and more flexibility. 2 - There was an interesting steel roof product in the Grand Designs the Street Kevin McLoud programme, which looks not dis-simiilar and could save 10s of k over zinc. Wrt to architectural chats ..ultimately, who is the client? F

Check with your council.

Usually it will be about "Parking" and "(Private) Amenity Space" in sqm. The latter will exclude the former, and a lot of other things like area open to view, bin space, access paths etc. F

I think this is to do with the Permitted Deveoplment RIghts Introduced by the Govt in 2013 to allow office buildings etc to be converted to eg flats as of right. It was due to expire this month I think. But It has just been extended indefinitely iirc. Some 50k dwellings have been created this way over the last 3 years. There is a Commons paper about the current state of play published this month here: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN01301/SN01301.pdf If you have any questions about the real detail of these measures then I would recommend the appropriate sub forum at LLZ where there are people who do this sort of project https://forums.landlordzone.co.uk/ There has been some kerfuffle in the papers because somebody found an Office Block in Harlow converted into ‘mini flats’ where some London Boroughs have been temporarily accommodating their homeless people / families. Claims of ‘social cleansing’ etc. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/16/is-harlow-being-used-to-socially-cleanse-london F

Ruffling feathers is good.

Yep - I would pretty much agree with some of that ... but they do let non-specialists loose are far too many technical subjects. ? And they do having a decades long habit of horribly inaccurate reporting on housing and rental subjects. Imay do a full evisceration of that article if 1-1.5 hours is available. Also to be fair - it is the easiest to read (as is the BBC) as it is open to any reader - the Telegraph and the Times are both behind paywalls.

It sees itself as Social Democrat I think, or 'Liberal'. Pops are not a problem; outright bullshit is a problem when it gets believed. Though the other types of papers sometimes fall down too in similar ways.

Fine. Your life, your call. But have half an ear to changing *some* things - the ones that are not fixed yet - midstream. On the MVHR, there are middle ways. One could be to provision just in case - fit the plastic ducts and take photos before you PB, so you know where to put them in later should you need. Another could be to fit single room Heat Recovery fans with background trickle settings. Whatever you decide, it will not entirely survive contact with the build itself. Ferdinand

Guess why I feel provoked?

Thanks for that. Currently out to consultation. For the record, the list of changes is: 2. LIST OF CHANGES 1. CO2 emission factors, primary energy factors and fuel prices, have been updated using the latest data available. The method to derive them is unchanged from SAP 2012 except for the fuel price attributed to electricity exported to the grid, which has been reduced to the electricity wholesale price. 2. The assumed heating pattern has been changed to a consistent daily pattern for all days of the week – previously a different pattern was used at the weekend. 3. Additional design flow (heat emitter) temperature options have been provided for heat pumps and condensing boilers, which affect their efficiencies. 4. Default heat pump efficiencies have been updated. 5. Default distribution loss factors associated with heat networks have been increased. 6. The calculation of lighting energy has been updated to allow recognition of new lighting types with higher efficacy. 7. The options for entering heat losses from thermal bridges have been revised. 8. An additional thermal bridge type has been added for junctions in roof-rooms which don’t fit any of the existing categories. 9. The calculation of hot water consumption has been adjusted to account for shower flow rate. 10. The treatment of mechanical ventilation system heat recovery and aerodynamic performance has been revised. 11. The default efficiencies of some solid fuel heating appliances have been updated. 12. The air flow rates associated with chimneys and flues have been revised. 13. SAP 2012 used a fixed assumption for the proportion of electrical energy generated by Photovoltaic (PV) systems which is consumed within the dwelling. This has been replaced by a formula which also includes recognition of the presence of battery storage. 14. The impact of PV diverters2 is now taken into account. 15. An option to allow the overshading factor used for the PV calculation to be taken from Microgeneration Certification Scheme data has been added. 16. The assessment of summer internal temperatures has been refined and the blind/curtain use factor has been revised. 17. The air-conditioning efficiency (‘SEER’) table has been updated. 18. The treatment of heat losses from heat interface units (used with heat networks) has been adjusted.

Inspired by *this* piece in a newspaper by Rupert Jones, I am compiling a Checklist of Items for testing the dodginess of an article. 1 - Is the author a specialist in the area being reported? 2 - Does the feature image actually relate to the content of the article? Is it giving a false impression? 3 - Does the Title represent the article accurately? Is it sensationalist? (The title is the snippet that will make Twitter). 4 - Does the "hook" (probably first sentence of paragraph) ask a relevant question? Or is it misleading? 5 - Is the killer fact to set the agenda credible? Is it anecdotal? Is it evidenced? 6 - Are relevant facts or information missed out when a point is made? Why? 7 - Are claims supported by linked evidence? 8 - Is anything simply wrong? 9 - Does the newspaper show any evidence of subeditting or fact-checking? This is a checklist and a work in progress rather than a scorecard; yet the article linked above scores about 12 out of 9.

A final query, @A_L . This is SAP 2012 - are we not on SAP 2018 now? (Admit that I am not familiar with the detail here. But I thought it changed.). Cheers Ferdinand

Flat earthers ?

What do you guys think of these two? From a photo library and a newspaper that used it. Caption: "Infrared thermovision image showing lack of thermal insulation on Residential building" Walls at 35C - that's one hell of a central heating system. Ambient sunlight? Ferdinand

It is. I am stuck in a south facing room with the blinds closed, trying to find the spec for shades of car paint. Patience is a little lacking. I used to have associations with a local special school, and Matthew Corbett used to come nearly every year with S&S, and they always brought the water pistol, and always shot the Headmaster. Great fun. F

What you pay for with a formal valuation is that other people will listen to it.

Since it is Friday... 1 - Confiscate water pistol. 2 - Shoot Sooty for leaving deposit. 3 - Use water pistol to remove stains. 4 - Return water pistol to Sweep.

Why are these dimensions not written in Gothic script and Roman Numerals? Shameful cutting of corners.

Have observed Chelsea, I am going to build a canal and lock in my garden.

It's not about the fix; the universe of possibilities requires exploring first. The satisfaction is the journey and the learning experience. ? To me the thing this most resembles is a Fishing Peg on a reservoir, even down to the bank profile - one of those platforms anglers sleep on around fishing lakes. More fun for the onlooker if sloping and greased. eg These days you can get everlasting recycled plastic ones, probably supplied and installed for <£1000. Ferdinand

You also get Timmy Mallett style 5-8kg hammers on 1m handles for pushing posts in, but those always looked a bit unpredictable to me, and I felt I might get knocked in before the post did. It is called a "Maul".

If you volunteer for the National Trust or RSPB, you eventually get to find out. Or just phone up and ask them, or the local wildlife trust. It may be that they would come and build one for you in exchange for a donation. There are 27 ways of approaching this and all of them can work with care. I think that the second hand telegraph poles are perhaps a good bet, as is perhaps hiring a fence man for the day and labouring for him, or talking to people who have done it. Though personally I would still build it out of scaff in the first instance.

Pron £100-200 normally I would think. Or less if you just want a steer. If a LL revalues one for a remortgage ,it tends to be about 150-170 to the Bank.