Ferdinand

Tis a pity. I had IE down as a competitive insulation supplier. But their blog just appears to be spam aiming for links, which has damaged their reputation with me. eg https://www.insulationexpress.co.uk/blog/news/living-room-live-room/ Ferdinand

Well, here's the culprit - the pillocks from Insulation Express, plus a load of 'property' websites that can't be bothered, or are incapable of, thinking. Based on the plotfinder database, it seems. The sample sizes speak for themselves. https://www.insulationexpress.co.uk/blog/uks-biggest-self-build-opportunities/ If anybody buys from insulation express, do roast their nuts whilst you are at it. Ferdinand

Who is this Anna Cottrell person? And should I have heard of her? Aha: Trolling pinterest in the Interior Design space, perhaps? At least they understand statistics and sampling: ? Quick ! Quick ! Any Buildhubbers in Liverpool - get Planning then your back garden is worth £817,000. So what goes on to give such a profound understanding of the self-build market devoid from commonsense? - An academic career in Arts and Literature goes on, which I think is even a Doctorate. Back at University I had a very Northern mate who would just comment as if it was a Bush Baby: "Furry Stories". They seem to do affiliate marketing without a clear declaration to customers. I would be concerned that their product selection is based on affiliates not merit to some extent, and that all the articles are just advertorial. Ferdinand

I think I would have a scoping conversation to ask him just what it is that he needs to know, and what it relates to. Examples could be soil type, beating capacity, percolation, contamination, underground gas from the landfill next door etc. You could explain the query as being so that you can properly brief a potential surveyor. That would I think help and is a genuine reason - then come back here and see if there are any good and effective ways to do it . Potentially you could do a test yourself, or modify your design etc. Or indeed ... you may require a full Condition Report. Ferdinand

I concur with @Temp, subject to the caveat that if you are in a protected area ... eg Conservation Area, National Park etc, or what is called an "Article 4" area, there may be specific restrictions that require PP. You could ask your Council that. In this case, I would be fairly relaxed about talking to the Council. Even if they operate a "pay to talk to us about a particular case" service, you may be able to smuggle some individual questions into the 'protected area' request. If you are looking for reassurance, you could ask Planning Aid - a service run by the RTPI. But you will need to frame your questions as policy queries, rather than related to your particular case. eg Would Planning Permission be required to change a window to a door on the front of my house? https://www.rtpi.org.uk/planning-aid/ Ferdinand

I was checking the other way ... comparing like with like in the numbers ? . Agree it is an irrelevance to the comparison if they are on the same basis. How would you do it then? GIA? Qty of bedrooms? I would I think start with proper revaluations under the current system, because any of the others would be more intrusive and resource intensive. To be fair, as with the Business Rates revaluation you would be able to hear the squealing on Rockall. Though in theory the GIA is already available from EPC numbers, BHers have in the passed expressed a modest skepticism about such numbers. Perhaps that would be the place to start, with some sort of Appeals process. Ferdinand

The article also says: Go figure - there's stuff on both sides there.There is also And this is interesting: I am not sure that I believe the apocalyptic narrative, because installation of solar has increased at an increasing rate in each of the last 2 years, despite then subsidies being slugged, and I think getting it on a non-subsidised basis will let the money be spent on other technologies. Encouraging uptake of ASHP may be one of them. It does need export tariffs linked to the wholesale market price, however. It also needs full VAT on energy prices, and someway of encouraging owner occupiers to renovate their house fabric - this year is the year where Private Rental houses will noticeably overtake Owner Occupied for Energy Effiicency. and there are 3-5 x as many poor OO houses as PRS houses. Ferdinand

I think this is a diversion because you are both in Lancashire. It is clearly a rocket launcher for the purposes of defence from the Yorkies.

That's interesting. Have you included your single person 25% discount? The closest in size I have to yours is a 50sqm small 1850 detached, where all the rooms have 3 outside walls. That gives a per sqm figure of about £40 or £60 depending if you include the sun lounge which added 50%. That is after energy bills have been halved since 2010. On Council Tax, we tend to be one of the highest. On median income I think we tend to be in the lowest quartile. The minimum wage has I think made a difference here, as probably has the fairly extensive light rail system. The latter may be commuters skewing the averages rather than older local elements doing better. F

Who does the cooking in your house? *innocent face*

Interesting breakdown. Mine (2010 building regs build, 200 sqm), also with 2 of us, is roughly: £1000 for gas and elec. give or take. £300 water/sewerage. £1950 Council tax (band D, and we have probably got off lightly) -£-600 for solar array FIT. But I only invested £250k + £11k for the solar in it ?, and not 3 years of my life. It will not be worth upgrading majorly fabric-wise until it needs a full do-over, which will be another 25 years imo. I might be able to tweak another £100-£200 from the solar if I move some of it. ASHP could be done, as could batteries, but the current HE boiler still has 7-10 years in it. Ferdinand

@lizzie You could install one of @pocster's roof windows and a periscope in the hall?

If a bucket of water does not help, then a bucket of water standing on a stool (step stool not the other sort) might help if the blockage is close to the loo end. Have you asked the user whether they use flushable medical wipes, which are usually not flushable, or dropping .. er .. logs? Take care to watch for annoyed anacondas. F

What is the machinery cost above 60% thing about? Are they trying to make it hard for those installs with low labour costs, which is presumably DIY non-FIT ones? Sop to the industry?

That seems a bit weird. Aren’t you pensioners supposed to be the rich ones who have filched all the money, and now spending all your time on cruises? As for the Housing Association concession, that is probably down to HAs being horribly complicated in VAT terms. Ferdinand

So are you back to an ASHP? Or, when the house is efficient, is oil back to being a reasonable option? Ferdinand

To save depth you could use roofing laths as your framing timber. For me the key dimension would be how much insulation it needs. F

There could be a transition issue whilst the new property is being built, and your mum become therefore a beneficiary (ie living in) of a property you partly own in the interim. That may imply a rent being paid for that benefit, or it being taxable on the notional rent. But that is a relatively small factor, or could be perhaps be turned into one. Ferdinand

OIt seems clear-ish. I think we and probably you need a bit more info. IMO it not as unusual a situation as you seem to be thinking. 7.5k seems unnecessarily expensive. If you go to somewhere like Landlordzone or Propertytribes and talk to one of the professionals who advertises or sponsors there with a development specialism it could be a start. So so we are talking the sort of swathe between say Chiswick and Surbiton. Richmond would be good. Hancock's Half Hour country. It may be useful to take Estate Planning advice and Business Planning advice as separate elements. The important thing is to find somebody who has done 20 nearly identical things before, ideally in London. I would probably be looking in eg Guildford or Sutton rather than eg Chelsea for my adviser. Very different rates. Potential other factors involved 1 - Are there siblings or children who need taking into account in the transactions? 2 - I think a good flexible solution could involve creating a property company, probably for the investment property. Property can be injected and extracted at face value without tax implications iirc. Then your mum could gift you shares etc in tranches if necessary, or resign as a director, and you can appoint and unappoint Directors. You could inject the refurb capital, and your mum the property .. or a lifetime gift of half of it etc. 3 - Might be worth converting into 2 or 3 flats for resilience of future income. One tenant gone bad can create a 6-9 month dead spot in income. Managing tenants is increasing professionalised, it is easy to come huge croppers for trivial errors, and especially in London Councils are currently riding out like Wild Bill Hiccock on landlord hunts, sometimes with justification. 4 - Presumably you are dealing in values between say 0.5 - 1.5 million. At those levels, Stamp Duty .. especially with the plus 3% .. can be murderous in London. 5 - Tidy thinking says that perhaps you want to own part of the investment property not part of your mum’s new one, though that raises the prospect of Inheritance Planning again. 6 - One way would be to develop the existing in a company, rent out or sell, and take the money out as income for mum or pension for you at 40k a year or tax free maximum over x years (or read back for 4 years). Or entrepreneur’s relief etc. But for these there are requirements in terms of having added value and done work. 7 - In general do stuff quickly and reach a new stable state .. as it is all changing, and political risk is around at present. This is opinion only. Ferdinand

Good point. F

That is about the same as a 75W incandescent, or 2-3 GU10s. I tend to use more rather than less, but that may be old age. F

I think I would aim to design out chases as far as possible by socket placement etc eg inside stud walls and back to back. All the way around a door is a hell of a long way. If you are new building then posijoists with webbing are one way. The trick I used in my last restoration to solve the upstairs downstairs issue was to buy a bungalow ?. All my runs to the loft for fire alarms etc were in places eg in cupboards where I could put conduit. My circuits around the house were all in channels under the floating floor, so if I need to I can get to everything, then behind skirting. I am am not totally convinced yet as there was buggeration with some doors, but I think it is a net benefit for maintainability. Ferdinand

Welcome. Start with a requirements statement. What do you want to do in it? Write it in one sentence. Then one para. Then one page. And post 'em here. Get the ish dimensions (count fence panels x 1.8m) and aspect and relations to other houses / gardens, and plan (Council website or Google or learning - how to draw plans - opportunity). For now, that looks like Derby County's old football pitch, so have a kickaround or learn Petanque. Ferdinand

I think that depends on eg volume of water - if you have thirsty ones at the top, then lower down it could be less damp, Also, I am sure that anyone here .. even me .. could rig up a level by level system with different effective pipe capacities. Washers, restrictors or even clothes' pegs. F

Can I throw another alternative onto this thread? A large (perhaps also relatively deep for a high volume-surface area ratio) pond, and a pumped or gravity outlet. If you have a SUDS Swale, it could even be a standing balance in that. A pond could double as a reflecting pool, or even as a fire-brigade-lake if you are beyond the crucial 45m or significantly isolated. I am not sure which regulations apply, but clearly Health and Safety for children etc. Ferdinand