Ferdinand

Just to drive that home with a Baseball Bat. You have taken on the role of Project Manager. A Professional doing that on your build would be charging you 20-30k. At £250-300 per day that is 80-100 days or 600-900 hours. ie 5-6 months full time. Your equivalent in 3 hour evenings plus half of Sat & Sun, assuming you are 2/3 as efficient, is more like 500 evenings and afternoons. Just on the Project Management, and not including anything you do towards designing it, getting the specialist knowledge to PM a build, or actiually building it ! My point is that for such a process you should not be surprised if planning to minimise your budget alone costs you 60-100 evenings in time spent, and if you save yourself say 10-20% it will be worth it. That is normal, so don't worry that it is too much. It is just that many of us don't add all the 2 hours here, and 3 hours there, that we spend on PM, and realise that it adds up to a helluvalot. We just think we are going 25% or 30% slower than we expected, and start worrying. You do not need to worry about taking extra time; you only need to worry if you get 40% of the way through and realise you have spent 60% of the money, then go ........ "oooooooooooh, sheeeeeeeeeeet !". My other tip for this bit is to get a specific office area, and at least a half decent filing system, including an archive set up so you can find things again later. Ferdinand

Weren't you planning to camouflage the door to this, @recoveringacademic? Another Example, by making the wall stripey. Male it full height and it would be completely hidden.

THe actual report .. not linked from the article .. is here. https://eciu.net/assets/Reports/ECIU_Zero_Carbon_Homes.pdf Personally I think it is too much of a "back of the envelope memo" created in a couple of hours to get media attention. Interested in others' comments, though. Ferdinand

The extension 3 count as new build, the other 3 are conversion, as they're part of the original house. I'm uncertain of the numbers I need to achieve for either, but I'm also not confident in the architect. I'd say you need to know that, otherwise they may fall foul of the Regulations for rentals. I work to a C for new refurbs, ideally a B. Ferdinand

The photo Is a fake. He's really called Hyacinth, loves knitting, and is aged 73.

I work on longish hours for the ufh to be on, and have boosted the flow temperature for the winter, and also sometimes switch it to always-on in the cold snap. Ferdinand

Welcome, Bob. Ferdinand

What is the actual SAP number you need to achieve (it sounds as if your architect is trying to scrape a minimum)? If the SAP chap is useless, then I would check it - as you are wisely doing. Does your extension count as a newbuild or an extension, since each flat is a separate dwelling? The required standards are different. Which set of values applies, and have they done it correctly? And you will have to decide whether your solar will be MCS-accredited or not. Cost difference of 1-2k, there. Which way do the solar panels face? Are they actually useful? This is a bit a red flag, as use of solar PV has long been a way to boost your EPC number when the basic house is not good enough. Agree that the best way is not to have it, esp. if there is no real benefit. As a LL myself, I would be concerned with panel heaters in a rental which is not built to high standards. Providing inexpensive running costs is imo the best way to keep tenants for years and years and years, especially as Change of Tenant costs continue to become more onerous over time. Ferdinand

(Self-censored)

Does anyone have suggestion as to pros or cons for the Building Regs route to follow on a fairly straightforward loft conversion. I plan to keep the property, and it is a rental. I think I could go either route, but am thinking the full plans route as the prices are the same in this LPA, and I get lower risks of getting it wrong inadvertently. Cheers Ferdinand

I don't see how all these numbers mutually-reconcile, even before we start trying to decide whether they are possible or not, and what is necessary in order to make them possible - eg between employing subbies and doing the PM yourselves, or whether you have to get your dungarees on and start doing some of the labouring yourselves. I think a copy of SPONS would be a worthwhile purchase - one thing you need now is a good head-feel for what you can buy with how much, and what you can save by contributing yourself or calling in every favour you have ever been owed. My take: I think £1500 per sqm in Oxon is a low cost if you are doing a self-build without doing significant work yourself. Others may clarify. All costs are ballpark. As you go through your build it just gets to be a smaller ballpark. That's trite - but it says do not commit to so many specifics in advance (eg pre-buying a 5k cooker) that you cannot cover possible variance in the later stages. Sufficient thought experiments are worth their weight in gold. My general opinion is that on average it should be possible to save 20-25% over initial costings without compromising cost or quality too much, or by finding an alternative item or strategy that will be acceptable. Obvs that is a general rule, but set you target high. 15-20% is what your minimum self-build contingency should be anyway. That can be reduced progressively in amount if not in precentage, as finish costs are more predictable than "what's under this soil" costs, but most people will have lots of gold plating they will want to spend it on anyway. Work through some of the thorough cost saving examples that have been done here. One or two people have threads with real detail. You need to know where you stand, and how you will get it to move-in point even if it goes 20% over and you have a shell which still has concrete floors, and only one sink on a batten. Here is @Visti's thread where he did that for his build at Gravenhill. Ferdinand

@bigreadie Welcome. Well done on the plot - they seem thin on the ground in Oxfordshire. I would make 2 points not covered yet: 1 - Take the time it takes, and don't regret doing so. There may also be opportunities with Brexit about to happen, or us staying in mid-air. The climate is unstable, and contractors may find their order books changing. 2 - There are various direct routes eg some building societies do self-build mortgages (eg Ecology, Melton, Ipswich iirc for three). Have a skim through this section of the forum: https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/forum/112-self-build-mortgages/ Ferdinand

Personally, I sometimes feel like I AM the original of the missing link. Now, where's that banana ...

Cheers. We have been spraying a storeroom this week, which has a ceiling up to 4m+, which I had undercoated and only just reached with a 1.8m extender for the roller. I have been out to the garage and my hoover is in fact Aldi not Lidl ... it is like a mini dustbin on wheels, and was advertised as an Ash vacuum. On dehumidifier, I started out with a big domestic one (10l at 25C approx), which does work OK and has a humidistat + thermometer. I then had the experience of this hired one to dry our a water leak. Then I kept my eyes open for several to use for drying out plaster/ tenant floods should one happen, and swooped when a drying company was closing, so now I have a 40l one and a 60l one, weighing approx 30kg and 60kg respectively (absolute buggers to move anywhere) with a couple of supporting fan heaters. I guess these have been used significantly 5 or 6 times in a couple of years. looking at the new prices, they would be nearly eye watering. I wish I had and more of the smaller ones. technically these are specced (i.e. The chap said he would use them for) for rooms of approx 400sqft and 800sqft. I think I will get a PB lifter this year, and start keeping my eyes open for a tower. Ferdinand

Sorry, no. On Wickes as above they would deliver, but you would need to order instore to use the cashcard. I see that you are Carlisle or Lancaster for the nearest.

I think if you catch Wickes with all their discounts lined up, and use a Reloadable Cash Card e.g. From your employer or Westfield Rewards, you may beat that by 5-10%, but you would need to wait for the day. I am not sure if they still do a standard bulk 5 for 4 type discount on plasterboard, however, Consists of £7.20 base price for 8x4 12.5mm 10% off for Trade Account. 5 for 4 if they still do this, and I have not bought plasterboard recently enough to have seen it 5% extra for Trade Customers via the newsletter e.g. There was one last week 10% off for the reloadable cash card. They may have deals for the monthly offer, Half Term or Easter. Ferdinand

Looking good. I'd like to ask you a bit more about dehumidifiers later, to get an idea of costs of hiring vs buying. The last time I had a commercial dehumidifier, it came on a wheeled trolley and cost the insurance company £50 per week. THis may be teaching you to suck eggs, but are you using an extendible-pole roller (Wickes do a good value system) and sander? I find them a massive help in avoiding bending; so much that I have a couple of spares to keep compulsory volunteers happy (or at least not rebelling). Did you hire or buy the scaffold tower and PB Lifter? I have my beady eye on one each of those for this year. Is that a Lidl Hoover I see? G

I'll just wait for @Onoff to find this thread. ? But for now I am off to collect a person from hospital.

So was I ?.

On the Rainwater Harvesting - yes, but we (or at least I) were talking domestic systems, and in particular their use with a second set of plumbing installed. On the US, IMO the biggest issues are 1 - inefficient us of energy in general, 2 - wrt water entrenched interests eg farmers with historic rights. Distorting effect similiar to all our savings on pension costs having to be met from people not yet being paid. The sunk cost cannot be reduced for political reasons. Ferdinand

MOre complex systems, especially when you consider maintenance costs, have a very long payback if you have a good quality fabric which reduces your annual energy bills to say £500-1000. I would say that the era of Code for Sustainable Homes was all about complex ways of achieving things, That is often now done more easily by a fabric-first strategy, and leaving out the complex gubbins . IMO GSHP is now very niche, and imo things like Rainwater Harvesting have mainly had their time, if you do a high quality fabric approach. SImilarly for complex control systems - if you can heat your whole house with a few kilowatts, then room stat timers cease to be economic. Ferdinand

What type of windows? Are they original? How old is the house? Alu frames are relatively recent, and in this country mainly post war. Looking forward to the detail. I think in the US they go back to about 1930 .. around the time of the Empire State Building. There is a company Called the Heritage Window Company who may advise .. but that is not a recommendation, just a note. Or a body called the Historic Houses Association, but if they are Alu and original I do not think it is likely to their territory, as the house will be relatively recent. F

WHatw as the actual situation on that roof. Was it actually built too high, or did the street view give a misleading impression. IF the latter, calling it "an illustrative street view" may have saved you. Ferdinand

Why not use the method the first used for setting torpedoes? They put a long prodder on the front of their boats and submarines :-) A bit like Sir LanceLot. Ferdinand

A note that if you are doing a corporate structure the topping up the pension is a good way of takeover out money tax free. Again, specialist advice needed. if you are accepting the developer label, then Entrepreneur’s Tax Relief can come in. Ferdinand