Ferdinand

Do insurance companies place requirements on outside key safes? And if a key safe is nto xyz compliant will that be a possible reason for rejection of a breakin claim where the keysafe was not used to provide the means of entry? (Yes, I bet they would argue that...). F

Following up this, I see that eg Network Rail use postsavers as a default on their posts ... as standard they use either a post boot or bitumen dip. Ferdinand

I have had medical emergencies requiring action that rapid ... specifically one or two acute asthma attacks with unexpected triggers. One was inkjet ink fumes. On one occasion I went into respiratory arrest when the hospital made me immediately blow the tester. But the OP was about while on holiday, so perhaps an occupied house is a different circumstance. In that case they could just hold a kitchen knife to someone's neck .. give us the keys or else. For a holiday solution it could be as simple as a half inch bar bolted across the garage door or from drive to lintel, or an electric gate with a padlock or three. Or the key properly concealed or held by a third party. Or a wheel clamp if you have no garage. Ferdinand

And do not forget that even non-existent risk must be mitigated. That was the key point in an H&S Educational (ahem) video I posted recently. More seriously, don't you just need a letter from your Ecologist, or yourself, to summarise "no action required" in slightly more words, written in Council-ese?

Here you go. Ferdinand

One way would be to treat it as two volumes with 2 separate calculations at the same internal temperature. Or have you tried the Heatloss Spreadsheet and U Value calculator from @JSHarris. The most complex calculation you would need to do yourself seems to be an area-weighted average u-value for your walls. For each type of wall, that is u-value of section of wall * area of that section of wall, and add them all up to give a weighted value and divide by total area for an average u-value. I think that is right. I am sure we can pitch in and help. My initial thought is that if it is half just solid walls with no extra insulation in an end terrace then no ufh system on earth would deliver enough but it will be worth the calculation to check it and help identify options if necessary. Even boarding out to building regs standards may not be enough, based on my own experience. Ferdinand

That is interesting. I thought the 'high end' fashion was for grid switches in single housings above the worktop. F

Just watching it. Car crash TV . OK - the unvarnished verdict. The programme is being massively dodgy by not including loss of income in their "returns" and ignoring transaction costs, then not mentioning it. HUTH at least always says "before taxes and expenses". The 325k one now has a rental which is losing her money. Rental £895 pcm minus 13% if managed. Will have spent 500-1k finding a tenant. Gross rental return = about 3%. Monthly costs are quoted as £800. Given that it is her second house and seems to be mortgaged she will likely have paid 16k stamp duty (definitely next time) plus perhaps another 4k costs on the way in. Identified by the programme? And she will have to refresh it before she sells - 3k? Plus sales legal and EA costs of 3-8k. Possible small profit due to inexperience, unless the buying price or rising prices saves her. Risk of tenant wrecking it. IMO the best decision she made was to buy a wreck in a good street. The 49k one has spent months of time for a 17k profit. But may have dodged the 3% 2nd property Stamp Duty if she is in rental (unless before 31/3/2016 which is moot now), and saved expenses by funding with cash. If it is a separate development property she will have paid 1.5k stamp duty on the way in. Plus perhaps 1k other costs. Plus 1-2k sales costs. If the programme did not identify transactional costs her profit is actually about 11k, which fits nicely with the CGT allowance. The second one shows promise after a rough start. The first one is "angels rush in..". "Dada rail" indeed, when it was a picture rail anyway :-) . I'd say the "don't own your own house and be a serial developer with one property" may be a viable model if you can flip quickly, especially if in a couple and buying alternately (6 a year would be possible) or perhaps one owning your home and the other the development properties one at a time, or larger scale where the costs can be mitigated. But it has been crippled by transaction taxes. I wonder if either of them insulated to Building Regs requirements for those elements they renovated? Will be fun TV.

Comment on wrong thread. Deleted.

Is the Handbags for Barbie (or Ken) factory set up yet?

It looks like a good cost shaver in the appropriate circs. Thanks all.

Two questions: 1 - Is that in-CU timer also an MCB? Or does need a second slot? 2 - I am not familiar with a 4 or 6 star energy rating. Can anyone advise? With the talk of Building Warrants, is it perhaps another differently Scottish thing?

Off-topic? Us? An outrageous slander ! @MrsB The further thing I would say is be prepared to take a lot of time (as in elapsed time) - if you are going the "build two and sell one" route, there are a lot pf wrinkles around developer or not, tax efficiency and so on. Ferdinand

"Hang on the wall" electric flame effect fires are also surprisingly good. F

Welcome. We (OK - I) have an embryonic pre-purchase checklist for plots here, to which your comments would be most welcome as you proceed:

I *think* for grants on solar for newbuild you will be whistling in the wind. But I could be wrong :-) . Special circumstances, perhaps? I think that grants for solar are not available any more for refurb either - it is really cheap so why should they throw public money at it? There may be wrinkles you can exploit - eg the possibility of getting it VAT free if allowable as part of your newbuild etc, or better interest rates from Ecology if those are still available. But note that I know more about refurb grants (which except for loft insulation and small amounts in eg EWI all seem to be means tested). Ferdinand

Yep. There should be consultations for the various proposals.

Ooh. CiL up for reform including self-build CiL. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/589637/CIL_REPORT_2016.pdf

We have Electric for the bathroom on a timer and a towel rail, then oversized Rads. Works OK. F

You can see the site via the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive, if it was there a few weeks ago (Dec 2nd): http://web.archive.org/web/20161202154843/http://www.nakedfloors.com/ (Slow) Reclaimed Grey Barn Oak: http://web.archive.org/web/20160530020850/http://www.nakedfloors.com/wood-floors/engineered-oak-floors/43/repro-reclaimed-grey-barn-oak-engineered-wide-plank-wood-floors

@JSHarris Distressed? If consumer and ordered online as a standard stock item then the customer will have an absolute right to return it within I think 28 days (but do it more quickly). The best outcome may be for the customer to agree to keep the off-colour floor if they are willing but to to ask for a 30% (or 25% or 40%) discount, so the seller will still make money and save the hassle. I guess also check the stipulations about colour variation in the T&C. Hopefully it won't be as bad as the standard Estate Agent 'even if I am lying I take no responsibility and you are whistling in the wind' disclaimer. Ferdinand

Yes - they are here. But I haven't head of them doing whole houses before.

It is out, and there is a report here from the BBC, including an interview with the Minister. And this is the paper itself. Fixing_our_broken_housing_market_-_housing_white_paper (1).pdf The docs (all 12 of them) are here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/housing-white-paper As I see it, the point of concern for BuildHubbers may be the reduction of a PP length to 2 years not 3 (bonkers imo, without major Planning Reform). The good according to me: - Support for small developers - Pushing land supply The bad: - PP as mentioned - Doubling down on protection of the Green Belt It is interesting that we are nearly at 200k new units a year, if including changes of use. http://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/new-housing-tops-the-magic-200000-figure-sort-of Ferdinand

If only we could apply for an NMA to the existing plot ("add one house") rather than full PP.

This will be interesting to see. I wouldn't mention the instrumentals to the neighbours...