Ferdinand

There are exceptions for properties which cannot be realistically upgraded if payback is (iirc) more than 15 years. I don't know what the regulators will do, but I can see certain councils putting actions in place post-April 2018. I would think it will be an easy hit when there are complaints and they will not have to do a full HHSRS assessment / enforcement. Tell landlord to meet x level, and the checking will be by a third party. Many places can get a C with external insulation, but the prop. I have just upgraded had a quote for 14k to do that :-), which would not be feasible without a big grant. Personally i wouldn't buy anything with rooms in the roof unless they had been upgraded or there was money off the price to do the work. I backed out of one before Christmas that had a nice renovation finish but it was still an E. Far better options are places that have already had EWI or ones that are basically sound but need a top to bottom redo. I expect an overhang of hard to upgrade rentals coming onto the market in 2023-5 and 2028-30. I would say that the slum sector will transfer to none upgradeable owner occupied properties where the owners cannot afford to do things ... assuming that Councils go for landlords who are not compliant. It would be a similar process one stage further to the one by which some Councils sold off many of their poorer rental properties in the 90s and 2000s when these could not be economically improved. At some stage energy bills will become important in the market, and at that point price differentials will come in - just as now it is hard to rent single glazed property (unless it is twee and they are hipsters). At present lack of supply is perhaps a bigger factor. Ferdinand

@pocster Just to be clear, the limits will also apply to existing properties aiui .

Perhaps someone has complained?

Just a heads up for people looking to invest money. Kevin McCloud's company HAB have a 5 year investment bond open at 8% AER at present. Usual caveats ... capital at risk, not covered by protections cheme etc. Here: https://www.habhousing.co.uk/news/initial-crowd-fund-target-smashed-in-4-days Ferdinand

Remember that you have to have an EPC E by next year, D by 2025 and C by 2030 to rent it out legally. For a new conversion you should be OK. You should care about tenant bills ... if seriously high they will move and it may be expensive to get a new tenant plus all the paperwork. You already have to give an EPC to the tenant - suspect soon that may be regulated more carefully, because the landlord spankers are always after more canes. I am just waiting for an EPC on a house i have just had some work done for a tenant, and I am hopeful of taking the EPC from an E to nearly a C. It will get a C once I have a new boiler but I am waiting until it is necessary. Plus play your cards right by demonistarting a £1000 pa energy saving and you can ask for £500 on the rent. Ferdinand

Suspect that you are overthinking the sound insulation if you have 300mm of cellulose. Perhaps go and visit someone's house with that insulation, taking your better half, a trombone and something to make low pitched thuds. Ferdinand

That avatar ! And I thought mine was dodgy ... being an extract from Pompeian Pornography.

http://www.ebuild.co.uk/topic/13949-many-many-showers/ Ferdinand

I remember the pugwash icon from ebuild. Welcome. How did your HMO go ? Ferdinand

MY comment s based on penetration of and holes in membranes being a major problem with membranes hidden inside walls. So an exposed membrane in a loft is more vulnerable imo. What happens if they need to mend the roof from the inside? Perhaps others know better. F

In my view the problem with recessed spots is that they get installed in the first place. You wouldn't consider getting rid? The other issue I can see is protecting the membrane once installed. Ferdinand

It is worth a note that some btl loan providers deal direct such as National Counties, Aldermore and Kent Reliance. That would save about £500 a time and let you donate a pauper's funeral to your now destitute broker...

I need to drill a 100mm hole for a fan duct in a 225mm brick wall. Can anyone recommend a suitable product? I expect to use it occasionally for a number of years - say half a dozen times a year. If I can just pick it up from Wickes or Screwfix that would be a bonus but is not essential. Thanks Ferdinand

Wickes: A specific and a general. One of my local Wickes's (Sutton-in-Ashfield) has 15% extra off from now until the end of March. This is because they are refurbishing and finding things has gone mad temporarily - cannot be stacked on a Trade Discount and requires a min purchase of £10. The vouchers are distributed at the counter. So anyone planning a big purchase may have reason for a trip. Or two trips :-). Or one trip to buy a sample tile for £2 then a return after leaving to the car park for the £6k kitchen (or they might give you one anyway). Is this Wickes "refurbishment discount" something that occurs regularly? Surely there must always be a branch being refurbished within a hour or so nearly everywhere (except isolated bits of Scotland?). Ferdinand

Sorry ... thought you said "An Amazon". I will get my goat sorry coat. Most of my Amazon spending is via Gift Cards, since on occasions they can give a noticeable discount. I used to get £100 of free petrol for £1000 spent on Amazon cards at Morrisons. A good way of timeshifting spending, however. The offer is still there but is only worth a fraction of the former value. Ferdinand

Your poor broker God rest his soul I would think that the way to finance may be to take a 3 or 5 year smallish say 60% remortgage on the other rental you were talking about and pay for the build from that cash. The Osborne tax is coming in over the next few years so you squeak in before too much damage is done. Perhaps do it via a lower rate taxpayer if one is available to avoid that. Ferdinand

I was wondering about reporting on this. I received my first 95% of a year report recently, and we did a total of 4068.5 kWh, on a 9.98 kWp 80% east / 20% west system installed Jan 2016, with a total payment of £541 pus whatever we have saved by using self-generated electricity, which I estimate at another £150. The meter reading this AM came out at 4093.3 kWh. All that says is that it will pay for itself eventually, and the results are seriously mucked up because more than half of it was behind trees for months, and some of it is still behind trees :-). The contingencies of meeting dates for subsidy ! Previously I predicted about 5500kWh, but there is considerable environmental finessing still to be done, which may involve our other neighbour's TPO trees which are looking a little dodgy and may be towards DDD (Dead, Decaying, Dangerous) condition. For a substantially better result will need to finesse some (perhaps 10-12 for a 16 / 12 / 8 ESW mix) of the panels onto a south-facing carport roof which only exists in my head at present. But that will need care to keep an attractive 'face' on the house. Ferdinand

The one I am looking at (260 sqm) had Outline PP in 2012, then in 2015, and the later one introduced a full set of ground conditions investigations Planning Conditions which were not there in the 2012 version. Ferdinand

That is all true, and you can be tax efficient when building in your own garden. However, I would still put a question mark over building your dream home as it would have been a decade ago. I hope you don't mind trenchant arguments - most people welcome strong opinions as "iron striking iron" even if they reject them. If you plan to stay then don't you need to be building the dream home you want to live in in 2025 not 2005 or you could end up with lots of cleaners and 2 or 3 permanently empty bedrooms? Is it better to reconsider? I currently live in somebody else's dream home which didn't suit them after their kids left, and then stopped coming back as much since they developed families and responsible jobs away. Unfortunately for them they never completely finished while they still needed it and then the market tanked and the cost won over the benefit. However it suits me perfectly and they had to drop their price by 20% as it was 2013. All I did was build the conservatory and gravel the drive, and have fixed some corners they seem to have cut, and I have a lovely home. To be fair I had previously had to drop *mine* by significantly more than that to shift what was my parents' house of 35 years. Options could be to have a design which is smaller but suitable for extension but not build the extension (or do a further PP afterwards for an extra wing and just lock in the PP by building foundations), or build something that could be split later, or build two, or do something extravagant for real fun such as a gym or 4 car garage for the classic cars you are about to collect, which could be converted later, or a ballroom. Or think of something to do with the other half of it you may not use. In Cambridge, however, you probably won't have selling problems for a large family house unless all the Sky Is Falling In predictions about Brexit coming from the various Professors Henny Penny in academe turn out to be even worse than feared, as you are in the London penumbra. Ferdinand

Welcome. The one point that I would make is that making money from self-building is far less likely these days if experience of our members is anything to go by, if that were your aim. But I am sure you will be running your numbers carefully. Ferdinand

I am trying really hard to restrain myself from posting the original Hampsterdance animated GIF file. Like Psmith, the P is silent.

Assumption: we are not listed, and not in a conservation area for this thread. I am beginning to muse on building a studio bungalow, and I was thinking about what I should actually tell Planners at the Detailed Application stage - I think my preference is a conversation with the Duty Planner then straight to a full application. I hvae chatted about this before, but this is an example of the concept. Now, the previous thread pointed out that Planners are concerned with (my summary) Public Realm / Environment and mainly appearance / context, while Building Standards are concerned with "Will it work technically and meet performance standards?". Bearing in mind that somebody on here had an issue when he had to change his front door to a new model and the planners started flapping, my question is how much do we actually need to tell them? Consider, for example, a window in a wall of my theoretical new bungalow. If I choose a wall finish that is a light coloured render, I do not see why the planners need to know what sort of render it is or whether it is white, off white or light grey, pale yellow, periwinkle or coral. In theory istm that they should just need to know the tint not the hue. If my window is going to be a dark finish (say dark grey aluclad timber) I do not see why the Planner needs to know the particular manufacturer, or model, or precise material. Is it any skin off a planners nose whether the dark grey is aluminium, dark paint or plastic? Nor do I see that they need to know the u value, or whether it is 2G or 3G. What is it reasonable not to tell them, and what can we get away with leaving out of a Detailed Application? Very general questions, but fellow cud-chewers are welcome. Ferdinand

Can you pay a delivery company an extra hour to hire it e.g. If you have gravel delivered? Or get a hire company to fit you in when someone returns a big digger early? Or it is 2mx2mx2m of water in a tank which you subsequently send back under the Distance Selling Regs. Or borrow 2 elephants. Or about 50 strapping friends - BuildHub AGM.

Were I to want a box of that sort, I would go for something large e.g. lid on top, size of a tea chest to full size door, size of a closet, and with an auto lock door or lid. I think that a porch with an outer door that can be left open is a good idea, and something to hide it behind. An autolock or latch on a porch is a neverrrrr !!!, unless you solve the 'granny stuck between locked doors' issue. Difficult one to balance. F

IN this area .. Mansfield .. Jewsons specialise. I have about 4 within a few miles, but only one of them has an extensive roofing selection. Not sure what difference that makes to price.