Ferdinand

Nothing specific in the article.

I think English is the bond you want on a sharp country bend. Or well rooted idiot bollards.

I would say that OnOff's bathroom is Procrustean not Procrastian... F

I had a loft done on a scheme 2 weeks ago and they were excellent. They took just an hour to add 250mm to the 60mm already there. Turned out that the surveyor was a blues dancing acquaintance. Ferdinand

Chatting to a couple of Timber Frame manufacturers to try and get some constructive estimates together. Sadly Space4 do not supply outside Persimmon any more. But, working to Building Regs only spec, a full Timber Frame kit for a detached house in the 90-135 sqm range can be 220-250 £/sqm. That includes everything except Tiles, Cladding, Plumbing, Electrics, Gas and Finishes such as paint, and requires a site, slab, services and to build it. (will update this post with further estimates for the other items) Ferdinand

My understanding is that on medium size upwards sites of say 100+ houses in a normal uncomplicated setting, the cost structure for a big developer for an average 200k house might be roughly: Site Purchase, groundworks, infrastructure: 50k Building it: 50k Planning Gain taxes and cost of affordable provision: 50k Planning, Paperwork, Promotion: 25k Profit: 25k. Sanity checks welcome.

Those are *excellent* questions @gravelld. That may skewer my comment because they traditionally view EWI as a solution for "hard to insulate" which normally means solid walls. I am not sure what they do with non-fillable cavaties eg 45mm cavities from something built in say 1925. Over the years I have had several quotes and surveys, and those have been on solid walled houses with one on a narrow cavity house which was declared ubsuitable for cavity-wall insulation. I think those should be OK, although the default will be building regs minimum. As it is basically a cash grant up to X amount, if you choose to have a gold-plated solution at your own extra expense that is no skin off their nose unless your entire scheme falls within the limit, which probably means mid-terraces only, when it would be more complex. It will all be in the initial conversation. The quote I mentioned above was in December 2016, and still included a very small amount (5% ish) of funding. Their spec was U value of 0.29, but they were happy to quote for 150mm rather than 90mm EPS, and the minimal funding was still in the quote. I had a long chat with the head of BS (=Building Standards) at my local council, and his key point was to check previous jobs and to supervise and enforce detail to the nth degree. Ferdinand

Back in December I was nurdling a post looking at the issue of the extra cost/benefit by building thinner walls. The point is that LAs specify maximum external directions, but Estate Agents value by internal floor area. So eg a 10m x 6m internal size detached house which used 150mm celotex rather than 300mm PUR in the walls potentially gains 10 x 6 x 2 (sides of house) x 2 (floors) x 0.15 sqm of internal area which is 18sqm or 15%, or a master bedroom suite , representing perhaps £36k of extra market value at £2000 per sqm. Lots of angles on the calculation, and ways to interpret it, but is it something we think about? Ferdinand

IMO yes, but you need to think first about the whole thing and decide your spec, plan and budget first - which should be reasonably consistent. You can either do a big bang, or in bits as appropriate. You really want to make sure you do our glazing first or mount it in the EWI, and need to give thoughts about dealing with the cold bridge you may be creating in the entire thickness of all your walls at the top if you don't EWI the gable, and your gable becomes a radiator. Room in roof insulation is the best solution there or your free loft insulation plus stick slabs of PUR to the gable inside your loft to lower the EWI temp gradient in the wall. If you do go IWI remember the slice of wall between your Ground and First floors, and window reveals. One thing about EWI is that the govt is planning something soon, but are still at the waffle and standards stage.So look into that. Last time grants were two thirds of the first 6k but they needed to be able to apply EWI to most of the house. Get yourself on a waiting list at some of your local suppliers to be contacted. Or do some modest IWI and make sure that the assessor misses it if you EWI later. See https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/578749/Each_Home_Counts__December_2016_.pdf Also an issue for you will be sealing the cavity or your EWI will be useless if it is open to some degree to the outside - in which can you may as well put the EWI on the garden wall :-) . Ferdinand

I have just done a reasonably extensive IWI refit which might be a useful point of comparison. In this case I looked at EWI but the quotes came in at 14k for the whole thing (small but long 3 bed semi), which was EWI on the gable and the back plus IWI for the front room and bedroom because ornamentation prevented EWI. For the rented property that would swallow 6 or 7 years of profit by the time other necessary works had been done, so we went IWI instead, which is summarised below. There is a long thread about options and debate called The Landlord's Energy Dilemma over at GBF: http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14688&page=1 If ECO funding was still in place for EWI I might have done it, as it would have been under 10k. The IWI scheme with other bits worked out at about 3k, and the tenant is buzzing about it having had a couple of weeks of Cold House first. The Deilemma of the title is that I have done the investment but the Tenant gets the saving, which is less problematic that the Green Deal where the T pays for my investment but still not ideal. Ferdinand

I suppose you *could* post an information page somewhere (blog?) and run some google ads. That has worked for me on occasion just by optimising the post to hit the top 3 Google results, but you nee a decent platform to start with.

There seem to be a surprising number on Autotrader. http://caravans.autotrader.co.uk/used-caravans/static

Round soffits are about £3.50 for a pack of 10 from Screwfix :-). Ferdinand

Call an engineer under warranty ?

The approach my father used with out 50mm farm track type drive was to buy a 10 ton load of gravel every decade and accept that in the meantime it would spread and eventually sink into the mud. Very cost effective, but not the way I would do it. Ferdinand

Hmmm. Off the wall, but can you use the stuff people here use for reinforcing the driven-on areas of their sites for part of the drive? Are they available secondhand and what do they cost? F

If it is on a hill and in the back of beyond, do you need to think about grip? Cross ribbed concrete (ie finished with a plank) might be better for ice and snow, perhaps? That is provided there is a cross-fall on it. If you save on the budget can you put a more interesting and practical finish on the concrete? Ferdinand

Does anyone have views / experience for a choice of materials and build suggestions for paths to a front door to be resilient to snow 'n' ice? More a general question brought on by taking the dustbin out on a frosty morning and an 80 year old person in the house than an urgent need. Finishes that I have around my house include Pressed Council slabs, gravel and aggregate-exposed concrete. Of those: Council Slabs are an elevated patio on adjustable rises, and is very well drained but perfectly flat so sometimes gets ice puddles. Gravel is perfect but more difficult for eg wheelchairs. Exposed aggrgate concrete looks OK and drains well as it has a fall, and is good until conditions become a little more extreme. Ferdinand

The turquoise light suits the bar stool design rather well, there.

Thanks for the comments. From the top @curlewhouse I have used 8mm Rawlplugs flagged as Heavy Duty. Drilled into brick. I *might* add a bead of hard setting sealant round the edge to make it slightly more difficult. IMO anchor bolts would be overkill. @AliG Thanks for your research. I think the issue with electronic keylocks etc for me is that a new door or work to the door gets involved, and it is still possible to lose the card. The Sugust one seems to not be compatible with multipoint and perhaps upvc. There are combination products such as the Yale, but I am not convinced yet. @ProDave The spare key option loses feasibility once one gets into a number of callers. Potentially we will have cleaner, nurse, LA checkupper etc. @jamiehamy Hmmm. Could work. @Tennentslager In the end I have gone with by the doorway, but only visible once you enter the porch. We actually had 3 houses down the road broken into last new year; as a No Through Road it is very quiet and only slightly lit, despite being a former country lane close to the town centre. A month ago our immediate neighbour (while house up for sale) had their bay window lead stolen. @PeterW, @TerryE I went for *this* one from Screwfix, which is the high end of their range at £39.99: http://www.screwfix.com/p/master-lock-reinforced-combination-key-safe/58460?kpid=58460 If it went, swapping out the lock barrels (we are keyed alike on our main external doors) could be done in 15 minutes. Ferdinand

I am fitting a keysafe so that a) the cleaner can get in and b) there is a key in case mum loses her key. Two questions: 1 - What do you think about siting a keysafe. I can see 2 principles a - Make it not obvious so that it can't be found easily by people wanting ro break in. b - Make it somewhere you look every time you leave so that if it has been tampered with it is obvious. 2 - Is there anything that can be put into a hole bofore a Rawl Plug to make it more difficult to lever out? What do members think? Ferdinand

Bought 3 of these sets. Done a little masonry and brick drilling. Excellent.

One of the skills you will need is how to meet onerous conditions easily, and how to demonstrate that you can meet it to the Council without being too heavily detailed as to the implementation. Otherwise you could find yourself pulled up because you have specified a detail when your actual solution is just as good but not what you said. They may accept a gentle circumlocution which reduces to "this condition will be met if the circumstances occur". You need to keep your autonomy and build a cage for yourself. There are a few examples around. For example @JSHarris met the wheel washing facilities condition on a one house build in a country lane by putting a term for delivery drivers to check that their wheels were clean. More detail in the blog entry here: http://www.mayfly.eu/uncategorized/part-ten-out-of-the-ground/ Ferdinand

Yes. And I would expect the RIBA Standard Agreement to be worded to give the architect the ability to have control which is why the small print is critical. (Though in a consumer situation a clause may not be enforcible if not sufficiently clearly explained to the non-expert party, as Credit Card companies and Landlords keep discovering). But I can't post it here a) because it costs money to access and b) because were I to pony up my £47.50 I assume I only get a License to Use rather than License to Republish on Buildhub, though I could probably post the relevant clause under the Criticism and Review exception to Copyright I mentioned above. @Sensus I think that brings us back to most self-builders not being property developers or serial builders, who would already know a lot of the background stuff having walked into legal and planning lamp-posts on previous occasions. (Which is partly why this forum is required ). Anyhoo, around here Riber is a former zoo near Matlock. Ferdinand

@PeterW @Sensus beat me to it. His link here references Meikle vs Maufe of 1941. I think the relevant concept is that the Copyright in a "work of artistic craftmanship" includes the control of how it is used, and you buy a license to use a design rather than a lock stock and barrel transfer of ownership. Even if you engage an architect, that copyright remains with the Artist ie the Architect, unless there is explicit provision for transferring those rights of control (and also the right to be identified as the artist etc) in the contract. A comparison with photographs may help. If I buy a photo from say Alamy, under traditional terms, I buy a license to use the photo in a particular way eg in a brochure, A5 on an inside page, with a circulation of 10,000. If I want a print for my foyer I have to get another license. If I even purchase the negative from the photographer I still don't get the right to publish the picture unless I have also bought the relevant image rights with the negative. This lasts until the architect has been dead for 70 years iirc. Aside: This is why museums ban high qualiy pics of their Old Masters physically ("no tripods") because there would then be no way of limiting people who started selling posters, since Leonardo is dead for >70 years. So the designer's copyright includes control over how that design is used, and any use beyond that envisaged in the initial contract counts as a further use which needs a further agreement. If the designer is employed by a practice rather than contracted there will be some words in the contract of employment, which will probably give @Sensus and his Partners or the Company itself control of certain of the rights his minions receive automatically under Copyright Law when they design a house. Meikle vs Maufe illustrates the outworking of that concept in the Courts: There is a wonderfully clear (!) legal commentary on the SWARB site (assume this is where @Sensus got the quote from), which talks about License to Use rather than Ownership: http://swarb.co.uk/meikle-v-maufe-1941/ I would need also to dig for stuff about where "reasonability" limits these rights etc. Ferdinand