Kelvin

If you want message me your email address and I’ll forward an email I got from http://aecb.net that has some info and several links

I’ve looked into this a bit. Primarily it will come down to what you prefer the look of. Smoked engineered oak looks much better (to me) than bamboo which tends to look more like patchwork when laid and almost tile like. Bamboo isn’t as durable as engineered oak so if it’s in a high traffic area keep that in mind. It’s also more susceptible to marking. However, it is from a very sustainable source so if you care about that then it wins hands down. Technically it’s also not a wood per se as it’s a grass processed into planks. Not that this matters much.

HH are a firm of architects so they’ve done all our drawings and submission for planning, warrant, and organised all the SE work etc. They can also manage getting all the other professional stuff done like topo survey, site investigation, drainage, utilities, etc but I did all of that before I bought the plot and they used the reports. They use three kit manufacturers I believe. One for their SIP builds, one for CPS and an Austrian company for the CLT builds.

Yes I don’t think ESCROW would work for many timber kit companies. In my case because they sub-contract the work to another company my assumption is they release the money to them as they need to fund the manufacture of the house. If I can find an insurance product that isn’t too expensive I’ll do that. If not I’ll need to swallow the risk.

Well technically 328ft 😉

The standard length for a Cat5 cable segment is 100m including all the patch cables until you get to router/switch.

If the plant room is big enough for everything without compromising access then put it there rather than taking up cupboard space. In terms good Wi-Fi access. Don’t use access points or plug in extenders use a genuine mesh network (not every mesh network setup is genuinely a mesh network) The fastest on the market is probably the Netgear Orbi system. They have various setups but the two pack system should cover the house easily enough. You can add more satellites if it doesn’t. It’s not cheap but it is very good and very fast as it has a high speed backhaul setup between the Orbi devices back to the router.

Our ASHP installer specced our system with a 250 litre cylinder but I’ll get that increased to 300 litre minimum as we regularly have people stay. We had a 300 litre tank and ASHP in our last place it is was fine even with a house full. 120 litre tank is far too small.

Even if they put networking cable terminated in every room it shouldn’t be that expensive. I’d get a second opinion to sanity check all the costs or seek out another electrician to quote the electrics. As others have said, if you have no plans to fit things like cameras in the house or any sort of automation then one cable per floor makes sense for Wi-Fi access points.

Ah right. My mistake I got in my head that they were talking about just electricity. That makes sense now.

I can’t answer your specific question but there is a lot of mindless copying of regulation text in reports you pay for in my experience. Clearly things need to be designed correctly!

Yes I wish I had considered this a bit more deeplt before signing the contract. 🙄 I’ve asked them about an escrow service too. The guy I spoke with at BJP was really helpful. He said he rarely sells the advanced payment product (because it’s dear I guess) but did mention he’s seen an increase in the number of people asking for these kinds of products. Yes there are other companies that offer this type of insurance (Allianz for one) but the blurb seems to assume you are a company rather than an individual. I have a few follow up calls to make next week about it.

Those numbers don’t make sense based on average kWh usage do they?

I posted a similar question recently. I asked my timber kit company (Heb Homes) what client protection they had in place should they go bust. They laughed nervously when I asked as no one had ever asked them this. After a few weeks they came back to me with two options: insurance with BJP insure (at my cost) and a personal guarantee in writing from one of their directors (while laudable won’t be worth much in reality) My situation is slightly more complicated in that it also includes all the windows and doors and that Heb Homes don’t make the kit, they sub the kit out to another company and the windows to Nordan. I phoned BJP insurance and they have a product called advance payment insurance but it’s expensive at 10%-15% of the total contract value which would be at my expense. I’ve asked HH if I can pay part of the invoices on various credit cards so that would give me some protection just waiting on their answer. There are other things I will ask them to do such as show pictures of our materials with order numbers and my name on. No doubt they think I am being over cautious (difficult) but that’s three people I know or heard of losing large sums of cash to a timber kit company going bust.

I’m going to have a similar challenge to address. My garage is going to be 10mx6m insulated steel building (40mm walls and roof) with an insulated floor. I’ll initially use it as storage and site office. My plan is to partition one end of it and build another insulated room inside it. It’s likely to be too warm in the summer and too cold in the winter so I intend to fit a multi head split A2A heat pump.

Oh what a nightmare. This is exactly the situation I am trying to avoid as my timber kit supplier has similar terms (presumably most do) in that they’ll have 90% of the timber kit cost including windows prior to us starting. In fact a few months before we start. I am really gutted for you.

It looked beyond saving and there wasn’t much patching up in evidence

My thought was what would they have done had they not got that inheritance to build the house. The house they were in was little more than a shed and was falling apart. While it wasn’t exactly like many other GD situations they still ended up only being able to do it due to external input. That said he did pull the extra from his pension.

The limit tends to be 3.2m. There’s also a limit on the weight that a lot of suppliers will provide in a single piece which also depends on access, stairs etc. solid worktops are heavy. 30mm thick quartz is something like 80kgs/sqm. Microcement is a great option too. We are considering it too for a few different areas. Other half to do our entire floor in it but I’m not convinced.

The recent energy crisis will help change people’s attitudes towards heating with gay abandon because it used to cost buttons to better understanding that reducing the need to heat your house in the first place makes more sense.

It’s even more complicated than that. What about folk that pay a combined amount for rent and utilities. Most student accommodation is organised like that and they already get stiffed from my son’s experience. Same with folk that live in caravan type parks etc. This isn’t an easy nut to crack.

I’m glad to read confirmation on my view of no need to heat upstairs if you get the insulation and air tightness right as my plan is no rads upstairs.

Yes a good opportunity for the Government to slip a few things by the keeper. Never let a big news story go to waste.

Depends. If it’s a grant they everyone on oil will get it. If it’s a price cap then it’s likely it won’t be less than what you’ve paid.

I assume it will be some other type of grant or price cap.