Reply to: The house that MF built

[AtW]

When do you plan to apply for a retrospective planning permission?

[MarillionFan]

House almost finished. Costs way over.

Hammered on services charges. Expected £800, cost £5000!!!
Lots of extra costs along the way. All in all costing £88k including landscaping and dropping the curb for parking! Lots of hidden costs.

Now also being threatened with legal action over a new access gate in my fence to the shared carpark over someone else's space! Load of bollocks. My gate opens in!!! It's been interesting.

So costs way over, but got the valuations in. £280k total. Cost plus build £233k. Just sort out the boundary rubbish tomorrow and I'm off and running!

Piccies to follow.

[MarillionFan]

Are you only having it done in the walls on one side then?

Gable end only. Other walls were Ok.

[Ticktock]

Week 3. SAP Rating failure - addendum

Eventually managed to add in an extra 40mm of cavity insulation
...
I've lost another 40mm of living space.

Are you only having it done in the walls on one side then?

[Old Hack]

I don't see how that would help

For a Ground Source Heat Pump? Or was it the typo 'dog'/'dig'?

[MarillionFan]

Week 3. SAP Rating failure - addendum

So, spent some time on the phone with the chap tweaking the components of the house. Eventually managed to add in an extra 40mm of cavity insulation & tweak some of the other components including adding a heat efficient cylinder with a low u rating, before his 'Excel spreadsheet' said pass.

Never seen such a load of cack before in my life for a business. All you need is a bloody spreadsheet to become an 'energy performance consultant'.

Now the builders are trying to work out the cost of the configuration changes & I've lost another 40mm of living space.

Good fun & great learning experience though. Week 3 continues.

[amcdonald]

If you have a small garden, just need to dog 3 deep holes.

I don't see how that would help

[Old Hack]

If you look at all the grants, and feed ins, RHI's etc, then you've got to realise, it isn't one thing that's the silver bullet, it's all, or as much as you can. We currently souring ground source heat pumps, Solar PV and Solar water. Payback is 8 years planned on a South facing roof with a pitch of 40 degrees. They start to get inefficient if you have a different pitch, or not south facing, although south, south west isn't too bad. Ground source heat pumps do work, we had one in the barn conversion, but spec it well, and research your companies. If you have a small garden, just need to dog 3 deep holes. Trowbridge isn't hard rock, so it will be cheaper than digging through Granite in Cornwall; I assume the garden is small. If you mix the three together, you should get away with almost 75-80% of your heating, more if you spec it right, and 60% of your water heating costs. Remember, in 8 years, you start earning moolah for another 12 years.

Solar is coming down in price, so 4KW costs about 6-7k, a GSHP about £12 and Solar Water about £3k. You'll get £3200, £1200 and £600 back for the GSHP, SPV and SWH in the right circumstances. So, around £15k gets you all that, plus it will sell for more than a home that isn't.

[Coalman]

We're off grid as well. Currently having a biomass boiler installed. Expensive but you will get RHI.

[MaryPoppins]

Telling her I was going to work out of the Singapore office for a week before missing my flight to China for the weekend did not go down particularly well.

[vetran]

Telling her I was going to work out of the Singapore office for a week before heading over to China for the weekend did not go down particularly well.

Maybe she is worried about you and a nasty little rash from the ladyboys?

does sound like you are pushing the envelope!

[MarillionFan]

Just out of interest MF, when you make your life choices e.g. jobs, contract roles, investments, money-making ideas, do you do the opposite of most of us and go for the hardest, toughest, most complex, most annoying, most likely to fail options?
Do you need to have therapy because you're a masochist?

I like a challenge.

Mrs just flipped out when I told her I was booking a flight to go to Ghangzhou (Canton Gift Fair) at the end of October to source garden furniture for a possible import business next year. When she pointed out that work, travelling backwards and forwards to the US & building a house was already over the top already, she asked how the hell was I going to find the time to be able to make the trip.

Telling her I was going to work out of the Singapore office for a week before heading over to China for the weekend did not go down particularly well.

[sasguru]

Just out of interest MF, when you make your life choices e.g. jobs, contract roles, investments, money-making ideas, do you do the opposite of most of us and go for the hardest, toughest, most complex, most annoying, most likely to fail options?
Do you need to have therapy because you're a masochist?

[amcdonald]

The right to buy extends to existing properties in England by next year, so that's one less worry about lowering the house price

[MarillionFan]

If they claim heat pumps work they are lying as it will cost a blooming fortune with low heat radiators or underfloor heating.

Go for the solar panels (assuming you face south and not east west).

It's looking likely I will need to add some panels.
I'm arguing with some guy who has a spreadsheet. When I pointed out his recommendation for electric didn't have a way to provide hot water he went, yes your right, added a cylinder which then increased the heat loss calculation and promptly failed it. Absolutely fooking unbelievable.

In the next few years they're talking about 0 carbon footprint houses, being a small property developer will be almost impossible.