Renovating New House

lackingwedge

Thanks for the replies.

I had an Architectual Engineer come in on Saturday and he wanted to charge me 2500 + council fees which I found excessive.
Luckily for me, most of the structural work is to remove toilets\kitchens and to remove stud walls to restore the ground floor rooms to their original dimensions.

Needless to say, I will be contacting others to see if they can do a more competitive price.

That looks nice phoebe1989seb, a real labour of love.

Hi Captain, excuse my ignorance, but don't victorian houses have cavity walls?
I read somewhere that over-insulating can have a detrimental effect and cause damp.
As it is a rerace, should i insulate the external facing walls or all of them?

the_matrix

Lucky you.

lackingwedge

Another question all.
As the property is currently four flats, I have recieved individual council tax demands for all four flats for £942 each (outch).

A few questions before i ring them up Tuesday:

Can I get a rebate as the house is empty\building site for the next few months.
As I will soon be applying to turn the property back into a signle property (with a single council tax bill) will it be calculated on a dailly rate as i assume the bill for an amalgamated property will be smaller than for four individual flats?

All advice welcome.

lackingwedge

More Questions, Kitchens:
What are the recommendations for getting a good quality kitchen at a reasonable price, Howdens, Benchmarx, Margnet Trade or someone else?
Is there a good site for white goods, I can get a F&F discount on Bosch\Siemens\Neff but wanted to see if i can get it cheaper online?

Doozergirl

I use Appliance City for white goods. I also phone them as they will price match anyone and discount further for more than one item. Best thing to do is run the exact models you want through any of the comparison sites and find the cheapest deal. I use the megashopbot on the main MSE site and just pick a few sites to trawl at once.

Everyone on this board has their own opinion about kitchens. We use Howdens and Magnet Trade. Howdens in the main, Magnet for things like the Astral Blue which is becoming popular with our clients at the moment. Only buy the units from either, I generally get sinks etc elsewhere for a more personal touch. My experience of Bemchmarx was one of apathy, but that's just one member of staff who put me off when we already have choice. Our Howdens guy used to work for Benchmarx and insists that Howdens are higher quality but I can't find the technical info on the cabinetry on the Benchmarx site to compare it.

I hear that you have two huge downstairs rooms now, instead of a flat

lackingwedge

Thanks for the advice Doozergirl. As for Neff\Siemens\Bosch I know they are all made in the same factory and to some extents the main differences are badge engineering. Are Siemens white good perceived to have a better snob factor or is it NEFF?

I have heard about the two downstairs rooms and the works proceeding well

Doozergirl

I think both have snob factor. Siemens marginally more, perhaps? It's a little less common, I think.

The very posh kitchen shop that one of our clients is buying from have Siemens at the bottom of their range(!) They don't have Neff.

captainhindsight_2

lackingwedge wrote: »

Hi Captain, excuse my ignorance, but don't victorian houses have cavity walls?
I read somewhere that over-insulating can have a detrimental effect and cause damp.
As it is a rerace, should i insulate the external facing walls or all of them?

Hi some victorian housed do and some don't but based on the EPC yours has solid walls.

You could get the whole buildings external walls re boarded and plastered internally at very little cost with most of the work paid for through ECO. So worth doing if your re plastering anyway.

Or instead of ECO you can get £4,000 cash back from the government for doing it if you jump through the right hoops.

Problems with damp are not due to over insulation more to do with insulation in the wrong place blocking ventilation etc..

lackingwedge

captainhindsight wrote: »

Hi some victorian housed do and some don't but based on the EPC yours has solid walls.

You could get the whole buildings external walls re boarded and plastered internally at very little cost with most of the work paid for through ECO. So worth doing if your re plastering anyway.

Or instead of ECO you can get £4,000 cash back from the government for doing it if you jump through the right hoops.

Problems with damp are not due to over insulation more to do with insulation in the wrong place blocking ventilation etc..

Hi Captain, thanks for the adivce and I have looked at the link here Here

A few things:

I have not lived in the property before as I have just bought it so cannot provide evidence of usage, bills etc. Will the previous EPC done in September last year suffice.

My builder has started knocking out stud walls as we are changing the four flats into a single dwelling, will the represent an issue.

How does the cashback work, is it a percentage of the works up to those limits in the link or a fixed grant of those limit and you are liable to either pay the rest or fund via the green deal?

My circumstances:

I earn too much money to qualify for any benefits.
The house is a bit of a tip so will require a complete refurb so i was planning on doing the following insulation works anyway:

New heating system, if funds allow, Under floor heating throughout the house with Air source heat pump for the heating and hot water. If no funds then standard condensing boiler with unvented tank and Radiators with individual zone valves.

Insulation, Internal solid wall to all external walls, loft insulation, insulation in between floors, insultation on concrete floors,secondary glazing (I live in conservation area so doubt i will be able to swap any single pane to Double Glazing).

Is this something worth persueing with the grant system. I plan to get my builder to quote me on the insulation and compare to Green deal registered offer. If my builder can do for a much cheaper price, will that invalidate the RHI if I plan for a reneable energy systems like Air\Ground source, Solar Water.

Another question, is solar PVA worth it. I was told it is up to a 4KW system which is around 6.5K. My house is SE facing if that's any help?

Sorry for all the questions.......

captainhindsight_2

lackingwedge wrote: »

Hi Captain, thanks for the adivce and I have looked at the link here Here

A few things:

I have not lived in the property before as I have just bought it so cannot provide evidence of usage, bills etc. Will the previous EPC done in September last year suffice.

My builder has started knocking out stud walls as we are changing the four flats into a single dwelling, will the represent an issue.

How does the cashback work, is it a percentage of the works up to those limits in the link or a fixed grant of those limit and you are liable to either pay the rest or fund via the green deal?

My circumstances:

I earn too much money to qualify for any benefits.
The house is a bit of a tip so will require a complete refurb so i was planning on doing the following insulation works anyway:

New heating system, if funds allow, Under floor heating throughout the house with Air source heat pump for the heating and hot water. If no funds then standard condensing boiler with unvented tank and Radiators with individual zone valves.

Insulation, Internal solid wall to all external walls, loft insulation, insulation in between floors, insultation on concrete floors,secondary glazing (I live in conservation area so doubt i will be able to swap any single pane to Double Glazing).

Is this something worth persueing with the grant system. I plan to get my builder to quote me on the insulation and compare to Green deal registered offer. If my builder can do for a much cheaper price, will that invalidate the RHI if I plan for a reneable energy systems like Air\Ground source, Solar Water.

Another question, is solar PVA worth it. I was told it is up to a 4KW system which is around 6.5K. My house is SE facing if that's any help?

Sorry for all the questions.......

Hi so the process of getting the cash back is you don't need a green deal loan/finance plan what you need is a green deal advice report and the works to be installed by a green deal installer.

Looking at what you've said you could get over £5000 cash back for the works but it is capped at 50% of your contribution so you could be in a situation where it would be worth paying more to a green deal installer just to get the cash back.

In regards to ECO grants, for CERO part of ECO their is no eligibility criteria you just have to have solid walls and can be anywhere in the country. But you can't mix ECO grants and the Green Deal cash back anymore so you'll have to see what the figures come out like.

With you not having any bills/data because you've obviously not lived their yet, this is only really important if you planning on getting a green deal finance plan the assessor will just make assumptions based on the size of house etc.

If you could i'd get the air source heat pump with the underfloor heating, the RHI scheme has recently rolled out and is pretty generous at the moment and it won't last at current prices.

Solar is always a good bet in my opinion as long as your planning on living their for at least 10 years.