What would put you off a house...?

moneyistooshorttomention

Davesnave wrote: »

It's Celsius glass, I expect, which we have, and the rest of our conservatory's built to building regs, so even the floor's insulated.

Many conservatories are badly built though, which is why they get the reputation they have, especially when installed by a cowboy firm. Those are numerous in an essentially unregulated industry.

...and if anyone ever comes across a nationwide conservatory firm - with VERY strict indeed "keep the franchise to our standard - or else we'll kill 'em and you don't have to" stuff happening - it could be the difference between thinking "Don't wanna go there re all that potential hassle" and "Right - how much? - I'll have it...".

moneyistooshorttomention

LadyL2013 wrote: »

Out of interest why do stairs in the living room put people off so much?

In my case - all my paid-for "heat" heading straight up the stairs (followed by wondering if I'd be feeling cold in my sitting room) and the style these staircases are often done to doesn't look very safe to me (eg no backs to the treads).

It's also nice to be able to feel cosied-up in one distinct room of a night where the weather is awful - so, for much of the country, people would want to know they were cosily enclosed within 4 walls and feeling "cosy".

AdrianC

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

...and if anyone ever comes across a nationwide conservatory firm - with VERY strict indeed "keep the franchise to our standard - or else we'll kill 'em and you don't have to" stuff happening - it could be the difference between thinking "Don't wanna go there re all that potential hassle" and "Right - how much? - I'll have it...".

Isn't the easy option just to use a local small firm, where their rep is based on THEIR work...?

DCFC79

I'm currently looking at buying my first property and have come to realise that:

I like the idea of an open plan kitchen/diner (or at least an option to close it off eg in the winter).
An option to extend the kitchen at some point in the future
I prefer a traditional staircase and not a metal winding one.
Ive not considered the staircase in the living room as an issue in terms of heat etc, as it would be just myself then it may be ok.
No garage and no drive
Would prefer not on a direct road so a Cul de sac.
I don't want a project like a complete refurb top to bottom but if a bathroom was needing replacing then its something I would accept.
A living room with a massive hole in the wall where a TV bracket had been and some kind of filler is coming out of the hole.
Must be on the outskirts of town.
A really untidy garden, again as mentioned above Im not afraid of some work needing doing.

Davesnave

AdrianC wrote: »

Isn't the easy option just to use a local small firm, where their rep is based on THEIR work...?

Sadly, not always. I believe that's probably the best route but....

The local firm we used have been in business with the same directors for 40 years and have glowing Trustpilot reviews, which is why we selected them.

Long story short, they were probably as bad as many of the national firms using contracted labour, but eventually we got most of what we'd agreed to pay for, properly erected. For the bits we didn't get, because they just wanted to do their usual thing, we deducted £4k and asked the GGF to arbitrate.

We didn't hear from them or the GGF again.

kiss_me_now9

Downstairs bathrooms. Just why.

glasgowdan

jackieblack wrote: »

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

I'm not saying that it's a beautiful house... I'm saying the roughcast finish is nice, clean, neat and will last a long time without maintenance.

glasgowdan

Davesnave wrote: »

There are conservatories and conservatories.

Ours is better built than most, so today it was heating the house.

Even last week, when it was -6c outside and blowing a gale, we were working in the conservatory, kept at a reasonable 19c by the wood burner in the living room. Admittedly our fuel for that's mostly free, but we were slightly amazed by the ease in which we were able to use the conservatory in such inclement conditions.

Christmas dinner was in there too, so I'm not sure when these unusable months are? Maybe in the evenings of winter, because we wouldn't heat then, when there are other warm rooms.

Indeed. Our conservatory is a 365-day a year room too, especially now that I put in a 50mm insulated ceiling. The doors to the kitchen are now left permanently open as the radiators in there keep it the same temp as the rest of the house no problem. It's the kids play room, social gathering room and special occasion dining room.

seven-day-weekend

Davesnave wrote: »

It's Celsius glass, I expect, which we have, and the rest of our conservatory's built to building regs, so even the floor's insulated.

Many conservatories are badly built though, which is why they get the reputation they have, especially when installed by a cowboy firm. Those are numerous in an essentially unregulated industry.

Yes, our floor is insulated, we had the conservatory built in September 2015 and it is totally compliant with building regs. We have the certificate!!:rotfl:

I think you need to treat conservatories as proper extensions if you want them to be usable rooms. If you just stick a greenhouse on the end of a room then it won't be thermally efficient.

kylej64

I guess I'm alone not liking conservatories. Though with what has been said I may rethink my stance on them (maybe my friends all got them on the cheep, lol).