Owning your own home

turn up at their door?

Nag them. Make them hate you so much they put your work at the top of the pile to get rid of you as quickly as possible. Tell them you'll be ringing and/or emailing for a progress update at noon on Fridays, Wednesdays and Mondays and stick to it.

And give them Tuesdays and Thursdays off? You big softy.

Hefty is right. You need to be more annoying than any other client they have. So annoying that they deal with you before doing favours for friends and family members.

Befriending them will not work. To them you are "client number two thousand, three hundred and sixty six". You need to become "that cunt of a client who never stops ringing me".

That's the approach I've been going for the last couple of weeks, maybe I'm just a natural born bellend! Also, after following this thread for the last few months I'm really glad I'm not buying a house in London...

Anyone have any experience with underfloor heating?
Rat problem is sorted for the moment with chickenwire, but it's only a temporary solution as they are obviously getting in somewhere. Architect and builder came around this week to look at the job, and they suggested the nuclear option of completely removing the wooden floor from the entire flat and replacing it with a concrete pad. Not so nice aesthetically, I admit, but it removes the possibility of rodents ever getting in again, and it also raises the intriguing possibility of installing a water-filled underfloor heating system.
As it's a really small flat (With the new bit added, I'll end up with about 35 sq.m), any wall space I can save from radiators could be more usefully spent on bookshelves or storage.
Part of the building job was always going to be getting the place completely re-wired and re-plumbed, so central heating was always going to get replaced in any case.

Underfloor is lovely, no doubt. I'd always put it in a new build or extension.

But that does sounds like an awful lot of work and expense just to keep out a fluffy little rat.

With something the size you've got an air source heat pump might be a better way of ditching the rads.

It is quite a job, but the rats are a real headache. I live in a lovely victorian cobbled street, which has a lovely victorian sewer running down the middle of the road. It's a perfect place for the little buggers to breed and they come up somewhere in the street every summer. As long as there is a void under my floors, there will always be a risk of another infestation. As things stand, most of the floor will need to come up in any case, to find their entry point and possibly line the entire void with wire mesh, and also to rip out the 1960's central heating and the lead pipework which still supplies my mains water.
Once the floor has come up, a waterproof membrane and a load of readymix is fairly easy to deal with.

Fair enough then. Crack on. Don't forget the shiny polystyrene and You'll probably need the permission of the freeholder as it's a structural change.

No doubt it'll be expensive but you'll never need to buy another pair of slippers.

I have underfloor heating and it is indeed lovely. Just make sure your cat isn't sick (cooked-on puke) and you don't leave edible Christmas presents on the floor (melted choc).
It's really efficient. It's a small thing but I'm very glad I have a heated towel rail as it does the job of a radiator when I need to get wet clothes dry quickly.

Once the floor has come up, a waterproof membrane and a load of readymix is fairly easy to deal with.

Don't forget to stick some insulation down. Your architect should be specifying this to make sure it complies with Part L1b of the building regs.

You'll also need to find somewhere in the flat to hide the manifold and pump set for the UFH.

Looks like we may have been outbid on the house we were looking at, not by much but enough to make is think twice about making a counter offer... We're next in line if that falls through...

Plenty more houses by the sea, just gotta be patient... I was properly gutted last night tho'...

I feel that. Making a cash offer first thing about 10k under asking but we know they have 6 viewings including one for cash the following day. Crossing fingers we don't get outbid as I don't see them taking it off the market for our offer and we're not really in a position to make a counter counte offer.

Joe, we were outbid on ours, the vendors accepted the other people and then when thjey went quiet for a week they ended up coming back to us at ourr lower bid and they took us cause they reckoned we were a safer pair of hands - all is not lost, let them know your best offer and that it still stands in case anything happens

Saw my almost place again yesterday. Really excited! Place needs a lot of work though! but the area is amazingly quiet and it had a lovely sunny garden
:-) plus concrete base already set with a rickety old shed on it.

Can't remember which thread the shed chat was, but mine is finished.

Huge amount of help from @spotter yesterday got the vast majority of it put together, then I finished the rest off today. Already creosoted once on the outside and painted on the inside, and discovered that bikes can fit vertically on the side walls as well.

I'm really pleased with it considering how cheap it was. The build quality of the pre-assembled bits isn't great but it will do.

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Good work!

Let's see inside

Lots of red velvet, gold appliqué?

Later.

It was already dark when I finished painting. Weighing up painting the floor.

Pros:
-Got some leftover eggshell
-Makes it whiter and brighter
-Even more protection from damp.

Cons:
-Will look look dirty so quickly
-Effort, it's already been creosoted
-It's a shed FFS

It's more trust fund sponsored ironic hipster fast food joint chic at the moment, carelessly painted wood panels with the grain showing through. Just need a couple of beer crates and to make some cocktails in the empty paint tins and I'm ready to open.

Got some leftover eggshell

It'll lift in a week. 2 pack epoxy or don't bother.

But of course do bother, it's not just a shed. It's a bike workshop. An engineering lab.

Does this mean you're going to come and help me build a pool house for XH in my garden?

Make sure you get the menu right - not £8 or £8.50 for your cocktails but 8 and 8.5

You've got some squirrel cage bulbs and OSB right?

His work is coming along this looks neater than the garden furniture.