Owning your own home

Cheers! Mind if I ask cost? I've been hearing anything from 800 to 2400...

Just been reading through some of this thread as it appears it will be super helpful.

Should be a London homeowner in the next week or two

Nice! Where're you moving?

Can't remember exactly what I paid, but it was exactly what their online quoting suggested. I don't remember any hidden costs. And I'm a cheapskate so I'd have shopped around a bit.

They always had some sort of discount on (though the 25% they have now I think was as good as I'd seen).

Then I had a guy that was fitting some flooring put them in at the same time. Fairly straightforward apart from I ballsed up the measurements slightly.

Measure top, middle and bottom they said, then left, middle and right.
So I did. All the same. Wow, rare that you get that on an old house. Lucky ol' me.
Bloody windows were a very slight parallelogram.

We've managed to get what we wanted in Hackney so don't have to leave the area. New place is in Clapton, just over from the Crooked Billet.

First time I've sold or bought a house so the experience has been pretty full on!

Anyone know a good window company in North/North East London? We are after aluminium velux and french doors for the loft, and aluminium double glazed sash or casement for the main house.

I saved this as was thinking the same. Have you had quotes from these guys then?

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Might be worth checking out Harringay Online for such things.

Think @aggi was doing windows recently, but that might've been traditional sashes.

I've got a good double glazing bloke, unsure if he does actual certificates and the like but does good work for cash. done some stuff for me in haringey and my folks in stroud green.

Not as dodgy as he sounds. Will try get his number if you're interested.

Yep, mine was wooden sashes. The guy was slow but very good if anyone is looking.

That's awesome. We had to move out of Hackney, from just up the road to Crooked Billet near the Stamford Hill. I'd have loved to've stayed. Good on you for managing it.

Yes, I am! Any further details?

I pulled some recs off Harringay Online but not having much joy - either don't do aluminium or just never call back.

That would be great thank you. Can you drop me a PM?

Probably not after wood but if your guy does aluminium I'd be interested. We went with Dan James for the loft in the end, banner is fluttering outside as we speak.

It was this guy
http://www.sashrepairs.co.uk
He only does wooden windows (he was originally a joiner) and he appears to really love sash windows. He did an excellent job with my windows which were in a real state but did take about twice as long as quoted as he liked to try and get everything perfect. I didn't care as it was a fixed price but if you're on a schedule it may not be great.

Price wise I got three quotes and they were all very similar. Think the job turned out to be messier than he expected but there was no shift in the price.

Only wood. How's the conversion going? I assume you've asked them for recommendations, a few of the people they suggested to me were decent (not windows).

Bit disrupted by Christmas, plus the guys doing the framing worked from an older version of the plan and had to come back and fix it which seems to have thrown the whole schedule out of whack. We've got the framing, boarding, insulation, roof felt and battons in so basically warm and mostly watertight, stairs are in and the first fix is done for plumbing and electrics, but no slates yet so not fully weatherproof and not secure.

We are going to try and reboot next week and nail DJ down to a list of what needs to happen in what order, and what part of that we need to arrange ourselves when and with who.

They did recommend a window firm but that's one of the ones that just aren't getting back to us :( hopefully will all start moving again next week.

When the stairs went in, it felt like one of those dreams where you find an extra room in your house only for real!

Cheers! Have dropped him a mail...

Ouch. Just had quotes through for our extension - £120k. We're not even doing anything that mad, £4600 per square metre seems a little high, no?

Completed yesterday. Actually went very smoothly, still can't quite believe it. A bit broken from lifting boxes today.

Yeah that's daft high. I had a quote for 75k from a mid-high end builder. A friend got hers done for 40-50 and its pretty nice average.

My goodness, went to Sydenham this morning (Kingsthorpe / Bishopthorpe Rd) and it's incredible. I want to move....

Whats the job?

£120k.

Assume they are going to knock the entire house down and re-build it, but a little bigger, for that kind of money.