Owning your own home

The biggest single difference is the fact that down the line, should you want to, wooden doors can be sanded and re-finished. This has the potential to significantly extend the lifespan of your investment. It is possible to paint MFC and there are specialist products out there to allow you to do this but in my experience the finish will always be somewhat fragile and much more prone to chipping.

Aside from that it's worth being aware that there is an enormous gulf between good MFC and cheap MFC.

The cheapest way to make MFC or MDF doors is to cut the profile on a CNC machine and then apply a heat shrink foil. This will always look good in the showroom but living with it presents...... Issues as heat (for example if the door lives near a stove) will cause the foil to shrink back further and produce puckering at the corners (I've attached some photos as an example). The best MFC doors will either be constructed in the same way as solid wood doors by forming rails, styles and panels or will be solid panels (something that you can't really do with solid wood due to cupping and dimensional change). Either way when you spec this all of the components are cut from a large sheet of MFC then have a high quality edging applied which makes the panels pretty much water proof.

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Yeah, they've disappeared so far as I'm aware.

The one we were buying is still on the market. Our plan is probably to carry on trying to sell ours until that goes. Unlesss something that looks perfect comes up we can't really be bothered starting up viewing properties again.

If it doesn't work out we'll take a break for a year/eighteen months and see what's what.

I've given up on the idea of letting my current place. I could probably have made the numbers work but the yield was low and the risk high. Just didn't seem worth it.

Brilliant thank you. So high spec MFC is probably the most appropriate material to have in a kitchen, but wood is likely to extend the life more if looked after?

Inclined to think the chain option is probably not going to be the highest spec, so perhaps wood has clinched it.

So high spec MFC is probably the most appropriate material to have in a kitchen, but wood is likely to extend the life more if looked after?

That's pretty much my experience.

Inclined to think the chain option is probably not going to be the highest spec

That's probably the case but the volume kitchen manufacturers are having to up their game due to the emergence of companies like plykea. It's always worth asking questions to see if you can get a feel for how well made things are. Also worth looking at the warranty offered from the respective suppliers.

errrr... whats that?

Given this question, please call Alfred!

(I hope you're still alive and well)

Who’s Alfred?
It’s all sorted now, I popped a new plug on and the electrics were all checked up when we had our middle class conservatory done.
Still alive.
How long until we’re neighbours?

Completion date confirmed!

Congrats. The one near Forest school still? Walked past it the other day weirdly coming from E17, to the ponds and couldn’t place where I’d seen it for a while. Nice little area round there, almost got sent to school there, ‘luckily’ sent to a crazed inner London comp in Camden instead

The sparky you recommended to me!

A long while at this rate, my lockdown project should really be sorting things in the flat ready to sell it, but it's actually upping my FTP and rebuilding my Colnago :/

Yeah, that’s the one. The school is lovely - although pretty ££

Yeah it’s like a quiet little enclave and the house is pretty different. Looking forward to getting started on the renovations

Ahhh.. I know him by Alfie or other names... totally forgot he had a real full name.

You're the worst at selling a flat!

@Dammit https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/54905341

Gotta be a designer's pad, £835k tho'? I don't get it... Nice Lotus, in Neil's colour too...

That’s a bit less profit in ten years then what a house used to go for in Catford?

I saw that on Modern House. Want to go and look at it.

Super nice, and some nice furniture in there to boot. But, Chiselhurst?!

That’s awesome. Presumably it had a garage at some point, now storage/ utility.

Golf course next door...

Lovely house but I think for that money outside of London you'd want a lawn you could do with a tractor mower and a few metres between you and your neighbours.

Is it that bad?

Yeah think the room config on the ground floor is where the garage was.

I just thought it might meet with his criteria

Thought you were moving to Chingford?

Looks like it's on a private road - well there's no street view.

Could be the nicest street in an otherwise unremarkable area. I'd be OK with that.

There's some proper mansions nearby though!

why discuss further when we have expert in @6pt ?

Lots of Chislehurst is private roads and fancy houses. It’s not a bad place if you like golf and ostentatious displays of wealth, plus the common is a magnet for people rolling their cars for some reason. Don’t think you’d feel at home in the Queen’s Head on a summer’s afternoon though.

Lol posted that before I saw @amey summoning me. I’m just bitter cos I grew up in its poorer grottier neighbour on the other side of the tracks, obvs. Chislehurst is fine by FoHi standards (Sainsbury’s, pizza express, probably some artisan bread and coffee somewhere now?), very quick to the lanes.