Owning your own home

Any recommendations for good alu window fabricators and installers in SE? I think @amey mentioned something recently, any leads appreciated. Also does anyone know of current or upcoming deals for improving old houses energy efficiency?

@hovis has had some window people sniffing around lately.

Government green grant

mine were part of the full refurb we got done with the builders, I can ask :)

Yes we please, also would appreciate a PM with a bit of info on the full refurb as it might be better (and cheaper) to get it all done at once 😊 thanks @6pt and @Señor_Bear

Love these - exactly what I'm after

Thanks Chris, likewise your kitchen still 🤜🏻🤛🏻

Fully recommend, expensive in a way but compared to some Alu quotes sure these will outlive them

Apparently they're in category B, and therefore you can only get funding for them if you're also getting work done from category A (wall/roof insulation, new boiler, heat pump).

Would it still be the case if you already have double glazed (albeit really 💩 ones)?

No. Only applies to replacing single glazing.
It doesn’t apply to gas boilers either, only ground/air source heat pumps.

Anyone know what kind of £ a ground source pump for a semi would cost?

Went on an interesting viewing yesterday. The seller is a "property investor" and is retiring and selling off some of her houses.
She freely admitted that her place (leasehold/ex council/need of updating) was not worth what she was selling it for but said the market is "crazy" at the mo. She has already had a few offers and will probably go with one of them.
The house is in a great location (North Dulwich) and places don't come up for sale much in the area - she said the fact 3 are currently on the market underlines her point.
She suggested the smarter move would be to sell now and rent, and wait to see what the market does.

Her property is on with Strike. She said they are good for sellers who are happy to do a lot of the work themselves. Not so good for prospective buyers as they will bombard them with financial services requests and spam... I'm awaiting that joy.

She suggested the smarter move would be to sell now and rent, and wait to see what the market does.

It's fucking expensive if this goes the wrong way though.

I wouldn't expect private 'property investors' - who are so fucking tight they use zero-low commission sales systems to try to sell their stock - to have any insight into what is happening and what is happening right now.

True - I guess if you've found a place you really like and plan on staying there for a while then buy now and don't wait.
However, if you're in a maelstrom of indecision and changing plans every other day (can you feel my pain?) then renting for a bit will give you some flexibility.

£15k or so

We are putting our flat on the market, and considered doing the renting thing, but by the time you've put everything in storage, moved twice and paid minimum six months of rent it doesn't really seem worth it.

Also, leasehold house?

leasehold house?

Local Authority init

#cuntseller

Southwark - she said there's just £10 ground rent per year and no other charges so not much point buying freehold.
We're not going to buy it so didn't push further but the privately owned houses there are a mix of L/H and F/H

Does anyone roughly know how much to replace a consumer unit? No need to rewire if testing proves alright

when have you ever heard of one say "oh yeah, it was a shit ton of money so we just went fucking nuts"?

Richard Rogers basically said this about his place...

(Bike tag thread >>>>>>)

Does anyone know a good bifold company with a showroom in or around London?

We have Schüco and are very happy with them. German-made, showroom in Angel.

I've had 4 quotes in now, ranging from 12k to 19k for alu throughout. Haven't made any decisions yet, still mulling over which of the cheapest two to follow up on. I can send over details of who weve had in but not sure how much value it would add given we haven't had any work done yet.