Owning your own home

I wasn’t recommending Nick do anything - follow the thread.

Also - Nest smoke alarms? How dreary

I have Nest mains powered smoke alarms because I've never found a battery operated one I trust to be reliable

Does it help significantly with house insurance?

Also? Thank you all, just need to put that plaque out for @amey to collect on Sangley Road.

omw

I've had mains powered ones in my last flat and my current house and no issues with false alarms.

I had Nest previously, they were fine. No memory of them being better or worse. I didn't find the smart bit to be great, it often took a couple of goes to get them to turn off via the app.

Cool, I've not lived anywhere with wired ones since uni halls, so that's good to know. I'm not that bothered about the smart but tbh just want them to be reliable.

Well we had considered it before - neither of us will be back to more than 2 days in office per week & impending baby. Tbh I don’t think it’s likely but we just want to check it out before we go all in on our place with the renovation in the new year (even though we are well down that line!)

In my last job I used to do one or two days a week in Henley, about 2 hrs 30 door to door. If it was two days I'd stay over. Don't underestimate how much a couple of long commutes messes up the whole week.

Don't underestimate how much a couple of long commutes messes up the whole week

Can you elaborate? Could be a concern for me. Possibly looking at a 3 hour commute and a two night stay per week.

3 hr round trip, or 3 hours each way?

3 hour train to London on a Monday. Stay Monday, Tuesday night. 3 hour train home on a Wednesday evening.

Yeah, specifically only looking at places which are 90min max d2d (assuming no delays to train shrug emoji)

Staying away from home 3 days is kind of beyond the messing up I was talking about so sounds like you've already thought it through and accepted it.

I found having a day midweek with a very early start and late finish actually hollowed out the whole week - the day before because I needed to get everything ready and get a reasonably early night, the long commute day obviously by the time I got home was a write off, and the next day I'd often be knackered in the evening so not much would happen other than life admin. Plus a disproportionate amount of the stuff I wanted to do (classes, groups and suchlike) happen midweek so I just wasn't doing much for myself.

But if you've already planned to be staying over I'm guessing you are ok with that trade-off already.

Does anyone know à ball park figure for tiling a 4m² bathroom (floor as well) including tiling the bath in?

Not expecting it to be cheap just want some figures in mind so I'm not just rinsed.

Thank you

You want the labour cost? You need to be more specific. Type of floor? Type of walls? Existing tiles to be removed? Height of tiling?

Even then it's a bigger number than you want it to be. I used to be able to tile bare walls in a room that size in a couple of days. As soon as you need prep and the floor tiles it adds a lot more complications.

I used to commute 2 hours to outside Norwich, Tuesday to Friday. Getting back Friday night at 8pm was a poor show.

We have found a house we like, with the one concern that is it next to barns that appear to be built with asbestos materials. From looking at them externally, I would think both the roof and side boards of the barns contain asbestos. House circled in blue, and barns circled in red in the attached.

I have no worries about being next to active farm buildings, other than the possible long term health risks of possible asbestos exposure. I dont really know the extent of the risk though. Nothing to worry about, or run a mile?

1 Attachment

Asbestos is mainly a problem when disturbed, so unless they will be demolishing the barn, you shouldn’t have any problems.

Even asbestos in your home isn’t the end of the world (asbestos in garages), just something to be careful of, or not drilled into.

I really wouldn't worry. most barns have a fibre cement roofing some with, some without asbestos. The type of fibre used in the roofing sheets is the less worrisome of the type of strands from my understanding, so unless you are going to crawl over them and fall through it would not stop me buying!
I would be more interested in finding out if the farmer is looking to sell up and convert the barns into houses...

It's within the national park, and the barns are not the type that would secure planning permission, so I think should be ok on that front.

From memory you live on farm? Just checking the authority of my sources (i.e. place more faith in someone with experience).

I do live on a farm, in fact the house I renovated had an asbestos roof I removed myself, so know a bit about them! and lots of the barns around the farm still have the old asbestos roof, they work pretty well!

Ah ok on the planning, I haven't looked in a while, but it was shockingly easy last time we looked to convert a barn, as long as you keep the original walls, as it actually falls under permitted development rather than full planning.

Only other thing I would ask: What do they keep in the barns? certain things are more potent than others in terms of smell! I live closer than that to a cow shed which is fine, but wouldn't want to be that close to chickens for example.

Ah ok on the planning, I haven't looked in a while, but it was shockingly easy last time we looked to convert a barn, as long as you keep the original walls, as it actually falls under permitted development rather than full planning.

Class Q permitted development rights don't apply in national parks though, so that shouldn't be an issue here.

Ah yes, missed the national park bit. And to be fair most farmers are too pig headed to take the money and run (I say that as a son in law of a farmer with a load of beautiful stone barns that would make amazing houses, and finally allow my father in law to retire...)

With exquisite timing, the freeholder to my current flat has just put a planning application into the council to build an extra story on top of my block of flats. We were due to complete within the month. All up in the air atm.

You haven't exchanged presumably. What a shitter.