Owning your own home

Ha! That wasn't actually the one I was bidding on.

Those roads have been rat runs since I was at school in Lewisham Inthe 90's. Doubt it will ever change.
I'm seeing all these prices for 2 up 2 down terraces and am glad I escaped London.

No luck - found this thanks to @tbc's cafe rod search suggestion but it's too bulky and with the brackets looks too industrial imo
https://www.madebytheforge.co.uk/curtains/cafe-rod.html

TBF after living by main road for a while (like the A205), the rat run route doesn’t seemed like an issues.

Haven't even lived in my house a year and I'm already getting emails from the agents I used to sell and purchase asking me if I'm considering moving.

Do people genuinely move that fast?

Do people genuinely move that fast?

I got letters after moving in as well as email.

I assumed it's not targeted, it's just that you're on their books now.

Considering the stress of moving (even a little is stressful) it's not something I'd want to do again in a hurry.

Plus although from the road my house may look nice once inside you'll find my kitchen in one of the bedrooms (kitchen has been renovated for the last 4 months) and a certain building site feel to the rest of the house. Not sure that's estate agent material at the moment.

Any links for decent value traditionalish column radiators?

Vertical or horizontal?

Screwfix had several vertical ones when I looked recently.

Also screw in foundations for a workshop/studio type thing??

Horizontal. Just trying ebay but it's a minefield.

I've recently bought some jeld wen timber sash windows at ~£700 or so. They were off the shelf standard sizes luckily (though still made to order) and delivered in about 4 weeks and I'm fitting them myself. Happy enough with the quality for the price

I bought both horizontal and vertical in this style from here https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/232997807850?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=532511819820&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
really pleased with them, delivery was really quick.

I bought the same and also happy with both the rads and service

Do you mean like a ground screw, or adjustable frame support?

Ground screws? There are quite a lot of suppliers now. Stopdigging seem to be a go to recommendation from a lot of garden room builders.
If you’re DIYing I’d be tempted to use Oakwood Garden Room’s technique. It’s a lot cheaper.

https://youtu.be/skOEoAwppgA

If I were to do another garden room, I'd use threaded rods like that, instead of the plastic pads that I have now.

I think I'd still use the cardboard form though, with rebar reinforcement, rather than just holes.

My brother has a cabin with ground screws - pricey, but they work really well, and it's quick.

I guess it's basically the brackets that matter. Easy enough to get any 10mm rod in black, brass, etc.

Both Screwfix and B&Q sell the 'Acova' brand, and they seem to get decent reviews - most-likely the ones we'll be getting once we have keys.

That reminds me of the stayholder for my Tubus rack. Wouldn't be the cheapest net curtain rail around and would require a bit of creative tinkering to get it to work. While you're at it you might as well get some titanium tubes. :)

I know the future of central heating gets discussed in this thread occasionally. Vailant have come up with a white paper 'Decarbonising Home Heating In The UK' available for download via the link :-

https://www.vaillant.co.uk/downloads/hydrogen-1/whitepaper-final-sept-2021-2191617.pdf

I've not read it yet but they're a big player in the marketplace at the moment so it should be interesting.

The problem with all this is it falls to the home owner to foot the bill, people dont want to spend money right now on cheapish stuff never mind the alternatives. The big company's really need to work on the pricing for these things for people to change/invest in them.

TLDR: They want to sell you a new gas boiler:

1. Fit a high efficiency gas boiler, improve the building fabric to
   reduce the energy required and adapt the system to operate at lower
   mean water temperatures which gives 6%-8% efficiency and carbon
   improvement
   
2. Add a heat pump to the incumbent boiler to create a hybrid system. The heat pump could cover up to 80% of the annual heat load
   
3. Switch the high efficiency gas boiler to a hydrogen boiler in future once hydrogen becomes available. Hydrogen-ready boilers will be
   available within the next few years which would make this conversion a
   simple process rather than a boiler change
   

Funny that.

Where's good in (South) London to get a set of stairs? Phase one of a loft conversion. Nothing particularly fancy but would like to be able to put cabinetry and shelving underneath