Owning your own home

It refers to a particular distance rule

Y u no mention the nipples?

The urban designers Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker walked apart in a field until they could no longer see each other’s nipples through their shirts. The two men measured the distance between them to be 70ft (21 metres), and this became the distance that is still used today

gav check out what others on the estate have done to get a sense of what is permissible, i’m assuming you live on an estate, we do and visiting neighbors was eye opening! many had knocked through between lounge and kitchen, the issue was fire, and taking away one or both fire doors, but council just specify having fire alarm.

Edwardian, Victorian, Georgian homes are likely to be solid brick external walls with plaster directly onto them. Lots of thermal mass basically. High ceilings. High opening windows (esp sash windows). Cross ventilation. Good to reduce overheating (rubbish for winter heating).

That is the biggest advantages, our flat stay cooled once the shutter is closed as well as all the blackout blind too, helped further with underfloor insulation preventing heat from getting through our floorboard.

For once I’m happy being able to stay cool during the 38 degrees heat yesterday.

I hope you are looking forward to excruciating bills in winter for fuel or jumpers.

I'm a 40yr old first time buyer - should I be looking for a mortgage that I can pay off as quickly as I can afford? Or just maxing everything out?

Right now I’d be looking at a 10yr fixed rate the lowest you can find.

As for the term, that doesn’t matter as much as you can over pay to reduce the principal anyway.

As a 40yr old, is he likely to be offered anything above 25 years?

Mortgage lenders will offer you a term up until you are 75.

There's a new building regulation about overheating in homes (Part O). Came in this year. Coldest summer of the rest of your life etc.

I'm looking forward to the catastrophic regulation part ID wraparound event horizon

victorian/edwardian homes are shit

Nah they are great, what has been done to them over years of neglect and bodged works by clueless bastards is shit.

We simply need to borrow some ideas from across the Channel – shading, ventilation, insulation, heat-absorbing trees and the reintroduction of decent space standards for all.

Ah.... the old 'if everything were different, everything would be different' play. Prefixed with 'simply' . Fuck me. Yes you fuckwit, it's simple to write it down. Now try adding cross ventilation to a single aspect home, see how you get on. once you've nailed that, then you can get on with decent space standards for all in a country with one the highest (and still growing) population densities and lowest available buildable land and most restrictive building and planning regulations in the modern world.

Thanks all

You can normally overpay by 10% each year (check the small print) so term is pretty irrelevant. Plus, you'll remortgage at some point and you'll be able to increase/decrease the term when you do that.

How long you want to fix for, the rate and of course the affordability are the important things. You might need to take a longer mortgage to get past the affordability calculations but you can overpay that if you want.

It’s warm in winter, it’s a terraced ground floor flat, as @Howard said, most of the issues were due to clueless bastards not making the most out of the building.

then you can get on with decent space standards for all in a country with one the highest (and still growing) population densities and lowest available buildable land and most restrictive building and planning regulations in the modern world.

Does that mean that countries with higher densities would have even smaller living spaces? I would expect strict regulations to result in high quality housing not neglect and bodged works.

expect strict regulations to result in high quality housing not neglect and bodged works.

Does that mean that countries with higher densities would have even smaller living spaces?

Maybe, all things equal (i.e. expense of building / area of buildable land / ratio of existing stock to new etc).

I would expect strict regulations to result in high quality housing not neglect and bodged works.

If the balance is right. It just isn't. Regulate too much (the where you can build, the what you can build, the how you can build it), nothing gets built, things get neglected. Or just loads of expensive stuff gets done that only overseas investors can buy.

I get cross ventilation in my single aspect flat...by having 3 fans blowing air from the bedroom through the hall to the living room. Not ideal. New build flats are so heat efficient that they don't bloody cool down. It's like minimum 5 deg hotter in here than outside even if all the curtains are closed, windows open and fans blowing.

Yeah. I had a single aspect new build flat. Don't remember it being too awful for summer heat but it was west facing in to a courtyard and barely caught the sun. I fucking hated it.

even if all the curtains are closed, windows open and fans blowing.

Closed your windows!

I think there is a limit how effective that is if the windows are facing the sun and the blinds are on the inside.

There wasn't meant to be Part O (or I, like car reg) and it was leapfrogged by Part P electrical safety several years ago. I guess someone couldn't resist "O for Overheating".

I'm 42 and got a 28 year mortgage.

Question was " when do you expect to retire?" I said 75

High opening windows (esp sash windows). Cross ventilation

We just replaced our top opening casements with sashes and I was amazed how much more air comes through, although it obvious with hindsight it would because it's swapping a small opening above head height with a big opening at body height.

It appears to be impossible to get a reasonably priced window cleaner at the moment (a neighbour had a quote of £110 for a 3 bed house) so looking like I'm going to have to do it myself.

I'd prefer to avoid ladders as bay windows mean having to put them at an awkward angle or stretch and try not to fall off. I would have thought there should should be some kind of pressure washer attachment but my quick search just brings up the crappy Karcher window vac thing. Anyone any bright ideas? Anything obvious I'm missing? Windows don't all open so doing them from the inside won't work.

wtf i pay £10 for a 3 bed terrace house front and back every month. I know London is more expensive than glasgow but still...

£110?!

Yeah. £15 a month for a 5 bed place near Cambridge. 3 floors too.

Someone's robbing @aggi