How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

Doug fir as it will feel nice underfoot.

Also if you drop something heavy the floor will dent rather than a scree of microcement which would (possibly) crack.

Yes. One of them needs to be on it at least.

Why?
Stove I can maybe understand but sink doesn’t make sense to me

Haven't you seen the adverts? You are always chatting and laughing with friends and family when washing up and cooking, and island appliances facilitate that.

Hob, so you can claw back your investment by having Jamie Oliver round to film.

I'm voting for team sink in island. I think it's handy for washing veggies and your hands, boards etc when you are doing prep on the island. I spend more time doing prep+dishes than I spend at the hob. Also better to have a solid wall behind the hob to collect oil splashes, plus easier to get extractor fan over it.

Flush fitted seamless induction hob on an island would be excellent.
Can be used as a sort of prep surface, though will beep at you if you have anything conductive on it.

This.

Location filming is £££

Won’t be having an extractor over the stove. Either vented in the worktop or one on the side wall.

I’m quite tempted by the stove on the island - a domino induction and 2 ring gas with central extraction would probably be my choice…

Those figures don't seem too off putting, have just registered interest with Octopus.

Yep, I think they get in touch for a site survey now

Microcement as a floor or worktop covering just doesn't work, unless incredibly high spec and installed onto liquid screed. It's too fragile, it stains like you wouldn't believe, and installation is difficult to do perfectly and expensive.

If you want a concrete get polished concrete. Or Dekton they have also just launched a "Craftizen" range that looks identical to microcement and is a billion times more robust.

Don't put your sink on the island, or your kitchen will frequently have dirty pans as a centrepiece. You don't need anything on it - especially if you fancy going for a nicer finish or stone worktop on the island.

Surely we're talking about a 2nd veg washing sink not a common dish sink which will get hidden in the corner.

The kitchen we're discussing is Tenderloin's as the render in #3963 right? A second sink seems a little fussy... Rather just put the money incurred in plumbing/supplying said sink towards something nicer than Corian in the centre of the room, or a nice lighting fixture over the island.

If a rinsing sink is needed get it attached to the main one.

Yep this was my thinking so glad to have that confirmed. We have a 2nd sink but in the utility room adjoining the kitchen.

Worktop will be Corian to match - I like the way it looks plus we have to reduce budget at this point not load anything else on! 😬😬

Will check out Dekton but tbh we’re fairly set on Douglas fir I think as the chance of cracking or staining of the floor seems pretty high and would really piss me off

Be great to hear how the survey went. We had a plumber round recently and he almost talked himself out of a job by suggesting we get Octopus to do the survey. Age of our house, insulation and a few other factors made him think we might be eligible but he warned that they turn down a huge number of homes (he reckoned around 80%) as your home needs to fit their system and not the other way around. Suggested that's why they're a lot cheaper as they can buy (good quality) kit in bulk.

I think we've decided on upgrading to a new combi boiler. It'll get rid of the hot water tank and all the shit in the loft, will supposedly improve our shower system and means we can stop using a timer. Probably not a great long term solution but the cost, location of the ASHP (garden) and uncertainty about Octopus put us off.

To install, gas combi is about £2k

We've been quoted double that!

Including all the pipework and stuff? Yeah I suppose my guestimate is about three years old now.

Yeah, switching from regular to combi so loosing the hot water tank and feed tanks in the loft (which tbh was the main draw as we're tight on space). When we did a general Google search in the summer London estimates were around £3.5k and we feel we're in good hands with the guy we have so willing to pay a little more.

Hmm. ASHP is becoming more and more attractive. Just think of the number of short haul flights I could take on the banked karma.

We looked at dekton worktops and it would have been cheaper to buy Michaelangelo's David and convert that to a worktop. I can't imagine what an entire floor would cost.

Should have made clear Dekton was just a suggested solution for worktops!.. sorry. @Tenderloin there are some good porcelain tiles out there however that come in large formats that might be worth looking at also. My ire was just directed at Micro-cement mostly. I think it's completely over-sold as this do-it-all magic material. If you're set on it, Topcret Baxab is the best performer I've found so far, but it'll set you back in excess of £110per m2 I expect.

do you know any good london/SE based worktop people? hopefully we have some windowsills that are 50’s terrazzo and some wood to replace. would like to fit new deeper versions to allow for 50mm internal insulation so about 30cm deep. have seen corian/silestone that looks similar to the existing terrazzo and there are some 60cm tiles i have seen (real terrazzo) that might work if cut in half.
most of the places that do the posh stone seem to be based in chelsea and i don’t want to pay the stockbroker tax as i’m not one and 3 windowsills isn’t likely to bring them deepest south london.

real terrazzo tiles cut to fit is similar price to synthetic done in one piece, it’s just finding somebody to do a good job and maybe fit cavity closers if needed.