How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

Erm …
Forbo marmoleum
Forbo sphera (vinyl)

I looked at a wierd hardwood strip floor with rubber joints once (like a ships deck)

Or just painted or oiled pine boards and a large mat

Architect should be able to work with you on a “value engineering “ exercise.

I did this recently - reduced some opening sizes (less steel) kept more of the existing building. And offered alternative layouts reducing the build area in m2 chunks showing the resulting impact on brief (ie client can’t have everything for less money so needs to compromise)

Needless to say they pretty much ended up back where they started.

People want what they want.

How about not replacing existing windows for now?
Buying used or unused stuff from people that bought the wrong thing/need a new kitchen after 2 years might also help, but it's loads of work. But my new kitchen tap was 1/3 of lowest price online and is basically unused.
If you manage that with all the fittings that might help, but it's a lot of work.

Always worth taking a step back to consider all the options, but this isn't going to happen as the location of our current place is pretty key.

It's hard to overstate just how thermally awful the current (Crittall) windows are. We were finding ice on the inside of the bedroom windows over the winter. It's such an obvious win in terms of modernising the house that it seems perverse not to do it, especially since the scaffolding to get to the first-floor ones will already be in place.

Thought that might be the case.

Kitchen can be a massive cost saving area, a lot of labour can be saved if you do it yourself, as well as savings on reducing spec on kitchen units, appliances and worktop.

Decorating, skirting, flooring/carpets/ could be done fairly easily.
Unless you’re really handy, probably get the doors done by someone else, door hanging, hinges, handles, routing and chiselling seems fiddly and time consuming, and easy to mess up.
Also I think you will need them in for building control sign off?

It's hard to overstate just how thermally awful the current (Crittall) windows are.

Have you tried things like interior film to give them a boost? If you fix the rest of the building re. insulation, you will less notice the worst of the existing windows effects.

I guess the issue is that if you do exterior insulation you'd be more or less stuck with them, or run the risk of an installer fucking the insulation when replacing them at a later date.

does anyone have a recommendation for someone who can do outdoor decking? North London way.

Some of them have interior secondary glazing which is handy, but it's not feasible everywhere. On some of them the cast stone exterior sill has blown due to the reinforcing bar in it rusting, so the whole area needs dismantling anyway.

We're not getting exterior insulation done (if you mean cladding the outside of the building), Interior insulation on external walls has been proposed, but that may be something to jettison partly because of the cost of it in and of itself, but also because all those walls would then require replastering.

Just done internal insulated plasterboard on external walls and the plasterer is finishing today. Probably cost 4k all in with me and a mate (paid)doing the fixing which was complicated by having the central heating pipes in a foil lined box at floor level and cutting a rebate in the insulation and fixing a plasterboard to the insulation and stud round the floor.
Probably take several years to make that back in gas bills but it means more comfort in both winter and summer and a lower EPC rating when we eventually sell.
It is something way easier to do in an empty property so I would do that over windows as they can be done with little disruption

I've just been through something similar.

I would strongly advise that you ask the builders to give labour only costs for anything you think you might want to source yourself.

For me this ended up being a lot and was handled through contract variations which in itself became hard to manage / keep tabs on.

They may be reluctant to do this but it would have been a huge help to me at the beginning of the contracted work - your idea of what you want as a finish will almost certainly not be what they have included in the quote.

To give some context I did a full refurb on a Victorian terrace outside London including an extension into the side return. It took 9 months to a year and was 3/4 over the original budget. We ended up stripping everything back to brick and essentially starting again from the shell of the house.

I am very happy with the end result however and am really pleased I did virtually everything in one hit with one main building contractor.

In short be prepared for it all costing twice as much as you think and to take twice as long. And then prioritise accordingly.

And it's the builders you need to speak to on cost rather than the architect.

Goodhead's above advice is all very accurate. We just fully refurbed and extended a 1949 mid terrace ex council house.

From a shrewd perspective, and if they will do it and stick to it, try to get a fixed price with a very well defined scope. There will be things they've not accounted for, secret concrete slab where they expected clay and sand, weird non-standard post war construction, walls being much shitter than thought so full replaster etc. If you can shift these onto the builder to swallow the budget bloom won't be so extreme. They should price higher to start with but in my experience it'll still be under how much work it takes.

If possible order all materials yourself. It's a lot of work and you need to be on it to get them what they need when they need it, but you could side-step the 20 to 40% contingency they'll add (to pay for them chasing suppliers, returning the wrong thing, driving to merchants etc).

Got someone fitting our radiators today... they're not filling me with confidence.

I probably should have followed up with more people on Checkatrade.

That said they're very collaborative, so at least I'm not getting a "I know best and I'll do it how I want". It's also fortunate that my OH is away so I can deal with any fallout at the end of the job rather than getting grief now.

they're not filling me with confidence.

But hopefully filling the rads with inhibited clean water?

Every day is a school day.

Is this necessary for new rads? Doesn't the boiler fill them?

@hugo7 you generally top up a towel rad or something with a £10 bottle of inhibitor which adds some sort of protection.

On radiator inhibitor, over the past few years I've removed and refilled (for decorating) 4 of my 9 radiators. Should I be topping up the inhibitor?

I would, yeah

Cheers

Curious to hear people's thoughts on this.

• we want 2 radiators installed and chased in neatly into the wall with no visible pipes.
  
• originally the plumber said we'd need to chase into the concrete floor in both rooms and it would be more work than expected.
  
• Quoted £700 to do it all on the basis that he'd need to get someone to help to do it in one day, or it would take him two days. Alternatively it'd be £350 if I did the chasing.
  
  

In the end OH said fuck it let just them to do it.

The plumber was unsure about cutting into the sitting room floor as he wasn't sure where the gas supply to the fire was. Suggested chasing out behind the skirting board for the sitting room, which he has now done.

When I talked to my OH they immediately asked what the new price was on the basis that they didn't do what was agreed and this is a lesser task.

Plumber was here from 10/11am to 6pm and is back tomorrow at 11am - I guess for another 3hrs or so.

TBH I felt a bit blindsided after a full on day in a full on week. My gut is that so far he's still chased it in so when finished there will be no visible pipes in the sitting room. I'd prefer it to have been under the floor, but equally if something goes wrong it's easier to access. So I'm not sure a reduction is relevant. To be clear my OH isn't expecting the £350 price, just not £700.

Pay the plumber. He's done what you asked and what was quoted for no? Did you ask whether that quote was inc VAT?

Might be a bit awkward if not agreed up front but make sure to get an invoice for any work done.

You might want to withhold part of the payment until he's finally competed but essentially he's saved you the hassle of trying to work out where to chase the pipes / going through a gas pipe etc.

Worth noting who’s going to be making good and how much more or less work that is. Sounds like it’s a better solution and will be the same amount of work for the plumber so £700. I’d be happy I don’t have to chase anything.

Imo £700 for two days labour by a plumber sounds fair.

Just realised this will be straight in golf club

Cheers. Good to have other's thoughts.

I guess part of it is that had it been in the floor then it would have been made good by the flooring guys when they do their install. Now there is a section which won't be finished.

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