Owning your own home

We got secondary "security" glass fitted as the outside layer when we were having our door refurbished. Yes you can still smash it in, but less easily than just leaded windows. Also, we didn't bother with expensive Banham locks for exactly that reason. I don't see any point in them unless you've got a solid door (not that your sister made that choice, just commenting on whoever did). Our ERA locks are more than enough to satisfy our insurers.

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Just agreeing re: moving day stress and carnage. I have no idea how to mitigate this, does anyone? But it’s enough to put me off moving for a decade despite being in a small two bed flat we’re fast outgrowing with a toddler.

Just get on with it? Or just pony up and hire a good firm to do it all

I moved with my 9 month old to a house without access, including moving out of a 4th floor flat, my wife did daycare and I did all moving. Still not unpacked all boxes and we moved in two years ago mind.

Pay for packers and movers and let them do their thing, worth every penny.

£££££ though!

Good removal company that does the packing and dismantling/assembling large pieces of furniture (having your bed put back up is a big plus) make it much easier.

We moved with a 6 week old. The extent of our packing was one bag of stuff that we wanted to have to hand and unplugging AV/network/computer stuff for them to pack (not strictly necessary but I have a lot of that stuff).

I didn't do any of the carrying, spent the day on the phone to utility companies sorting all that stuff and occasionally answering questions on where should this box go.

A few years ago now but we paid under £500 for packing a three bed flat. It is very much worth it.

Yes it is and we didn’t regret paying for it and would do so again, they say moving is one of the most stressful things you can do and they dealt with all of that.
think I posted already in this thread the full story of the psycho downstairs neighbour who started an argument with the removal men about the parking space and stuck a note on the paintwork of the packers van that left goo all over it.

The owner of the removal firm (who insisted on calling me ’Sir’ ) instructed me to go back inside while he dealt with the matter. once I was gone he flipped into honey badger mode and 5 minutes later I looked outside to see the nutty neighbour with a bucket of water cleaning the van.

So we're going to get a heat pump installed on the 14th October, and Octopus have just told us they want us to board our loft to allow the engineers to install a cylinder up there. This despite the engineers saying they'd do it.

I'm challenging with them but worst case, can anyone recommend a company in East London who might be able to do this at short notice relatively cheaply?

Haha great story 👍

That's brilliant; that fella earned his money!

that is a phenomenal front door/entrance/transformation. Was that a firm in London?

Yeah, asashrepair.co.uk

Wasn't cheap but took them exactly as long as they said it would and they did exactly what they said they would. I just wish they could do the rest of the house. Frames and things need a touch up a few years on but that side is west facing so gets battered by the elements/UV so is to be expected. Just glad to have saved the door. They sent all the glass off-site somewhere to be acid dipped (mainly to remove nicotine/tar from the inside and London pollution from the outside) and resoldered and the name/number repainted.

Here is the original post, it was Grays who we used who weren’t the cheapest but they did everything including packing all my partners clothes in 15 garment boxes (15!) and furniture disassembly/assembly. They had padding to go over the bannisters and put stuff on the carpet and flooring. Was 2 days packing plus the move morning and 5 people/2 vans on the day. Was well over 2k but we don’t regret that one bit.
https://www.lfgss.com/comments/17063326/

thanks very much

that is a phenomenal front door/entrance/transformation

Agreed

Mainly good transformation.

'After' photo needs more horseshoe.

Try Ideal Loft Ladders. No idea what they’re like at short notice, but they’re a great firm that we had board our old loft and then the new one once we moved just outside their usual patch (they were happy to do it as a former customer).

Pretty sure others here have used them too as remember recommending in the past.

https://www.idealloftladders.co.uk/

We used Ideal Loft Ladders too, they were decent.

Anyone had a front wall built recently? Victorian end of terrace so will need front and side wall. Looking for an idea of cost to compare a quote with and a quote without a wall. Cheers.

(And obviously very open to a decent recommendation for someone to do it.)

Anyone had a front wall built recently? Victorian end of terrace so will need front and side wall. Looking for an idea of cost to compare a quote with and a quote without a wall. Cheers.

It'll cost more than you think unfortunately. Would you consider DIYing it? So long as its not huge and you don't want anything too fancy. We did ours a few years ago and saved a fortune using a pallet of bricks from B&Q and bags of ready-mix mortar. Hasn't fallen down yet!

Thank you and to @aggi for the recommendation - they're up for it, and can do it in time, so I'm just running it by the wife - fingers crossed!

DIY is a possible, I'm probably viewing that as more viable than my OH. Main thing is how long it would take.

If you are doing it I'd strongly recommend a decent ladder and a light up there so it can be easily used for storage.

Thank you - we've got the light and ladder and hatch, just no flooring. We're now booked with Ideal Loft Ladders for next week, very exciting stuff!

Had a quote for rendering a wall in my block of flats for 20k, so 1/5 for each flat, but 20k total. About 3 weeks work. He has confirmed no VAT. Is it weird that he's not VAT registered? Surely he turns over more than the vat threshold?

I'd guess lots of cash jobs.