Owning your own home

I'm so done with management companies, ground rent, leasehold bullshit, the whole EWS1 saga. Hopefully we never have to deal with any of that again.

I called someone about changing the locks today. We moved in almost two years ago and were never given a key to the back door, so that has just been open this whole time.

But yes, probably a good idea to change them asap.

truly on edge waiting to be able to lock in a mortgage rate from october earliest.. already looking over 4% 🙃

Up for remortgage in feb. Should I start looking now? Can you get an agreement in place? If I want to put in more money is it worth getting a brocker and any idea who’s good to go with?

I believe some lenders allow you to lock a rate in up to 9 months before, so worth looking into.

The money saving expert mortgage forum is a really good resource

Took the plasterboard off of the stud wall between front and rear receptions hoping something a little bit more substantial was holding up the 1st floor.

Victorian property, I'd assumed these walls in this position were always solid brick unless modified later, but this looks like it was originally build as a stud wall with brick infill, then at some point replaced with a newer stud frame and some of the original bricks (on their edge) pointlessly left in place

Is our house going to fall down?

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Is it a load bearing wall on the 1st floor and above or just bearing the 1st floor?

It is loading down the right column. The right looks scarcely connected.

Is there a wall over? Which way do the 1st floor joists span?

Why did you remove it and what is your plan? I'm not a builder or engineer, but it looks like is was originally continuous slightly thicker stud work running all the way down, with the bricks and plaster adding additional strength. Our wall was like that and the house was still standing 125yrs after it was built.

However it looks like at some point it was opened up without consulting an engineer, then filled back in again. If you are just putting it back, I'm sure an experienced builder can make sure it's solid. If you want to open it up, I would speak to an engineer personally.

Theres a stud wall on the 1st floor directly above it. 1st floor joints span front to back in this photo ie perpendicular to the beam in the photo.

Google suggests brick infill stud walls were not uncommon in victorian houses but I can't really get my head around how everything stays standing.

The plan is to open it up. Original hypothesis on observing that the wall was plasterboard was it had originally been opened up in the past, then filled back in. To be clear a builder is doing all this!

At this point I'd probably be engaging the services of a structural engineer. Are they 2x6 studs?

brick infill stud walls were not uncommon in victorian houses

yes, not uncommon at all and the wall is definitely loadbearing.

I can't really get my head around how everything stays standing.

The big wall plate will be working as a continuous beam spreading the load to the new and existing studs under. There are the same amount of studs as original, albeit not as strong nor as well restrained.

Get a structural engineer in to design a solution to open that up properly.

Ours was like this, but the bricks were end on, so the builder had to build new piers on either side to support the steel. Also had to reinforce under the floor where the new piers were sitting.

My builder thought the whole thing was overkill and wooden uprights and a flitch beam would have been fine, but we had already had everything drawn up by an engineer.

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The plan is to open it up. Original hypothesis on observing that the wall was plasterboard was it had originally been opened up in the past, then filled back in. To be clear a builder is doing all this!

I posted photos of how this went when I followed a similar thought process somewhere. Hint: It was lols.

That makes sense, thanks for your help. Hope the watch is going well for you by the way!

My builder thought the whole thing was overkill

If I had a tenner for every builder who said to one of my clients I'd be a millionaire. They can never justify their opinions either! I don't tell them how put bricks on top of each other, why do they have to comment on something they have no expertise in either? ARGHHHHH

I still love it thanks!

Some of them are correct, others base their opinions on "well it didn't fall down whilst we were building it, so it must have been OK".

Helped a mate out on a new build bathroom renovation, 2018 it was completed, bathroom was built inside a regular room regular plasterboard, cheap tiles just plopped on top of plasterboard, shower tray had a few tubes of sealant emptied into it, but nothing underneath so tray has cracked then leaked through and chipboard floor is history.
Not even thr worst, they obviously lost the olives for the back of the shower entry port (divertor bar type) so literally made soemthing out of wire and wrapped it in ptfe tape. Amazingly didn't leak at that point.
On the face of it you can see its a budget bathroom, but had no idea we'd have to rebuild half the room to make it even vaguely decent.
Gonna go on a limb and guess the whole estate is built the same, absolute shambles.

Starting to look at/think about buying and jfc it's depressing

Offer accepted yesterday, mortgage sorted today avoiding any hikes but still eye watering repayments.

Our buyers survey is next week, so probably a month before the bulk of the fear can dissipate

lol

The new emergency budget is awful but we'll save like £3k on stamp duty so that's nice.

likewise (2.5k) but that just goes on higher repayments over the next 2 years after a previous deal expired.
one hand giveth...

Nick Caves yard. (apparently).
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/126998045?fbclid=IwAR3LKsVjTlFKAO2IJvU5QnOQ_-hvQOWNCcJWaeoFAbe7tRqtzntKNS-ROJQ#/&channel=RES_BUY