Owning your own home

we were going to go with them but a tiny bit more and they wouldn't go into loft (it has pull down steps with a long hatch so easy access)
was not 1.5k though! everything must have gone up as quotes were coming in 2.4-2.7k for the full monty.

Nah, I'm down in Thornton Heath. If you can't be arsed buying SDS, I have one.

FWIW my view is that if you are buying now you should feel you are paying at least 10% below the 2022 peak. If you are shopping in a market that still feels red hot (open houses etc) go somewhere else. The “cheque is in the mail” as they say.

The best thing about buying in this market, is not the reduced prices but the ability to take your time and buy something you actually want rather than just whatever you can get your hands on. You can maybe even have the luxury of viewing twice before committing. Maybe.

Don’t stress about getting 5 or 10 or 15% off whatever the last one made, you might, you might not. Take your time, get one on the right street with the garden facing the right way, no subsidence, no stabby neighbours. All the good stuff.

These folk? https://www.fsmithandson.co.uk/

I suppose the question is what happens to the relative quality of the stock coming onto the market.

My feeling is that it declines in markets like this, as you only have the more distressed sellers (cashflow insolvent BTL-ers, probate, some unliveable blight)? If you believe that then you have to adjust your offer to take into account the higher risk of getting a lemon.

Saniflow or any other kind of "bathroom in the wrong place" situation is an instant no from me.

Mate has a similar story to yours, finished refurb his flat to a very high Standard, then upstairs neighbours toilet waste started leaking into their bedroom, frequent requests to get into the flat to figure it out (elderly couple) turned into multiple days of literal shit flowing through their flat.
They kept denying that they even had a bathroom there as were using an ensue on far side of building that is pumped across to old bathroom which is where the problem was. They had both long since lost their sense of smell and didn't notice the weeks worth of waste Pilling up in old bathroom and unused bedroom. Utterly horrifying. Insurance were apparently even more fun ti deal with.

My upstairs neighbours had a new bathroom fitted in (non original, but has been there about 15 years). All wastes left in same place, just new fittings and tile etc. In ten years I can't honestly ever say we have noticed anyone using the toilet.
Until now.
New toilet fitted is thr noisiest, slowest to fill thing I've ever heard. Can be heard throughout our flat, cannot normally hear upstairs much at all, so it must be biblically loud in their actual flat.

Will be fun approaching that tomorrow, erm "btw you know your new toilet, shes quite loud..."

That’s it

They had both long since lost their sense of smell and didn't notice the weeks worth of waste Pilling up in old bathroom and unused bedroom

christ

Just under £1,200 for a full pack and move of 2-bed in Dartford (inc contents of loft and shed) to Thanet a few months ago courtesy of three lovely chaps from here: https://www.aneasymove4u.co.uk

They were a pleasure to deal with from initial visit to quote through to the move on the day although they did admit getting everything into one Luton 3.5tonne van needed a bit more Tetris skills than they anticipated!

i have been given some advice from a builder about damp in the kitchen, end of terrace london victoran brick house.

we had a french drain thing put in gravel ditch around the back of the house when we 1st moved in. The new builder is saying the ditch is wrong and is just adding to damp problems as the kitchen has ben dug down ? ( its at ground level not a basement ) and we should have a plinth instead.

there is so much mumbo jumbo about helping a damp house im unsure what to believe anymore. has anyone had similar ??

French drains are only as good as what they empty into. In London this is often clay or other unsuitable strata.

As with anything, it depends, no?

If you have a concrete / other type of impermeable surface up to the side of your house, a French drain will mitigate any damp being held against the foot of the wall (particularly if it was previously above the DPC, or if there was render down to floor level that crossed the DPC), even if it just lets it down to the next impermeable layer (which is, hopefully, much lower than the DPC).

It also has the benefit of reducing splashing back, if you have it filled with gravel / shingle.

What does he mean by plinth?

Ultimately, you just need to have the kitchen separated from any water.

What does a side profile look like (as in this sort of diagram)?

Until the french drain fills up and becomes a receptacle. No one wants a pond right up against their brickwork.

Where are you supposed to keep your fish then?

In the freezer.

Feed the seals

i think its something like that but unsuitable as it clay but also because cowboys put it in. i think by a plinth he means this

also the builder said neeed to dry the kitchen out as much as possible before work
ill have more of a read up.

i dont want to keep fish in my mini moat

i dont want to keep fish in my mini moat

I think the recommendation in that case is to get a seal

From bitter experience of a London Victorian terrace house’s kitchen the efficiency of a French drain may be compromised by you rear wall only having minimal footings (and possibly no damp course)
When the rear of our house was rebuilt with foundations we just went for a concrete plinth

only is i can go clubbing with it

thanks this is probably what the builder has experienced. ill ask him. ta
how did it go with installing the plinth and has it helped ?

Parging, innit. Pretty ubiquitous in LFL, and often slapped onto Victorian solid walled buildings, straight over the slate / pitch DPC.

Just when you think it cannot get any worse, it does!?
We have just half an hour ago received the redemption statement/stock transfer deed for the purchase.
i'm sat in half empty flat in N4and partner is in my place SE19
turns out the transfer needs to be printed and countersigned before tomorrow morning FFS. we asked for the these as soon as we exchanged and then chased again on Tuesday and today, partner is currently in an uber heading to friend with printer, you would think due to to the lack of time they would have sent these pronto?.
any competent solicitor would....

oh and the formatting of the PDF's was so screwed that the redemption statement made no sense and there was no explanation of why there was an early repayment fee listed (we are porting)

Oh and I almost forgot they have spelt the name wrong on the stock transfer deed, nothing surprises me anymore, i fully expect to not complete tomorrow and will probably just shrug my shoulders.

luckily the removals have storage and buyer is moving a day later on friday.
we seriously think they (solicitor) is doing this on purpose.