I’m a builder. What you’re asking is along the lines of ‘how long is a piece of string’.

For a bog standard build, up to a non plastered shell with a site with easy access, local to me (Manchester) I’d be advising clients to be budgeting in the region of £1,650 + VAT per sq m of additional floor space. On top of that you’ll need all doors, windows, electrics, plumbing, floor coverings, second fix joinery (skirting, architrave, internal doors) plastering etc etc.

Also, SIP structure DOES need ‘proper’ foundations. The design of such may be different to brick and block, but still needs to be structurally sound and proven.

Also II 6.5m bifolds will be at the very limit of functionality at that length. You’ll only open them one or two days a year fully. Have a look at sliding options, you’ll save money and have the same/similar effect with the bonus of being able to either open them fully, partially or just 6″, as well as being able to put furniture up to them.

If you were to take the ACM completely out of the picture here, you have a potentially life threatening workplace.

If a slate is dropped (and this happens fairly regularly in roofing) it has the potential to break through the insulation tiles and drop the 50′ to the shop floor.

At that height and with that type of material, if it hit you square on the top of the head it could quite simply kill you.

Yes, it’s unlikely and yes it probably won’t happen, but the possibility is still very real.

For that reason alone, measures need to be put into place to protect the workforce.

Ian Brown.

I’m really pissed off that he has turned out to be a massive whalloper.

His batshit anti vax and conspiracy theory bollocks is really bad.

Oh, and the Queen.

However one thing which has always worked without fail is making a bank transfer. Since you know the amount you can save yourself huge amounts of pain just by making the transfer, I have always used the Cumbernauld account for PAYE, SA and for VAT but they suggest using the Shipley account for generic taxes with a payslip code:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pay-taxes-penalties-and-enquiry-settlements#online

This.

Similar position, self employed for >20 years. Use your UTR as your reference and pay into their account – Paid my latest return last week. Your bank details will thus have the record of it.

Don’t believe the delays are due to Covid, it is always like that and worse. I get REALLY irate that it should be run efficiently like a well oiled machine and they would thus collect more tax, from more people, more easily.

The govt gateway website sucks farts.

I’m a builder. We do loft conversions regularly.

Have a good idea what you want, then approach some architects/technicians with a clear detailed list of what you require.

Once you have some drawings, then get the planning application approved (if needed).

Then get builders to look at it and they can then give you an accurate cost for the work based on the drawings. Otherwise it’s a bit ‘how long is a piece of string’.

We wouldn’t visit a potential customer who hadn’t already done this, we’d have a chat on the phone and share recommended architects details and give a very rough ballpark figure, but that is about it. Not much point in wasting time if planning will be an issue, or your design won’t work. You’re paying the designers for their expertise and ideas and you’re paying the builder to build to their design.

To caveat that – if you’re on a road and there have been several conversions done on identical or very similar houses the builder will be able to give you a fairly accurate figure based on their previous work (we’ve built 7 loft conversions on the same terraced rd of 28 houses in the last 2 years…)

My thoughts…

Set up a ltd company with you and your wife as directors. Loan the company the £190k.

Use the capital as deposit/legal/stamp duty for several BTL apartments somewhere like Manchester.

You’ll get a £135k appt with capital of £40k ish so you could potentially get 5 if you were prepared to stump up an additional £10k or so.

Each of these will generate a net profit of around £350 pcm. Pay yourself by repaying the loan you gave to the company (tax free) from the ltd company and you’re more than covering your mortgage commitments. Make your kids shareholders when they are old enough and eventually they’ll own the business, gives them a load of options.

Interest rates are at all time lows and will be for some time – it makes sense to make the money work for you whilst taking advantage of this.

Or – use it to buy a place in the Alps and rinse it for riding and holidays…

@ollie_the_brave what if two of the walls are uPVC? It’s lean to with the back and 1 side wall solid brick past the conservatory roof, long dwarf wall with widows and door and 6′ wall with uPVC panels making up the space and following the angle of the roof.

You’ll need to do something structural in the corner where the two UPVC bits meet to take the weight. Either a brick pillar or a lump of timber.

Salad dodger – South Manchester mate, just next to the bit which got a bit funky in the rains last week!

singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/conservatory-solid-roof-warm-or-cold/#post-11727108

Yes, cold roof. For what you’re doing the total depth of the roof would be huge to go down the warm roof route.

If it’s the same ‘shape’ as matey boys on the video, you’ll need to consider the timber for the hips – the diagonal timber that the rafters are abutting. You also need to be confident calculating and cutting compound mitre joints – which is about as complicated as it sounds!

Over the windows depending on their width, you’ll need to consider putting lintels in to take the weight of the new roof – easy to do when you’ve taken the existing roof off, but structurally necessary.

This Gozney job looks the dogs bollocks, do you have one – is it as good as it looks?

That’s a decent price and the portability would lend itself to camping trips etc. Looks robust and well made.

I’m a builder, we do stuff like this all the time.

Regarding the Regs, building regs apply to all habitable space in a domestic setting. What you’re creating is intended to be habitable space – thus you’ll very likely need to get regs approval. Ask the relevant dept at your local council, in writing. If they say you don’t need regs, make sure you get it via email!

To get regs, you’ll need to provide structural calculations for the roof build up. This needs to be done by a qualified engineer – should cost about £150 ish. The building inspector will visit at predetermined stages of the build.

You don’t mention if it is a lean to or ridged roof so based on the info given I’d be looking at the following as a guideline. I am assuming the walls are brick/masonry and solid – ie you’re not planning to plonk this on top of upvc windows..

Roof Structure
Wall plate of 100x75mm timber mortared onto top inner leaf of brick work to seat rafters on. This strapped with long L brackets to interior walls at 1200mm intervals and in each corner.
Rafters 150x50mm C16 Grade timber @ 400mm centres, Doubled around any rooflight windows (velux etc)
If lean to – Pole plate (the bit that abuts the main house) 175x50mm C16 Timber bolted to masonry at 600mm centres using concrete bolts or resin anchors
If pitched remove a small section of outer leaf brickwork to seat underside of ridge beam (take 3/4 bricks out and pack it to intended height)
Ridge timber 175x50mm C16 grade.
Cover using breather membrane starting at gutter line and overlapping as you work up
Tile battens of 50x25mm treated timber
Tiles of your choice – Sandtoft are good quality and easy to fit, their support is excellent.

Insulation
Celotex/Kingspan dense foam 100mm thick cut and fitted between rafters and flush with underside of rafters. You must (can’t stress this enough) leave at least 50mm air gap between exterior side of insulation and the membrane, if not you will get condensation issues and potentially the roof will rot.
On inside then underdraw rafters with 25mm Celotex/Kingspan – screw it into underside of rafters using woodscrews and washers, or use insulated plasterboard.
Plasterboard internally and skim

Will make a huge difference to heat retention, and likely add some value to your gaff if that’s of any interest!

You’ll need some decent tools, beg/borrow/steal/hire a Paslode first fix nail gun and a half decent chopsaw and circular saw. You’ll need a decent SDS drill and impact driver too.

Look on youtube for instructions on how to cut ‘birds mouth’ rafters, as this will be the trickiest thing to master, once you’ve cracked this the rest is simple really. Roping a mate in to help will be a godsend.

For your materials – open an account with a local builders merchant as a sole trader. Travis Perkins are excellent. You’ll get a much better discount. For all your nuts/bolts/nails/screws then Screwfix is the place.

Hope that helps.

Screwfix do loads of very hard wearing stuff. Not the smartest, but if you’re crawling under desks surely function is more important.

Don’t bother with the knee pads – if you want some cushioning buy a kneeling pad and carry that with you, after wearing knee pads for years (builder) it was a revelation when I bought one.

Will deffo be taking a look at GBA and Sightseeers – keep ’em coming!

Superb film, Shane Meadows best I reckon.

I also ‘enjoyed’ Tyrannosaur which was Paddy Considine’s directoral debut.

Also more recently, The Virtues by Meadows was superb.

Might have a crack at staying up and watching. Not seen it for years. Fully anticipate waking at about 3am on the sofa, cold, as the fires burnt out. Large dram of semi drunk whisky on the coffee table….

Have a look at Simond Alpinism 33.

Simond are decathlon alpine spec stuff and it’s very good quality, and cheap.

I bought one of these after doing a lot of walking in the French Alps, pretty much every serious French walker was kitted with something simond. Very impressed with it and have now used it for pretty much everything. Bulletproof. Wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.

No rain cover, but they’re shite anyway so use drybags.

Chaos here in Greater Manchester. We got email at tea time yesterday to say school closed until further notice (quite right).

Primary 1/4 mile away open. Primary 1/2 mile away closed.

Seems a similar story across the county judging by the MEN.

So avoidable and so stupid. Anyone can see that this was coming and is necessary.

All depends on how much additional works you’re prepared to undertake.

If it is just replacing the boiler with minimal disruption then you’re limited. If you’re doing more internal works then that opens up the spec and scope.

Re the new wood burner for example – any scope for a hot water tank higher up and buying a stove with a back boiler to heat said hot water whilst its burning? Water in the tank can then be used for pumped heating circuits and/or for hot water supplies to kitchen, bathrooms etc.

Obviously more initial work, but savings down the line over gas usage.

All manner of flat routes in my backyard of Chorlton. I’ve just ridden 22km this morning with a total of 60m ascent. The paths all around the Mersey, up to Carrington, bit of canal towpath etc go on for miles and miles and in every direction. You can join bits up via short road sections if need be, or go all bushcraft and thrash down some narrower paths. Most of it is on the OS map.

For a more ‘dog free’ experience aim to be out earlier in the morning. I dropped my daughter at school at 9am and went straight out today, nice and quiet.

Plenty of free parking at Sale Water Park just off the M60 which is pretty much in the middle of it all.