Sleepless Night

It is 4am and I am having a sleepless night.
Garages
Yesterday was fruitful up to a point and then went off at a tangent.
After sorting out the new transport arrangements for moving machines next week I spoke to the builders working a few doors down about bollarding or blocking the corner into Edgeware Road to ensure the truck can get to me without any hitches.

Then cycled a very pleasant 10 miles to Portishead under the suspension bridge, following the River Avon to Alliance Homes HQ, a North Somerset housing trust, who I am renting two garages from in Long Ashton - good to clear the mind!  New offices, very nice people, efficient and friendly - felt I wanted to work there, especially when the girl arrived for lunch time keep-fit.  All the fit girls went to work-out and the larger ladies went to lunch!  Checked and completed contracts and made arrangements for payment.






Decided to visit a new bar/restaurant in the Portishead Marina for a quick coffee and fuel my return to Bristol.  Pretty successful integration of shipping containers but painfully trendy inside, shabby collections of random junk as little nostalgic stage sets all over the place, obligatory leather sofas on shabby carpets, photos of bygone era brewery business, all set in an industrial aesthetic exposed galvanised trunking and pretty expensive external cast aluminium light fittings.  The small cup of coffee must be the most expensive in Portishead at £2.65, but integrating containers aint cheap and you get get a nice little piece of fudge to take the taste of the copper away.  If I could achieve the standard of concrete floor finish in my ground floor I would be well pleased.


Cycled directly to Long Ashton across the hill to checkout the garages.   Floors a bit oily but otherwise sound and dry, outside secluded, secure and tidy.  GREAT RESULT - I must thank a neighbour who I met collecting freecycle stuff.
I plan to use one for workshop related materials and tools and the other for bulky domestic items, matresses, chairs, tables etc.  At least with this amount of room I can organise access to things and not have to decide between Bristol and Cornwall.  May consolidate later to reduce cost of £11 each per week which is pretty good and flexible for now.

 

Escrow
Got back to base early afternoon, cycled down to Selco builders merchants to check price of polythene and battens for party wall.  Polythene DPM on special offer this month so will load up tomorrow.
Received a draft contract for the Escrow account that the Contractor requires me to pay into as a sort of bond that will offer some security if I decide not to pay an Architects certificate.
I skim through it and find there is no mention of how interest on the account is calculated or paid, and in the event of my insolvency the contents of the account goes to the Contractor! ( we are talking serious money here).  Also if the contract is in conflict with the main JCT construction contract then the Escrow Contract will prevail.  This all sounds very one sided and breaks the accepted principle not to mess or meddle with contracts because of the almost certain effect of unintended consequences arising.
David the Architect is not happy and suggests that we would need a specialist legal adviser to review the Contract Clauses - this all seems to be mushrooming out of control.

I had understood that an Escrow account is held  by a third party, usually a solicitor, while goods pass between two parties.  After the transfer is completed the money is transferred to the Vendor, simple!  I had imagined a very similar arrangement where the Architect's Certificate would trigger payment once certain criteria are met, but the Contractors proposal has a life of its own.  I am beginning to wonder if this has ever been done before or am I the guinea pig, and who briefed the solicitor and was the draft contract checked before it was given to me.

I hope this can be resolved in the morning, I could really do without this hassle at the moment.

Moving
I am flat out on moving plans, last night I dismantled the crosscut saw and reassembled the table saw ready for reducing reclaimed timbers to battens for protecting the party wall. Andy the Construction manager has suggested that they can work off tower scaffolding at 2nd floor to secure the polythene 'flap' above the roof line when exposed during demolition.  This will keep the joints to a minimum and be much cheaper than the originally priced cherry picker.

I have worked out that I will be short of battens for the party wall so need to reclaim some ceiling timbers or buy in battens.

Plan to set up shelving in the garages tomorrow ready to receive boxes during the van hire on Monday/Tuesday, so big push over the weekend to move all large and heavy items down to the loading area ready for loading.

Day Off
As a slight diversion from 'the Project' I will be taking a day off on Thursday/Friday to meet godson from Reading where he has been residing at her majesty's pleasure and drive him to his mothers and her husband near Bedford.  This is a last minute and welcome release for him and a bit of a diversion for me, he is my mentoring project for the forseeable future, something I feel really committed about.
I have been doing a lot of ground work with parents etc. and I hope we can work something out together.

Ouch
I do not plan to post anything much on personal finances and am not complaining here but....... I have been selling some investments and watched the price of a lot of LloydsTSB shares that I no longer own rise by about 30%!!!!!! since Co-op pulled out of the deal to buy branches about 6 weeks ago -  I am glad I am too busy to give it too much thought.  All highlights the fact that timing is impossible to control and I need the money at a specific point in time.  Hey ho.

Countdown engines on

19 Days to Go

Demolition
Start date is fixed at 10 June when the contractor will take over the site.
Had a meeting with the demolition contractor this week to check neighbours gardens to agree protection etc. and agree what goes and what stays, he looks more like a dentist!

To save money I had the idea of masonry painting the party wall that will be temporarily exposed after demolition and before the new wall is built. 

Friend Jon spent a good few hours scraping and removing loose paint but underneath the old limewash is so powdery that even with stabalising solution there was too big a risk of the temporary paint blistering and flaking off when exposed to the sun and the rain. 
So plan abandoned and we are back to the more conventional battens and plastic sheeting.




I dismantled a 20metre length of acoustic lining wall that ran the length of the workshop party wall last week, took the plasterboard to the tip, Freecycled the insulation and de-nailed all the timber ready for ripping down into battens to attach to the wall.

Moving
On Monday arranged to hire a van at National at what seems a bargain £38 a day to transport bulky items to Cornwall on Mon/tue next week and confirmed price and firm date for the big machine move to Cornwall on Thursday - loading at 7am!,
I will travel down with the load, spend the following day organising things and return by train Friday evening.
On Tuesday managed to secure 2 really cheap lock-up garages in Long Ashton 2 miles away.  Cycled over to see them; pretty secure, tidy neigbourhood and look weathertight so I have arranged to cycle over to Portishead to sign the leases this morning.

This is all last  minute stuff but decided that I can use the van hire to shuttle workshop stuff into one garage and furniture into the other rather than travel to Cornwall.
Early morning phone call today Wed from the haulier who has checked out the neighbourhood and cannot get the truck to me because the wheelbase is too long and the streets too narrow. 
He recommends another haulier with smaller trucks so I make an urgent call. He is a bit nervous because I am a new customer and loads the price a bit but after some reassurances manages to match the previous quote and can do the journey on Thurday so panic over for now.

VAT
The dialogue continues with the Contractor who believes VAT is applicable on the workshop because of a clause in the Planning Permsiion  concerning restriction to Woodworking and Furniture Making.  I definitely think he is wrong but businesses are so nervous of getting VAT wrong that they seem to prefer to add it if in doubt to avoid potential fines by HMRC.  

I have challenged the Contractor with my reasoning and while we await a response I have asked my accountant to recommend a Construction VAT expert or barrister to give me a quote for a ruling to present to the Contractor that will satisfy HMRC.  This will be very expensive but the VAT bill will be more than £10,000.

Asbestos update

Following the discovery of some small amounts of asbestos cement I decide to extract it myself and take it to the City Tip/dump  which is a regular haunt  of mine (now called a recycling centre).

Following reasonable safety measures I chip away around some small packers under the front door threshold (the Surveyors must have known they were there or maybe they planted them)  taking nearly 2 hours. Also transfer all the debris containing some roofing sheet to bags and double bag and tape every item.

The routine is very strict, phone the council - who phone the tip to establish that there is sufficient room in the container, which there is.  Drive to the tip; what is it?, is it double bagged and how many bags - 3.  Drive to the non public area of the site feeling like a bomb disposal expert, carefully load the bags into the container and drive off without looking back.

VAT Scare!

A roller coaster week of the financial kind, initiated by Virgin Media;

I need to move a Virgin Media Cabinet which is currently blocking the new driveway entrance to the site in Edgeware Road.
I met the engineer on site who fairly quickly updated the original quote to just over £4,000 (how much!?) which I forwarded to Virgin Works Dept in Strathclyde, all to allow the Contractor to plan and coordinate the work.
A couple of days later I was dismayed to hear from the Contractor that the cheque was being returned because I had not added 20% VAT.



Contacted Virgin and explained that the development is new build dwellings, so no VAT is payable since the work is enabling new construction; no VAT was due on the BT Pole relocation or the gas disconnection.  Initial response is that Virgin charge VAT on all their work and therefore I should claim it back from HMRC.  Phone HMRC and after multiple auto phone options, and an excruciatingly long wait spoke to a most unhelpful jobsworth who says that if the VAT was incorrectly charged in the first place then I could not reclaim it back as part of a self build.

Phone Virgin back who by this time have discussed matters with their accountants and spotted a WORKSHOP on the ground floor in which case the VAT Guide 708 confirms that VAT can be charged on the project.  I am beginning to panic does this mean that I will also have to pay VAT on the whole development?!!  This would mean an extra £50,000 on top of the £11,000 for the Workshop portion that my accountant has previously advised I am liable.
I phone my accountant and nervously explain the situation and my concern, he will look into it and get back to me, probably after the weekend, I email him the Planning Permission.  Phone Architect David and he asks me if I can afford the extra if required?  I am so committed to the project at this stage, I have spent so much money already and the contractor is gearing up and expending money,  the answer has to be yes but it is going to be very painful and I do not know where the money is coming from. 

Thankfully receive a fast response by email from the accountant who attaches a new extract from HMRC 708 VAT Guide for Construction that contradicts the clauses referred to by Virgin and most importantly specifically covers Live-work development.

The decision to use the term Live-work to describe the main unit in the Planning Application was slightly accidental but now had significant importance.  VAT would be apportioned to the commercial part of the development (as the accountants previous advice) unless the Planning Permission did not specify a minimum area for commercial  use in which case no VAT is due on the whole development.  GREAT NEWS!!

Forward details of the Clause covering Live-work VAT to Virgin, together with the Planning Permission and their accountants return confirmation by email that this is acceptable and their work will be zero rated.

WIth the above Clause I am fairly confident that the Contractor will also be able to VAT zero rate the workshop so I forward information for their accountant to consider.

By sickening contrast I have watched a share price of some investments recently sold to finance the project have now increased in value by almost exactly the same amount as the VAT that I may be saving.  Still must look on the bright side at one point this week I thought I was £60,000 down!!

ASBESTOS!

 Results back today have found that 3 areas contain asbestos;

• The boiler was known to contain asbestos seals, so no surprise
• I must have dropped some small pieces of asbestos cement roofing that I carefully removed from the garage roof, double bagged and took to the municipal refuse site.  Unfortunately this means that a pile of excavated material from a trial hole is now contaminated and requires special disposal.
• The third location is a mystery - sample taken from beneath the front door threshold of a material I can not even see!!!

SAP Calculations + Rainwater tank

SAP Calculations
Are calculations to measure the energy rating of residential buildings and prove that minimum criteria are achieved.  Calculations of typical annual energy costs for space and water heating, lighting and CO2 are included.

Calculated Rating for 70 Upper Perry Hill

For low energy buildings SAP calcs. are not very reliable in predicting actual performance accurately and the way certain building features are rewarded may not make complete sense, but these are hoops that we must jump through!

The result for no. 70 are OK, see right, but no. 68 (terraced house) is some considerable way below an acceptable figure.

The reason for this seems to be that because the party walls either side of the house are fixed, the scope for increasing the level of insulation to floors, walls and roof is limited.

The two major components that influence heat loss from a building are insulation and airtightness, so the following options have been put forward to improve the SAP value:

• Reduce the number of air changes per hour from 8 to 4 (Maximum Building Regulation requirement is currently 10 and the 'energy efficient' 70UPH is 3)  So this would be a significant change to the specification that the contractor has priced, but may be achievable by introducing sealing tapes and membranes to 'seal' the external envelope, at additional cost.
• Increase the insulation particularly in the flooring and roof and try to relax the air change rate.
• Reduce the size of the large folding sliding doors to the garden.  This will only have a small effect, but since they face NW they do not benefit from thermal gain and the cost saving in the doors can be used to fund increased insulation.
• Install an air source heat pump in place of a gas boiler.  This scores bonus points in the SAP calculation because although greater capital costs the saving in energy use over time helps to recoup this.

So introducing an air source heat pump may alone solve the problem, but alternatives to this will need to be costed as an 'extra' by the contractor to establish which option is most efficient.

Rainwater Tank
A while back I visited Ecobuild and had a chat with staff at the Rainwater Harvesting stand who confirmed that the minimum cover depth is 700mm for tanks. 
I have this past week got round to checking this against the current drawings (in a break from packing) and realised that at this depth the proposed tank is getting too close to the 'zones of influence' of foundations. My previous assumptions were based on the fact that we have a concrete slab over the top anyway so the depth could be reduced.  Alternatives are to forget rainwater harvesting, or possibly install a pair of linked 1500 litre tanks to achieve the desired 3000 litre capacity.  This is all getting a bit complicated and more expensive!

I emailed the tank manufacturer in Germany (by-passing the UK supplier) who thankfully confirm that shallow depths are possible if the slab is designed to impose no load on the tank and bears on a 1 metre zone around the tank.

Quick phone call to the Engineer suggests this is feasible if the slab over the tank is increased from 150 to 200mm and has additional mesh in the lower part to provide structural capability.  I need to draw this up in section to check that it all works.
There will be increased costs in additional concrete and mesh, but in theory the excavations will not be so deep and cart-away costs and fill will be reduced and hopefully it will fit!