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More details of the period and listing would be useful, but I'd suggest that the width of those openings isn't original so any replacement will be equally 'unauthentic', if visually more pleasing. If you're also in a conservation area, what's in adjacent buildings may also have a bearing. Have a chat with the conservation officer, some of them are almost half-reasonable. Failing that, secondary glazing is actually pretty good.

I've replaced critall with a dg lookalike on our listed building. It looks the same which is what matters.

There was a chap on here, down in Deal from memory, went on a course then did his own EWI. He offered for me to go down and take a look but I never did. Can't recall his username...

It is. And if you have multiple different cabling uses (network, cctv, TV distribution, etc.) it comes in a wide variety of colours. It seems to be a favourite of many high-end installers.

I don't have detailed comparisons, but my understanding is that depending on various factors, it can be 50% to 200% or more expensive than standard double glazing. If you're really restricted from a listed building approval perspective, that may be something that's financially palatable though.

Internal walls are in the way for an end to end measurement, but I measured the diagonals of the largest room. It's around 4.5m long and 4-ish-m wide. One diagonal was a good 5cm longer than the other. Argh, that's not how I roll. It would bug me for the rest of my days if I didn't try to level things out Which is preferred - glueing and fixing the shim to the rafter seat or glueing and fixing the shim to the wall plate?

Please post pics on completion. I need to do this when the field dries out a bit and is rather less of a swamp. Sadly i dont have a free suply of poles, though i do have a fair bit of unistrut. Whatever you do, its damn expensive!

Id do this. Last month, i missed (because im too slow) a Worcester Greenstar outdoor oil boiler, unvented water cylinder, oil tank and a bunch of copper pipe. £695. Theres loads of secondhand oil boilers and stuff at the moment thanks to the various government wheezes. Cheap, simple and effective.

Way back when I was at uni studying aerospace engineering we spent time with one of the profs who assigned us a project developing exploratory approaches to more effectively harvest waste heat from power station cooling towers - either to inject this waste energy back into the heating process or take it elsewhere (yes, i know not really aerospace but the prof had a strong interest in energy conservation and it taught us quite a bit). This was a long time ago and heat pumps were very much part of the ideas. We're not very good at thinking this way, unfortunately, but better in other countries where they employ district heating.

They do look 1970's, but roughly like copies of Crittall windows; I wonder if that's what they replaced? Since they look similar, there may be a chance of persuading them to let you install similar new Crittall windows, on the grounds that they'd be more authentic (as well as being better insulated). If you can find old photos that substantiate my suspicion it would help.

Oops realised I didn't include the link: https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/50242-dtech-cxg-ftp-zhie-nbk/ This seems like a good deal for good quality cat6. Their similar spec cat6a is 3x the price. If I was choosing between the two I'd def do cat6. But it's much closer between this cat6 and the cat6a above. That said, Cat6 is supposed to be 250Mhz, Cat6A 500Mhz, so if the Cat6 above is tested to 500Mhz then a lot of my reason for going to Cat6a goes away.

Put the hob on an outside wall run and duct straight through the wall. I have an externally mounted extract so I can get lots of extraction of cooking smells and smoke with very little noise. It is what nearly all commercial kitchens have. Not so important if all you do is steam a few veg and order in takeaways.

If you want to run fibre you can buy preterminated lengths for not crazy money. https://www.fs.com/uk/c/fiber-patch-cables-261 But it's still expensive and only really worth it unless you want to go over 10gbit or run 4k hdmi long distances (and there the box either end will cost many hundreds at the low end). So maybe better to plan a gentle big conduit path for the hopefully few areas you may want to run the cable in future.

I wondered about running some fibre in too, maybe just a couple of places like office to plant room but it seems a bit more complicated. I don't mean actually terminating the ends, just having it within the fabric of the building and left as a coil behind a blank plate. I doubt I would ever need it but in the future someone might appreciate it. I hope I don't regret not doing it.

I’ve been very busy sorry, and it’s a complex situation so I’ve not bothered giving you bits of answers in my spare time as it would be of little value. I’ll reply asap, and I suggest you hold off doing anything until you fully understand all the options, actions and consequences. Whoever is advising you currently needs to be shown the door though.

Beading, mesh, render I'd normally have said EWIstore... Do you feel they are expensive for those as well as for EPS? Obviously let us know, please, if you find somewhere cheaper.

What's the best way to insulate the recess of a fireplace (when I say best I mean both cost effective and safe!). I'm using quite a lot of heat out of the back of the recess (when they did cavity wall insulation this bit wasn't insulated). I've had the following suggested - is this safe and is there a preference (and if I fix it to the wall then what do I put on top of the heatproof boards - if anything?). 1). Skamotec 225 - Skamo Enclosure Board 2). Vermiculite fire boards 3). Calcium silicate Insulation boards - very expensive 4). Rockwool FirePro / RW5 (non-combustible mineral wool) e.g. could I use the Rockwool FirePro and then cover it with a Vermiculite Fire board and paint over the top? I'm more than happy to reduce the size of the recess - it doesn't need to be as big as it is for us. Thanks

Unless I've missed something, hempcrete still seems to be a niche product in the UK, so this newly published webinar on its use in European newbuild may be of interest. It's mainly focused on apartment buildings (with some office & commercial) rather than single homes, although there are a couple of examples of those from Australia (using a rebranded French system). Sprayed hempcrete, hempcrete blocks and prefabrication are all covered, applied to timber, steel and concrete frames. Start at 10' 50" if you want to skip the introductions.

That the joy of owning a listed building - don't want to play by the rules, don't buy listed. Don't confuse planning consent, with listed building consent. You need both. Planning consent is easy, list building consent will turn you grey especially if you don't want to play by their rules. There are ways do things and do them well and still comply with listed rules. But you need to keep the listed folk on side. And have deep pockets.

Ok I can see you are wanting to explore this. It's a good thread you have started as it delves into what can be possibly achieved on paper and what can actually be built at a sensible cost. Don't apologise, you are not sitting an exam here! Neither am I as I've clocked off the day job. Mortar is less forgiving in terms of movement so consider lead, even if to rule out. Yes they are. But so is PIR insulation. Below is the data sheet from Steico for thier high compressive strength insulation. And below for thier internal insulation. I won't go into detail about how SE's do the sums for compressive strength.. other than to say we do not use for example this value when designing as it squashes to much. For you the main thing is to look at the thermal conductivity of the two offerings. The higher compressive strength has a value of 0.048 W/(m.K) the lower (weaker insulation) 0.038 W/(m.K) which is about a 20% difference. If you remove the repeating bridges but even use the higher strength stuff you may get a better result. It's likely marginal.. but as I said before.. you need to look at the perimeter details, noggings etc and buildability. I understand what you are trying to achieve technically. I'm familiar with how this sort of stuff can work, the references you cite. But I can tell you it is almost unkown to be able to build this. It might be a good idea to start to produce some detailed drawings of the junctions / interfaces between the different elements. Even if you do this as a day job it's going to be demanding. All the time you have to think.. how do I explain this to a builder and what are they going to charge you for this.

I bought a part roll of Cat-6 on FB marketplace when I ran it for the EV charger recently. Bargains to be had etc!

mjc ……> The point about listing is that it should stay in the style that it was at the time it was listed. This is even if, to some, the style of any part of the building is ugly, inefficient or not up to current standards. Even for bland 1970s windows made of poor quality timber??? As a decade it was probably the high point of my life, but certainly NOT of either architecture or building standards. What is the logic of preservation of crap and perpetuation of environmental wastage?

I'm installing CAT6 too. By the time that I need anything faster fibre might be preferable (and cheaper).

Murdocks.

If it's an old barn let the roof follow the wonky walls. That can look great IMO