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Since the basement was finished at the end of June things seem to have been dragging on for ages but we are finally out of the ground and ready for the timber frame. It has taken 13 weeks and we had delays with materials that held things up but when I look back at the photos from the basement being finished to where we are now it is amazing how much has been done and we’re very excited about the timber frame going up next week. When the groundworkers came back post-basement they started by insulating the basement walls externally with 200mm of EPS 100 and then backfilling with clean crushed as per the structural engineers specifications. Then they started digging the foundations for the ‘arms’ of the building as I call them and you’ll see why from some later photos as the main building looks like the body with 2 x arms coming off it. These are a garden room (that links to the kitchen/diner) and the utility room and garage. These are designed as insulated slabs with 300mm EPS underneath which you can see in the photos. Here we see I had to put some Perinsul blocks in, thank you to @ToughButterCup for getting them to me. While that was happening the brickie was also on-site building the internal walls for the basement. We have a 3m ceiling height in the basement so we had to get scaffolding in to build them safely which was another expense I hadn’t planned for (beginners naivety) but something that had to be done. It was around this time that I purchased a DJI Mini-2 drone. It is brilliant and has given us a whole new perspective on the build. Here are a few videos from before the slab pours (please excuse the auto-added cheesy music that DJI added). And some photos of the slab pours. I also put in some VCL between the basement and ground floor as a Tony tray. Once the slabs were poured we move on to the block and beam flooring. This caused the biggest issue with getting materials as the company the groundworkers were using moved their lead times from 15 days to 6 - 8 weeks which would’ve put us stupidly behind schedule. So I sourced some beams from a local builders merchant and paid the beamers to cut them to size on site rather than waiting for the correct sizes to be fabricated and delivered. It was pretty stressful to say the least. But what made it worse is that I decided a while ago to move from precast hollow core slabs to block and beam but no one along the way told me that the beams couldn’t take the load of the walls above like the hollow core could and, by chance, during my conversations with the block and beam company designing it I found out that I had to put supporting steels on top of the basement walls to take those load bearing walls from above ground. Back to the structural engineer to get those designed and then fabricated and installed. And then the beamers tell us that they won’t do the work without a complete fall arrest system across the entire basement 600mm down from the top of the basement walls. Back to the scaffolders to come and put that up at yet another expense (although the safety of the contractors is important to us so I didn’t grumble too much!) and we were finally ready for the block and beam to be installed. So what turned out to be the decision to save a few £k by moving to block and beam has in the end cost me a lot more due to the extra work involved. Oh well, you live and you learn. Anyway, the day came for the beamers to install it and they were a smash and grab outfit but that is, apparently, what all block and beamers are like. They just turn up and smash it out and leave without any due care and attention. To say they were miffed that they couldn’t do that on our build due to the steels on the basement wall is an understatement and comments like ‘if I’d known there were steels I wouldn’t have taken the job’ and ‘I’m losing money of this job’ really filled me with confidence. And if I ever do this again I will probably do the block and beam myself as, although hard work, it’s not complicated and I would’ve done a much better job. Anyway, it was done and they left and we could get on with laying the coursing blocks for the sole plates to sit on. This is where I insisted on precision and I spent a lot of time out there with the brickie assisting with setting out to make sure everything was spot on for the sole plates and checking that the levels throughout were within 5mm - 10mm across the building. It was time consuming but I think the accuracy will pay off in the end. While that was happening and with the timber frame imminent the scaffolders came and put up the required 2 lifts around the entire building and by 5pm the Friday before the frame was due it was all finished and we were ready……or so we thought. The timber frame ended up being delayed by 4 days due to the chippies testing positive for Covid-19 (the first time we have been directly impacted (not including the material shortage etc) by Covid) and during that 4 day delay the contract manager attended site and noticed that the garage (which is 120mm below the main house) had it’s coursing blocks below the main house. After a quick email exchange it was pointed out to me that I’d misread the plans and that those blocks, and the sole plates, need to be at the same level throughout so I needed to raise the coursing blocks by 120mm in the garage by the end of the following day. The groundworkers have moved on and I couldn’t get anyone to do it so I knocked up some pug, borrowed a disc cutter, bought myself a trowel and got laying. I’ve never laid blocks before but I did spend a lot of time watching and helping the brickie so I had a good idea as to what to do. I started after work on Wednesday (sole plates due to be fitted Friday) and finished half of it well after dark and then got up early the next day to finish the rest off. And it worked! Level and straight (ish) and still standing the next day. Phew! And this is where we’re at right now. Timber frame ground floor wall panels are due next Tuesday so we should really start to see things happening rapidly now and within 4 weeks our superstructure will be up. But that will be the subject of my next blog. Here’s a time-lapse video of this part of the build. I had to speed up the footage x10 and each day is about 4s long so things happen at quite a speed but it’s amazing to look back and see what has been done these last 13 weeks. Thanks again for reading and I hope you’re enjoying this journey as much as we are. Until next time…

If you have the money to do it, get it all done now. Living on a building site is a nightmare and life is short. Excavating the slab and adding lots of insulation is a good plan but expensive. Consider external wall insulation. For the roof, 370mm loft insulation is fairly cheap and simple to install. Between and under rafters PIR is tricky and more expensive. Forget the woodburner unless you want drafts and pollution. Consider solar PV instead of thermal as the energy produced is more flexible. Once you have decided, may want to get a specification and costings done. If it look horrendous you can trim some things back. Maybe get a few builders to quote for the main works and leave them to project manage.

You can never have too much expansion. The MI’s for the boiler will suggest that a system volume calculation be done to ascertain the total volume / temp / expansion and more is added to meet the system requirements. I would say you’d be around 12-14L to allow a good chunk of headroom, so adding another 7-8L would be what I would be doing if I was fitting that lot. Others may want to scrimp and save and do a calculation to just give enough and no more, but a bit of redundancy is always a good provision afaic. Also means less frequent topping up on the filling loop too.

If taking down cannot be done,how about isolated removal of individual blocks on the external leaf to allow access to the affected areas? ‘Full fill’ in this scenario is a commonly used misnomer & Id say the retaining clips definitely are required for the system to stand a chance of working. Im really not a fan of it,to be honest. The real world installation just never tallies with how good it looks on paper.

@PeterW absolutely correct about pricing and how it ramps up if you require all the services, especially in Surrey and Berkshire, where we built.. For our concept design, the total cost was £3,500 (including VAT which could not be claimed back as it was design service). I will admit to being horrified at this but SWMBO was adamant that it would add value to our overall scheme - she was right, as usual.... The proposed costs estimate for the next phases, including detailed design and then supervision of construction (hard landscaping) and planting would have been £ 6 to 10,000 , depending on the cost of the landscaping works - see my post below The photos I attached were last year. The garden is now looking great, especially with the lock down and all the work that SWMBO has been putting into the garden recently

Yep but won’t do the newer batteries at full chat as the comms between battery and charger are different. If you have the latest (genuine) batteries they charge much slower.

I got mine yesterday and was using the combi up on the scaffolding 20 minutes ago until dusk stopped play. Don't know how I got this far in the build with a single 3Ah battery. The brushed combi drill creates a bit of light show when used in the dark, it is my first brushed 18v Makita. They say brushed motors do not have the same oomph as their brushless counterparts but I reasoned I will switch to my wonderful Makita pulse driver drill when the combi lacks power.

This fitting has very soft copper at the point where the brass meets the copper, and really doesn't stand up very well to rotational force. If using that then make sure the screws are in and the fixings are robust

If you had gone for the pink one, for your money you would have got 3 drills, 3 batteries and 3 chargers, plus 3 sets of goggles and some drill bits. Just saying. Do let us know the reaction when you turn up on site with a pink drill......

Norks! ?

Two separate contactors for fwd/rev. Then the main contactor set up as an NVR. I think what I thought was a separate winding on the main contactor is just a secondary little coil to energise the pilot light "P/L". Then the fwd and reverse contactors have a small set of NC auxiliary contacts. They're just used to break the feed to the other contactors coil. Just going to chuck in 3 modern contactors I think, retain the original overload (unless I can find another). The existing coils are all 415VAC. I'll either use 230 or 48VAC coils and a small control trannie if necessary. The fwd/rev is a proper (you can see it sloshing about) mercury switch. Keeps the grey matter ticking over. No star / delta on this..... It's being run off a dodgy phase converter.

"for women" I should take that to the high court on sex discrimination because as a man I cannot buy that so they are discriminating.

You may get your loft insulation free if you play your cards right. Find your local ECO3 organisation, and do a touch of homework. Plus: an example of how to approach cost control / optimisation:

You would normally shot fire a sheet a 2400 x 600 mesh under the steel The lift and rap the face of the steel Then plug and screw to the block about 300 above Or as above cement board but you would need to add a movement joint where the board joins the block

If you do try to work it out you'll find that most of those don't actually affect the EPC all that much. Just done a SAP2012 calc on my house, which produces a D 57 as it stands. Increasing the loft insulation to 500mm, adding 100mm PIR to the solid walls and insulating the suspended floors changes the EPC to D 67. Adding 15kW of PV changes it to B 86.

I've got mostly Makita tools and a couple of Dewalt. I would not recommend Makita - I've had 2 brushless drills fail within 14 months of being new. Milwaukee if you can afford it or Bosche pro series seem better built when I've borrowed the builders gear. However there is a very large difference with a base drill say and the top of the line - the make is less important if we are talking Dewalt, Makita, etc

Although shown diagrammatically as above is it possible that one contactor switches two phases for reverse. My lathe has reverse, but a separate mechanical switch to flip the windings. Run lathe backwards with rear toolpost or for parting off with upside down tool, stops it digging in.

I booked the meters for Plot 1 and Plot 3 at the start of September with EDF and was quoted a 6 week lead and given fitting dates of 8/10 and 11/10. Got 2 texts last week cancelling each in turn. Now quoted another 6 week lead time.... Just sent my moaning email to the MD - we will see if that achieves anything.

So nobody will fit a new meter to a new supply at the moment? Sounds like you need to speak to the ombudsman?. That situation can't be allowed to last for long.

Running a lathe in reverse is good for manual boring so you can see the cut on the inside but away from you without leaning over the tool post

It can also be mounted anywhere in the system as the original one is always specifically protecting the appliance

Our guesstimated costs were touch and go in relation to keep vs rebuild we felt like we were on the fence however we accidentally bought a empty property too so we paid 5% VAT (our plot had outline planning for 2 houses but a crappy covenant for one house so you get why it was still a massive consideration at the time). It is not everything a new build can be so @Ferdinand is right but then that also means you might choose to make more compromises on the existing structure which often are a saving too, however it does still feel like we live in a new property even if it’s not perfect we are still over the moon and our route definitely worked out in duration, end result and costs for us. If you can compromise on things that are expensive or do loads yourselves then a refurb might still be the way. And just to warn you at tender we had a price variation of 150k, that’s a 75% price variation from the 6 responses so there is always a finger in the air guess from the other side too!! No wonder we really didn’t know what it might cost, nobody else was really sure either ?.

Could be separate pull-in and run windings? But then there would be a spare aux contact to cut the pull-in circuit. plus not usual on smaller machines, even old ones

I use oil based paint to seal staining, nicotine and tar go through both oil and water based paints but chellac stops them (knotting compound)

Or try, then give up, happy that it is tight.

@tjure2k Two more things I need to say. 1 - Take a *really* serious look at doing a newbuild not a rebuild. It will give a better result, exactly what you want and may well (often the clincher) be more cost effective due to no VAT and no CIL (if you are 'eligible' to pay it.). 2 - Issues around cooling on well-insulated houses can be huge, and is a major theme on BH. At one level you can eg get a reversible ASHP, but it needs to be a KEY element of your reno or build.

Yes I should add we didn’t live in ours until floor coverings were down, I mean it would of been hell/impossible because of the new roof thing too & we have a little boy. I am glad we didn’t live in it. Guess it depends on how strapped for cash you are, we rented a 1 bed flat which even with a child was by far the best idea & so it was the compromise of somewhere normal & vaguely affordable to live just a bit on the small side but just down the road away from the mess and noise. Infact thinking of anyone we know who has done a massive renovation that involve extensive works & new floors none of them have stayed in the house whatever their financial circumstances, everyone finds a way to leave except some crazy people on here & on the tv ?.

Shoot or bolt on battens then screw on render board.

If you have an unvented cylinder then G3 servicing that annually is a legal requirement. Ideally the whole system would be checked over at that time too, although getting someone qualified in the make of heat pump might result in paying over the odds for the G3 service.

Fellow sixties bungalow renovator here... Digging up the floors and relaying will be expensive, but it's the best option in terms of performance, and for the finish of the floor. Inscreed UFH is far, far cheaper than the overlay systems as well, so it's worth factoring that into your decision making. Living in half of the house while the other half is renovated is hard work. The dust gets everywhere. Crap gets piled everywhere. Fridges get blocked off by piles of insulation and then have to be sent off for industrial fumigation when you finally can access them again. If you go for this approach, stick as much of your stuff in storage as possible. I turned our large converted garage into a storage unit using shelves built out of the old internal doors, and it was still a struggle. Consider all your pipes and electrics up front. You don't want to finish one half of your build, and then realise you need to add something that's needed in the other half. Even if you hire a project manager they will still your time to make decisions. I managed ours myself, but it does take up A LOT of time. There was a period of a few months when I was pretty much full time on it. Think about external wall insulation. I didn't do it for this project, and with gas prices what they are, perhaps I should have...

We renovated a 1960s bungalow (well almost destroyed it by adding a new storey on top), we didn’t have anyone to manage it just got a reputable (& well priced) small builder to do it. I’ll be honest we had to go around trying to patch up any of the “that’s how we’ve always done it” approach, but in fairness our architect did rubbish building control drawings and really a lot more detail was needed to avoid us having to go in at midnight and tape things like insulation because it wasn’t allowed for. We didn’t dig up the floor, well we dug up the screed ourselves & then realised it was only 2.5cm thick ?. Had the same height ceilings as you, in the end we compromised stuck in oversized radiators with the pipe work in the walls & externally insulated the outer wall plus had the cavity filled and installed an ASHP rather than a relocated new oil boiler as no gas. We haven’t put the heating on yet and it’s by far the warmest house we’ve ever lived in (husband keeps talking about aircon) but there is a temp difference between new upstairs and the downstairs probably because of floor but we also have convection log burner in a very large portion of the open plan downstairs so Im not worried. I think the bodge would of been to of put 70mm of insulation down & accepted the lost height & less efficient heating, but I was advised with a large slab like ours we’d be lucky to get 20k back from replacing the concrete floor and I was worried about the ASHP not heating it at all if we went with underfloor heating insulation bodge. Our costs came in at £1200sqm we only kept one section of internal wall and pretty much other than slab, foundations and external walls nothing else was salvaged. Surprisingly out of that we got 50sqm of aluclad windows. I do think we were lucky and our builder underestimated things but we also cut corners on some areas for instance our floor finish downstairs is laminate and we have a howdens kitchen (with quartz worktops).

That graph implies that existing housing stock is improving. I doubt that that's the case. EPCs last for 10 years and you only need to get a new one if selling, so the reduction is most likely caused by new builds with better EPCs skewing the results. (The graph also has the journalists/politicians cutting off extremes of the scale, making the improvement look better than it actually is.) This house had an EPC of D 58 in 2010, the fabric hasn't changed and it is extremely difficult to improve it without massive disruption. Does PV still improve the EPC? I've got the best part of 15kW of PV panels (not grid connected or MCS installed); in the previous house that would have moved the EPC from D to A.

Our renovation spiralled due to "unknowns" - rotten floor joists, rock solid walls meaning the chasing out for the rewire took the electrician significantly longer than initially expected etc. Make sure you have a contingency budget. If you're doing a lot of the work yourself, make sure you time manage appropriately - we had a digger sitting around for an additional couple of days doing nothing, but costing us money, because my full-time job got in the way. Shop around! For trades - for our rewire and new heating system we had quotes come in wildly different. Most extreme example - £5k - £12k for the rewire - for the exact same job! We needed some hardcore and decorating stones, looked around the well known local/online companies which were extortionate - managed to get them both at a fraction of a price from a local aggregates company. Ditto on PIR insulation, we managed to get our 100mm PIR for £38 per sheet whereas at the time the majority of places were asking £50-60!

My single phase supply is fused at 100A, which equates to 23kW. That's pretty common although the supplier may reduce the rating if there is an issue with the local grid capacity. People generally want a 3 phase supply if they are going to run heavy duty machinery or want to install lots of PV. A new house built with high standards of insulation should not need a large heat pump and shouldn't need a three phase supply, but it depends on what other large continuous loads you are intending to use.

SO many things about the current system a proper heating engineer could check...

From owning a few brushed and brush less Makita tools, I'd try and get brush less. Far more powerful and responsive. Only other info I can add is that the Makita brushless impact driver is a fair bit quieter than the equivalent DeWalt (going by what I experience on site)

Agree with all of the above, there is no magical gadget that will crawl around the cavity doing what the brickies should have done in the first place,they either didn’t bother or didn’t understand what and how insulation works. why is taking down not an option? It is the easiest and cheapest solution.

I don’t see how a leaking sink water would end up inside a wall? Best practice in a new build would be to have a floor drain + waterless trap in all wet rooms and under the hot water cylinder to account for this very possible scenario. ( I wish i had done it) If fixed promptly leaks will not do long term damage to TF. If you give them enough time they can ruin any house. Funny kid Btw!

what a pity. you really have my sympathy. @ETC is unfortunately right about this, can you elaborate on why it is not an option? It can be psychologically extremely difficult to undo work to put it right but it’s the proper, and often the cheapest thing to do. Cold bridging is probably the wrong term here. “Thermal looping“ is a better one, A quick google turned this up. There are other sources of info. https://www.kore-system.com/blog_list/cavity-wall-insulation-the-devastating-effects-of-thermal-looping/ Simply put what has been done will probably half or worse the performance of your wall. My neighbour used Technitherm poured closed cell foam in conjunction with 100mm PIR in a 150mm cavity. It was successful as far as i know. However your remaining cavity sounds too thin for this to be an option. Other ideas that come to mind. 1. Can you drill holes in the mortar joints externally and push the boards tight to the inner leaf? Use closed cell spray foam then to pin them in place and hope it spreads enough to do the job? Walltite are one supplier. I think this is your best option. 2 . Remove all the boards via the top of the cavity and window and door jambs and use beads? 3. With extreme diligence air seal the cavity wall both externally and internally to prevent external air from entering the cavity. Difficult to do properly and not a 100% solution.

Get the brick/block layers to take it down and rebuild it with the insulation tight against the inner leaf. They should have been using wall ties with retaining discs on them. Not acceptable to you or to Building Control.

I did a thread about a 1960s one here. Not quite the same, but some stuff will be useful - especially perhaps my non-intrusive way of running services. Does it have asbestos? Have a look at raising the door heights (depends on ceiling) and putting in say 100mm of Celotex over the slab.

They are both quality brands of power tools. It will just come down to do you want yellow or blue coloured power tools!!

Are the internal chimney breasts removed? If still present,are they (or have they in recent times been) still in use?

Check all gutters and drainpipes.

Get someone to drill holes and take dust samples at the ‘damp’ locations to then do a speedy carbide test to prove ‘damp’

I’m fairly certain your property wasn’t always end of terrace-I think the rendered wall was previously the Party Wall & is 99% definitely not face (attractive) brickwork behind that render. Might still look nice,just not going to be as neat & tidy as the front as it was never intended to be seen. The erstwhile neighbours side of your chimney stack appears to be capped & unventilated-this might not be the cause of your problems but is undesirable & requires attention.

If that is the case then it will keep most rain out and can breathe. probably not the problem. All the things you mentioned need looking at. DPC: is this a physical dpc or injected? Flashings at chimneys. very vulnerable to ingress, and the build-up of muck including dead things. Also v difficult to inspect. Airbricks. these will not be ventilating the walls, but under the ground floor. They often get covered and you should check but that probably isn't the issue here. Chimneys. You have chimney pots without covers. These were great when fire were burning all the time. Now rains falls straight in and lands where the chimney stack cranks...usually at about half way up the wall of each floor. I would try to find an independent local expert. NOT a render company as they usually use one product for better or worse. Not a builder unless they can first prove some real knowledge...make a checklist of suggestions from us lot, don't tell the builder, and see if they match. An Architect or Engineer or Surveyor (Note the Capitals) will give an honest , warts and all report. They may even say that it isn't an easy matter, and the cure will be partial. Again, check that they are expert in this gutty, unsexy side of building. Many don't have this expertise. These professionals will charge, but that is better than thousands spent on something useless or worse. For a bit more help from us, could you do a sketch and mark where the worst damp or damage is? including the chimneys, but not necessarily exactly to scale.

First thing to ask yourself - is it penetrating damp or damp trying to get out? removing render can be laborious, expensive and end up with a horrible looking brick that looks like it’s be hit by a 1000 pigeon Sh1ts. sand blasting cleans it up well but then the brickwork can stilllook bad if it’s spalled and crumbling. also render that is loose and cracking allows water behind and then it’s trapped.

But that isn't the point. 350 watts of radiant heat directed at just you is very warming. Feels like 6 C warmer. and another pointing down for £120 and you are sorted.? Infrared would have been my suggestion, but that heat exchanger is worth checking out.

Mine had a builder stood on the end of the pipe, which was wedged firmly into a large bucket. Still made an almighty pop though!