jayc89

SWMBO picked up some Birch Briquettes from Lidl the other week. They weighed 2kg each and burned for probably 2 hours. They didn't seem too bad. I think she said they were £5 something a pack so worked out at around £1 each.

Sounds familiar. We have random trees around our paddock boundary, I couldn't even name them all. We borrowed a local farmer's telehandler and cage a couple of months ago and really went to town on cutting them back - added bonus that it will allow more light into our garden next year. Some is already chopped up and stored away, some still need chopping, but what we've used so far as been pretty rubbish, quite light, burns quick and gives off little heat. We've even been making our own firelighters; dryer lint, egg cartons, wax cheese wrappers etc. and I'm still averaging £7/day in gas right now!

I believe it's legal to install a gas boiler in a cellar - we plan to do exactly this. I suspect the flue being at head hight, and not covered, and it being so close to the window do not comply with the regs though.

We're pretty sure it was original the kitchen. We unearthed the old chimney breast when laying the new floor slab. The rear is certainly an extension, we believe to be built approx. 30 years after the original building, still of solid brick construction.

I guess the other downside to lintels/RSJs over structural heads is you'll be able to see the bottom of the lintel over the window, won't you?

Did that need designing by a SE or did you JFDI?

I saw that recommended somewhere else, with the caveat that it would need to be designed by a SE, is that correct? They sound expensive I spoke with Catnic who are recommending a standard 215mm solid wall lintel followed by a box lintel on the internal face to make up the additional 100mm.

Having a look at this evening this evening, if I were to install MVHR (the unit would be in the loft), the first floor is simple as all ducting would just drop down from the ceiling. Ground floor, right hand side is also simple, as the ducting can come through the airing cupboard above to service the Study and Snug, but it's the left hand side of the ground floor which is troubling me; I need an extract duct for the W/C and a supply duct for the Boot Room and Dining Room. One solution might be to drop the ducting down the wardrobe in the dressing room above Bedroom 3, but given I need to supply 2x rooms and an extract, it would be quite bulky. Can anyone see any other solution that I'm missing?

We're looking to install window heads to our existing openings (they were taken out many years ago for some reason....) Some walls are 215mm thick so standard solid-wall lintels will work there, something like this - https://condell-ltd.com/lintels/solid-wall-lintels/catnic-cn71a-lintel-2250mm However others are around 330mm thick and I'm struggling to find a single lintel to do the trick. What's the best approach, I can use an L-shaped lintel to the external face (like this - https://condell-ltd.com/lintels/single-leaf-lintels/catnic-ang-single-leaf-wall-lintel-2700mm) 2400mm), but I don't know what to put behind it towards the internal face, a 215mm prestressed concrete lintel, or is there a better solution?

Hah, the best I've managed is ~ 18m2 in approx 6 hours (i.e. off and cleared away) and I don't fancy doing that again any time soon

Nothing a weekend with an SDS drill couldn't sort out. If you're going to EWI and re-render anyway, a few nicks to the brickwork won't matter that much. To answer your original question though, you could consider something like this - https://www.thermablok.co.uk/site/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Thermablok-Aerogel-ThermaSlim-Internal-Wall-Insulation-TDS.pdf - I have no idea how good it is, nor how much it would cost though!

I'm assuming by your comments you don't like the external cement render. Could you "kill two birds with one stone" by removing that and fitting external wall insulation prior to re-rendering?

Agreed. Have you considered PUR spray foam instead of PIR boards? I've toyed with the idea purely because it should double up to also provide a more foolproof airtight barrier. I had a quote for someone to apply 75mm of foam and they charged, on average, £18.50/m2. 75mm PIR is approx £15/m2, unfitted, without tape etc, so the foam didn't seem crazy expensive.

Interesting. If I was to do it again, I was thinking of doing something similar to this; Sitting the ledger plate some blocks of EPS 300 or similar for it's compressive strength and sliding the PIR through the gaps. I just don't think I can justify ripping the entire first floor up now it's something like liveable.

I'm doing very similar. 100mm PIR under the new floor slab, (likely) 50mm PIR on the internal walls. I'm purposefully going lower on the walls because I didn't drop the internal walls, so I'm worried about cold bridging/condensation at these points if I insulate too much. In hindsight I should have dropped these walls and installed Pozi joists too as it's also making my MVHR planning much harder! What method are you using to fit the PIR to the walls? Will your joists be refitted on the inside of the insulation?

If you were to do it again, where would you install the PIV if not after the stair void?

It's pretty windy here today. Just lit a fire in our wood burner and noticed a pretty nasty draught coming from above the closure plate. It looks to be coming from where the plate meets the brickwork, rather than around the flue. What's best to seal this with, fire cement?

That would only work if the ducting could travel between the first floor joists everywhere else though, wouldn't it? We have solid joists and solid brick internal walls between all rooms, making that more difficult. We could core drill through the walls in between the joists though? I suspect that would mean we'd need a couple of service riser areas though, given the ducting couldn't cross joists to reach other rooms.

As part of our house renovation, we're trying to restore the original part of the property back to, near, original. Down the side elevation was originally a side entrance, which we believe was into the original kitchen. We plan to restore that, and put a boot room there instead. An old picture of the house, shows the kitchen window as being a casement window, whereas the others are all sash. Our Architect has proposed we do the same in our renovation, and his opinion is that "working rooms" were generally very different to habitable rooms, so the contrast would be fair, but our window fitter has expressed concerns that mixing sash and casement will look odd. As a, mass, third opinion, what says you? (The window in question is circled in green on the new elevations)

I've been mulling over the idea of installing an MVHR unit in my retrofit. The unit would have to go in our (cold) loft space (insulated ducts above the loft insulation), but without ripping up the first floor joists, routing the ducting down to the ground floor is turning into a PITA. I'm installing IWI at the same time, which will include a service cavity, so in theory, the ducting for the ground floor could run through that, but it means I'd need a ~ 100mm service cavity on top of the space lost by the IWI. All of a sudden, I'm losing a chunk of my floor space. I'm beginning to think an MVHR is possibly a step too far in my renovation, so I'm looking for other solutions. We'll eventually make the house larger, so will need to comply with building regs, in that section of the building, and I really don't want to resort to trickle vents. Would a single PIV in our landing, with dMEV units in all wet rooms + kitchens be a viable solution? I.e. would that provide sufficient ventilation to all rooms, plus comply with Building Regs in the extension when we get to it (based on current regs, of course...)? Are there any better options?

I've been shopping around for Windows. The exact same windows, from different Rationel suppliers. a whopping 50% difference in the quotes. When I questioned this, they significantly reduced their price, but it's ludicrous some companies consider this standard practice. The cheapest, interestingly, was actually less than what I was quoted for a uPVC range...

I've had a quote back for the Liniar frames. They're more expensive than the most expensive Rationel FormaPlus quote I received. I wasn't expecting that...

I've seen a massive fluctuation in quotes for the exact same windows. Some 50% higher than others. It's crazy.

I understand that PIR relies on gases within it to provide its thermal properties and over time this gas leaches out, resulting in a similar K value to EPS. Would this be the same for spray foam?

Has anyone heard of Liniar? A builder we've been speaking with recommended them. They have a "Resurgence" range which would suit our property well. With TG they offer a u-value of 0.9 which we'd be happy with. https://www.liniar.co.uk/upvc-windows/resurgence/