Col2021

Doing a renovation/extension. Wet UFH in extension (living/dining/kitchen/utility). Electric ufh in bathroom and ensuite (to avoid running lots of pipe to there). Mains gas heating, plan at the moment is a new gas combi boiler. Total floor area 120m2, half is the extension. Other half is old stone cottage which is getting insulated. 2 bedrooms, office and bathrooms are in that end. As the ensuite will be c20m away from the boiler should we just go for electric showers in there and the bathroom? What brand would be best, I can't abide piddly showers so would need to give good pressure. Then onto the source of heating! As I said plan at the moment is mains gas boiler. But what are the REAL economics of ASHP? This is in Perthshire. We would have south facing roofs for solar but wife doesn't like the look of panels, so they are out (for now). Whats the general consensus?

Been getting tenders in for our build. They all say savings could be made by swapping from zinc to slate. What could the saving actually be? Has anyone compared the 2? Obviously we will be asking the builders this week but forearmed and all that!

We have an onion shaped klargester in a house that we have bought for renovation. Having eventually located the tank we got it sucked out and the baffle is sitting tilted to one side and there are loose bits of fibreglass. Is it knackered? What should replace it with, it seems like a lot of the cost is going to be digging out the old one and the cost of the competently set a new one in. Is there an option that doesn't need concrete, or can you replace the baffle? The inlet to the tank is about 1.2 deep.

Extension is doubling the size as the original cottage is 60sq m, extension the same. Extension will be kitchen, dining, living and utility. Having ufh in bathrooms, one will be a suspended floor and the other will be solid floor. Extension wil, also have south facing glass for winter solar gain.

This is going to be in a new extension, so would I better just to go for a solid floor to give a bigger thermal mass and it would appear to me(as a layman) an easier job with more insulation.

Diesel car and gas it is then!

I'm watching this avidly, we are extending an existing cottage, the extension will have standing seam roof, cottage has slate. The cottage roof is probably OK but wife definitely doesn't want on roof so I'm thinking of solar slates. The slate roof might actually be ok and not need fixed so we might leave it for now anyway, depending on costs. It looks like you can get pv for standing seam as well. The house has mains gas (for now) but what would be the best way to integrate it all? One neighbour, who doesn't have gas, uses solar to firstly heat the house then once that is at temp it heats a water cylinder, then it charges the car. I'm thinking we could do something like that but still have gas as a backup? We will also have a wood stove sk can that be integrated as well, maybe to heat water when it is on?

Its looking like redoing the mortar then insulate top and bottom and leave the walls might be the most pragmatic approach, along with good draught proofing and glazing. The longest wall of the house actually faces south so we would get good thermal gain, including the two big windows that will face that way. The west end is that gable you can see and is where the majority of the weather will come from. The extension will be built off that wall so it will protect it to a large degree. The extension will have UFH and a stove so will be toasty, there is potentially a door between the extension and the original part but we are toying with leaving it open to allow air to move. The old part is essentially the bedroom and office wing.

So is the fan just to get rid of moisture? Or are we doing a heat exchanger sort of deal? On the moisture front I assume an electric cooker would be better than gas as no products of combustion! Also have good extraction in kitchen but then you could lose a lot of heat there so even more need for heat recovery? Its almost as though we should just bulldoze the house and start again! As obviously retrofitting this is a PITA.

The new part will have south facing glass for max solar gain in winter so maybe some way of moving that warm air around isn't a daft idea.

In East Perthshire, definitely not covering the stone up but it needs repointed so will lime mortar help with breathability? Got a suspended floor in it and plenty of airflow underneath to reduce moisture problems coming up the way. We are still at the early stages yet but the walls are pretty thick and I assume they will be rubble infill. The extension is going onto that gable end so we need to keep that bit breathing and stop cold bridging etc. There doesn't seem to any damp at all, at least to my layman's eyes. The green patch on the wall was where there was a fruit tree growing. Its on very sandy soil with lots of gravel which naturally drains well but a French drain round the house might be a wise move. The walls are very thick so interior insulation would shrink the rooms a bit the current house is 68m2 and the extension will be about the same. The house had a 92 year old lady in it, and she lived all her days there I think, needless to say it needs throughly modernising so the original bit will be the bedroom and office wing and the new part is going to be open plan living and kitchen with a large utility room. New part will be part render and wood clad with a standing seam roof. There is mains gas on site and we will probably leave any renewables for now apart from a wood burner. The mains gas in our area comes from an AD plant. If there was no gas I would go for kero instead. We don't have enough room for GSHP so it would have to be ASHP and with the price of electricity currently it SEEMS like an expensive option. My wife is never impressed with the looks of solar panels but it could be something to look at. It went in for planning a month ago so here's hoping we might get started this year. I live in a tied house for my job so no rush to move. We used to own a couple of buy to lets and we have been looking for an opportunity to do something like this for maybe 10 years! Now its getting quite real and a bit worrying.

We will be starting a project, hopefully soon. Basically a new extension going on an existing sandstone cottage. Its a solid hiuse but will need some work. The plaster work seems very sound but obviously there's no insulation in the wall or floor area. There's a bit in the loft but that will need topped up and lots of draught proofing done. Floor is a suspended one so will get lifted and insulated as well. However when we get to the walls whats the best thing to do. To do it properly we would need to strip it right back and start again. However how important are the walls? There are new windows going in throughout and there will be lots of draught proofing to be done. How much space would we lose if we stripped the plaster off and put in new insulation and plaster board? Does it stop the building breathing, is it the right thing to do.