memnoch

Haha that would be common sense. We’ve still got some of the original off cuts in the roof somewhere. photoshopping dates onto the photos might be easier at this rate. Will win that battle eventually, more interested in the history. Learn something new everyday.

Thought you lot would love this as a bit of historic trivia Popped home over the weekend to help my dad with a bit of building work. Found out he's been having a few issues with getting an EPC certificate My grandfather John Lowe was a chemical engineer at Lankro Chem Ltd who had a number of patents including foamed phenolic resin (expanding foam) (https://patents.google.com/patent/GB1604657A/en) . Back in 1978, with the help of the his company he created a number of insulated foam sheets, every sheet was handmade in his lab. My father who when converting the old stables he lives in now to a house installed under them under a screed floor in what was apparently the first recorded instance of insulating under concrete slab in the UK. The EPC surveryor is currently having histerics and doesn't know what to do as it predates all records of this technology being used. Dug up some old photos of it being installed and can't use it as they aren't time stamped and then go lost again after explaining that cameras back then didn't do time stamps.

Looks really good! How many are you building? Looks like there are two in a couple of the photos.

Yeah quite a few paths from there up to the top of Loughrigg and waterfalls walk from the road. Goat power might be more useful especially when winter sets in I'd even consider helicopter lift to get all the ICF forms up there and stack it all up so could rely on pumped concrete pours and man power to do the rest. Biggest issue I can see doing that would be the disposal of site waste from the old house and foundations. In all likelihood it will be slow and steady process with lots of little trips.

The plot is both gorgeous and a horrific nightmare at the same time. It's been in my family for 40 years when my grand parents converted it from an old pig stye. However, it's always been bloody freezing in there and damp I remember waking up there as a child wondering why it was so cold and realising the glass of water had frozen next to the bed. One storage heater for downstairs and one upstairs is all it has, electricity only. Come up with a few ideas from a portable gantry hoist at the top and bottom to load / unload from a trailer. To a small telehandler but that steep corner would make me nervous about the safety of it. Whatever options I come up with though are still going to be a serious pain in the derriere.

Not easy to show but is built on the side of a lake district fellside so steep enough that I wouldn't want to have to push a barrow up that last bit. Red line is shared driveway up to a set of garages, green is private driveway up to the house. The house was build before so should be doable but guessing they just used lots of manpower.

Morning all, Just after your collective thoughts on the issues of awkward site access. I'm looking to purchase an site in a few years and am trying to come to a conclusion on whether plans are possible and options. The site currently is along a narrow single lane road, 500m of moderately steep shared driveway to a flat area which recycling lorries can get up. Then another 100 metres with a 35 degree ascent and a sharp off camber 90 degree corner which is really restricted to cars and small vans. The current building isn't very good condition and could potentially gut and insulate with EWI, and refit but looking simpler to knock down and rebuild using ICF and would be annoying but easier to handball all the foam up there and pump the concrete from the flat staging area. How much of a nightmare is it going to be to demolish and get rid of the waste and excess earth from redoing the foundations? while you'd get the recycling lorry up the hill I doubt you'd get a grab lorry up there. Any thoughts on how you may achieve this, only idea I've come up with is trying to rent a corner of a field nearby and use a dumper and get the grab lorry to pick it up from there. Ralph

Morning All, Still in the ideas / planning / financial posibilities phase on a potential project in the Lake District. Background: My grandmother will be 100 this year and as much as we wish otherwise will not likely be with us much longer so as part of future planning we're trying to work out what best to do with her property when the time comes. The house while not huge at 3/4 bedroom has significant value due to the location overlooking Grasmere lake. However, it has had no real improvements in the last 30 years so will be in need of a complete renovation which will likely involve significant costs. As the property will be split between family members I've got to work out if it is possible to get a large enough mortagage to buy out the others, cover the cost of renovations and whether it is finacially prudent. The side effect of the spectacular location and views is the exceptional access difficulty. The property is right at the end of a shared narrow road on a reasonable incline but finishes up with a sharp 90 degree turn, exceedingly steep 45 incline followed by another 90 degree turn the other direction with an adverse camber into a narrow drive with cattle grid at the entrance. Can get a car up with with some wheel spinning if damp but little chance of getting anything larger up like materials up there. Notes: Difficult Access Dug into the fellside so damp / drainage issues Electric only, no gas or oil Size - 175 m2 roughly, 2 bedrooms and one bathroom on lower ground floor, living room, kitchen, bathroom, 2 bedrooms on upper ground floor Planned Works: 1) Unfortunately will need to be fairly well gutted, saving anything of merrit (little architectural value) 2) Planning permission for extending windows and solar panels (other houses next door have them so shouldn't be too bad) but world heritage site and national park so likely a pain. 2) Dig out subfloor to depth, back fill with insulation, UFH and screed and add in drainage if needed 3) Insulate suspended floors and plumb for UFH 4) Rewire of entire property. Going to try and move to 3 phase while going through it all to cover future scenarios as there is a sub station at the end of the drive. 5) Pipe for MVHR if possible 6) Replace all windows / external doors with triple glazing 7) insulate and seal internally testing for airtightness 8 )Space heating via wet UFH, ASHP + buffer tank 9) Direct hot water via appropriate tank / sunamp with heated by PV / electrical off peak. Potentially use the ASHP to preheat. 10) Large propensity of power cuts in the area so would like to add an battery bank / inverter setup rather than export excess PV though that would depend on costs / usefullness 11) Rest is just general renovation, kitchen, bathrooms, lighting etc etc Financial Mortgaging the property is going to likely be expensive has hell, hoping that will be able to get it at a reasonable price as if not then we'll have to sell and will be gone from the family foreaver and my parents and grandparents built / converted it from a small barn. Got to work out if the cost of the mortgage plus the renovations costs (assuming 200k for a complete renovation to a high standard) is even possible I have a good job as an IT security contractor but assuming the gravy train won't last forever so making the most of it while I can. Currently working all hours and 3 jobs at a time to put enough into savings to make it possible in the future, got around £100k in equity currently and £150k investments, should be able to increase that by around £75-100k a year currently. Though if it's not viable I'll stop killing myself with work and actually enjoy life. Questions: 1) Does the planned works seem roughly correct. Been reading this board for over a year and just finished renovating my current small 3 bed terraced house which has been a learning experience so fairly confident on this one. 2) Am I being overly optimistic on the costs? obviously as a rough ball park figured 3) How much is the acess issue going to affect renovation? at the moment I'm thinking about likelihood of getting a small telehandler that can be sold off afterwards and seeing if the house below will rent a section of area outside their garage (they have two drives for some reason) Thanks all for looking, I've added a few images below to make things a bit clearer. Ralph Images The house circa 1980, had a slate new roof since then. Note the little chapel, belonging to the house below indicates the height the driveway climbs at steeply. Aerial View of the Plot. Border in red and the difficult drive section highlighted in yellow. Reason for loving the property so much, a small part of the view from the sitting room window.