Spreadsheetman

How much physical renovation has already been done? I’d expect a lot of insulating and re-plastering in a property that old. Plus lots of fixing of things before the more cosmetic details get addressed.

Does anyone recommend a sub-7Nm block that has an improved thermal performance, but will still take a fixing for heavy-ish things? (Radiators in particular) I’ve used the pumice-like aerated ones when I needed to cut something into a random shape to fill an awkward deep hole in an internal wall, but I’d not try and stick a wall plug in them. e.g. https://www.wickes.co.uk/Aerated-Block-3-6N-100mm-Single

See this: https://www.tanfieldchambers.co.uk/2016/08/24/restrictive-covenants-is-there-a-building-scheme/ It’s a complicated subject for sure.

Interesting topic. I’m buying a late 70s house that has a new oil boiler+tank and as Roger440 suggests I’m going to insulate the fabric and upgrade the plumbing to make it as ASHP-ready as I can. It would be very wasteful to rip the heating system out on day 1. One thing I can do soon is have the boiler jetted down to its minimum rating (it’s a 12-16kw model set to the 14kw default) as my rough estimates show about 8kW heating demand before I start adding insulation. The noise question is an interesting one. There is a good test case near me where 15 sheltered housing bungalows have been built, each with a 5kw heat pump. The bungalows are really close together (in a quiet area) so it will be interesting to see what the noise level is like when they are all occupied.

Guidance is clear for Dormers, but not for skeilings. (The sloping ceiling that follows the roof line in a room-in-roof etc.) Context is renovating thermal elements ref table 4.3. I couldn’t find any mention either way. I did find a government document “Retrofit Room In Roof Insulation: Guide to best practice” dated Jan22 that refers to skeilings as part of the ceiling, but this is not the official building regs.

If you are looking at conventional UPVC I’d recommend Polarglaze based in Cottenham. They did quite a few of my windows when I lived in Cambridge. They were competitively priced among independents and I was pleased with their work.

I have an answer from building control, who were very helpful. Provided the internal door into the porch is still to external door spec as I am planning to do then it isn’t notifiable. This is handy as I can just get the chippy that is replacing other internal doors to do that too. I also asked them about a window that I wanted to reduce in size. The new window is obviously notifiable and could be covered by FENSA/Certass, but changing the opening size is also notifiable and wouldn’t be covered under the competent person scheme so that would need a separate application. (That application to change the opening size could also cover the window fitting, so a builder that wasn’t Fensa/certass registered could do both on one application.)

Another vote for SimonD’s comments. That breakfast bar just makes it cramped and I’d bet it never gets used for eating breakfast. In my opinion high-level ovens don’t work well in small kitchens unless they can be in a corner where they don’t affect the worktop space. They also tend to be visually dominant which makes the space feel smaller.

I liked that modular house. It was very noticeable how little drama was in that episode compared to the usual GD fare. Even the overspend was tiny. I wonder if that kind of construction will keep long-term value though. Would it still be standing 50 years later?

I thought that would be perfect for my garden studio, but the lowest set temperature for heating mode is 16degC which is too high for an always-on unit.

As an aside I follow this YouTube plumbing channel https://youtube.com/c/UrbanPlumbers. The guy is pretty clever and he has a bit of a thing about people fitting over-sized boilers. He’s done several boiler installs where they modulate down to quite low outputs for heating, but ramp up to high outputs for hot water. Worth a look to get some ideas.

This reminded me of this blog http://mydreamhouse.co.uk/exotic-heating-systems/ where a thermal store was used. Something called a Laddomat had to be added to make the stove bit work properly.

Out of interest, where and what is the insulation in the dormer? (I have crappy leaky+drafty dormers on my cottage and they need rebuilding so I am trying to find out as much as possible)

There is that, of course. Its complicated by the fact that I am planning to change a upvc window too. The window needs fensa/certass/bc, but if the door doesn’t I can just get the chippy that will be doing internal doors to do that one.

True, but if it isn’t fitted by fensa/certass it needs BC sign off as an external door. If it still counts as an external door that is….

Thinking about it, this is the same case when a conservatory is added and the old external door is retained to become the door into the conservatory.

I can’t find any guidance over replacing the (externally rated) internal door to a closed porch with another externally rated door. If the porch wasn’t there it would be notifiable, but once the porch with its own external door was added does changing the internal door for a different one remain notifiable? The case I am thinking of has a porch (unheated) with a upvc external door and the internal door is the old external door (with single glazing), but it is so ugly that it just has to go. The new door would be external spec with double glazed glass etc.

Can’t tell. It’s brick+block, plastered inside, but no way of knowing what is in the cavities, if anything. If I haven’t done anything about it before winter (lots to do on the house) then some temperature logging kit and a fan heater should allow a good approximation of the losses to be calculated.

I’m buying a place that has a brick-built garden room/office and looking for a heating solution with the option to cool, although I doubt I’ll do that much cooling. Place is 3m x 2.5m with a pitched tile roof and upvc double-glazed windows and door in one 3m side. From a quick look around, something like a 2.5kw split aircon system (Toshiba/Panasonic etc.) would be more than enough and these are pretty cheap. Plus there are wifi interfaces for them that would allow me to control the temp from the house so I could pre-warm/cool when I plan to spend time in there. Does that sound like a viable plan? I was a bit surprised to see that the kit can’t be ordered without naming a f-gas installer. How do I go about finding one? I can only seem to find commercial aircon companies, no independents or small outfits near me (North Norfolk). I only want someone to pipe it up and gas it, not a worthwhile job for a large company.

Fab, thanks. There is an adjacent window that the level would need to mirror so that should be easy to specify. I’d be going for an exact match to the top section of the existing window in format, openings and appearance. Is there usually anything on top of the brick/block work apart from a cavity closer? (House was built in 1977 with 65mm cavity fill insulation)

Yes, it’s the front elevation. It’s a common mod to quite a few identical houses in the location so there are plenty of precedents. Most brick the opening, a few have block+rendered then painted the render. If I didn’t need regs to do the wall work then FENSA would be easier. Assuming it can be scheduled with 2 lots of contractors to not leave a gaping hole in the front of the house for weeks on end that is…

Hi All, I’ve just started the process of buying a house where I’d want to change a living room upvc window to reduce the height. Current window is from an era where everyone had net curtains so it didn’t matter that passers by had a full height view into the room. I want to have the brick+block cavity wall extended upward to match all the other windows in the downstairs and then a new window fitted. The new window obviously requires building regs and there is an option and cost for that on our local planning portal. But what about extending the cavity upward? It’s not structural as the width of the window isn’t changing, just the non-load bearing bit. Does this require a separate application?

The glycol inhibitors are pretty expensive though. The cheapest stuff I have seen is £32 for 5L at Screwfix and that makes 20L when diluted down. A heating system could easily have over 100L of circulating fluid so that is £160+ for a fill. Better hope the system never needs draining down! (or there is a way of collecting and re-cycling the contents - or safely disposing of the contaminated fluid if not)

I followed links on trustpilot to Nibe and Diakin and they get terrible reviews for their products too. Like Mitsubishi, all were a mix of bad installs, terrible service, frequent faults and very expensive spares. Not confidence-inspiring for people considering ASHP as a heating solution!

See https://www.planningportal.co.uk/permission/common-projects/heat-pumps/planning-permission-air-source-heat-pump