Iceverge

Be cautious of biting off more than you can chew. I'm 3/4 through a stud dividing wall through the living room. It's only 3.5m long but I'm into my 3rd week. I'm a shift worker too so I imagine I have much more spare time than most although I do have small kids. I'm enjoying it but it's slow as hell. I got pretty much a full day done yesterday and more or less finished skimming both sides to a standard i'm happy with. I had to give 2hrs today to go to screwfix to get bits. Everything takes forever when you're not a pro with a van full of tools and spares, decades of experience and a full 8hr shift to throw at a task. Looking above at your list of things to achieve I'll take the 15 doors. What takes 20mins on you tube is actually about 3hrs in real life for a DIYer. Realistically you'd be doing well to do 3 a week. That's 5 weeks for doors alone. I would pretty much forget the cosmetic things to begin with. 1. Find the cash to throw at a few big things. A. Fabric of the building. Roof, gutters, pointing. B. Insulation, pumped cavity walls, 400mm in the attic. Get it done straight away. C. Wiring/plumbing if that's in the plan. D. Windows and doors. E. Some mechanical ventilation of some sort. 2. Let the dust settle a little with the kids (congrats on the imminent by the way). I sat and watched the LEGO movie 2 nights ago with my 3. Far more fun than messing with plasterboard and the little cliches grow up so fast. 3. Go room by room. Pick what room is to be done first. Probably a bathroom. A. Get a lock for the door and use it when you're not in there. B. Don't tackle anything else in the house until that is finished 4. Repeat until finished in 2040!

The old Holloway house is my favorite. I really like it. If you're aiming to emulate the same feel I think your design is over glazed to the north. The old Holloway is much more biased towards southern light making it feel very unexposed but it might not suit your site. Have you any idea how you'll build? 350mm may be ok. A 220mm stud with a 63mm service cavity would be about that. Blown insulation ideally. I really like the wobbly metal too. 150mm is good for internal walls. On the layout maybe make the small beds a touch bigger. The kitchen+living a touch smaller and th utility a bit bigger too. Over all very good though.

You could consider parging behind them too just in case you ever need to airtight the garage .

If you were to accurately account for man hours true renovations to a modern standard are rarely worth it vs the cost of rebuild. If you're not pushed about how far you improve it then obviously there's savings to be made. Much better plan to use a breather membrane than netting. No wicking if heat through the insulation then. I would lay T&G chipboard atop the joists. Foam glue all the joints and use a good quality expanding foam like FM330 at the perimeter of each room to seal them to the wall for an airtight floor. Draft sealing is the biggest cheapest win. Get some forced ventilation going too. A PIV or a central extract even would be fine to keep the place fresh and dry. Regarding windows I'm a big fan of quality white PVC 3g. Veka 72 in our house and I wouldn't swap them for equifilu timber or metal windows even if they weren't twice the price.

Caution with flue liners. A house near me sadly burnt down when an uninsulated liner happened to sit against a timber build into the chimney. When I did my parents house there was space to shove an insulated twinwall SS liner up the chimney from the bottom.

Congrats, Pics always welcome. As ever my advice is simple. Knock it down and rebuild.

Depending on how you source firewood I reckon it's anything up to 22p/kWh delivered energy to the room. At least double gas price is safe to say. If you really don't give a shite you can buy a tonne of coal for £440 for 8000kWh of energy in the shed. (It'll be less heat delivered by the time you in fumigate your self and the neighbours) It's about the same price as gas. An A2A ASHP unit with a COP of 3 is amazingly the same price too. TLDR. Bought firewood is expensive. Coal, gas and ASHP are about the same price.

I don't think there'll need to be a ban ultimately. Most people don't care less what makes the wheels turn so long as it works and it's not too dear. The shift to EVs will only accelerate as good used models get cheaper and petrol stations close due lack of custom.

There's rads there already I think. One thing that doesn't get mentioned much is plinth heaters. You could get the cosy toes feeling without all the pipes etc. Has anyone used one?

Wouldn't bother with UFH to be honest, insulation will be the biggest gain for comfort. A warm surface covering and you'll be barefoot happy. Based on say 15mm adhesive + tiles I'd imagine about 75mm is your limit for total floor thickness. For me I'd do 3mm LVT 2mm adhesive 11mm OSB 11mm OSB 25mm EPS 200. DPM 25mm EPS 200 Float the OSB on the EPS, glue and screw all sheets with wood glue and 20mm screws. Allow a little bit at the edge for expansion. Sandwich the DPM between the EPS layers to protect it. Stagger all joints in the EPS too. You could use PIR but I don't trust it as much not to crumble after a few years. Espically at the edges of sheets. Use some filler in any small gaps and sand the top layer of OSB if needed to get it perfectly flat. Glue down some LVT tiles. U Value about 0.6W/m2K before you take any of the ground resistance into account which is very worthwhile.

Ah, that explains it.

That's super toasty but yes you do get used to it. Why was it so hot, i was of the impression you resided somewhere in the far North. Surely evening and night time temps were more tepid than that?

You've lost me.....

Good passive design should be always considered. Houses are woefully under engineered given the masses of human knowledge we have accumulated. Omitting active climate control at either end of the scale however will result in uncomfortable temperatures. Coupled with other heat limiting measures like shading, appropriate glazing, decrement delay, cross ventilation, stack cooling, and insulation I think A/C is still an acceptable compromise in NW European climates.

pun intended? !!!