canalsiderenovation

I'm venting... Finally had the official letter from the council after pre app who will support our application, although the other letter from the Canal and River Trust (CRT) whilst not saying they won't support it contradicts some of the points the council have made, e.g Council liked steel effect, CRT weren't keen. I mean who trump's who?? CRT or the council if one likes it and the other doesn't.... It feels like we need to please both but they haven't different ideas! Two main points are a heritage assessment to assess the impact of the build on the heritage. We aren't in a conservation area but to access the property you drive over a canal bridge. We are one of three properties over the bridge, us, an empty lock keepers cottage and a farm. Apparently they are concerned about vehicles using the bridge as it has a 10 tonne limit. The irony is that the farm have tractors, and go over with bailers, harvesting equipment, have feed and fertilizer deliveries, muckspreaders etc so I'm damn sure the limit has been breached frequently so if they needed to assess it then surely they'd need to look at what others are doing too, it would certainly put the farm out of business if the limit was enforced, not to mention when the property we are in got permission in 1970s it was approved then, probably before CRT were even in situ! Exactly how long does it take to do a bat survey?

I've had samples of both. The guarantees are different, Trespa10 year but Accoya is guaranteed for 50 years against rot.

Well I visited a local company today called Excelclad close to us in Prees, Shropshire who manufacture steel roofing and cladding, and everything else in between and I was also able to view the Marley Eternit and I've also had samples from the Cembrit. Although I like the cement, ultimately it is just painted and will fade from anthracite colour so have ruled it out. We have decided on the plastisol pvc in anthracite. The one I saw was a bit textured, although some I saw were smooth, think I prefer the textured. They do that many different profiles I've come away with samples and pictures. There is a local guy less than two miles away from us that apparently worked on a house using the companies products who has been installing it for over 40 years too who I'm hoping will pop round to look at the plans and advise on profiles etc and see what he can come up with but I think I'd rather someone do the roof with all the skylights, cuts and flashing that has been doing it years than a builder that may not have used it before. If our house looks half as good as this one in the pics he's worked on I'll be made up!

Actually it was the Colourcoat Urban and also we looked at Vieo and Euroclad. We like the appearance of the steel and the corrugated type look, and actually don't have a preference on these v profile 6 cement board but cost wise I suspect the steel will be far more working on a m2 basis. Whatever we use on the roof will also be used on the walls. If anyone had any pictures of the Marley Eternit Profile 6 that would be very helpful, I've emailed them asking if they have any examples of work locally we can look at. We aren't doing it ourselves so it will be down to the builder. I was just wondering from an installation point, and especially with the amount of windows but I'm a bit worried about steel with the points @scottishjohn has raised too.

Thanks @le-cerveau they look really smart. Your wood cladding looks really good too. Another question, is that k-rend? If so what colour?

That's really helpful, definitely worth considering then, I'm just curious on fitting if one is easier than the other, especially as the builders will be fitting.

So we are looking at metal roof and cladding from Tata and Euroclad but I've been looking at alternatives that would give us a similar 'metal' look. Im expecting the Tata/Euroclad to be expensive but having has samples of both Tata and Marley Eternit Profile 6, we are equally happy with either. Our pre planning advice today was that they would support PP (that was with the steel) but when full PP goes in I'd rather propose either so we have a couple of options. One thing that worries me with both is that our only windows will be skylights - and we are looking at 9-10 of them. Is one of these roof options better for installation of skylights? Anyone here had Marley Eternit Profile 6 and if so, what do you think? Pros and cons of both?

Thanks @le-cerveau that's great to hear. I didn't like the kf410 solely from a practical point with the gap around and I was thinking of cleaning and it getting dusty. Do you have any pics of the kv440? I'm definitely leaning towards the aluclad pvc especially if the price difference is significant. I can't seem to find many places other than Internorm that offers aluclad pvc though.

I visited Rohaus, Stafford today which has Internorm windows on display. Obviously we will need to get prices but I was surprisingly impressed by the aluclad uPVC, particularly the KF500 and KF220, the KF500 has a u value of .61 which was on a par with some of the timber aluclad windows. From the exterior there would be very little difference and the interior is pretty decent too. I'd definitely be interested to hear anyone who has aluclad pvc.

We have an old fashioned cast iron sprung bed frame, I'd never give that up!

I work away one night a week and get up same day as the wife to get to the station to commute to London. The rest of the time I work from home and when she gets up at 5am and is rattling around it drives me insane, I'm partly deaf and most of the time I struggle to hear anything without my hearing aids but at 5am my hearing seems to be amazing ? I casually emerge at 830 and log on in my PJs. When it gets to the weekend I wake up at a godly early hour when she wants a lie in!

I've tried to rejig things, I did try roomsketcher but I found it easier to draw my ideas from this, I'm not very technical and I envy those drawings I've seen some of you do. The only way I found it easier to interpret was to measure rooms now, e.g. our current bedroom to help visualise what space we have and space we need with cut out newspaper for wardrobes, toilets, baths etc. Allocating around 1700mm width to the balcony seems more than sufficient allows us to extend the other space. We roughly think we will need around 3600mm width for the bedroom (likely less), 2900mm for the dressing and 2500mm for the ensuite. I also liked the suggestion of entering into the dressing room and then into the bedroom as not to disturb one another but the door location may not be quite right. Like @joe90 we will have around 4m length but the ceilings will be vaulted. Hopefully still space for a nice roll top bath.

We have gone for preapp which is £85. A week past the 8 week deadline, architects have chased and our case manager is off this week and the duty officer advises they are 'waiting for conservation'.

@joe90 I have bath envy. We love the high slipper design roll top baths, does the rear of your bath go higher? @JamieL good suggestion to move the side wall in so it lines up with the front of the pillar if we have an additional support or in, I need to do some rejigging but I'm really struggling with visualising something. Our architects seem to want to put us off making the balcony smaller and we have been back and to a few times on this. This draft has gone in for pre planning and it's now overdue and still not heard anything, but we need to sort out this balcony issue to give us the space we want.

Great idea!

One thing from staying a lot in hotels, a must is plug sockets/usb next to the bed. The amount of times there isn't one or you find one and they have hard wired a lamp into it! Some kind of floor lighting or similar so you can get to the ensuite without the light waking up your other half.

Can anyone inspire me with our proposed layout for the dressing room, bedroom and ensuite? The bedroom itself can be quite compact as we only want a bed and bedside cabinets. As we both work odd hours we don't want to disturb one another with getting ready/hairdryer noise etc so we want the dressing room and ensuite closed off from the bedroom and space for wardrobes (possibly opposite the ensuite door). In the ensuite we would like a freestanding roll top bath, we will have another main bathroom and another bedroom with ensuite downstairs so a shower isn't a necessity for the ensuite but the current 2075 X 2055 doesn't seem big enough now having marked it out and looked at bath sizes! We were going to use a pocket door for the ensuite to save space. The covered balcony is bigger than what we would like as it mirrors the extension downstairs but unless we put in supports which will divide the bedroom space up we are a bit stuck. It will have skylights into the balcony.

Yes, I'd read it didn't need pp under permitted developmemt but as you say we could include it anyway. Ah perhaps that's why we have been told to get an EPC done based on the plans rather than close to the work being done ? as the EPC will obviously be a lot worse without the triple glazed windows, insulation etc... Good advice to get RHI quotes and non RHI quotes for comparison. I will of course post any quotes here for advice.

The idea of the water source heat pump is just not viable unfortunately, issues from the Canal and River Trust and civil engineer expense, it just isn't cost effective for us, even with the RHI payments the savings aren't enough compared with ASHP, so it's looking like an ASHP as our only other option, disregarding staying on oil. We are in the early stages but by all accounts we will be looking at using a company so we can claim the RHI payments as initial discussions we have had seem to suggest this is worthwhile. I've chatted to a few companies and individuals and the suggestion seems to be to get an new EPC done based on our plans, before any work commences, even though we will be replacing windows/doors, rewiring, replastering, putting a second story on etc that way any RHI payments can be calculated based on the revised EPC so we have a clear idea of payments etc. Couple of questions: 1. We have a utility door and a front door on our plans, both the same side which we would class as the back of the house, the front of the house being in front of the canal/garden. We don't want it visible on the front of the house, but if it was just on the floor/wall outside the utility door it would be around 5 metres from the front door. Logically this makes sense as the tanks etc would also be in the utility. Would this be to close or noisy? Most posts on here suggest people have put it on garages but our garage is the other end of the drive so not an option. Feel free to post some pics of examples... 2. I can't remember the exact details but there was mention of a metering and monitoring system payment around £200 over 7 years, but I think this was only with Mitsubishi system. Does anyone have any knowledge of this? Are Mitsubishi systems good compared to others? 3. I've read some posts of planning permission for ASHP but this only appears relevant to Scotland. From what I can see we wouldn't need PP. Are there any situations we would need PP? Thanks.

It's not a cottage, it's a 1970s bunglaow on a half acre plot and as planning is for an extension above and out so the roof will be coming off and the whole thing needs rewiring, replastering, new windows, doors etc, etc, it's not a solid 2 brick, nor an old canal cottage, it's a rather strange mid 1970s bungalow and has cavity wall insulation already, but yes of course everything will need building regs. We can't get gas over a canal bridge, if we had gas I wouldn't be looking at any of this at all, but we don't. We have oil. ASHP is our backup option. Either way we'd be paying someone to do it so it's always going to cost more than people who have installed it themselves, when the equipment they have quoted is just over £10k, its not going to be any less. That said we will be getting more quotes and doing some ongoing research into both and now have two people who have the blade technology installed that I can visit.

There is a separate discussion ongoing with the CRT about us creating a side inlet/pond for the blade, which is why we are doing this initial research. We did look at pond mats like Kensa but these wouldn't really be suitable due to the potential flowing water and the space they would need, where as if we can create a side pond/inlet the space is quite compact and ideal for a blade. I did price up everything they had quoted for using the cheapest prices I could find and it came to £11,152.71 so there could be definately be room to negotiate. Its certainly never going to cost sub £1000 for us. If the RHI payments more than cover the cost we'd be silly not to have it, but in my mind we still shouldn't pay over the odds as this is money we have to pay for up front to go to other things.

Thanks for the comments so far. A lot are in relation to ASHP and GSHP, this is a water source heat pump so I guess trying to find anyone who has had this may be limited. I'm just reviewing dates of the quote and what this includes and details. The system output is 11.50kw and details of quotation are as follows: 1 x Nuenta Energy Blade Vaillant FlexoTherm 11kw Vaillant 250L Hot Water Cylinder Vaillant 250L Buffer Tank The quote is £21525 but obviously we'd get RHI. This doesn't include controls, pipework, underfloor heating etc.....

I'll ask about antifreeze change costs with the blades. There isn't a great deal of information around on heat pumps. @PeterW do you have a solar pv or solar thermal system too or is your heat pump sufficient for both?

I'll do more research into this and we are due to visit the homeowner of a property who has a water source heat pump and Nuenta energy blades installed so it would be useful to know exactly what cop they are getting. I believe ASHP are the worse, I've read 2 - around 2.5, and GSHP 2.8 upwards. Water souce generally seems more favourable but I think a CoP of 3 is probably more realistic to be honest.

We've only been here since April and actually have only just put 500litres in as the tank had just under half when we moved in and we used very little due to the hot summer so we're just having electric showers and occasional immerian heater as there are only the two of us. I think I've worked it out now as I didn't account for the Cop, so if it was say we needed 10000kwh of heat we would only actually pay for around a quarter of the electricity, say 2500kwh.... I think this is correct based on a cop of 4, which we should get with a water source heat pump. Obviously hot water on top of this.....