ThePoplars

I've seen them here: https://www.leaderdoors.co.uk/doors-c14/internal-doors-c111/internal-white-doors-c124/fully-finished-t9297#sort3 Not sure if they are plain enough for you?

Thanks @ProDave Was it a massive difference in time to heat up, for example, would we have to have it heating up for 2 hours before using the room for 2 hours?

When we were originally planning our extension, we considered, and then discounted, wet underfloor heating. Now that the build is in progress, and I'm busy choosing radiators, friends have been recommending how good their underfloor heating is. However, they have installed theirs in kitchen/diners with tiled floors and spend large amounts of time in the rooms where it is fitted. The space we are looking at heating is approx 90m2, of which 58m2 will be carpeted with minimal heating as the rooms won't be used very often (an average of 2 hours per day), the rest could be tiles or wooden floor. My partner is concerned that the rooms with carpets will take too long to heat up, even if fitted with less than 2.5 tog carpet/underlay. The carpeted room which will be used most often will have an independent gas heater. We would have independent timed thermostats for each room. Does anybody have carpets with their underfloor heating? If so, do you have rooms which are used as infrequently and are you able to heat them adequately? Do they take long to come up to temperature? With your experience, would you install it again or just stick with radiators? Whilst we are thinking of wet underfloor heating, when we can afford to replace our roof, we want to install solar PV (probably in next 5 years). If we decide to go ahead with underfloor heating, should we be better considering electric to utilise the output from the Solar PV?

What about a living willow fedge to give you a faster hedge: http://www.thewillowbank.com/living-willow-structure-products/buy-living-willow-hedge-fence/ It's the wrong time of year to start, but it will be faster to grow to the height you need and might be a more acceptable solution to avoid planning permission?

Yes, we have a canopy over the front door which is on the same wall which definitely helps, and we would probably go for a different type of glass too. Many thanks for your help.

As a side note, I've turned on "Notify me of replies" but I don't receive any emails, only a notification when I come back on site. Is that normal or is there another setting I've to change?

Well, there are quite a few more options than we had come up with ourselves! Thank you @Ferdinand @JSHarris @Onoff I'll share the info with our architect as our first conversation (about adding the balcony to the drawings for our extension to go for planning permission) was on Friday and he couldn't come up with a supplier of something akin to a van door on the spot and had gone away to ponder. These extra ideas may allow him to come up with the best solution - even if it's not something that we will be able to build immediately. As for the cladding @Ferdinand, the house is about 50 years old and was originally brick and a different coloured render from the one photograph of the house in its original format that I have seen. The second owners (the people before us) were into "design" (over substance at times!) had it fitted. Sometimes their vision didn't quite follow through...

@Mr Punter and @Nickfromwales Splitting the space up like that does make sense on paper, but I don't like the look of it . We had been thinking of putting an opening window above the door to cut down on the size and give some through ventilation.

@Grosey - so the mechanism exists, that's great. Definitely worth further exploration, thank you! @Ferdinand, replies below and a new photo to give a better understanding :-D @Mr Punter We had considered it, but it's a south facing wall and the room gets very hot so I should have added it as a discounted option. The panels are Trespa I believe (previous owners had them fitted, mentioned the name once when we were buying, and didn't leave any paperwork). @Simplysimon We discounted option 3 because to get the door to swing out, we would have to have to allow space to arc around and back against the grey panel wall so there couldn't be any furniture in that area. It would make the balcony much bigger than we need it to be. Also, and I'm sorry I didn't make it clear, we would want most of it to be glazed. @Nickfromwales Yes, we have discounted the gullwing. Although I really do like the concept of the Velux Roof Terrace door with the top opening like a gullwing because we often have foxes in the garden feeding next to the patio and it would be great to get a photo of them that wasn't through glass. Thanks everyone for your contribution - much appreciated.

That is exactly what I'm looking for @Onoff (although I had it in my head it was an aeroplane door ) - however, googling "patio door like a sliding van door" hasn't miraculously presented me with what I'm thinking it needs to be, but it is a step in the right direction. Has anybody come across such a thing in their research?

Now that's an inventive solution @Vijay. It's a bit like the top of the Velux Roof Terrace door idea. Just a very quick google makes it look like there aren't top hung windows that would be as wide and tall as necessary. I know that it would have to be custom made, but I wonder if that might indicate it would be too heavy to be supported at the size it needs to be. One for discussion though, thanks!

I hope somebody on the forum might be able to help me. We have a trapezium window on our bedroom (approx 1.5m at widest point) and are considering creating a balcony that we access through the opening, however, it's a trapezium shape so it makes things a bit (lot) more complicated. The options we have considered (and discounted): Inward opening door - not enough space for door to swing Outward opening door hanging from angled side of opening - probably puts too much strain on hinges (but happy to be corrected on that?) Outward opening door hanging from straight side of opening - will require more space on the balcony to allow the door to swing out. Creating a narrow rectangular door within the trapezoid - will spoil the look of the window with the extra vertical lines Sliding pocket doors - this is a possibility but we would have to create a pocket and does anybody know a company who makes them in custom shapes? A custom Roof Terrace door (like the one made by Velux) - does anybody know a company who would be likely to make something like that? Or, the ideal world solution that we have no idea whether it exists or not: A door that pushes out then slides on runners fixed along the front of the house - has anybody ever seen something like this? Any help or alternative solutions gratefully received.

On our extension, we are planning on having 4m of glazing on the south facing wall to overlook the garden. We have UPVC french doors on the same wall in the existing building and have a running battle to try to get them to close because the sun makes them warp. We've looked at, and discounted bifold doors. However, we have come across the Magnaline product being used in Slide and Swing (or Slide and Stack) doors from New Wave Doors, Deceuninck, Panoramic doors, and other suppliers - although at this point, I'm not sure if it's the same product just licensed to different suppliers. Does anybody have any experience of these Slide and Swing doors, and particularly on a south facing wall? Thanks Gillian

I knew you were going to ask what it was @Stones - for the life of me I can't remember, and left the last tin at the old house. OSMO sounds like something I need to investigate if you can wash them easily like that @Barney12

A slightly different perspective - depends how houseproud you are :-D In my old house, I decided to have oiled oak on the ground floor as it looked much better than lacquered. Discovered just how limited I was in how to clean it so all I could do was sweep regularly, mop up spills immediately, then once every 3-6 months, I had to get down on my hands and knees with a specialist cleaner. First time took a full day to do it painstakingly. As time went on, I became happier to be more slapdash but could still never get it done in less than a couple of hours. If I were to install oak again, I'd have lacquered floors but still use Danish oil on skirtingboards, doors etc - but I'm OK with different tones of wood in a room.

You learn a new thing every day. Thank you.

Thanks for such a comprehensive reply SteamyTea. I probably should have limited my question to the alternative heating systems covered by the RHI. Those abbreviations just trip off the keyboard – I’ve translated your recommendation as: Photo Voltaic assisted Air Source Heat Pump, Under Floor Heating, [TS] with In Line Resistance Heating for Domestic Hot Water, but you’re sticking with Economy 7. TS is stumping me? :-D

Currently, yes, but I know gas prices have risen higher than electricity over the last few years. In 2009, I was setting up a large contract for gas supplies and had a conversation with an energy consultant who gave me all the reasons why we wanted to lock ourselves in to a long contract for the amount the company was buying. I don’t have the same source of information now but my gut tells me that gap is going to continue to narrow. I just wondered if there was somebody using the forum who had judged the retrofit away from mains gas under RHI to be worth it. If nobody has, staying with a likeish for like replacement is maybe the best solution.

Hi Vijay Sorry for the delay in replying (I don't think I can have set up my notifications correctly). I'm thinking about it because we're having to replace our heating system soon and the extension will increase our living space by a large margin. I wanted to make sure we weren't dismissing alternative heating mechanisms just because we are on mains gas.

Or at least, not pay much more than a like (ish) for like replacement boiler :-D

Thanks Mafaldina - you're right; I was thinking of the cost saved by only draining the system once. PeterW - I'd say the radiators are at least the same age, and some look like they may have leaked in the past so that's something else to add to the cost benefit analysis. We do have to have an installer doing it all because we don't have the time/skills to do it ourselves. Whilst it would be great to make a profit, I'd be happy if we could break even.

Hopefully this question is in the right place. We are looking to add a large extension to our detached house in the near future. This will have a large garage and office on the ground floor, and living space above. It will probably be built using SIPs. In the house there is a boiler which is 20+ years old, has required 6 call outs in 6 months, and needs a powerflush to get rid of the sludge in the system. Rather than paying for the powerflush now and boiler whenever it gives up the ghost completely, we think we should have a replacement installed now. Whatever system we choose has to have suitable capacity for our extension when it is built. We are on mains gas, and a condensing boiler (rather than combi) has been the recommendation for the replacement, however, if there was the potential for a renewable energy solution within our overall budget (with an incentive payment to offset the additional cost), I’d be interested in exploring that further. To give you further background, the house is currently approx. 160 square metres heated by 13 radiators with an additional 100 square metres of living space to be added in the extension. I’d be happy to have underfloor heating in the extension, but most of downstairs in the house can’t be retrofitted with underfloor heating in the short term so we would probably have to use the existing radiators or upgrade them. Our roof faces East and West, and the extension roof will face East so I’m thinking photovoltaics are probably not worthwhile and I’ve no interest in maintaining a biomas boiler. I work from home, my chap will retire in 5 years, and we don’t want to move again till we are doddery. So, I’m thinking that we are limited to Air Source or Ground Source Heat Pumps if our circumstances really warrant their use. We do have a South facing wall where an Air Source Heat Pump could be fitted but, I don’t think we would dig up the garden so, a borehole would have to be used if we considered a Ground Source Heat Pump. My questions are: Does anybody have any experience of retrofitting one of these pumps to an existing home as a replacement for a mains gas boiler and would they recommend it? I’m assuming that the application for RHI would be better to be made when the extension is complete (if we are prepared to take the risk that the tariffs paid could be reduced before we make the application)? I know we have 12 months to apply from commissioning, so if we have planning permission and have commenced the build, does anybody know if we can make an application claiming the final total size of house at that point or do we have to wait till the extension is complete? Are there any other recommendations you could make for a replacement system? Many thanks Gillian

Yes. It's at least 20 years old, and could be up to about 30 :-S

Excellent. Thanks Nick, I'll post over there later :-D

Thank you for letting me join this forum. I've been reading for a while now, on here and Ebuild, and am now at the stage where I have to start turning vague thoughts into reality. We moved earlier this year to a home which was individually designed in the late 60's. We are looking to add a large double height extension with garages and an office on the ground floor, and living space above. We also need to replace the roof and some of the drainage so there might be questions coming about that in the future... In the meantime, we have a boiler of some age that keeps breaking down. I'd like to ask your views on alternative replacement heating systems but would like to ask it in the right section of the forum - would that be "General Alternative Heating Issues"? Thanks Gillian