Powerjen

Hi, I've two suppliers through contractor of bottom opening Swish Windows or Eurocell Side opening upvc windows. I am not sure about bottom opening (hadn't really considered them expect Swish won't do side opening because of the height of the windows). Have had tilt and turn before but in an old house with deep window sills and roman blinds I don't think they're going to work. Does anyone have experience with Swish and/or Eurocell casement windows and have any advice or opinions as which is best? If one is better than the other then I'd lean towards them just for being a better product. Thank you.

Can I ask why you went for top hung and not side hung over the tilt and turn? I don't want T&T and supplier wants to put in top hung but not sure I like them? Thank you!

My old architects did a full survey of my house as is. They only gave me a pdf of the work not the CAD file. We didn't part on the best of terms. I used an online convertor to make it into a CAD file and from my nonexistent knowledge thought it looked like it gave all the info you would need to work with it as a basis for a new plan. However my new Architect Tech says they can't access the measurements and needs the original files. The drawings say they are 1:500 scale and should be printed at A1 so I'm a bit lost what the issue is. But I'm no expert! The first architects won't give me the CAD file even though paid for so can anyone here please help or convert the file into a CAD file that will definitely be something measurements can be taken from? Don't really want to post it here as it has the old architects details on it. Thank you.

Thank you @SteamyTea ☺️

Thanks @SteamyTea of course it was never going to be that simple. I doubt the radiators have been correctly sized. I guess I will have to work it out for myself. Thanks again.

Morning @Ferdinand Thank you for your great post. We have some experience of UFH as we put it in our old house, which was a complete mistake because it was a suspended floor and the cowboy builders didn't do it right and the Thermaflow boiler we put in as we couldn't even get oil to the house wasn't up to the job so we had to take the whole tiled floor up downstairs and try redo it. It has definitely put us off UFH, but we don't have the same floor set up here. My parents house is permanently boiling so I am not sure if UFH would give them the heat they need once they have moved in here which was why we had thought we would just go with radiators? I was reading up about ASHP and see they can work with radiators. We generally have double 900 x 600 radiators and I read on a post here that someone had installed that size with an ASHP (though not sure how successful it was). We will have a big demand for hot water as my Dad (and I) get relief from medical issues with hot baths, am I right in saying that an ASHP stops doing the heating to provide the hot water? Our Thermaflow boiler wasn't capable of doing the two at the same time, run a bath with the heating on and you didnt have much hot water. We had always hoped to get two wood burning stoves hooked up to the heating/hot water and will have to look up if this would work with ASHP. I see there are (were) interest free loans you can get for them which might be useful too. The energy rating of the house when we bought it was something like 25, that probably isn't comprehensive enough for subsidies payments, that was 18 months ago. It doesn't help that unless you have mains gas then you are basically the devil incarnate as far as the test is concerned! We did a lot of work insulating our old house so we are wanting to do as much as we can in this one. The internal stone walls are boarded out but don't know yet if there is any insulation behind them. There is rockwool in the attic rooms so that can be replaced with something better. We have been going round fixing the drafts. Mainly in the kitchens behind the units and have put extra draft proofing round the sash windows. It has made a big difference. The house had stood empty for a couple of years, when we viewed the house it had a nice ambient temp and seems to stay cool in the summer and vaguely warm in the winter, much better than our old 1940's last house.

Hi @Ferdinand Thank you for the plan and the ideas about the separate wiring/heating. We have thought about the separate heating and electric but we would never sell or let our parents bit long term because we are social hermits so hopefully it isn't something we will need, but I appreciate your expertise and advice. We dont really want to have to let it out as a holiday let but it will be nice to have the option if we need to do it or if my husband can't stand me anymore we could live in separate bits I am thinking alot about your plan, definitely given me something to think about. Thank you. I think I am right in saying that we can put all the things we would like on a plan for Building Regs and get the ball rolling and then we can change things around a bit as long as we adhere to the Regs. So if we can't afford to them them, we won't. We didn't do the planned dormer on our old house (though we needed planning permission then) and when we went for our completion certificate we just had to change the drawings to exclude them and everyone was happy. I know nothing about ASHP (I had to look up what it meant!). No doubt there are good posts on here about it so will go do some research. We have a field next to the house (South side), are ASHP better than GSHP? I think I know a very small bit about GSHP, it is when there are coils of pipe laid in the ground where they draw in heat from the soil which then get used in the house?! Some good news is that I think I have found a local builder chap who is interested in doing the work. Says he is happy for me to labour for him which will help save some money. Seems a genuine chap and I am quite handy so will just have to sacrifice the time it will take to do but it will cost less if I do as much as I can and project manage it so I get separate trades in rather than paying a main contractor to do it. As we are so far away from civilisation we would be paying a premium to get people here long term, this builder is 20 mins away so can't get any more local

Hi @AliG Thank you for your detailed reply. The architects plans were a variety of options for us to cost out and then see what was worth doing and what we could afford. The first floor extension which went about the original ridge height would need planning, as would the front former windows and extending the roof out above the garage knew kitchen diner). Since this is taking far longer than we had ever hoped I am determined to only do things allowed under PD and it seems we can afford to do these things that need planning anyway. I can't see anywhere that there is a limit to the amount of PD you can do to your house in one go as long as you stick to the guidelines for each element. I think all we can afford to do upstairs is to try put a dormer on where the first floor extension was imagined (above my parents kitchen). I need to fit a superkingsize in there. I hope I can. It would cost too much to move the current upstairs bathroom into the Hip roof so it will just get a makeover. Hoping to be able to remove the wall to the left of the stairs as you go up and have an open plan bedroom with maybe a door for privacy at the bottom of the staircase. I think we just have to bite the bullet on the fact we might not get the money back we are spending. My parents are helping cost wise. We don't envisage moving and have always planned to do an equity release scheme later on as we have no kids to leave it to. We couldn't live here if we had to share it long term so would never separate the two parts of the house. Even having it as a possible holiday let makes me sweaty. We are moving the boiler and HW cylinder out of my parents side of the house so it's away from there if we did let it. It just seemed easier to keep all the heating and electrics as one big house (and on our side). But we need to future proof it so if we need to let it out we can. As the house is down hill of the garden around it and quite shaded at the southern end I am not too worried about the carport being there. The kitchen diner will be brighter than it is now by opening out into the outside wall and with a roof light or two but appreciate your comments. I will look at the Heat Pump. Thank you. ☺️

@Ferdinand, cor, you really have given me a lot to think about there! Going to go away and digest it (and the two doughnuts I've just caught myself eating too). Thank you.

@Ferdinand my concern with the adding more light into the living room and kitchen bit of my parents side would be cash or lack of it and that it would be a short term benefit for my parents and a nice feature for paying punters coming to stay there at the weekend, but I am open to your reasoning. I think your comment about it before made me rethink things though, which is why I am now looking at the kitchen diner for an all inclusive space we can all use as opposed to spreading the money too thinly and not really getting anywhere really nice in the house. As we aren't much further forward since October I am thinking that I will just hire a skip and block off the area we are wanting for my parents and start stripping stuff out in it (living in the bedroom, kitchen and conservatory). I don't need to wait for plans or building regs to remove old plasterboard and repair floorboards etc. At least if I get doing that it will feel like I am doing something useful. We applied for planning permission for a static caravan and only got it approved for whilst the work was done, so we are on a hunt for one of those too.

Wow @Ferdinand, thanks for that! Just in response to the warren. the architect wanted the Master Bedroom for my parents and I wanted to use the 'dining room' which is the workshop as their second bedroom. It is better with the door into the back hall blocked up and if it means I can save 21k not converting the workshop and I can use the money upstairs or on a nice kitchen diner I think it is money better spent... (she says).

We will need to add a car port along the outside wall at a later date to get our infirm parents in and out of the car/house in the dry so whilst that aspect is south facing they aren't going to be enjoying much in the way of a view.

Hi @Declan52 thank you for your input. Wow, that is some space. I have no engineering knowledge but the wall you are saying to remove is the end of the house so load bearing. Would that not make it a nightmare to do and costly? The oil tank is supposed to be in the garden by the proposed boiler room with an exhaust out of the external wall for the boiler itself. The exhaust for the boiler on your plan would come out of the front of the house by the new front doorway?

Ooh @Ferdinand, you always challenge my thinking and that's good, though I am totally out of my depth with all this but it is an invaluable exercise! So here goes... 1) We are antisocial, we don't have many visitors. But the front door within the mudroom would be the official one for visitors to come to. We will also retain the old front door for our parents side of the house. It is in a fenced front garden which we had earmarked as a garden area if we ever rent out that side. Then they don't have anything to do with the back of the house where we work and they have their own private area. The new front door won't be fenced off and will be pretty much straight onto the road. We will use the double doors into the kitchen diner as our access, which is why I am literally just thinking about having an external porch on it which we could dump coats and boots before going into the nice kitchen diner area. It will also act as a void to help with heat loss (I almost sound like I know what I am talking about). PD says you can have a porch of 3m2. Do you mean the warren bit is the front door area? 2 (and 1). To carry on from Q1. To try save money I am looking at not developing the dining room/guest room off my parents kitchen (QS quoted 21k) and giving them Bedroom 1 instead. I have also tried to squeeze a toilet under the stairs to save money and space. I have got a new doorway into the hall so it can be accessed from their end of the house (which could be the warren) and when it is no longer needed for them we will block that doorway up and open up the old doorway into the back hall and have it as a bedroom for us again (then we won't need to go upstairs if we are not able). It then takes that apartment from a two to a one bed rental, giving us back a room. Giving parents Bedroom 1 means I have to get a dormer on the upstairs for a bedroom for us (we would prefer to sleep upstairs to give us some space if we possibly can). If we can't afford the dormer I might have to spend 21k anyway and we may have to sleep in Bedroom 1. 3) I see it as an eating area and a chilling out area. Might be the odd jigsaw getting done on the table between meals with one of those roll up jigsaw mats. It will be the best room in the place so expect we will all be in it but then parents will go off to their side at night to watch their tv shows and hubby and I will stop in it - probably watching tv till sleep time. I have Post Its of current furniture I have been moving about, one is big corner sofa which would either fit on the boiler room/outside wall or in the corner by the bathroom. I think the table . might be better by the boiler room though so corner sofa will be by the bathroom. 4) We don't have mains gas. We had a thermaflow electric boiler in our old house and we won't be doing that again! We have an electric aga in the kitchen which was converted from oil. We would like to be able to get the wood stoves hooked up to the hot water if we can. Apologies for the essay, but thank you for your help!

If anyone has an opinion about where the best place to have a wood burning stove would be I would be grateful. I would usually pick a corner but then that probably uses up a sofa space. It also means I need to decide if people will sit and look out to the garden or in to the kitchen... as it could go by the pillar. Perhaps in the winter when it's on people will turn and face the fire and when it's not on they will face the garden. Were hoping to tie it into the heating system, does that have a bearing on where it should be located does anyone know? Thanks again.

I would love to see photos if you have any of the coffee station, you sound like you really figured it all out. Here is the old window we have. It is one of the nice things in the house before it got butchered by the last owner.

Thanks @ProDave. The boiler is an oil one so I thought it would have to be on an outside wall, though I may have misunderstood your idea. I can probably make that boiler room smaller so there is more space in the ?dining area behind it. I would like to have the mudroom nearer the bathroom at the rear but I cant really see of way of doing it without compromising the kitchen diner area. Though I am still thinking it through. I would have to look at permitted development but maybe an outside porch might act as a mini boot room. I will go and see what the regs are. Thanks for challenging my ideas

Being old farm hands cottages I could pop a cow in there instead and get hot milk and fuel for the stove at the same time.

Hi @caliwag thank you for your ideas. Was it you that had posted elsewhere about having mini coffee area? If it was then thanks because it is an idea I want to try incorporate. The full height glass unit would help hide the pillar I like the idea of having cutlery etc away from the kitchen area as they just take up space and mean there is a flurry of activity at dishing up time laying the table and with dogs and old people I don't want any accidents happening! The elliptical island is also excellent for safety. I could just change the top on the freestanding one I currently have to save cash.

@AliG you are absolutely right in both things - garage and pillar and thank you for your comments. I did look at moving the door to the internal window (it's actually quite nice as it is an old tall thin ?Victorian one) and extending the kitchen. My problem was that if I kept the patio doors where they were on the plan having a door opposite them could take cold air from outside straight up the hall into the rest of the house, so it went back to keeping the internal window. The size of the boiler room could be made smaller making more space for the kitchen diner? I think I may have over estimated the post it note for the island unit, it does look rather huge! I had wondered about doing a run of units/breakfast bar between the pillar and the wall or if I made the boiler room smaller there would be more room for a table in the back of the old garage? I had seen on another post about having a mini coffee serving area which could maybe be incorporated into that pillar perhaps.

Hi @bassanclan, the garden runs around the back and sides of the house (the back of the house is where the N arrow is on the plan). The house is set down in a dip so we have low retaining walls and sloping garden around the back and sides and then fields rising up from that. Out front we have a quiet road 10ft from our front windows then fields beyond. The double doors to the front are the old garage doors. The architect thought it would be nice to have them as an 'homage' to the old garage and there is a new front door behind them which enters into the boot room and then into the kitchen.

I am playing with designs and a kitchen diner at the sunniest end of the house is something we have always fancied and despite a tight budget think it is something we should invest in. I was wondering what clever design tips and ideas people would recommend doing or any experiences/lessons learned from your own build? Thank you

I would just get in touch with them @JAY123. I had a few emails with one of their design engineer chaps who initially priced up the work based on an architects plan and then I basically said how much we could afford and what could he do for the money. They were very good and will help with the layout for you if need be. I liked that you didn't have to move out and everything is wired in, plastered, etc etc before it arrives and is bolted together very quickly. Compared to what the QS had quoted for the work I was very surprised how reasonable they were. Seemed very professional too.

Have you looked at Moduloft? They design it all in their factory, do the planning for you and then take the roof off and put the new one on, to exactly your spec with minimal disruption in a couple of weeks.

So, I have been having a major rethink as I mentioned in my last post. I have been playing around with a big open kitchen diner which we can all share and we will still benefit from the investment when we don't have our parents here anymore and will, perhaps, be holiday letting their side of the house. I am now cross eyed. The doors at the south elevation into the kitchen/diner/living area will be our main entrance, we get mucky so I have been trying to look at how we can have a bit where we can get boots off etc without walking in a nice sitting area. My husband won't go in and out of the front door even though it seems to be the place for a boiler/utility/coat room. I have thought about taking the existing bathroom and turning the window into a door and go into the house there and have a shower/toilet and coat hooks but I don't think there is enough wall height outside to do it, or if its worthwhile. I could move the patio doors next to the bathroom and change the bathroom door so it opens from the kitchen/diner but that probably isn't great if you're sat chilling in the kitchen/diner and people are going in and out of the bathroom? I have been making pretend furniture and need to try to figure out where a wood burner and a tv, but it has potential. Any genius ideas/critiques gratefully received. Thank you.