Andeh

What camera is that? Impressive capture quality!

Apologies OP, I wasn't being funny bringing up the cost of our project, I just wanted to demonstrate the cost differences we faced in a refurb v rebuild on a similar age/style bungalow to you. FWIW, our project started significantly smaller until my wife & I went through 2 years of multiple bereavements. It's been a very bitter sweet project indeed. We are around £2000psqm for our rebuild (build only/high spec) . Demolition was very quick & easy actually.

We did similar to Joe, proceeded at risk! Shitty way to spend several weeks, but we had a really good dialogue with the planner so when we got a design verbally "generally agreed" we went full speed ahead to meet builders timing whilst last few details were agreed!

Depends on the situation, ours was a timberframe '70s with zero insulation except attic & 3 extensions over the years. It was the wrong way round for the garden, so we were needing to remove 75% internal timber walls We were going for a full refurb & reroof, and significant 130sqm extension. The refurb raised several concerns eith people in terms of what they might find. Overall project was around £500k refurb vs £540k rebuild (vat removed off rebuild), which made it a no brainer for us! Demolition was only around £15k IIRC.

We started off on this journey & ended up demolishing! Would have saved a decent chunk had we started off with that plan in the first place!!

Great progress, how are you getting on from a £/2sqm investment into the build? Loving it coming together

Hmmm... Does seem excessive that doesn't it? I'll query it... He was actually quite reasonably priced on some other tweaks we made (roof lights & internal brick walls...) so maybe I'm missing something! Thanks

Big, but not that big... 250sqm! He gave us a spectacularly keen price to start off with, so not unexpected some of the upgrades come at a premium.

Going through similar ourself. 100mm PIR gets a u value of around 0.18 (I think) , 125mm gets you a 0.14, 150mm drops it to around 0.11ish. Law of diminishing returns & cost needs to be factored in, and its prob several years+ payback. Anything more then 150mm is overkill for 90% of people (IMHO)... But this is a forum for enthusiasts! However, if you can... I'd always opt for more. We are just facing a £4500 bill (builder supply, fit & overheads) to upgrade from 100 to 150mm in our bungalow, as build already well under way! Probably will, but its a tough call balencing all other aspects of the build costs

Woweee....! What an emotional roller coaster. Love to see what it looks like completed.

....i wouldnt feel confident of not having to back date those payments.

Buildzone was £2600 for us for 275sqm brick & block, mono pitch. LABC wanted £7500!

Thank you very much Mr Punter, that makes much more sense on a comparison point of view! Very grateful.

Sorry to bump my own comment, but im still trying to get my head around this? Have they really dropped the numbers by nearly half in some of these contexts? Vs current PART L values?

U value of 0.13 and 0.11 for flooring and ceilings, then 0.18 for walls seems a large step up from current which is nearly double some of these figures? Or am I reading it wrong? (page 12)

That was an avenue we are/were exploring as well. Even got a SAP done for Gas & ASHP separately....... hoping it is no longer required (much like yourself). I *think* we are in the clear...providing my/your builder is MCS setup.

Thanks J1mbo, looks like we are OK with being a new build property then, I think! (just re-read your post & good to see your agreement!!) Now I am worried if my builder, or equiv who he uses, is MCS Registered!

Has anyone seen anything official on eligibility for the £5k grant?

Thanks buzz, depth isn't an issue for us (but is for OP), so going after u value over depth. I presume EPS is less effective then PIR if it is cheaper?

Try being in a bungalow! ? I defaulted to "1" for mine, but moved it back to a mid point before linking to OP! & yes, this forum is a huge wealth of information. Always be mindful though, whilst this place is full of hugely knowledgeable & helpful people, kind enough to help & advise others... Don't forget most of them are also enthusiasts! Where their "normal" is a loooong step away from normal normal. I live my life on here trying to achieve better then normal, but accepting I am likely below average for buildhub!! ?

We're locked into a builder now, so there will be a kick in the teeth changing spec he has quoted against (supply & fitment) not to mention peak pricing on materials across the board.

This is a useful tool to have a play around with. 100mm is actually 0.14, vs the build regs expectation of 0.25...which drops to 0.18 in next years uplift. So, in a nut shell...100mm is still very good & will give you a very warm house. 125mm is even better....150mm even better....etc etc....hardest point with all of this is when 'enough is enough'. Calculator (uvalue-calculator.co.uk)

Yep, I'm 100% in the same situation! And fully agree in terms of the impact only increasing long term with energy prices. We have 150mm specified (0.11) but there is a £4500 saving if we brought it down to 100mm....(0.18 I think).... we'll prob settle in the middle on 125mm for a £2000 saving for use in the countless other areas I want to try and put more money into. Especially more tangible areas like wanting vaulted ceilings, bigger windows, larger sliding doors etc etc. 100mm still achieves current building regs & in my research also looks like it will still exceed next year's building regs uplift as well. As ever more the merrier & I'd love to go uber insulated... But it becomes increasingly hard to convince myself & the wife when we look at the impacted value... Hence the "maybe another £10 cheaper per month!?" As we're a bungalow, we get hit even harder on sheer surface area to bleed heat through.... And cost to try and mitigate!

125mm should get you to 0.13, 150mm to get to 0.11. Reality is in this range of insulation your spending £1000s to save £10s.

We have received the SAP numbers that are around 10-25% improved to the "high numbers" as above (current regulations), in theory averaging out to comfortably pass the June '22 (next gen regulations) numbers as well. Going a meaningful step further is a £10k bill from the builder, which we can't afford sadly! Joys of going with a large bungalow !