Ferdinand

Two Four we haven’t mentioned. While the floor is up do all your joists with wood treatment as a matter of course. I Use one of the Five Star multitreatments. Last time was Cuprinol as they were 3 for 2 somewhere. It may feel expensive, but is one to do imo. I am not sure whether you plan ply or OSB. I think both should be OK, though personally I would go OSB3 as it usually the same price as the other OSB. Others may differ on that. Screw or nail the floor? Personally I prefer screwing to nailiing to future proof, and I use a collated screwer bought off eBay. But I renovate properties mainly to keep for a decade or two. Others may differ. And think about tools. If you plan future projects it may be a good point to buy something powerful and shiny. Seriously, having an impact or collated driver is a big benefit. Ferdinand

Hi Ferdinand Thank you for the idea, now sure how to do that yet, but I will have a look around. Define a tag eg DanielFloor, and add it in to the tags by editing the first post of your thread(s). Click on anywhere the tag appears to list all posts on that tag. Or search by tag. For Ninja level forum reading you go into Browse > My Activity Streams > Custom and set up a stream on that tag. F

With that setup - especially the celotex protruding beneath the joists imo you need to make sure your vents are very clear - if you need them you can use snorkels to get them below the level of the insulation. The reason aiui is that your joists become more enclosed than before and so if they do get damp (depends on climate) the setup has more resilience. That should not be a problem, but there is the Law of Murphy. In the one I did we didn't take up the floor that thoroughly - just a couple of boards every .8m or, and used rockwool and a staple gun, plus celotex on top leaving the existing floor in place. Ferdinand

At this stage have a look at the savings threads in the General Discussion area. The first one is things you can put in place that are more like 'systems'. My favourite is a Trade Account plus Reloadable Cash Card at Wickes, which is another 20% off after the multibuys, but we all have our wrinkles. and

When you are thinking about painting your doors, take a raincheck on whether your hinges are OK. Should be, but hinges now are much better than hinges from the 1980s as not they "click" off to let you remove the doors rather than having to flippity-flappity-flop around with lots of screws. if necessary they should be cheap to replace. They should be strong and stable without too much play. Ferdinand

An architect is a regulated professional who is a member of one of the recognised Architectural organisations. The best known is RIBA. The word "Architect" is a regulated term that cannot be uesd by anyone else, though (roughly) similar people from other EU countries get to use it. Chap from Luton was fined 30k in Jan this year for calling him self an Architect illegally: http://www.arb.org.uk/robi-miah-mia-architecture-ordered-pay-nearly-30000-illegally-practising-architect-nr2018/ An "architectural consultant" can be anyone. "Architectural" is not a regulated word. I could trade as one of these, as could anybody else here. Or you. So it all comes down to demonstrated experience. An "Architectural Technician" is somebody with a lower level building design qualification. Often they work as more junior team members on design teams lead by an architect, or independently. Many of us have used them. Normally an architect should have a greater breadth and depth of experience, and supply more "inspiration". That sometimes works, and sometimes does not. Architects sometimes feel expensive, but for their amount of training (7 years in the UK, less elsewhere - eg 3 in Ireland iirc) they do not make that much money compared to say Doctors or Accountants. Celebrity or big-scheme architects usually make their money by having practices with lots of staff rather than purely through massive personal fees. As you say, for a 4x4x4 box, an architect may not be necessary. I could do that myself, but more likely I would design it to not need PP. As you have discovered it is a bit of a learning curve (read: swamp). But that is our planning system for you. Freehand sketches are good - I do them all the time as it helps me refine my ideas. Or you could use a package such as SketchUp or Sweet Home 3D. I use the latter for plans for small projects, Ferdinand

Aha. This was the "11 week project". Fairy nuff.

I came across this conversation about having a domain name for a self-built house between @ProDave and @vivienz, and thought that the new .uk domain names are potentially of interest and would be worth a brief comment. These are domain names which link straight into the uk's top-level domain - so you have dunroamin.uk rather than dunroamin.org.uk or dunroamin.co.uk. That seems to me to be more suitable for a house which is inherently neither a non-profit 'organisation', nor a commercial company. That can be used for a project website or self-build blog, or a business such as a B&B - or can be reserved in case such a use might be required in the future. There is a limitation in that if an identical name exists in the co.uk, org.uk or me.uk domain hierarchies, then the owner of that domain has a pre-emptive "grandfathered"right to buy the .uk version until mid-2019. However, where the domain name is not registered in one of the other hierarchies mentioned, it can be purchased now. There is a fairly good explanation of this process on the 123-reg website. As an example, I have recently helped set up a website for my handyman under the domain little-john.uk, for "Little John Property Services" (this is near Sherwood Forest) which is available now, but littlejohn.uk is not available now as littlejohn.co.uk is used by a Bathroom Company already. This is slightly ironic for me, as I have been trying to get rid of the name of my house for the last 4 years. It is called something horribly 1950s, and the name seems attached to the Council database like a stand of Knotweed. Every time the nice person on the phone says "I have taken it off and it has gone", it comes back about 6 months later as if by magic. Personally, I think the answer is that the master database is probably owned by the Post Office, and it is very difficult to correct. Until very recently we were receiving Pizza Deliveries for next door every couple of months, and it turns out that my detached house, and "1a" next door which was built in 198x on a slice of the garden of this one, were listed by the Post Office as a pair of flats in a single unit. Go figure! (*) (*) In the end it took a pitched battle by the new owner of next-door over a period of months to get the database updated, including multiple mis-assumptions by admin staff when they had emails stating the simple facts sitting in front of them. But that persistence of inaccurate information is to me an example as to why we should keep information about us get in database-state information banks to an absolute minimum. People believe bollocks when the bollocks emerges from a computer, and that causes practical problems for real people. So keep computers in the dark.

I did a project last year on a small bungalow with a suspended underfloor. I Put 100mm rockwool between the joists and a floating floor for more insulation for a u-value around 0.2. We took all the services out of the void, and left a 200mm service ‘duct’ within the floating floor running around the edge of or across some rooms to where sockets and rads would be. Next time I would use one of the ufh systems such as you mention. There were significant benefits in savings on rewire and replumb, and in simplifying the floor construction, no cables in the insulation etc, and we got about £200 from weighing in the old copper pipes etc. Your various options do not seem to consider insulation sufficiently, and that a vapour barrier needs to be on the warm side to avoid condensation. The layer of sand seems to be an attempt at buffering (?), and I question how well that would work in a ventilated void which is open to the outside.They also seem to me to be somewhat technically, rather than fabric, orientated. AIUI two ways ventilated voids have traditionally been ‘greenly’ renovated in the last decade or two are 1 - Leave it ventilated, insulate under floor, vapour barrier over floor, then heating in room. And ufh requires a lot of insulation as it is low temp compared to rads and actually touching the floor. Ventilation under floor ie air bricks keeps joists dry. 2 - Seal the void to exclude moisture completely, fill it entirely with insulation such as polybeads or LECA in a water impermeable lining (ie poly sheet). Joists are kept dry because they are in a warm environment so water cannot condense on them. There are People who have got that approved by Building Control. I went with 1 as my BCO raised his eyebrows about 2. Would have got it through at the cost of some time delay and a professional report. Your other option is to rip it out and insert an insulated slab, which in some ways is much simpler. 300mm ish is enough depth I think.. if you are gutting I would consider that. Do not underinsulate your floor if using ufh. One more thing to watch is the height of your doors, and that there are sufficient trimming margins. This caught me out and I have a shed full of 50mm Celotex sheets that I had to replace with 25mm ones, to remind me of the non-existence of doors which can be trimmed by much more than 60mm. It may be useful to have a conversation about the details over on the Green Buildig Forum and/or in our Boffin’s Corner. Mine is in Notts, and your local environment may vary. Ferdinand

Add a unique project tag to your various threads and they will be able to be read together. Not many people will notice, but it will help you and anyone you are engaged withlosely. Range of threads is good, but too many and it becomes disjointed, I have not got this right yet, so I cannot tell you how many threads works best ?‍♀️. F

There is somebody here somewhere with an open swimming pool. It might even be in Scotland. Unfortunately no evidence is to hand ?, so I have no case to make for your being insufficiently hard.

It’s not a goaty, so on principle I approve.

She believed you, did she? ? Love your son’s beard. Very Amish and very individual.

How does the maths work .. 7 for two of them, 9 for you? (I approve, mind). (And the plasterwork looks good. When are you doing stucco on the outside?)

You you can also have a reasonable fall on the roof itself, as you can get levelling shims, or even self levelling supports. They can cost as little as a couple of ££ each, and support several hundred kg or more if a heavy duty version is used. I have my patio on these since 2014, and I am waiting for 8 to arrive to give me an adjustable shed base as the ground keeps compacting and my shed looks differently drunk every year. If you are of an H&E or Hampstead mindset, you could save money by having an open air pool . F

What do you want to end up with? Mine started like that, minus the upstairs. This is what the previous people did wit( it. You can see the bays.

You could isolate the terrace from the roof using this sort of system. There are various types around, and they are not especially expensive imo.

Welcome ! We like photos. We tend to be visually stimulated here. Architecturally, I mean, of course.

Remember that Howdens do sales in October, which can make a big difference.

Not to state the obvious, but what happened to the shades in your avatar? They are quite cool in an NCIS sort of way.

Remember that heat travels by conduction, convection and radiation. So things other than vacuum help keep it in or out, and a thing called a u-value or an r-value will tell you how good each type of insulation is. The best stuff *is* vacuum panels, but they are a little costly .. and may be restricted to small areas for expensive items that are very hot inside, such as hit tech heat stores. Where space does not matter especially you might use solid polystyrene or rock wool like your loft (or other versions thereof), but for insulatng a small kitchen I used stuff called PIR [polyisocyanurate I think in technical], known as Kingspan or Celotex by brand. PIR is about twice as good as polystyrene or rock wool in keeping heat in so you only lose about half as much space round your room for the same benefit. There are other considerations such as rock wool being cheap but a‘problem to work with itch-wise, and so on, but none of this is difficult. And if you have questions we have clods like me and friendly boffins who use English who can explain things. My first double glazing was 2 panes that slid individually. And eg secondary glazing works but does not have vacuum in it anyway. And the sealed unit stuff that is argon filled will have filled up with air after a few years anyway. If you pop over to my Little Red House thread over at the ‘other place’ the Green Building Forum it has part of my experience from 2012-16 working on a house perhaps not dissimilar to yours. We took energy bills on a tiny solid walled detached cottage from £220 per month to about £100. External Wall Insulation was not in the end justifiable, so we did not do that. That included adding a 240sqft conservatory bought off eBay for £600. http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=11560&page=1#Item_0 It is good to start with the basics. Back in 2013 I did a 9 month 2 nights a week general DIY course that did a bit of everything, just to fill in the gaps in my experience. Hang on a bit and someone will point you to a dry-lining video. ? Probably the only power tools you need will be a cordless drill, and your arm. Ferdinand

I think £80-100 might be reasonable as a one off in the South West depending slightly on notice and distance. Mine here charges 60-80 inc VAT depending on whether it is a back boiler or not, and we have a lot of gas engineers in the area.

What do you thjnk the bill will be? It maybe less than you think. Having renovated 5+ old properties over the last several years. I find that the material cost is roughly 10-15 per sqm for decent boarding out and insulation. The issue is that once you have committed to new parts of your kitchen, you lock in a cold kitchen for 5-10 years or more. What are your energy bills, tariff, and consumption?

If you are doing work on the kitchen, then it will be worth you considering inserting some insulation onto your walls. It should involve relatively little work/expense and pay for itself fairly quickly through smaller heating bills. But the real benefit will be in comfort. Even 25mm Celotex on an uninsulated wall will make a huge difference. 50mm would be be better. You would lose about 2-3” off every dimension where you insulate.

Screwfix seem to be giving out footballs with every order, including my £7 one. Fill yer boots. They are not pumped up however. Who will be first to test a compressor in the shop ? To be fair, I’d let the World Cup go to hell in a handcart oif we hadn’t been so comprehensively embarrassed by Scotland at cricket last week.