richo106

Hi We are in the planning stages of our bungalow extension. we will be adding another floor to our exisiting 1960's bungalow. The foundations are good and suitable for another story. One of my major concerns at the minute is insulation. We are most likely be having a ASHP (no mains gas in area) so its either LPG, Oil or ASHP so aware our insulation needs to be good. Our current bungalow is 2 skin brick with only about an 80mm cavity with blown insulation in it and the plan from the builder is to build straight on top. We are planning to render the bottom (existing half) and then have new brick on top. The problem arises when we only have 80mm cavity. Aware I will need more insulation than this to satisfy BC and use of our ASHP. Would a solution be to install 25mm (or obviously 50mm) on the inside of the external walls? before fixing the plasterboards. would this work? Would people remove all the existing plaster to get to bare brick? and would they use the warm batten method or just the pir between the battens? We thought about external insulation but we worry this will stick out to much compared the brick We will be have a new concrete base slab with 100mm insulation for UFH and possibly UFH upstairs with the pipes running in the insulated boards (maybe) Any ideas/advice greatly appreciated

Hi Kevin I am also very local to you, I am few miles away in Willoughby We are hoping to start our project next August if all goes to plan (does it ever!?) I was just wondering where you got your static caravan from? did you buy or rent one? I am also in the same boat as you, never took on as large project as this but will project managing all aspects

Hi We are having a ASHP to provide our heating and hot water. We are have a new concrete slab so we are having wet UFH installed throughout downstairs. We are undecided on what to have upstairs, we would like it in the bathroom and ensuite but when I spoke to a supplier yesterday they thought it would be better to have electric UFH in the bathrooms and they traditional (oversized rads) in the bedrooms/bathrooms Upstairs will be completely new (currently a bungalow) so will be joisted and 22 T&G flooring What have people done/suggest in this situation? All advice and ideas greatly appreciated

Thank you all for your comments so far! yes we will be definitely living on and site, 99% sure in a static caravan. This brings me onto my next point of how to connect the caravan up to electricity, water and waste? can any one help advise on this? Many Thanks

Hi Hopefully late next year we will be undertaking a large renovation project on our bungalow. I was wondering if people that had completed a self build/large project had some good ideas how and where to save money, as like everyone else our budget is going to be stretched! I am already planning to self manage the project, knock down some internal/external walls/remove roof, run the UFH pipes, and wire the electrics (I'm an electrician), will be doing most of the joinery myself too (including sourcing and fitting kitchen) we only need 12/14m on new footings...daft as this sounds is it worth hand digging? The builder is good family friend and he suggested I buy all the materials and I will just pay for his time to reduce the mark up on the materials. Has anyone got some good suppliers they use for each material, is it worth shopping around for bricks/blocks/timber or is it all much of a muchness in price regarding all the suppliers? My biggest problem is where to get all our windows and doors from at the minute, I've had a complete quote off express bifolds and they are quite high Any advice/information will be greatly appreciated

Thanks for all the comments, we have had good discussions with the builder and have agree to basically knock the house down. This includes filling in the suspended ground floor and installing a new concrete slab. I thought this would be ideal for the WET UFH we want. Could some one offer some guidance on what thickness of insulation is needed in the floor for the UFH to sit on and what would the make up/thickness of the floor would be so me and builder are on the same page. This project is hoping to start late 22 early 23 all being well I have been persuaded by the local plumbing firm to install ASHP (well get quote from them for a full house system) What would people recommend upstairs? I was thinking UFH in the main bathroom and en-suite. What about in the bedrooms? Would radiators (spec to correct temps etc) work better than UFH under carpet? People on the forum mention air tightness/insulation for use of ASHP...where are the main areas of insulation/air tightness that needs to be considered? Thanks in advance

Hi I have installed lights in a few of my gardens and I ended up using quinetic wireless switch, they either do standard wireless or wifi controlled. The wifi controlled can link to its own app and/or be linked to alexa for example so can set up scenes and control from phone Very easy to install no complicated wiring, they also do wireless switches/fobs if you want a manual control also I have found these to work well and simple/cost effective solution to outdoor lighting control https://www.quinetic.co.uk/

Once again thanks again for all the comments, each one we are reading and considering. we are struggling with room position regarding sun etc as we don’t want our kitchen dining area facing out to the front of the property The reason why the architect designed it like this as we wanted a traditional looking brick house with a bit of glass. We wanted to keep it in theme with the village it’s in and also have a timeless design that wouldn’t date etc we keep changing our minds on chimneys, we would like some kind of feature within our kitchen area. The negatives of cost to build, damp issues etc are on my mind. Also we the think the chimney breaks up the back of the house. any other ideas we could have instead of these? Thanks again

Thank you all for the comments, definitely gave us something to think about and where we go next. Bedroom 5 is going to be office, regarding the jack and jill Bedroom 2 will be our dressing room/walk in wardrobe so will only be used by us and not as a bedroom. Even though we have no neighbours to the left our boundary is about 5/6m with quite tall trees and bushes. yes the door will be moved in the kitchen so it goes into the ‘salon’. It won’t be a salon on the plans, it’s more of room that my wife does hair sometimes now and then. Comments around the chimneys have put slight doubt in my mind now, but we are wanting some kind of fire/log burner in the main kitchen area maybe. we like the idea of the large doors at the back, more than likely it will be a sliding door, the large window the other side of chimney breast can be altered

Yes correct on the dark grey/light grey walls Neighbour on garage side but trees on left. Nice views out the front, 12 meters back from road..small village road. Out the back decent sized garage, view is side of one house and a church…no privacy issues Planning to be forever home Cheers

Appreciate all the comments so far, very useful! I have attached a photo to show north

Yes that is a possibility, as soon as we get plans finalised/passed going to see the best way to achieve it Many Thanks

Hi This is our first design of our bungalow extension I am welcome to any comments/thoughts on these design/plans Thanks in advance

Hi We will completely renovating/extending our 1960s bungalow, currently our ground floor is tongue and groove floorboards on 50 x 100mm joists with around 450-600mm (maybe more in places) The kitchen currently (4 x 3m) is concrete floor...that's uneven and need levelling The whole of the ground floor will either tiles or wood flooring My plan is to rip up all the floorboards and insulate between the joists, I am not sure which insulation to use. The options I was thinking is: 1. Use 100mm kingspan/celotex and fitted tightly between each joists 2. Rockwool insulation fitted between each joist I have been reading about a DPM barrier, where would this be installed Would 18mm 8ft x 2ft floorboard be suitable to relay on top of the joists and tile directly onto? I am just worried about the floor being solid so it doesn't bounce (and damage grout/tiles) I have been trying to look into this online but struggling to find any definitive answers. We may also want UFH for about half the area I am happy to pay for expert advice on this on to how to go about it Many Thanks

Hi I have now exposed the foundations for our bungalow we are hoping to add another storey to. There are 9 brick layers below the engineering brick line then 8inch of the concrete foundations below that. This protrudes 5inch from the brick line. (see attached photos) I have spoken briefly with my builder and he is under the impression that even though the foundation is not as deep as desirable the fact that's its around 450mm in width he thinks we will be able to get away with the existing foundations for adding another storey I will be trying to contact my structural engineer tomorrow to confirm this but I just wondered if anybody on here has any experience with these kind of footings and if my builder was right? All advice and information greatly appreciated

Hi Has anybody got any recommendations for PoE cctv system We want to install some now in our bungalow before the main renovations starts in a couple of years. I want to install some good ones now so I can re-use them in the future build I like the idea of PoE cameras due to ease of install and reliability of signal etc.. Do they normally come as a kit? does the recorder produce the PoE or will i need a separate network switch Thanks in advance

We are in the early stages of designing our bungalow extension/conversion. We have some plans (first draft) so have a good idea of what we want to do Obviously I need to expose the foundations of the existing bungalow as we plan on adding a full new floor Who would I get round to check these foundations who could tell me if they are suitable for what we propose? Or what I need to do to make them suitable etc Sorry for the daft question but something I need to know Many Thanks

Has anybody used express bifolds as they seem to offer a lot of the stuff we need?

We finally have some plans back for our proposed extension/remodel. Glazing is going to be a big cost to the project, we would like a large full height glass entrance. Along with other large windows and sliding doors etc. At the minute we are favouring the black slimline window/glass style. Can anyone recommend any companies/suppliers etc to go and visit and obtain quotes for from drawings. We are based in the midlands but obviously more than happy to travel. Many Thanks

Hi We are planning to have an extension in the next 18 - 24 months at our bungalow, where the extension will go there is a large ish tree there at the minute. Obviously this tree will be removed before works starts but my mate made a comment in passing saying that he thought trees needed to be removed 2 years before work starts? Is there any truth in this? Or am I ok just to remove tree prior to work starting? Many Thanks

Hi In the next year or so we will begin a major renovation/extension on our bungalow I am an electrician (industrial) by trade and dealt with cat 5/RJ45/Data cabs etc a little bit in the past. I have read on the forum and tried to work out what I will require I was thinking 2 x data points to each bedroom(likely TV locations), 4 data points to main tv point I would like to install wired CCTV so cable to each camera point (can any recommend a wired CCTV system with nice looking cameras?) I also thought about WIFI extender or something like that to make sure the whole house is covered...what hardware would I need for this? Would you wire everything back to a central point, patch panel for each cable and then a switch? How would a sky router link into a network switch? Would I need sky to install phone/tv/boardband point in the same location as patch panel? I would like to incorporate home automation in the renovation like door bell, heating control, lights etc but would like all be controlled over wifi? Is there anything else anyone would recommend? Sorry for the simple questions but I want plan exactly what I need as early as possible Many Thanks

Thats just a method I have seen online when doing my research, have you any other methods that would work? Thanks

Have you any methods to help it be rigid enough as you can imagine I don't want the tiles cracking!?

We have just bought a 1960's bungalow with a suspended floor, the gap underneath ranges from 700-400mm. The joists are currently 50 x 100mm My plan for the renovation was the installed UFH throughout on the ground, between the joists I would lay 75mm kingspan insulation, then clipping UFH pipes then screed 25mm up to the level on the joists. Then floorboard/tile board for tiles to be laid on. I was just wondering if the joists would be strong enough to hold this extra weight? They are supported underneath at intervals by brick walls (with air gaps) but not sure exactly how far apart yet until I do further investigation What are peoples initial thoughts? How would they go about this? Many Thanks

We have just bought a 1960's bungalow with a suspended floor, the gap underneath ranges from 700-400mm. The joists are currently 50 x 100mm My plan for the renovation was the installed UFH throughout on the ground, between the joists I would lay 75mm kingspan insulation, then clipping UFH pipes then screed 25mm up to the level on the joists. Then floorboard/tile board for tiles to be laid on. I was just wondering if the joists would be strong enough to hold this extra weight? They are supported underneath at intervals by brick walls (with air gaps) but not sure exactly how far apart yet until I do further investigation What are peoples initial thoughts? How would they go about this? Many Thanks