Mike W Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 Hi all. My wife and I bought our first house last year in Brighton and are in the process of showing it some much needed love. We bought it from a 95 year old lady who apparently lived here her whole life. Around 5 years ago she had a builder "fix" the place up, which involved dot-and-dabbing plasterboard everywhere, a bit of paint and a general avoidance of all the issues affecting the house. We're undoing all of that and making some changes as we go, trying to respect the house for what it is whilst trying to bring it up to date and hopefully future-proof it somewhat. A lot of this is new to me so we're relying heavily on research, books and forums (hence this introduction). We're doing it all ourselves and saving the money for the engineer and occasional consultancy from a local architect. Thus far we've inserted a beam and post downstairs to knock the ground floor into one space, and another post and beams upstairs to support the chimneys in the loft so that we can remove them below. (one down, one to go). Floors and joist have been removed downstairs too due to rot and worm and a lack of airflow. This has shown that we have very very shallow footings (we'll need to underpin on 2 sides to create depth for proper airflow). On the plus side we're on chalk, the house is made of brick not bungeroosh (for those of you familiar with Brighton building), and there are a ton of pubs in the area (all currently closed sadly). Also on the cards are a side infill extension at the rear (to expand the kitchen) and a loft conversion, all performed (hopefully) along the lines of an EnerPHit refurb. It's a lot to chew on, but we've got time and patience (and no kids to inflict this on luckily). And we're living on site too. Looking forward to the day we can buy ballast again! Cheers, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 Hi and welcome, sounds an interesting project. [humour] Where is "Brighton and Hello" ? I thought it was Brighton and Hove. [/humour] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike W Posted April 13, 2020 Author Share Posted April 13, 2020 Thanks ProDave. Well pointed out, lol. Been here 6 months and still not been to Hove (other than to collect a parking permit). Great work on your house and on keeping the blog - I'll have a good look through this evening and beyond. Have you much more to do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Punter Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 Hi @Mike W and welcome. I am fairly near you and have had a few properties in B & H. Is yours a Victorian terrace with painted render? What are the plans to improve energy performance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 36 minutes ago, Mike W said: Thanks ProDave. Well pointed out, lol. Been here 6 months and still not been to Hove (other than to collect a parking permit). Great work on your house and on keeping the blog - I'll have a good look through this evening and beyond. Have you much more to do? En-suite bathroom to finish (ran out of materials and can't get them) some internal joinery, and the sun room then to do. So plenty yet, as we still can't afford the windows for the sun room so may be a while yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 Welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike W Posted April 13, 2020 Author Share Posted April 13, 2020 17 minutes ago, Mr Punter said: Hi @Mike W and welcome. I am fairly near you and have had a few properties in B & H. Is yours a Victorian terrace with painted render? What are the plans to improve energy performance? Thank you @Mr Punter. Indeed ours is a Victorian terrace with painted render. We're over in Hanover. Plans for improving energy performance are a new, insulated suspended timber floor downstairs, IWI to the front elevation and EWI to the rear elevation, and obvs insulation to the loft. That will go hand in hand with increasing airtightness, but all to be vapour open. We're going to strip the cement render off too as all that seems to have done is keep the brick wet - to be replaced with lime render. Windows will all be replaced with 3G as appropriate. It's all stuff I'm still trying to get my head around/ still learning so any suggestions/experience are welcome. Currently we're still in the "taking it apart" phase so we've got time to plan... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike W Posted April 13, 2020 Author Share Posted April 13, 2020 13 minutes ago, Ferdinand said: Welcome. Thank you @Ferdinand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike W Posted April 13, 2020 Author Share Posted April 13, 2020 19 minutes ago, ProDave said: En-suite bathroom to finish (ran out of materials and can't get them) some internal joinery, and the sun room then to do. So plenty yet, as we still can't afford the windows for the sun room so may be a while yet. That materials issue has stymied us too - I should have listened to my wife when she said to order some in. It sounds (and looks) though as if the house is eminently liveable already. Are you planning the next one yet?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 14 minutes ago, Mike W said: That materials issue has stymied us too - I should have listened to my wife when she said to order some in. It sounds (and looks) though as if the house is eminently liveable already. Are you planning the next one yet?! I DID order the material but the supplier messed up the delivery and then shut the day before the revised delivery day. Yes habitable but I really want it completed. and no, not doing another one. I enjoyed the building, I despise the financial hell it has put us through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike W Posted April 13, 2020 Author Share Posted April 13, 2020 3 minutes ago, ProDave said: I DID order the material but the supplier messed up the delivery and then shut the day before the revised delivery day. Yes habitable but I really want it completed. and no, not doing another one. I enjoyed the building, I despise the financial hell it has put us through. Ahh what a pain with the order! Sorry to hear that. I hope that you can get it done quickly once this period has passed and then you can enjoy all your work. Sorry to hear that it's been such a financial stress - I hope that pain passes quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Punter Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 An insulated concrete floor may work much better than timber. You don't need any airflow underneath and there is no risk of rot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brickie Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 48 minutes ago, Mr Punter said: An insulated concrete floor may work much better than timber. You don't need any airflow underneath and there is no risk of rot. +1. If you’re only considering underpinning in order to achieve airflow clearance-that’s an expensive route to achieve an ‘authentic’ timber floor,which will be cold (even when insulated.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike W Posted April 14, 2020 Author Share Posted April 14, 2020 14 hours ago, Mr Punter said: An insulated concrete floor may work much better than timber. You don't need any airflow underneath and there is no risk of rot. @Mr Punter @Brickie thanks both. I do find myself flip flopping between the 2 options. BCO suggested a slab, structural engineer suggested a slab, consultant architect suggested a slab (but said he wouldn't put that in writing due to concerns about moisture, whereas BCO and engineer both suggested Vandex)... I'm nervous of the option as the house has no DPC. Also we need to do the underpinning regardless - the house is on a hill and at the highest corner the bottom of the party wall is level with the old floor level. The builders scraped back to the chalk and built straight on to that but it meant that the floorboards on that side were effectively sat on the ground. Current drawing from the engineer shows underpinning before we attempt either a slab or suspended floor (he has drawn both). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brickie Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 (edited) Our last house had a slab installed by a previous owner,presumably due to rot. We put liquid membrane down,marine ply & reclaimed boards for that proper Victorian house look. We were laughing the other day,remembering de-nailing in the snow one Easter around 2008! Edited April 14, 2020 by Brickie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike W Posted April 14, 2020 Author Share Posted April 14, 2020 12 minutes ago, Brickie said: Our last house had a slab installed by a previous owner,presumably due to rot. We put liquid membrane down,marine ply & reclaimed boards for that proper Victorian house look. We were laughing the other day,remembering de-nailing in the snow one Easter around 2008! I hope we'll be laughing about all this one day too! How has the floor held up? And have you got a DPC or did you run the membrane up the walls? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brickie Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 House had a slate dpc so just made sure we got right along the edges with the liquid membrane & into the corners,then kept the ply & the boards away from the edge by a few mm (essential in practice given how far out of true most Victorian walls are.) Floor looked fine once finished-I,of course,saw the things I’d have done differently or improved if I’d done it again but everyone who walked in just saw a slightly imperfect timber floor,as per their expectations within a house of its type. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike W Posted April 15, 2020 Author Share Posted April 15, 2020 19 hours ago, Brickie said: House had a slate dpc so just made sure we got right along the edges with the liquid membrane & into the corners,then kept the ply & the boards away from the edge by a few mm (essential in practice given how far out of true most Victorian walls are.) Floor looked fine once finished-I,of course,saw the things I’d have done differently or improved if I’d done it again but everyone who walked in just saw a slightly imperfect timber floor,as per their expectations within a house of its type. Sounds like a nice job you did there. Thanks for your thoughts on this - I'll let you know what we do as we go along. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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