Renovating 70s Detached House

[severnside]

Hi and thanks to everyone on this forum. I have been browsing through this site for quite a while and learnt a lot of new things.

We have recently purchased a 4 Bed Detached house in a great location and now want to bring it upto modern specs. Lots of challenges and questions waiting

- Upgrade thermal efficiency of house (Cavity wall no insulation, loft with 150mm and suspended floor)

- Upgrade heating system, currently got a working warm air system

- Rewire and upgrade electrics

- Mini extention and layout change

 

I have learnt a lot of things from this site and add them to plan

- Focus on fabric. We will try to make any change to best thermal spec (within budget limits)

- Radial heating setup using manifold

- Radial wiring for lighting to add automation in future

- Provision for MVHR, Automation, Solar and ASHP and add incremently as budget allow. Coming from software background I am thinking modular design to add in future but let's see how it works in real life.

- Solar Divertor for DHW and Zappi for Nissan Leaf

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by severnside

[TonyT]

Hope it all goes well.

 

[SteamyTea]

Welcome.

If you internally insulate you can, at the same time, deal with airtightness and relocate pipes and wires.

Messy and involved planning, but gives a better job probably.

[severnside]

@SteamyTea That's a good suggestion. Internal insulation and service void solves multiple problems in one go. We are still evaluating between EWI or IWI. EWI looks a good option since we have to render most of house but the detailing requirements make us nervous. The more I read about it more I realize that it's more dependent on our luck of getting a right person to do this job. I still can't find answers for things like how to change windows after EWI, ideally window will need changing in lifetime of EWI. But all the detailing around windows make it difficult not to damage insulation on windows refit.

IWI looks less things to go wrong and should have longer life because it's not exposed to elements. But it's more disruption and we will loose some internal space. I read about condensation risk with IWI but hope it should be mitigated with an empty cavity.

 

Thanks