Renovation of Extended 1930s house

[Lemna gibba]

Hello everyone,

 

I've been reading the forums and keen to start posting. My wife and I are planning a major renovation on our house. Well, it feel major for us. The house was built in the 1930s and given a two story extension in the 1980s with a conservatory built around 2000. We've been here for 7 years. The room arrangement in the original part is illogical by modern standards. We have a front door that opens onto a 1 m2 hall (yes really) that leads into the stairs. The stairs bisect the house giving two small living rooms. We never use the front door, as we have a side door. We plan to e open this space up into a single  living area and build a porch onto the front of the house to give a much better entrance. We'll move the stairs to one side of the property. The 1980s extension on the ground floor is pretty good, it has a kitchen diner area and a shower room that we're happy with. We virtually never use the conservatory as it's too hot or too cold. We're planning on knocking the conservatory down and extending the kitchen into the space it occupies. We think this will feel very luxurious. There'll be no significant change in footprint of the house, but the space will be much more useable. Upstairs will need reconfiguration with the stairs moving, but this is just two bedrooms changing. 

 

Improving the insulation on the house is a massive priority for us. The 1980s cavity walls are uninsulated (we should have done this ages ago) and the 1930s walls solid brick. The 1930s part has suspended timber floors. We had to do some work on one of the rooms and fitted Kingspan between the joints, but the other room has not had its floor insulated. As far as I'm aware the 1980 concrete is completely insulated. Both external and cavity wall insulation is high on our list. We'd also like to do the floor properly (as in get the concrete dug out and properly insulated). Our windows are old and the glass needs replacing in all of them, so window replacement is a must. Our architect is keen to build the rear extension (in place of the conservatory) and the porch with SIPs, and we like this idea. With loft, wall and floor insulation we hope that we can get our house up to modern standards. 

 

If we can afford it, then we'd be keen to look into removing our gas boiler. We realise that this won't save money and will likely cost quite a bit, but if it isn't to horrendous we'd like to get an ASHP and UFH downstairs. This is due to trying to live a lower carbon lifestyle. It might be that this ends up prohibitively expensive. 

 

We're quite early into this. We're waiting to hear about planning permission. Then it will be onto getting a structural engineer to tell us what's feasible. I feel like I've got lots of questions, but perhaps just introducing our project is a good place to start. 

 

 

 

[Ferdinand]

Welcome.

 

Ideally we need a plan, plot plan, north arrow, entrance indication and nearby buildings - to an approx scale.

A google satellite view would be a good start, plus a sketch plan.

 

Probably on a new thread.

 

F 

[Lemna gibba]

 

Here is a very quick Google photo. The front faces SSE. The plot is about 11.2m wide. The 1930s part is the front of the house. The 1980s the part with solar panels (this is quite illogical as they should really be on the front of the house). I can sketch out some plans.