Hello... first time buyer and renovator.

[darkrabbit]

Hey everyone, 

 

Glad to be here. 

 

I'm in the process of buying my first property (to live in) - a 1950s semi and there's a huge list of things I'd love to do to it, with a budget of about £60K for repairs/renovation.

I'm passionate about the idea of EnerPHIT and PassiveHaus retrofit, but I doubt I'll be able to achieve this for a first house...given that it's probably NW facing and wouldn't benefit from much solar gain or panels (happy to be corrected)

 

Big ticket wishlist items:

• Improving cavity/loft insulation
• Wet underfloor heating retrofit
• Re-wire to allow for data cabling throughout the house
• New kitchen and bathroom
• MVHR
• Replacing combi with heat pump as well as some new radiators, associated plumbing costs
• Pebbledash removal and a new lime render

 

What would the be the best way to approach these sort of works - engage an architect post-completion?

[Jilly]

Welcome!

 

Don't spend too much until you have completed. There is a retrofitted certified Passive House in Cheshire, similar to yours and I believe they hold open days occasionally:

https://passivehouseplus.ie/magazine/upgrade/cheshire-semi-gets-passive-retrofit-for-60k

 

I know on this house the gas boiler was retained as the house needed such a teeny amount of heat it wasn't worth the expense of an ASHP.

[SteamyTea]

Welcome.

5 hours ago, darkrabbit said:

engage an architect post-completion

Only if you want to loose all that £60k and have no value added.

 

Making any house low energy is really quite simple, control the air changes and insulate.  Most of the rest is bling.

If your house is NW facing, does that mean halve is SE facing?

 

UFH requires a lot of insulation under it, around 200mm.

 

Why lime render, if you control the ventilation, why do you want walls that are breathable?  Not that lime is, in reality, any more breathable, than cement based render.  At least you know cement based sets hard.

[joe90]

15 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

5 hours ago, darkrabbit said:

engage an architect post-completion

Only if you want to loose all that £60k and have no value added.

+1, architects (generally) design houses not the renovation stuff your talking about. Loads of knowledgable people here who will help with all that stuff (for free 🤷‍♂️).

[Ferdinand]

5 hours ago, darkrabbit said:

Big ticket wishlist items:

• Improving cavity/loft insulation
• Wet underfloor heating retrofit
• Re-wire to allow for data cabling throughout the house
• New kitchen and bathroom
• MVHR
• Replacing combi with heat pump as well as some new radiators, associated plumbing costs
• Pebbledash removal and a new lime render

 

 

Some of that may be available free - eg loft insulation.

 

You need to do some digging.

 

Also Jeremy Hunt hinted at more renovation / improvement effort - watch for the detail.

[Radian]

34 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

Also Jeremy Hunt hinted at more renovation / improvement effort - watch for the detail.

That'll be the day. New thread if he does though.

[darkrabbit]

5 hours ago, Jilly said:

Welcome!

 

Don't spend too much until you have completed. There is a retrofitted certified Passive House in Cheshire, similar to yours and I believe they hold open days occasionally:

https://passivehouseplus.ie/magazine/upgrade/cheshire-semi-gets-passive-retrofit-for-60k

 

I know on this house the gas boiler was retained as the house needed such a teeny amount of heat it wasn't worth the expense of an ASHP.

 

Thanks - yeah that exact property was an inspiration to think about retrofits. 

 

31 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Welcome.

Only if you want to loose all that £60k and have no value added.

 

Making any house low energy is really quite simple, control the air changes and insulate.  Most of the rest is bling.

If your house is NW facing, does that mean halve is SE facing?

 

UFH requires a lot of insulation under it, around 200mm.

 

Why lime render, if you control the ventilation, why do you want walls that are breathable?  Not that lime is, in reality, any more breathable, than cement based render.  At least you know cement based sets hard.

 

Oh wow, didn't realise that about UFH -- 200mm sounds like it would raise the floor by quite a bit, in a 67 sqm property maybe the investment won't be worth it?

 

Lime render isn't based on any expert knowledge -- rather anecdotal that "cement is bad, use lime." Good point though if we're going to be investing into MVHR that we don't really need breathable walls -- assuming that damp air is properly removed from the wet rooms?

 

14 minutes ago, joe90 said:

+1, architects (generally) design houses not the renovation stuff your talking about. Loads of knowledgable people here who will help with all that stuff (for free 🤷‍♂️).

 

Oh that's good to know. How do you typically go about knocking down walls (e.g. creating an open plan kitchen/lounge) - do builders help make a plan for you?

 

9 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

 

Some of that may be available free - eg loft insulation.

 

You need to do some digging.

 

Also Jeremy Hunt hinted at more renovation / improvement effort - watch for the detail.

 

Thanks for the tip -- looks like there are some schemes to help with loft and cavity insulation. Doing a quick search has shown that the property EPC shows uninsulated cavity walls and 150mm loft insulation.

[joe90]

45 minutes ago, darkrabbit said:

Oh that's good to know. How do you typically go about knocking down walls (e.g. creating an open plan kitchen/lounge) - do builders help make a plan for you?

They should know what they are doing, however you have to establish if it’s a supporting wall (holding up floors above and/or walls above) if so then steels are needed, plenty here know what’s required if you need help. 

[Radian]

3 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

UFH requires a lot of insulation under it, around 200mm.

 

Have we seen a thermal model to support this? Y'know, one of those thermal modelling apps like HTflux?

All the decent free trial versions I've downloaded have long since expired and the only web images I can google up don't show relevant examples of ground floor loops e.g. this first floor example:

 

[SteamyTea]

5 minutes ago, Radian said:

Have we seen a thermal model to support this? Y'know, one of those thermal modelling apps like HTflux?

Someone did a few a while back (probably on the predecessor to here).

Have you tried LISA?

[Radian]

2 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

Have you tried LISA?

I thought that was for modelling dynamic stresses? Maybe it can be used for simple static temperature distribution. I now see it seems you can set surface temperatures to model their affects on material properties.

 

A couple of common test cases would seem to be informative. Even if simplified to model an infinite plane with conduction only in Z. I was also wondering how convection would affect the case of block and beam construction where a layer of warmer air should pool just below the blocks, and how this would compare with a solid raft sat on the ground which would have continuous conduction but over a potentially lower delta. Obvs. no help if a howling gale is blowing across the beams!