1950s bungalow for renovation

[tetris]

Hi All,

 

Excited to join the forum – I hope you don’t mind renovation projects as opposed to a proper self-build.

Mrs and I are in the final stages of buying our dream home (1950s bungalow) & just waiting for the paperwork to be finalised by the solicitors – they seem to be taking 5 weeks to do what AI can do in 5 minutes. Good news, the house was so run down, it was within our budget. Even better news – the home report is mainly “2”s, so there’s several years of fun work for me to do to get it into top condition. Bad news – while I have extensive fine woodworking skills, and can do some basic electrics & plumbing, I’m pretty much a newcomer to major home repairs. We’re still in a bit of “what have we done” phase.

As a matter of priority for phase 1, I’ll be looking to fix the pitched roofs and repair & replace a couple small flat roofs (porch and bay windows). Trace any leaks & moisture spots. Then consider insulation & window replacement and radiators replacement – so I’m prepared for winter.

Any internal decoration works will have to wait for phase 2 I guess, but there’s a major re-wiring on the cards, with a view of getting a modern consumer unit installed within a couple years of moving in. There’s also a (likely) single skin extension that the Mrs wants to eventually turn into a bedroom and there's a garden to overhaul.

Phase 3 would include a garden room (I’ve built one from a kit before but will likely do a scratch build this time) and maybe even a garage roof terrace if things are going well.

 

Apologies in advance for daft questions.

[Redbeard]

Welcome. Think about air-tightness (henceforth A/T) and high-standard insulation as the 1st thing you do, and then worry about the rest (unless doing the insulation would preclude structural work!).

 

I assume 1950s = clear-ish 50mm-ish cavity (the general assumption being that 20's/30s+ = cavity) but, for example no-one told the builders of entire estates in Nottingham that! So inspect; don't assume). Either way, seriously consider external wall insulation (henceforth EWI) rather than internal insulation of the external walls (IWI).

 

*Design* your elecs and pipe runs so that they don't make insulation and A/T difficult.

 

And most of all, have fun!!

 

 

Edited 12 hours ago by Redbeard

[tetris]

Thank you. External wall insulation would ruin the old cottage look & feel, so that's out of the question unless we're talking single skin extension upgrade, but I haven't even thought about that.

 

On this note, is it worth investing ~£200 into a thermal camera? Probably on of those phone clip-on jobbies. From what I read online, it's the go-to tool for finding drafts, insulation gaps, tracing roof and pipe leaks and can help check hot electrics. Which seems to cover all of my phase 1.

Toll budget is very tight, but if it saves time and improves result quality, it's worth having.

 

Also any tips on living in the house that's being renovated are very welcome. Kitchen, one bathroom and one bedroom (will have to be the kids' one for now) are in decent condition to move in, everything else needs to have the interior ripped out.

Edited 11 hours ago by tetris

[Redbeard]

OK, thanks for confirmation. I do not know how much you know about IWI. Is the house cavity walled? If so, get a quote for bonded polystyrene beads (usually subj to min 50mm cavity and no cr*p in it, and other caveats). I would then get someone to do a WUFI (dynamic interstitial condensation -IC-  risk analysis) calc to see how much IWI (if any) you could add without falling foul of IC risk. If it is 50mm cavity, un-filled, existing U value will be circa 1.5W/m2K. With poly bead fill, circa 0.45-0.5, and with 50mm rigid wood-fibre IWI approx 0.3W/m2K (again, importantly, subject to a condensation risk analysis)

[Square Feet]

Welcome Tetris.

Have you considered getting an air source heat pump?  Your comment about replacing radiators made me think of it. There's a guy on YouTube called Glyn Hudson that puts them into the sort of buildings that they aren't supposed to work in and actually they do. He's a nice guy who genuinely cares about the environment, rather than a content-creating grifter.

Have a look at this video for example - there's also a later follow-up one on his channel where he goes over the stats after the first winter.

 

He also installed one into his friend's cottage renovation project. You might be interested in that one and also the vids from the guy who renovated the cottage. I think his link is at the end of this vid.

 

 

There's also a follow-up video for that project showing a year's worth of stats I think.

Edited 9 hours ago by Square Feet

[Redbeard]

2 hours ago, tetris said:

On this note, is it worth investing ~£200 into a thermal camera? Probably on of those phone clip-on jobbies. From what I read online, it's the go-to tool for finding drafts, insulation gaps, tracing roof and pipe leaks and can help check hot electrics. Which seems to cover all of my phase 1.

Toll budget is very tight, but if it saves time and improves result quality, it's worth having.

 

Also any tips on living in the house that's being renovated are very welcome. Kitchen, one bathroom and one bedroom (will have to be the kids' one for now) are in decent condition to move in, everything else needs to have the interior ripped out.

Re: IR camera: Yes.

 

Re: Living in it...

Seriously, sheet/seal off each room as you work on it and (it being a bungalow) access each room externally. I would use DPM (Clear if you want to save on elec for lighting!) and good-quality 'Gaffa' tape. Probably don't be tempted to use air-tightness tape as you'll struggle to get it off. Remember to seal also any entries/exits such as pipe and wiring runs. If I were doing it again I would have a basic shower 'room' (shed??) so that I did not bring filth back into the clean areas. (Probably requires more discipline than I have, though!).

[Nickfromwales]

3 hours ago, tetris said:

Also any tips on living in the house that's being renovated are very welcome. Kitchen, one bathroom and one bedroom (will have to be the kids' one for now) are in decent condition to move in, everything else needs to have the interior ripped out.

Just beware, making a house uninhabitable can cause foreclosure on your mortgage, as it’s secured against a saleable asset. Once you remove electrics and plumbing, and rip out the kitchen, it is no longer habitable and no longer saleable as a residential dwelling.  
 

Stage the works around a jerry rigged kitchen sink, WC / basin / and some sockets still in operation, so the minimum criteria is upheld.

 

Read the small print of your mortgage agreement twice over.  

[tetris]

5 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

Read the small print of your mortgage agreement twice over.

Thank you. That's good to know and I'm not intending to make the house uninhabitable at any point, so I'm safe.

 

I'll be skint until winter, so no heatpump for a while. 

Also, I've done some reading on IWI - a completely new topic to me, but I won't be keen on making any non-reversible changes unless necessary. I was thinking more about closing off drafts, installing better windows and improving attic insulation/closing gaps.

[Square Feet]

@tetris Have you checked for ASHP grants in your area?

[Redbeard]

18 minutes ago, tetris said:

Also, I've done some reading on IWI - a completely new topic to me, but I won't be keen on making any non-reversible changes unless necessary. I was thinking more about closing off drafts, installing better windows and improving attic insulation/closing gaps.

 

Yes, 'tightening' the envelope makes sense, but we cannot comment too much further on the walls (and floors) till we have more details. Are the walls cavity walls? Are they already insulated? If not, while a 'base case' U value of 1.5W/m2K is not quite as bad as a 225mm solid brick wall at 1.7, it is not exciting, when 50mm of insulation can cut heat loss through much of the walls to a third of that.

 

 

[saveasteading]

welcome and we look forward to your company over the next couple of years.

 

1. Living with it. You will be short of at least one room at a time so you need space. Putting stuff into storage gets it out of the way but the cost adds up.

A shipping container would cost £1,000 but will have a value at the end.  Or it could be your workshop.

2. Plan everything in principle as the priority. Insulation, draughts, heating system eventually.

3. Insulation . a) I'd avoid EWI as it is complicated (too complicated for many installers) and it requires the roof to be extended over the width of it.   eps beads is prob a good option and doesn't reduce room size ( and it can be done at any time.. But others are more expert than I. 

b) loft easy to insulate? If it has any it is likely very thin. This is the easiest place to get a good value increase and before winter.

c)  what is the floor construction? There's no point in ufh on a draughty or otherwise cold floor.

d) making a service void over the walls will make services much easier, and help the insulation a bit.

 

some photos would be good. Not showing the whole property unless you don't mind the world knowing your business. but a bit of wall/ floor/ roof/ loft. 

Or describe.

 

I wonder if anyone knows of an old  textbook on how the bungalows were built? I have some  old books (MacKay etc) that provide great info, and came from second hand shops.