The House Projects Thread

[Carlos]

We've started knocking through into the extension we built 2 yrs ago and I've had a tit full after 3 days

We intended to move out for 2 months into a house we put an offer in on mid August but still no sign of completing and we need to start or risk not finishing by Xmas.

This was my kitchen







and we are knocking into the extension on the left and the old dining room on the right.

Structural engineer 2 yrs ago specified a Catnic steel lintel to support the original pine end (on the left) but both the builder's I'm using think it's overkill and tricky to get such a long/tall lintel into the gap.

The building inspector has ok'd the use of 2 concrete lintels (inner and outer) at 10% of the price and a doddle to get in but I'm still worried about the full knock through tomorrow

[Rich B]

I see you’ve gone for the stripped out minimalist look...!

My project starts Monday - so many decisions still to make to keep the programme flowing - really looking forward to it!

[Carlos]

I see you’ve gone for the stripped out minimalist look...!

My project starts Monday - so many decisions still to make to keep the programme flowing - really looking forward to it!

Moving out is definitely the right choice. I can't find anything at the moment keys, cash, coats, dogs lead and so on. The bedrooms on the first floor are rammed with stuff I didn't know we had.

Jelly moulds, where did they come from

[IanF]

On call, so painted our 8m by 6m kitchen ceiling and walls, with bastard down lights, white when they were previously white; I may be fucking cross-eyed now..

Looking at a new house on Saturday that needs a fuck-ton of work; if I’m successful, I’m planning on splitting the house in two (so I don’t have a nervous breakdown! ) and take it one half at a time.

It’s a really complicated buy though; cash buy With a charity-selling-after-probate-with-two-years-sat-empty twist.

[DaveE]

About to start 2+ months of work.

Knocking out internal walls, fitting steels, bricking up doorways and windows, creating new doorways and windows, removing a downstairs WC and creating a new one under the stairs, new floors, underfloor heating and then (!!) a new kitchen into the new space.

Oh, and anthracite bi-folds - because we're all sheep.

[Rich B]

One thing worth knowing is if you’re moving out for the build like we are, is if you’re not living there for over 30 days then chances are your insurance will not cover this. I rang up last week and found exactly this and have had to quickly get a different policy set up.

[DeskJockey]

We've accepted a quote for the sorting out the render. Stripping the pebble dash off the front and putting on fresh render + fixing cracks on the side of the house and painting the lot.

Also getting quotes for redoing all the floors downstairs except the utility room.

And waiting for the final quotes for the family bathroom.

And still haven't found a carpenter that can be bothered to turn up to quote or provide a quote after they've been to see what we want done. Is it so hard?

[Jobbo]

Just had the hot water cylinder replaced with a Harlequin Heatstream today. It’s 250l but that’s how much water is used to store heat, not how much hot water you can get out of it.

As part of that, the amount of original to the house (1966) pipework which had to be replaced was amazing. One of the brass connectors on the old copper cylinder broke into three or four pieces; it was ridiculously brittle and could have gone with a knock at any time

I’ll feed back on how the Heatstream is but it worked out cheaper than unvented because it didn’t require much in the way of modification to the existing system. And doesn’t pressurise the central heating pipework as an unvented system does, which seemed prudent.

Having just got back in, the hot water from the taps is at the same pressure as the cold mains, so I’m looking forward to my shower in the morning

[jamcg]

And doesn’t pressurise the central heating pipework as an unvented system does, which seemed prudent.

An unvented cylinder won’t pressurise your heating system, that’s completely separate from the cylinder

[Jobbo]

You need a sealed system for an unvented cylinder; while I haven’t ever seen a vented central heating system with one, I guess somebody will run exactly that to prove me wrong.

[Simon]

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I can't see why that would be the case. The same water that goes around the CH system goes through the coil in the HW cylinder. Why would that care whether the water in the cylinder is vented or unvented?

[Jobbo]

I’m sure it’s technically possible but I’ve never seen an unvented cylinder which didn’t require a sealed system for the heating and hot water pipework. I guess if you’re doing away with the loft header tank for cold water (which again isn’t an absolute requirement I guess) you’d get rid of the heating header tank.

[dinny_g]

One thing worth knowing is if you’re moving out for the build like we are, is if you’re not living there for over 30 days then chances are your insurance will not cover this. I rang up last week and found exactly this and have had to quickly get a different policy set up.

Yep - I've been spending nights at our rental place while it's being worked on for that very reason.

[jamcg]

I’m sure it’s technically possible but I’ve never seen an unvented cylinder which didn’t require a sealed system for the heating and hot water pipework. I guess if you’re doing away with the loft header tank for cold water (which again isn’t an absolute requirement I guess) you’d get rid of the heating header tank.

You would usually do a sealed system as you say but if the heating system is old and not suitable for making into a sealed system there’s nothing wrong with leaving it open vented and sticking with a regular boiler, it just has to be fully pumped, and you’d just make it an ‘s’ plan system rather than the usual ‘y’ plan. You can’t stick an unvented cylinder onto gravity circs as there’s not enough control over them- you need to be able to provide high temp lock out

[Jobbo]

I have never understood why there is always such a distinction between S-plan and Y-plan. They basically work the same way, one using just one 3-way valve and one using two 2-way valves. I guess the 3-way valve isn't sufficiently failsafe to give you the high temp lockout.

While we already have an S-plan system, albeit gravity-fed, I was persuaded by the simplicity of the installation of our Heatstream thermal store. But it was untried by me, so a bit of a leap. I'm pleased to say it seems to work really well; next questions will be how reliable it is and how much it costs to run. We don't plan to add solar water heating, so the fact that it's not suitable for that is fine; it does have an immersion but we don't plan to add solar panels and the immersion is only 3kW anyway and top-mounted so probably wouldn't be all that suitable as the main source of heating for the water.

[Simon]

Ok, so someone explain high temp lockout?

Also, I have S-plan too, but like Jobbo don't see the huge distinction between Y and S

[jamcg]

Ok, so someone explain high temp lockout?

Also, I have S-plan too, but like Jobbo don't see the huge distinction between Y and S

S plan- 2x separate zone valves
Y plan- 1x 3 way valve

Y plan doesn’t give as much control, you can’t have as much flow through the valve as it’s very restrictive and if you run heating and hot water together it gives priority to the water, whereas an s plan will give equal priority so doesn’t diminish the heating circut

High temperature lockout- google mythbusters hot water tank and watch what happens when unvented hot water goes wrong. You need high limit thermostats on unvented to switch off or divert the heat source away from the tank. These usually activate at around 80c, with the high temperature pressure relief activating at around 90c, all to stop water reaching boiling point. You also have pressure relief safety valves, pressure reducing inlet valves with line strainers and non return valves- there’s a lot of safety systems go into unvented water to stop them failing- hence why you need a separate qualification to be able to fit and commission them- intact you are now supposed to do the course to fit any hot water generating systems as the last few major incidents involving hot water have all been open vent cylinders

[Jobbo]

Got any links to the incidents with vented cylinders? I know you don’t need to be specially qualified to install a thermal store like our Heatstream but the chap who installed it does unvented all the time too.

Evostick knows him, coincidentally.

[Simon]

Just had the hot water cylinder replaced with a Harlequin Heatstream today. It’s 250l but that’s how much water is used to store heat, not how much hot water you can get out of it.

As part of that, the amount of original to the house (1966) pipework which had to be replaced was amazing. One of the brass connectors on the old copper cylinder broke into three or four pieces; it was ridiculously brittle and could have gone with a knock at any time

I’ll feed back on how the Heatstream is but it worked out cheaper than unvented because it didn’t require much in the way of modification to the existing system. And doesn’t pressurise the central heating pipework as an unvented system does, which seemed prudent.

Having just got back in, the hot water from the taps is at the same pressure as the cold mains, so I’m looking forward to my shower in the morning

OK I Google'd this Heatstream thing and I don't really understand how it works. How does it get more hot water out than it stores?

[jamcg]

Got any links to the incidents with vented cylinders? I know you don’t need to be specially qualified to install a thermal store like our Heatstream but the chap who installed it does unvented all the time too.

Evostick knows him, coincidentally.

This was the most serious one I can remember, back in 2008. Open vent cylinder boiled over in storage tank, which failed and killed a baby

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