Category: Uncategorized (Page 7 of 10)

Work started first thing this morning and there is already progress being made.  The skip that we had removed last week, has now re-appeared, but this time being paid for the builders. 

Scaffolding has started to be erected at the rear of the property, but it will be the end of the week before it is complete.  This is in preparation for removing the roof.  This should happen next week.

We also had a visit from the engineer from Northern Power Grid.  He is looking into the feasibility of providing us with 3 phase electricity for the ground source heat pump.  We would also like to re-route the existing single phase supply so that it is not attached the front of the property.  It would appear (at least from today’s conversation) that both requests are pretty straightforward.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

I an going to be down in London over the next few days, so it will be Friday before I get to see the house again.  I am really looking forward to seeing how much progress they manage to make for the rest of the week.

Day one and the scaffolding has already started to be erected. The roof comes off next week.

Day one and some real progress. Also lots and lots of rain. For once, the weather was great over the Bank holiday but then terrible during the week. Time for me to catch up on some paperwork indoors.

I know that this is going to sound strange, but one of the first things that struck me about older properties in Yorkshire was the wooden gutters, particularly on out buildings.  I hadn’t seen these before and had assumed that the guttering was made up using standard pieces of timber – it all looked very hand-made.

Now we have our own outbuildings, we have our own wooden guttering too!  I don’t know why, but it never occurred to me to look at it more closely until now.  This is mainly because I am not that convinced by the plastic guttering that we have put on the re-roofed outbuilding. Maybe, it will be more temporary than I expected! Still, it will keep the rain away from the base of the wall, but it doesn’t add much to the look of the property.

The existing wooden guttering is made from a single piece of timber that has had the water channel machined out.  A hole is then cut into the base of the gutter for the down pipe, this is achieved using a lead “top hat” – think of a top hat upside down where the water flows out of the top (or rather bottom) of the hat.  This “top hat” is inserted through a hole in the gutter and into the top of a drain pipe (made of a material of your choice).

Bizarrely, I saw the lead top hats in the builders merchants last week and thought “oh, they look like the inserts for the wooden gutter, I wonder what they are really used for!”  It would appear that they really are for wooden gutters after all.  A quick investigation online would appear to show that there are a number of local suppliers of both wooden gutters and lead top hats.  More investigation needed.

Both the “top hat” and the end plate are made from lead. I have no idea how long these have been up, but I would guess at 50 plus years. Apparently, the wood lasts longer if you do not paint it – this lets the wood breathe and does not trap the moisture inside the wood.

The end plate is cut out of lead and nailed on. The “top hat” is also made of lead and drops into a hole that has been cut in the bottom of the gutter. The bottom of the top hat is then dropped into a downpipe.

A view along the top of the gutter. The water channel has been machined into a solid piece of timber. The end plate is made of lead and nailed on.

Well, I have decided to take a year off work starting from 30th April 2013.  This will give me time to concentrate on the renovation.  The plan is that I will pick up the project management instead of having to pay someone else to do it.

It is a big decision.  I am very grateful to CSC for giving me the sabbatical.  The decision to take the time off is made a lot easier as I know that my team will be in safe hands (thanks Brian).  But for me, this is  the once in a lifetime opportunity to get involved with something that I have always wanted to do.  It is never easy to leave something that has been such a big part of my life for the last couple of years, but I feel that it is something that I need to do.

So I have just 3 weeks left before I take off for the year.  There is a lot to tidy up at work before I go.  However, with the work progressing well with the building regulation details.  There are a lot of decisions to be made around a number of things – most notably: Windows (plastic or wood), underfloor heating (type and supplier), ground source heat pump (type and supplier).  All of this takes time to research properly and it will be good to be able to spend more effort on this.

The current plan is that the tender for Phase 1 should be ready to go out around the 12th April.  By the time we have reviewed the responses and appointed a contractor, it is unlikely that the Phase 1 will start before mid May.

U values are an indication of the thermal conductivity of building materials.  You will need these if try to calculate the amount of energy required to heat a building to a certain level.  While these values are well understood for standard building materials, renovations can be more of a challenge.  In our case, the U values for the new build extension are relatively straightforward, however calculating the U values in the existing buildings is more of a challenge.  The walls are solid stone around 500mm thick and will be insulated using a new Gyproc system.  The roof is also going to be revamped in terms of insulation (at the moment, there isn’t even roofing felt under the stone slates).  Even so the figures below show a significant performance difference between the new and the old parts of the building.

U values for the new build: