Reply With QuoteWow big job you are undertaking there for what is a fabulous looking home. I'm sure it will new stunning when finished - please keep us posted :-)
Great thread abd great house, keep the updates coming. Doing a large build soon myself so keen to get some tips from this.
Wow big job you are undertaking there for what is a fabulous looking home. I'm sure it will new stunning when finished - please keep us posted :-)
1U is exactly 1 3/4". Imperial system, innit.Originally Posted by Plug
@JC180 , just noticed this thread and it looks like a great project.
You are probably well aware, but just in case you're not, you can save a lot of money from VAT for renovations of properties that have been empty for two or more years, in fact you only have to pay 5%. If you can prove 10 years empty then I believe it is 0%. This saved us a load of money on our renovation for sure! If you didn't know, feel free to send me a cheque for half the difference ;-)
https://www.west-dunbarton.gov.uk/me..._empty_vat.pdf
"I'm a Chartered Surveyor so know what needs doing and how to do it but the point of this post is to establish of you can shed any light on the things I may overlook like hard wired smoke detectors, cat 6 cabling, security and other items that would be worth doing/installing at this juncture".
You haven't overlooked them because you've mentioned them!.
Nice house.
Last edited by P9CLY; 22nd June 2016 at 10:04.
I didn't know that but that is useful- thank you!
Some 25 years ago I bought a tiny cottage in the Isle of Man which I gutted back to its four walls (which were themselves extensively repaired and rebuilt and one of them underpinned) before building a substantial house which enveloped and dwarfed the original cottage. I was forced to do it that way by the planners who wouldn't let me fully demolish the original building and of course because the work constituted "extension" and "refurbishment" it didn't qualify for the VAT refund for a new build, which it pretty much was (the IoM is treated as a common territory with the UK for VAT purposes). An expensive lesson.
What a lovely house and a great project. Please keep updating the thread, it's fascinating.
I finished our dream home last year - moved in on Christmas Eve. 1930's detached on the golf course with a lovely sea view. Nowhere near the grandeur of your abode, but we had a similar ethos of doing it right and using quality materials. Mind you I did 90+ % of it myself as we were too broke for labour!
Great job :)
Looks incredible. Following this thread!
great job, I love a 'no holds barred' doing up thread, suscribed
Thank you very much indeed, I am aware and my contractor and various others are charging a 5% VAT rate which is saving me a packet. The rest of the purchases are going through a company acting as contractor, recovering the 20% VAT and charging me back at 5%, happy days!
I may "think" I know everything (those that know me will chuckle at this) but I'm fully aware that when it comes to something I have never done before, advice from those that have is invaluable.
Thanks for all your kind comments, and for the very kind PM I got with some very valuable advice!
I'm on site at least 3 times a day, and I delight when good progress is made. It's frustrating when people let you down and annoying when the workmanship isn't up to scratch but I have for the most part a very decent set of subcontractors and I will make them redo things that aren't 100% right and I'm fussy and don't miss much, a nightmare for a sloppy worker in other words!
So far he following has been carried out : -
1) Land drains installed front and rear, myriad drainage repairs, 11 patch lines, one excavation etc, all the top soil scraped from the sodden and mossy lawns and removed from site.
2) Plumbing in an advanced stage; 2x 30kw worcester regular boilers, external Grundfos Pump and Expansion vessel, bypass valve, magnetic filter etc. One huge OSO commercial spec 1" outlet unvented cylinder (rated to 16 bar!) with a secondary return. Water is supplied by a 1275l potable tank in a building to the rear of the garage which fills on a float valve, pumped by a Grundfoss JP5 through 32mm of copper to both hot and cold circuits in the house through the OSO cylinder. Loads of gate valves and gorgeous pipework makes the plant room a delight, shame much of it will be lagged. Radiators on, old pipework flushes, underfloor manifold installed, floors currently being lifted and insulated to run the plastic pipe over and back to the manifold, not long now hopefully until this is up and running. Boiler controls, radiators and under floor heating is controlled by a Honeywell Evo Home system with a touchscreen and iphone control with every radiator capable of being controlled as an individual zone.
3) Probably 8 or 9 trees cut down, these were too close to the house or crowding the gardens heavily (2 needed Planning Permission) a weeks worth of gardening to trim overgrowth and cut out overgrown shrubs and trees in the rockery and growing all over the house.
4) The entire side of the drive has been dug away and levelled, with MOT1 wacked down over it until it can be kerbed and given a basecoat of tarmac.
5) Where the overgrown laurel and rhododendron has been cut down from the side of the drive, I have planted 20 mature Yew trees.
6) Plastic pipes laid under the widened drive area to take virgin and power and communicate with the gates.
7) Ordered Residence 9 Windows the the rear non sliding in white woodgrain and Bygone Symphony for all the sliding sash windows
8) Ordered a 5.5m x 2.25 Hormann LPU 40 sectional door (with a 10 week lead time!!) as I will be removing the central column in the garage (and installing a bloody great big 6m lintel)
9) Signed a contract for all the roofworks, moss clearance, new valleys, new timber and lead capping for the dormers, new Res9 windows for the dormers etc. New aluminium seamless gutters all round. Top of the Apex currently has a 600mmx600mm perspex rooflight which brings through a surprising amount of light, notwithstanding, the top of the roof drains internally (which is crap) so I'm building it up to form an opening for a new triple glazed 3m x 1m roof light which will be flashed and drain straight over the ridge.
10) Planning gone in for a new games room and gym to the rear of the garage, 11m x 6m narrowing to 4.5m. This will be where laurel used to be and will not impact on the garden.
11) Kitchen design at an advanced stage, considering Siematic but looking at other options too.
12) Bathrooms, pretty much know what we're having and where we're getting it from. V&B sanitory wear and cabinets, Keuko Mirrors, Hans Grohe taps and showers (direct from Germany), one Mira Platinum shower, I'm not paying for fancy shower cubicles, I will buy a nice flush enamel tray (or walk in former) and use u trims and supports for glass I will get from a local merchant etc.
13) I will be having a big comms box in the garage on the wall houseing all the racks of POE switches, broadband routers, patch panels etc. I will be running Cat6 cabling everywhere for HDMI, CCTV, Intercom systems etc. as well as multiple coax feeds. I was going to pay £2k for a nice HD matrix and use infrared receivers to control the sky boxes but with Sky Q now, I'm not sure the expense and hassle is necessary.
14) Carpets, no bloody clue, I want good quality but it's mental (and I mean mental) money, need to find a good compromise.
15) Lighting, no fancy controls but I might get someone in to design a scheme. Variations of LED everywhere.
16) Decor, some polished plaster perhaps lots of wallpaper, I'll mostly leave this to the missus and her friends.
17) Bedroom furniture, the master suite has been designed largely, I have 3 firms quoting and have two, waiting on the third. One is a local firm, two are national firms. The local firm will be cheaper and more flexible, the national firms have far better workshops an spray boots and the level of finish will likely be better.
18) Landscaping, I have the fellow, he's already done a bit, but I have 7 different projects (front drive, front terrace, front garden paths and water feature, rear lawn, kids play area, rear terrace etc) and will be doing them as and when he has the time and I have the money! Yorkstone is down everywhere, 50-70mm uncalibrated but is rough and I might trade it all in for sawn or honed.
19) There's loads more, I will update as and when.
Progress today :-
More piping, actuators and honeywell controller
Everything sleeved through the wall under the floor, note the gaffer tape to proven plaster/copper corrosion
Master Bedroom Stripped
Garden getting full...
So called in my favourite chap who swears he's not a p1key, here he is hammering a 90kw cast iron burner that weighs 250KG!! He broke it up in to 6 sections that each needed 2 men to shift.
Wall between the toilet and bathroom coming down
Funny way of building a non structural internal wall....
Last edited by JC180; 22nd June 2016 at 21:59.
Fascinating thread. And what a beautiful home you will end up with - well done!
Perhaps some, ahem, superior sound-proofing was required by a previous owner.Funny way of building a non structural internal wall....
I realise that you've probably gone past the point of no return but I'd have put the IT hardware in the utility room. There will come a time when the broadband modem or some such other piece of kit will need re-booting (I know they're fairly resilient black boxes but even so) and sod's law says that this will be in the middle of a good film during a cloudburst or some such other freak weather phenomena; do you really want to traipse out to the garage to sort it out? As a minimum you might consider putting a WiFi plug on the router so that you might be able to sort it out from the couch.
I'd also make a diary note to take those floor plans down from the thread at some stage given they have CCTV info etc on them.
Last edited by Carlton-Browne; 23rd June 2016 at 10:23.
Great looking house!
Probably too late now but I'd echo the comment earlier for anyone doing something like this, get conduit+drawstrings installed or cable runs build in while you've got the place being worked on. Not possible everywhere or worthwhile (chasing + plastering is not that hard after all), but a few runs between floors, to the outbuildings or end-to-end within floors are likely to come in very handy in future.
Because WiFi speed, bandwidth, and distance have an inverse relationship with one another, making it difficult to get top performance in many areas of a home.
Because CAT6 is not just used for networking. For example, its really popular as a platform for HDMI video transmission.
Because even fast WiFi has substantial latency, which can be a problem for some users (especially for gaming).
Because WiFi is not as easily secured as a physical Ethernet connection.
Because POE devices need a wire.
Because of the wonderful things it does.
Good advice, I'll go with the remote plug as I really want everything in a single cabinet in the garage. The CCTV info is for internal areas and door entry, I have not put up the myriad other cameras and sensors being installed.
I will actually be putting a conduit and drawsting from the garage straight to the loft (which has access above every room to the 1st floor) and one from the garage straight under the floor (which has access below every ground floor room)
I would echo this. Nothing like copper for speed and reliability.
Some progress to update with: -
Master suite and bathrooms knocked through to create the new layout.
Glad I've got that trussed girder x4 to support the hip so the blockwork wall could come straight out
Some new doorways being created
The plumber has fitted the 1275 litre storage tank in the potting shed behind the garage and is wrapping it in its new blanket.
Connected to the JP5 pump by 54mm copper pipe!
Thats the cold feed
And drain off
Newly formed opening at the very top of the roof with upstand ready to received its new 3m x 1m triple glazed rooflight on Thursday
And looking down in to the lightwell that is directly above the reclaimed skylight over the landing
Had a play on designing the garden on the train last week, this is what I came up with
Last edited by JC180; 28th June 2016 at 21:02.
Looking good Jacob... Why are you in?
Sorry, I don't follow?
h
does he perhaps mean....when are you in.
Cheers for that, ideally for October possibly a little later but hopefully not by much.
I'll put my house on the market soon for completion later in the year.
Looks lovely on the garden plan. It's nice to have a front garden area that is still secluded from the street. Love it :)
wonderful thread , great progress and a wonderful house
love it :)
Frankly the only reason we could justify a house this grand, it simply cannot be seen from the street with 30ft high Rhododendrons and other trees along the front boundary.
I'd be somewhat embarrassed to be living in this if it was in your face.
This is the boundary,
The house ticks every box (except the price) and it will be a dream to live in it compared to what we're in now. It hasn't really all sunk in yet but as the project moves forward it will start to dawn on me!
Last edited by JC180; 29th June 2016 at 00:53.
I would certainly fit CAT6 cabling if you haven't decided on it yet. Wifi can be patchy depending on the building and is a long way from being as fast as the gigabit speed of cables. Always makes me chuckle at people who pay for a 200Mb cable internet connection and then access it via Wi-Fi.
At the very least you should have a Cat6 point to your media centres (living room/cinema room/kitchen) for TV streaming and to the office for proper internet access/downloads. After that its optional but if it was me I'd put one in every room - that way you can put Wireless Access Points around the house wherever they're needed for coverage without worrying about having overlapping zones. The earlier suggestion of including USB charging points in the power socket positions is good too.
Oops... Exactly what I meant!!!
Check out Fibaro home intelligence centres,
CAT6 = you can get up to 10GB ethernet quite more affordably day by day - then you can break out in wireless where you need to
plus all the ports can be phone/HDMI/internet/home domotics.... multi purpose
Never mind where the tech equipment is these days remote management (even remote power on an off) is possible from the sofa - (plus you want it somewhere where the head it generates can be useful)
with all those soldered joints for the copper pipes I just hope you have easy access panels to them in the future... (I had 3 leak on me in the same year once... )
splendid house - (will be a home when you move in...) seems we have a venue for the next TZ-UK GTG in that area...
Last edited by Xantiagib; 29th June 2016 at 14:16.
Thanks for all the kind comments and feedback, my plumber insists he has never has a soldier blow, ever. He is the best plumber I have ever come across for his attitude, thoroughness and attention to detail, I don't doubt him and most if not all of the new pipes are readily accessible.
Works have been proceeding apace, often with 5 or so subcontractors on the go at any one time, here is what has happened in the last few weeks: -
2 new doorways created from the morning room, one to the hall and one to the playroom
Store cupboard knocked out of the utility room
Lightwell in roofspace framed out to accept new skylight dimensions
Opening created from kitchen to utility room with double width on one side for pocket door frame
Knocked through
Former doorway to lounge from morning room bricked up and widened to receive new 6ft marine fish tank located between lounge and morning room
Skylight turned up! All 3m x 1m of it, triple glazed 50mm in total.
Squeaky bum time, craning it up three stories to the ridge level of the roof
And in situ
New electric velux installed over what is to be the dressing room
Gives out a surprising amount of light!
Doing a belt and braces job of the skylight waterproofing, first up is fibreglass then it will be completely dressed in lead.
New code 7 lead cap sheet to dormers
New code 4 valleys
UFH pipes gone down in the morning room
Floor taken up and enabling works for UFH in dining room
Dining room being piped up
Master bedroom suite layout changes being made showing new stud wall from bedroom to dressing room
Looking back from dressing room/en-suite to master bedroom
Light well centred over dressing room
Beds & Dressing table "marked out" using scrap timber and builders radio to show circulation space from bedroom door
Showing arched window from dressing room to master bedroom
Going CAT6 CRAZY! 3km of cabling here...
Frontal view, she's coming along OK!
Huge project seems like your enjoying it though!
I have used a liberal amount of skylights and Velux windows that I put in my house. They are worth their wait in gold in the winter.
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
How did I miss this Jacob?! I thought you'd been quiet on the watch front, but this is fantastic to see such a great reason why!! Really happy for you guys, it looks genuinely amazing!!
Layout drawings and locations of Electrical and Audio stuff.
Looking great, thats what I like to see enough network cables to shake a big stick at
^ How do you get into bedroom (157)?
:)
Architect error, 155 & 157 is one room.
Are you keeping the dinging and kitchen seperate? It's not generally the convention in house design in our days... I knocked ours though, but, I know others prefer the seperation...
Ben
lovely house and fantastic work but you have to walk through a wardrobe room to get to rooms 157/158, seems a bit odd, maybe it looks better in the flesh as we know drawings dont do real life much justice
Thanks Soundood. The architect messed this section up, 156 is more like a small corridor leading to bedrooms 5 & 6 which will contain a laundery and bedding storage cupboard etc.
155 & 157 are one room. 11ft wide x 20ft deep. It was originally built as one 18ft x 20ft room and they decided a 6th bedroom would be preferred!
Fantastic house and thread. It's a shame you didn't get a TV company to make a programme about the renovation, although they be happy if things went wrong. I also wish I was a chartered surveyor :-)
Looks superb, love this sort of thing.
Have renovated 4 properties in my time, but none to this scale, hope the stress levels aren't too high.
Good luck with the rest of the project 😀👍🏻
Thanks again for all the kind comment and words of advice.
I am at something of a crossroads at the moment. So after having miles of Cat6 HDMI, speaker and Coax cable installed, it is time for me to decide what to do with it all.
I have bought the Honeywell Evohome system to control my heating, hot water and UFH and this works via a touchscreen, app or web browser.
I have also considering an IP door entry system and IP cameras all around the house.
My garage door will have a LAN gateway with app status and control, my electric gates will also likely have this.
Lighting, I would like some from of basic wireless control, I don't need a full Lutron Homeworks system but some form or switching and dimming remotely would be useful.
Lastly, music, I have considered a number of options, Systemline's S7 seems to tick all the boxes bar wireless streaming directly from the phone. I could save money and go or their E100 product but I'm not sure if this would be a false economy in the long run.
Rather than have multiple apps and control devices, is there one app that would control all? I could integrate ipad Mini's in to the wall and run all the apps separately as required but it would naturally be better and more efficient if it could all be integrated.
I did have a demo from an Italian company called Comelit who would supply door entry, CCTV, audio distribution and lighting control for a competitive price but my concern is that I'm tying myself in to a closed protocol and hardware that is specific to one company. I'm a big fan of open protocol connectivity and IP flexibility that Cat 6 cabling facilitates. The lighting side would also need a pair of cables chasing to each light switch and as I'm not rewiring, this will be a big deal.
Fibaro is an option, but I don't believe the Honeywell system will not be compatible and the music will always need its own app anyway... so just for lighting, door entry and alarm? There doesn't seem to be a lot of information around about fibaro and Z-wave devices compatibility etc. I may give the company a call but wondered if anyone here has any experience or advice.
You might consider Doorbird for your door stations. They, Siedle, and Holovision are the most widely compatible devices, but Doorbird seems to be the one that is adding more compatibility at a greater rate.
https://www.doorbird.com/
Guess what my job title is?
Senior global product manager for Eco systems and connected home residential - I work for Honeywell!!!
I'm only 2 weeks into the new job, but, we are looking at hosting multiple different propositions on to the App/ system including locks etc.... Basically through API intigration... You can have integrated entry systems too where you buzz a parcel delivery man in through video streaming on your lock
It won't happen immediately, but, the whole idea is to get lots of different 3rd party stuff integrated into the whole Eco system, part of my job is to find tech start ups to partner with and get their cool kit/ software to work with our stuff
Drop me a PM with your specific questions and I wil, try and get them aswered from someone who has more than 2 weeks knowledge!
I was over in New York last week (work) and managed to nick all the very latest lyric kit off a colleague... Door/ window sensors, PIR's and the latest thermostat...
There are two people over on Pistonheads that may be able to help you:
Home entertainment & control:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/p...memberId=27964
http://www.htcuk.net/
Lighting
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/p...memberId=59404
I've not dealt with either but many on PH have & they seem well regarded.
Just one comment on the CAT6 distribution: the plan seems to indicate dual CAT6 points everywhere but you might want to consider doubling up at the TV positions in case you go for something link HDbaseT distribution.
I'm on Pistonheads too and here! I run an automation company based out of Manchester and London. Happy to help or give advice - where abouts in the country are you OP?
I'd be looking at Savant probably to do what you want. We also install Crestron but it is quite pricey (although hugely flexible and powerful).
Drop me a line if it would help.
Good work. Its worth sweating over the detail and getting it right first time.
Looks like a great project
Thanks to Dave for his home automation advice, and thanks to Wolfie for his offer, I'm yet to message him though but will do once Evohome is up and running.
Things have been chivied along and a progress update as usual but a number of photographs in chronological order below: -
Lightwell over dressing room boarded out
Some further timber rot found
And sorted
Lightwell being boarded out
Slowly slowly the roof is being overhauled, ridge tiles re-bedded
Pocket door and wall hung WC frame installed in En-suite
My New Prunus Cerasifera Nigra is doing well I'm pleased to report!
I had to call the council to kill off this massive wasp's nest, a can of foam had no effect!
New lead cheeks for dormers
Chasing in my office/watching room for the media plates
Door intercom cable points
Dressing room
Some nice lead detailing on the roof
A massive piece of steel arrived for the garage, galvanised with a flange for the soldier course
Bought a new runabout for the fleet, fits nicely on the drive!
Polyfloor overlay boards going down for UFH in the utility room, the only concrete floor in the house.
Dining room all piped up
Manifold under pressure test
Going
Going
Gone, with the new steel in situ
And with the brickwork rebuilt
Garage door turned up!
And with the garage door installed
Some final pics of the roof having been finished and some of the detailing
Biscuit mix screed down in the morning room
Dining room screeded
New window to the utility room
Bedroom to dressing room boarded
Structural base for the fish tank built
The new rooflight kicks out some serious lumens!
Screed dried in morning room ready for flooring
And the flooring going down, this is Hardie Floor 22mm, a top line product that I was reluctant to shell out for but I'm glad I did as I loath chipboard and this feels like concrete underfoot, is impervious to moisture, is creak free and has far faster warm up times and heat retention properties than timber
Light well timber all glossed white for maximum light transmission
Soldier course and cill built for new utility room window
My new toy waiting to be installed
Got a door stripped to see the outcome, not bad, still a couple of hours of prep...
Hardie Floor all down nicely
Kitchen shopping, my wife and I can never agree...
Decorators on to the roofline timberwork
New dormer windows turned up
And fitted, it looks the bomb!
The others waiting to fitted at a later date (scaffold needs to come down and brickwork acid cleaned)
Fish tank delivered today, woohoo
I think I'm going to make a bit of a feature of this wall to frame the fish tank, maybe rustic wooden planks, or slate...
Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed, more updates to follow.
I'm so envious! Looking fantastic .
looking superb
God I feel like a pauper looking at these photos. The shot up the stairs at the circular light is very impressive.
[/QUOTE]
Had a play on designing the garden on the train last week, this is what I came up with
Bit late to the party but, having recently had a similar project on the go, albeit an old listed property, I would have liked to have planned the hard landscaping a bit better. Power and water supplies dropped in now to the right areas will save a lot of grief later. I ended up trenching the lawn several times for power cables and have no outside tap to the front of the house, annoyingly. I've added lighting to the building and some trees, all on one circuit with a timer, and it works very well. Dropping a fused armoured cable outside to be picked up at a later date saved a lot of aggravation.
Very impressed with your careful research on all your work so far. Congrats.
Posting Permissions
