Boiler Update or Boiler Re-Visited

OK. After a bit more research it appears that I will need a combi boiler rated between 24Kw and 30Kw.

If you are all sitting comfortably at the back I will try and explain why size matters.

One of the key differences between the two is that the higher rated units have a higher water flow which is measured in litres per minute. This is the number of litres of water per minute that the boiler can heat to 35 degrees centigrade (I didn’t decide on this temperature, presumably some industry body did). Most boilers are rated between 9 and 12 litres per minute.

This does not make as much difference when you are trying to heat the house, a lower rated unit will just take longer, but clearly matters a lot if you are trying to run lots of things requiring hot water at the same time like a washing machine, a dishwasher, a shower and a bath. Many units such as washing machines can work solely on a cold feed these days so they don’t necessary have any impact on the boiler at all.

Buying a unit that is bigger than you need is a waste of money to buy and to run but getting one too small is a big mistake. To try and work out which size I need I e-mailed a boiler company, a specialist supplier and filled in one questionnaire on the internet and described the basic layout of the house. The only constant in their replies was the lack of consistency. Basically it appears that either will do the job.

There is no end to the number of companies out there offering boilers over the internet at what seem to me to be competitive prices. One of them even trades via eBay (at very competitve prices) as well as through some specialist outlets in Kent.

The problem with boilers is that for amateurs like me I have never heard of most manufacturers. I have never driven cars from most of the manufacturers in the world but I have probably heard of them and may even have an opinion about their quality. It is the same with consumer electronics. With boilers, apart from Glow-Worm and Potterton, I don’t think I have heard of any of them and most people don’t bother to write reviews about what a great boiler they have just bought. Understandable really; they will have better things to do with their lives.

Anyway to get to the point a new boiler will cost somewhere between £500 and £750 pounds. I will probably get a 30Kw unit to be sure. Now all I have to decide is which of these manufacturers that I have never heard of is the right one. Alpha, Ariston, Baxi, Buderus, Chaffoteaux, Ferroli, Glow-Worm, Ideal, Keston, Potterton, Vaillant, Viessmann, Vokera and Worcester with apologies for any I have missed.

UPDATE : Thank you to Tim who has clarified the point about temperature in his comment on the earlier post.

Boilers

I have a problem with finding out more about boilers and what size I need for the house.

Ordinarily I know the correct thing to do is to get a registered Corgi plumber in to quote for the whole of the central heating system and to supply and fit a boiler within that price. This is what I have done and whilst I can get another more competitive quote the first proposal was too high.

Subsequently I approached a friend of ours who is currently on a plumbing course if he would like to do the work at the house (apart from the bit connecting to the gas supply of course). He is up for this as it is difficult to practice when you are training and getting a house to do from top to bottom is excellent experience. Whilst he is comfortable with every aspect of laying the pipes etc he is not sure about how to calculate what size boiler is required and nor am I.

I have scoured the web for sites that help to calculate it but have not been very successful. After a lot of messing around I think I need a 24Kw Combination Condensing Boiler for a house with 6 radiators, one shower, one bath and three sinks. It will be well insulated with double glazing (the house that is not the boiler!).

I have no idea if this is appropriate and will need to continue my research.

Obviously our friend will be checking with his tutors on his course but I prefer to try and understand these things rather than just taking people’s word for it. It would be an expensive error if we bought the wrong one.

Update

There hasn't been much to report since we completed. The electricians have made the electrics safe and I am waiting another quote from a plumber. I am hopeful that the first job of stripping everything out of the house will start later this week.

In the meantime I have been playing around with this blog software and after many many attempts I have got an auto updating spreadsheet over on the right hand side that will give updates on the how much has been spent so far. Basically as I update my master spreadsheet with new expenditure this will be updated as well. The only thing it doesn't include is the interest payments on the money. I might add that at a later date.

UPDATE: I have just realised that some people will be unable to see the figures on the right. I will see if I can fix that.

FURTHER UPDATE : It seems that the link to the figures causes some PC's to crash so I have removed it. I'll have to re-think that bit.

Exchange and Completion

....and then suddenly, with what appeared in the end to be unseemly haste we exchange and complete simultaneously and the property is ours. This blog will defiantly (I meant to say definitely but my attempt at spelling it was so bad Microsoft changed it for me and made no apology for the split infinitive) be hanging around in cyberspace for a little while longer and hopefully, after a short period and much hard work, will result in a sale for profit or a successful let.

Mrs APD picked up the keys this afternoon but it is too dark to go and take a look now as there is no working electricity. The electricians are going round on Friday morning to lash up (my words not theirs) something temporary so work can commence.

Thank you for all of your comments with the planning. I hope there will be as much help with the building work.

Insurance Update

The quote from the broker was as follows.

• £254.00 for 3 months
• £401.00 for 6 months
• £527.00 for 12 months

It is more expensive than Direct Line but there again, what is the point of having insurance if they will deny a claim because you weren't upfront in the first place.

On balance we have decided to go with the specialist renovation cover for 6 months. It is £401.00 we had not budgeted for but we will learn for next time.

The solicitor has been told we have a policy in place so it is over to them.

Insurance

It appears we are going to exchange imminently (today is a possibility) so getting some insurance seems like a good idea. This turns out to not be quite as simple as I thought and is something we should have considered earlier.

The first port of call was Direct Line. They were very good but their policies don’t cover you for very much if a house is going to be empty for more than 60 days. Effectively cover for vandalism and similar events ceases but you are still covered for fire which is probably the main risk.

After this I tried one of the comparison sites and was as disappointed with it as I was the last time I used one for motor insurance. I types in all of my details as well as all the details of the house (and a whole lot more besides) whereon it went off and obtained quotes (or tried to) from all of these different insurance companies all of which declined to quote! I wish I had kept the email with the reasons so I could reproduce it here but I deleted it in frustration. The excuses basically fell into three categories.

1. xxx company cannot be reached at this time.
2. yyy company has declined to quote as the property will not be inhabited
3. zzz company has declined to quote because of the construction of the roof (it is concrete)

What a waste of time!

We will probably go with the Direct Line quote and risk the limitations on the policy after 60 days but Mrs Decorem (or Mrs APD as she recently described herself) contacted three local insurance brokers one of whom will be obtaining a quote for some special renovation insurance. This is shorter term cover (you can name the period) and it will be interesting to see how this compare to Direct Line.

I don't think I have heard insurance mentioned on property programs on TV. Clearly it is not glamorous enough for them to bother about.

Final(ish) Drawings

OK. Subject to building control, prices, problems, complications and me just changing my mind here are the final set of before and after plans for both floors.

Whilst I am not going to have a main contractor as such, there is one person who will do most of this work. These are the plans I will send to him to get more estimates and quotations.



Click on the picture for a larger image.

Nearly There

We have just signed all of the paperwork for the solicitor which I will get back to them tomorrow morning. The deposit money has been transferred over and, all being well, we will exchange sometime this week and complete next week.

There is no reason for any particular delays now as the vendor has probate.

All being well we should be done by 31st October. Halloween. I told you this was all a bit scary.

Kitchens and Cloakrooms

Here are my two initial plans for the kitchen. One still incorporating a downstairs cloakroom and one not.

Irrespective of what building control have to say I quite like the idea of an extra toilet and, as the room space without it would be long and thin, I think it works quite well. There will obviously be a sink in the cloakroom but my copy of Visio didn’t have one small enough. The washing machine is in the corner of the toilet. I have seen this done before and it seems a good use of space and a I don't think people object to the principle of a washing machine (with a tumble drier above if required) in the cloakroom.

The cupboards on the left of the kitchen are wall level units on the floor with a cut back worktop on top. I have seen this done before and it also works quite well.

With a cloakroom



Without




The windows are in different places as I am expecting to move them around a bit to make the kitchen fit.

As before any comments (especially critical ones) are very welcome.

More Bathroom Thoughts

Following Tim’s comment he sent me a private email which informed me he had left some alternative plans under the mat outside his front door. This is clearly the one of the benefits of knowing who is reading your blog!

Anyway at 6:15 this morning I duly collected said plans from under the mat, scanned them in and reproduce them below.


This is an interesting idea and not one I had considered before. There are a couple of difficulties with it as I see it. One of them, as Tim acknowledges, is the waste route. The toilet close to the outside wall wouldn’t cause a problem but getting the pipe work from the toilet attached to the front bedroom would cause some difficulties. There is no obvious route through the other bathroom; in addition there needs to be a “drop” from the toilet to the waste otherwise the contents of the pipe may just sit there. Clearly this is best avoided!!!! I don’t usually like multiple exclamation marks but I think they are probably justified in this case.

A further consideration is that the plan involves building out slightly over the stairs (whilst maintaining headroom for the stairs below). I like this idea and it makes sense but it would add considerable expense to the project. It would also mean that the house does not have a bath unless I revert to having one downstairs. Does not having a bath matter if you have two showers?

Who is likely to rent this house? If it is two individuals on a house share I think Tim’s plan is a good one and there is a key benefit in having two en-suite rooms and no bath. If a family, I think a bath becomes more important. On balance I think that the house is more likely to be purchased / rented by a couple or young family so perhaps the cheaper option where the bath is maintained is the best.

It does go to show what can be achieved with some thought and a little time. When I first saw the house I was looking to put a simple cloakroom upstairs vented by a fan and soil pipe that had to run through the house.

Update

I got all of the documents from the solicitor yesterday. I am sure that the amount of paperwork involved in buying a house has increased over the years whilst the government is pushing everyone towards e-conveyancing.

I suspect we are close to exchanging now. Completion in early November? Let’s hope so. I continue to be nervous with all the bad news stories around every day but I still think we are buying this house at the right price to give us a return when the work is done.

This blog may be able to move onto the building phase soon.

Initial Specification

Whilst it is still my intention to project manage the work myself I am going to get a quote from a main contractor for comparative purposes.

In any event I am going to need a specification of work required so here is my first version of it. It is not particularly detailed in as much as it does not specifiy where light switches should go and what radiators to use but it is a start.

I am sure I will have missed out some major items but you've got to start somewhere.

Outside

1. Remove / repair / replace all damaged render from left flank wall as required.
2. Re-point right flank wall as required.
3. Bond “falling” bricks above the front door.
4. Clear front and back garden.
5. Paint all masonry and front door.

Inside

1. Remove current kitchen, bathroom, fitted wardrobes and cupboards, flooring (not floorboards), electrical fittings and heating / plumbing.
2. Remove all plaster from front and back rooms to ceiling
3. Remove plaster as required to all other rooms including back bedroom ceiling.
4. Repair / replace downstairs joists as required and ensure that they are not touching outside walls.
5. Repair current stair treads as required.
6. Install airbricks to provide adequate under floor ventilation.
7. Install chemical DPC to outside wall in two reception rooms.
8. Treat all wood for worm etc.
9. Install new window with lintel to new upstairs bathroom.
10. Install studwork for new upstairs bathroom and hall.
11. Install new soil pipe and waste to upstairs bathroom and connect to main drain.
12. Re-wire house including new fuse box.
13. Install new boiler and heating system.
14. Brick up windows no longer required.
15. Plaster all rooms as required.
16. Replace / repair skirting board as required.
17. Replace all windows as specified.
18. Install and fit new kitchen
19. Install and fit new upstairs bathroom
20. Sand downstairs floors if possible.
21. Re-glaze existing internal doors and re-hang.
22. Line walls if required.
23. Install insulation into the loft.
24. Paint and decorate all rooms
25. Tile kitchen and bathroom walls and floors as required.
26. Carpet stairs and bedrooms.
27. Fit laminate flooring if sanding downstairs floors is not possible.

If anyone can think of items I have doubtless forgotten please let me know.

Bathroom Version II

I have been back to the house and measured properly. I hadn’t realised quite how difficult it is to do this accurately. It is too easy to assume that walls are at right angles to each other etc and invariably they aren’t.

Anyway here is the slightly revised upstairs plan. Thank you to APD Observer for your thoughts on the placement of the sink. We had pretty much come to same conclusion but it is good to hear it from someone else. The sink and toilet could be swapped but I think I’ll leave that decision until we start the work. As we are not really building over the stairs (only using a cupboard that is already there) and as the waste will go straight out the side wall here should be no need to raise the floor level whatever option we take.

All the windows, doors and chimney breasts have been added to the drawing along with an indication of where wardrobes can go.

Planning Update

I have just found out I don’t need planning permission to put an obscured glass window in the side of the house provided that any opening is more than 1.7m from the ground. I do need to get building control approval for the work but this is more to check that it is done properly (putting in a lintel etc) . There is some talk that if the window is to be more than 1m sq that may require additional permission. To avoid an issue I will ensure it isn’t!

I hvae been told about a new goverment website for planning rules. Here is the link. The interactive house is pretty good.

All I need to do now is see if I can speak to the neighbours and see how they feel about a new window and a new soil pipe. There isn’t much they can do about it but I always think it is nice to ask people’s permission when you can.

Off to do some more measuring later on today.

A New Bathroom

I have now used Visio (what a pain that piece of software is) to map out the upstairs of the house with a before and after plan. It looks like my attempts to get a full bathroom might work. I say might because I don't have good enough measurements of the house so I think I will try and get back round there this weekend to measure more accurately.

If this works it will give me much more scope downstairs and I will measure that at the same time to plan the new kitchen.


Here is the upstairs layout from my basic drawings from my last visit. The scale is 1:50 and the beds which I have put on the plans for reference purposes are 5ft beds.

I didn't specifically measure the doors so I have guessed at 800mm which is about average (I think). The windows are marked in the right place by the size is a guess as I didn't measure them.

The little cut out in the top room is where the hot water tank is at the moment but as we are going to put in a combi-boiler there will be no need for it any more.

Basically as it stands you go up the stairs and then turn left or right through a door to the bedrooms.



Here is the upstairs with my attempt to get a full bathroom in. I think this works. We have the added benefit of being able to put small vanity unit in the second bedroom.

The bath is 17000x700 which I believe is standard and there will be room to put a shower above it.

I need to go back and measure the house more accurately but I think that this looks pretty good. The plan doesn't show it but the right hand wall has small recesses for the old chimney breasts and these can be covered by wardrobes down this wall.

This works particularly well in the room where the bathroom has been placed as the door into the bedroom has been moved to the middle of the wall.

No news on exhange yet so I'll keep planning.

Plans and Ideas

Whilst having a downstairs bathroom is the not worst thing in the world I think that most people prefer, given the choice, not to have to go downstairs to answer a call of nature in the middle of the night. It always seems too far to go especially if the facilities in question are the other side of the kitchen and you have had a couple of quite ones the night before.

I think that it is worth the extra expenditure to put a small shower room upstairs which we did include in the original budget. This makes the larger of the bedrooms smaller but as the shower itself can fit over the stairs it doesn’t take up any new space and then we are really just trying to find space for a toilet and a sink. These two items don’t take up much space. The only challenge is where to run the waste. The quotation we have already received assumes that a new 4 inch soil pipe will be run inside the house (obviously boxed in) to join up with the drain at the back of the house. There is an inspection hatch just outside the flank wall which I hope we may be able to join. Thames Water charge a fee for giving permission (just over £200.00) and whilst it is difficult to work out I think the current drain run is partially in our land so we should be ok. This will make a difference both to the price for installing an upstairs bathroom and the aesthetics.

I am now wondering whether it is worth stealing a bit more space and putting in a bath with a shower over it. If we were to do this there would be little point in having a second bathroom downstairs. We could then consider removing the current downstairs bathroom and making the kitchen much bigger. The question is which option provides more value? Do two bedroom houses gain more value by having an upstairs and downstairs bathroom or by having a bigger kitchen? One idea might be to remove the downstairs bathroom and build a downstairs cloakroom. This sounds attractive but I am not convinced how much people like the idea of a toilet leading directly off a kitchen (or even if you are allowed to do so) but I am sure there must be a way of doing this well. The wall connecting the kitchen to the bathroom is not load bearing so taking it down wouldn’t be hard.

I think this idea deserves further consideration and some more time spent with a ruler and pencil. I’ll post the internal diagrams and proposal on this blog when I have done them.

Statistics

There seems to be a trend amongst bloggers where, at the end of the month, they report how many hundreds of thousands of visits they have had to their website and how many unique visitors and so on.

Never one to be out done, I am proud to be able to record 105 visits from 21 visitors in the two weeks to the end of September. Four of these visits have come through searches on Google.

I clearly have some way to go!

Onwards and Upwards

It appears that our revised offer has been accepted although the vendors were not particularly pleased with the turn of events. I can understand this but I guess they must have seen why we made the decision that we did. I don’t think any further reduction will be countenanced so let’s hope it is not necessary.

There will be further delays in obtaining probate (another two weeks apparently) so no surprise there. Exchange before the middle of October is unlikely but I can continue to refine our plans in the meantime.

There is life in the old blog yet!

Revised Offer

Following on from my entry for yesterday I spoke to the estate agent to put a revised offer based on our further calculations and estimates. It was an offer which gives us a 20% return on capital if our estimate on the sale value is correct but still gives a return, all be it much reduced, if house prices drop by another 10% over then next few months. I hope that doesn't happen.

I didn't enjoy reducing the offer as the person who will lose out (if the offer is accepted) is the person who 12 months ago would have had a nest egg of much greater proportions. It seems to me that this type of property has probably lost more value than other properties simply because of the difficulties of getting a mortgage on something requiring so much work.

So will the offer be accepted? I hope so but the vendors may not be able to accept such a reduction and will decline. Whilst I wouldn't blame them for doing so I am not sure that they will get many higher offers and it is unlikely the housing market will improve over the next few months. There was an alternative offer for the same value as ours a month ago but as we all know, so much has changed in a month.