Personal story:

I’d lived in the house 10 years before making major changes in 2013. During the 5 years before, I had had double glazing and composite front and back doors installed. The cavity wall in the 1970s bathroom extension had also been done then.
It was looking over the Eco house at Miles Platting and then visiting SuperHome owner Eric Fewster (see Hersey St, Salford) that made me determined get my house revamped. The work was carried out by Eric (www.ColdProof.co.uk) and Bob Hope of Expert Home Extensions (www.experthomeextensions.co.uk).

Motivations:

The house was cold, draughty and I also wanted the kitchen and (very cold bathroom) modernised. From PPHP modelling and temperature monitors, the average temperature in the house was around 15°C when only some rooms had been heated.

The whole place needed to be more comfortable.

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Property background:

Mid terrace, two bedroom property built 1888.

Key changes made:

The changes have been made on an equivalent of 60.5m².

The main changes made in the house are the following:

• External walls made airtight with membrane and insulated with fibreboard;
• Chimneys blocked and capped;
• Mechanical ventilation heat recovery unit installed;
• Ground floor insulated using Marmox and flooring replaced by laminate;
• New boiler.

See the “Measures” tab for further details.

Measures installed in detail:

• Solid wall insulation: wood fibre boards 80mm thick fixed direct to wall with concrete screws and plastic washers, u-value 0.36 W/m²K.

• Loft insulation: two thickness of 320mm and 300mm used with u-value of 0.127 W/m²K and 0.134 W/m²K.

• Floor insulation: setting up of 20mm of extruded polystyrene (Marmox) directly on tile grout of the solid floor, followed by underlay and 8mm laminate, average u-value 1.062 W/m² This solution was a compromise to avoid digging up the existing floor.

• Airtightness: vapour-permeable Intello membrane was used on insulated internal walls, and bathroom & bedroom ceilings. Tescon 1 tape was used to join sheets, and Orcon F was used to fix membranes to ground floor and party walls. Tescon Primer RP was used to prime solid surfaces prior to tapes or Orcon F being used. All service penetrations (e.g. wires, ducts, boiler flue, etc) had to be dealt with using grommets or tapes.

• Mechanical ventilation heat recovery system: Brink Renovent Sky 300 unit installed on bathroom ceiling and boxed out: 85% effective dry heat recovery rate (as per Passivhaus test criteria); Frost pre-heater installed on intake duct; 180mm insulated ductwork connects the unit to external wall cowls. Condensate is connected to sink waste, with Hepworth valve installed as trap.

• Condensing boiler: replaced old boiler with Remeha Avanta Plus Exclusive 28C condensing boiler.

• Low energy lighting throughout.

• New water devices: Toilet replaced by dual flush 6l/4l model; Installation of a Hansrohe Croma 100 Vario/Ecostat shower.

For further information on works carried out, see the case study here.

Benefits of work carried out:

Airtightness strategies reduced air changes per hour from 17.45 to 1.64 (air volume of house per hour). This made for much more controllable heating and, combined with the other alterations, reduced gas consumption by 29% whilst at the same time enabling a higher house temperature throughout. The average temperature of house is around 20°C rather than 15°C before the refurbishment.

Favourite feature:

Hard to choose but the shower very quickly reaches the ideal temperature and is a joy to use.

Contact this homeowner