Rear of Property
 Removing the render on the back of the kitchen extension wall revealed a nasty surprise. The brick work is structural unsound and the wall will therefore need to be partially rebuilt and rendered ready for the external insulation to be fitted. |
 Kitchen extension back wall not correctly tied into side passage wall! |
 Scaffold now up ready for re-roofing work to begin. |
Ground Floor Front Lounge
 Front room chimney breast before removal |
 Chimney breast removed and all plaster hacked off ready for parge coat |
 Front bay single glazed window |
 Front bay window removed ready to be rebuilt. Some timber rot uncovered in floor joists that will need to be replaced |
 Front lounge / hallway internal partition partly removed to ensure continuity of internal insulation of front external wall. All plaster has been hacked off ready for parge coat. |
 First floor joist exposed. Where the floor joists penetrate the external wall was identified as a significant air infiltration path. This will need to be addressed during the build. |
Ground Floor Back Lounge
 Back lounge before refurbishment. |
 Gas back boiler decommissioned and removed. Plaster hacked off external side wall ready for parge coat to seal brickwork. |
 Old timber lintel replaced ready fro new triple glazed window. |
Front Bedroom
 Front bedroom window timber lintel replaced ready for new triple glazed window |
 Plaster on external wall in front bedroom removed ready for parge coat. To address the problem of cold bridging the return on the internal party wall will also be dry lined. |
A couple of months later than planned but at last we now have an empty property! The decant has been quite painful and drawn out due to the lack of decent, affordable property in the private rental sector. Ideally we would have preferred not have had to use the private rental sector but for many small housing co-operatives this option isn’t always possible. A big thank you to the tenants for being so patient during this difficult stage in the project.
Now the real work begins in earnest..asbestos survey today and if all OK we can start to strip the house…
The project is progressing well since my last post. Building control approval has now been received from Birmingham City Council, party wall letters have been signed and returned and all contracts with contractors are now in place. We were also lucky to receive funding for the solar thermal system from the Low Carbon Buildings Programme just before the scheme was prematurely closed by DECC.
The task at hand now is to decant the tenants into temporary accommodation for the duration of the works. This has been more problematic than we originally thought due to a sudden shortage of suitable properties in the local area to rent. After much searching it looks like a place has now been secured and the move can quickly proceed. So if all goes to plan then the main building contractor should have access to the property by mid August. Fingers crossed….
Phew, we were fortunate that we managed to get our Low Carbon Building Programme application submitted just before the scheme was prematurely closed. If we are successful this will contribute towards the cost of the solar hot water system we have specified (up to 50%). I understand it’s due to be assessed shortly and we will be notified soon on whether we have been successful.
I’ve also had verbal confirmation from British Gas that they will provide CERT funding towards the insulation works we are doing. Potentially this represents a reasonable sum of money which is much appreciated. If you happen to be involved in one of the retrofit projects (or you are a social housing provider undertaking energy refurbishment works) I would strongly recommend contacting the energy companies to see what funding is available.
BSRIA have been out again as the quality of their first attempt in capturing a thermal image wasn’t quite good enough. Ideally this test should be done in the winter months when the temperature difference between the inside and outside is at its greatest. The project starts in August so we had no other option but to do our best in creating the right conditions by switching the heating on fully the day before (gas fires included!). The tenants have been fully reimbursed for this financial sacrifice. It was also rather chilly on the day which also helped.
You can see these new images below. They do seem much sharper than the previous set. For example, you can now clearly see the cold bridging problem under and around the windows.
Thermal imaging capture (front)
Thermal imaging capture (rear)
I’ve now had the nod from building control at Birmingham City Council subject to a few minor conditions. A painless exercise thanks in no small part to Chapman Design who prepared the full plans for the application.
I’ve also now notified the two neighbouring properties of the planned works as required under the Party Wall Act. Fingers crossed that written consents are forthcoming and we have no hold ups.
Like a lot of pre-war, mid-terraced properties our retrofit has a side passage way. I had hoped to improve dramatically the thermal performance of the side wall using a combination of external cladding (50mm phenolic foam) plus dry-lining. Unfortunately, I’ve now discovered that this is the only means of access to several other properties and therefore as we need to maintain current access levels cladding here will not be possible.
The objective was to get down to a U value of 0.20 W/m2K using this method. However, I’ve re-calculated that if the dry-lining thickness is increased to 82.5mm (using Kingspan K17) a U value of around 0.24 W/m2K should be possible. On the downside it will involve sacrificing more floor space then planned (although this will be compensated to some degree by removing the chimney breast in the front lounge and relocating the gas and electricity meters so they are outside of the property).
This still leaves the kitchen extension where dry-lining the external passage solid wall would not be cost effective as to do so would require us ripping out a perfectly good kitchen that was fitted only a few years ago. A problem that may have to wait until the kitchen is refurbished again….
In order to evaluate the energy and carbon performance of each retrofit project the Technology Strategy Board has commissioned the Energy Savings Trust to carry out a programme of testing and data monitoring before, during and after the refrofit. One of the tests that is required is capturing a thermal image of the property before and after the retrofit works. Thermal imaging is an excellent way to locate areas of the building enevelope that suffer from low levels of insulation and therefore high levels of heat loss.
We have now received the results from the thermal imaging test that was carried out on 30th March 2010. As you can see below it confirms dramatically why the property has such a high heating bill. Areas that are coloured red/orange (like the windows and under the eaves) represent areas of greatest heat loss.
Thermal imaging capture (front)
Thermal imaging capture (rear)
