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Sunday 13 February 2011

The Three wall proposal..

Right, there are three possible plans which I've been calculating,
Bearing in mind that the boiler room will be above our new bathroom, it will require a new concrete pad built up there, and the walls will have to be able to take the strain of the beams, blockwork, concrete, walls and water tanks.

Option one:
Green is 150mm Ytong blockwork, yellow 100mm and red 50mm. 
Largest floor area, I'll know for sure that the walls can take the weight (2N/mm2) and everything will be nice and straight, with maximum space available, no idiotic thick walls, only requiring one lintel per wall instead of two or three.


The downside:
Each bearing wall will require its own footings, I have no idea what the footings are like for the existing wall, how deep they are or what they are made of, if the worst comes to the worst I'll need to make new footings completely, 1M deep, 30CM wide and however long the wall is, with reinforcing inside it, to build the new blockwork up onto.
All the other non-supporting walls just get 30cm to build the wall on, dependant on what is there already (I won't know until its too late, and half the rooms are demolished!) with any luck I'll uncover existing concrete footings!

Cost: €3900 (if footings are 1M deep, considerably less if they are not.)
17M3 of concrete (if 1M deep)

Option 2
Knocking down the walls between Granny's room and our living room, they are non-supporting and easily removed. I'd replace both walls which gives a slightly larger kitchen and bathroom, as well as adequate support for the boiler platform above.

Same plan as above, except now I'm making mini-footings for the non-bearing blockwork to sit on, on each side of the bearing wall, and also full footings for the area where the boiler platform will be.

Cost: €3300,- 

14M3 of concrete (if 1M deep)
Option 3

In this version the original walls remain completely, but there is also the least amount of space, the bathroom for example becomes 2.1x1.9M and kitchen 1.8x1.9M Some of the walls become 55cm+ thick.

These "foundations" are very easy, simply making a ledge all around the existing walls for the blockwork to sit on. All I'm unsure about is the load imposed above the kitchen/bathroom on the existing walls.

Cost: €3600,-
11M3 of concrete.

Boiler slab:

 Here's an image of the Ytong block and beam I'm proposing to use, you simply place the beams on a solid surface, and fill them in with the blocks, then put a covering of concrete over the top, or reinforced concrete, and then continue building the walls upwards.


Roof Beams: 


And also an image of how the roof beams are situated, and which walls they are resting on.
All that rests on those beams is the weight of the roof, and since I already need to take down a fair amount of the walls to make doorways, and enlarging a window and creating an opening to the kitchen, I don't really see any harm in replacing the supporting walls, with more modern materials which take up way less space, and will require way less heating.

The fireplace in the livingroom is another point, the chimney will more than likely require to be replaced, so that whole corner of the room needs to be removed as well, and new foundations laid for it, if you ask me, it makes way more sense to replace the lot, it's "only" €300,- more (If the footings are 1M deep)  and 7M3 of concrete (if 1M deep) than simply building a new wall around the existing wall.

Silence is golden? Maybe not...

I've decided to insulate above grannies room as well, to stop her complaining its so much colder without her precious mud, I went to get some more fibreglass panels, this time 150mm thickness, also bought another 100mm bale to do the kitchen/bathroom once more to top it up to 200mm total.

Funny story about the insulation, I am buying it from an older man who sells it from a garage in the middle of Kosice, he told me his son is the head importer for Europe for the parent company (Guardian), and that he does this on the side to earn a little bit extra.
His website can be found here: www.izomart.sk
Anyhow, as you can see on the website, it's €1,-/M2 per 50mm thickness, so €3,-/M2 for 150mm panels.
Funny part is.. It's produced in the USA, shipped over the Atlantic in a container, and then moved all the way to Slovakia, and it's still cheaper than buying Insulation which is made in Europe such as Knauf or Isover, which retails at €2,50/M2 for 50mm, and €8,-/M2 for 150mm!!!
Bonkers? I'd say so...

I've been doing more and more calculations trying to work out materials, and have come up with three different ideas/plans.

Here's a floorplan for the house, with current door positions, and where we would like to move them roughly (Also bear in mind this is with the walls current.)

 Current
Proposed

Here's the room usages proposed:

Saturday 5 February 2011

Quick Update.

Ok, I've lifted up more floorboards and cleaned underneath them, and insulated above granny's kitchen and bathroom now.

Currently there's 100MM there, need to get another bale of insulation material to top it up to 200MM total.

 A nice old wasp nest, approximately 30cm by 20cm...

 Rat nest one!
 Rat nest 2!
Nice and clear under where the bitumen paper was. 
And a right sodding mess where the paper was instead of bitumen paper, lots of mice and rat activity, straw earth and dust underneath the boards.

We've more or less come to the conclusion of what everything is going to cost... and I honestly don't know what's going to happen now after all the work that was put into calculating materials and approaching companies.

Granny is trying to push me to insulate above her room, but there's no point if we are putting a new ceiling, windows, walls and floors in as I will just need to remove all the insulation again.. But I don't know if we are going to do the whole plan now, or if we are forgetting about it, I have no idea, seems a shame though after all the work and time that was put into starting it.

Especially all the work that has been done upstairs in cleaning it up so there's access for heating pipes and electricity, and all the calculations for materials and research, as well as getting specialists involved.. perhaps it was all for nothing, who knows!

Time will tell.