Renovating a vernacular cottage - sequencing

ncounties

Prior to the crisis, I had been planning on buying an apartment in Dublin, and my partner planned on buying a cottage that we would renovate and use as a weekend/holiday home. Now we've found that our employers will happily allow us to work from home indefinitely (our employers were happy for us to work from home prior to Covid), and we have felt trapped in our apartment, with no outside space, and constant noise from our terrorisers neighbours. This has led us to look at combining our efforts and buying a renovation project that would be our full-time home.

The types of homes that we will look at are your typical single level cottage, one room deep. That were likely covered in Portland Concrete, and had their thatch replaced by tin at some point in the mid century. We will only be considering homes that have had a functioning toilet at some point in the past, access to mains water, and have decent broadband connectivity. We've found a couple.

One in particular, has the cottage, with two adjoining sheds, a detached shed/single storey room, and a second detached two storey height building/room.

The plan initially would be to restore the cottage, having a living room/kitchen space, a small bathroom/shower room, and two bedrooms. Convert the adjoining sheds to a utility room/storage. The single storey room/building would be restored at the same time, to house an office for us both to work in. Longer term the two storey room/building would be converted into additional living space for visitors with space for a sofa bed, kitchenette, ensuite and a double bed on a mezzanine. A traditional version of this if you will.

I appreciate this is quite a task, and that's why we haven't bought anything until we fully understand what we are taking on. Thankfully there is a plethora of Irish blogs available, from people who have taken this on in the past, but one thing I note, is that they regularly reference the importance of sequencing, but never offer any advice on this themselves, or at least I can't find it on their blog.

For the cottage, we would like to re-thatch it, remove non-breathable materials (i.e. Portland Concrete render, and concrete floor etc.), replace plumbing and electrics, add underfloor heating, lay "polished" limecrete flooring, fuel efficient stoves in the two chimneys, repoint, and apply appropriate lime and cork rendering.

Would anyone have any idea of the sequencing that we should plan on, I can't decide when to tackle the roof. The sequence below is what I would feel is right, but of course I could be completely wrong:

1. Roof/Thatch.
2. Remove interior plaster/render.
3. Internal electrics minus the finishing (i.e. no sockets/switchs installed).
4. Dig up floor.
5. Plumbing and underfloor heating laid.
6. Lay limecrete and be prepared to leave dry for a month or two.
7. Remove external render whilst waiting on the limecrete to dry.
8. Lime/cork interior render (any suggestions here on good insulation reading material?).
9. Exterior rendering and painting with appropriate paint.
10. Final touches with electrics.
11. Kitchen/bathroom installed, and other finishing touches.

Any thoughts/experience here would be very welcome, including corrections to the order based on your experience would be extremely welcome.

Additional questions I would have is what government funding I could avail off, heritage or efficiency related, whether we would be entitled to the thatch grant given that the roof is currently tin, and the implications, if any, on our mortgage, if we thatched the property after buying.

Many thanks,

N[orthern]Counties

Yellow_Fern

Have you got a specific BER and airtightness goal?

Are the buildings you come across normally one story?

ncounties

Yellow_Fern wrote: »

Have you got a specific BER and airtightness goal?

Are the buildings you come across normally one story?

Generally they would be one storey. An example of the property type, when it’s finished at least would be this. Though I’d prefer the internal area to be more modern.

I guess these type of properties would be maximum G, if they rated at all. With underfloor heating, sealed stoves, replaced glazing and doors, and using something like eco cork on the walls, I’d assume the best I could hope for would be a high C, low B?

I did read that if done right, the thatch could be quite a thermo-efficient roof.

kerrytigin

Hi, we have started on a similar project.
We are doing much of the labour work ourselves and will get trades for plumbing / electrics / grounds / rendering.
We were going to take our roof off and re-do but then Covid reared it's ugly head and our business ceased so that put a spanner in the works, We have spent lockdown doing the bits we can ourselves until funds become available again to tackle things that will need

We have removed all interior render
Dug out the floors
Taken out doorways in both gables to allow access into each adjoining shed

We are applying for planning this week ( extention of 2 beds and bathroom with link corridor )

Most likely our next job will be to take out 3 windows ( as none in the back of the cottage )
Get the floors poured
UFH laid down
Remove exterior render
Re -roof
Windows / Doors
Then plumbing / electrics
Re-render inside - we are going with a lime and hemp interior

My main issue at the moment is the feasibility of an air to water heat pump system - see my recent post.