It would have been a good idea to have started this blog right at the very beginning of this project. But, since that didn't happen, getting the funding through to be able to start the building work in earnest seemed like a good milestone at which to pick up instead. There's a fair amount of work gone into this project already, which I'll have to fill you in on as we go. The main things to know for now are: we've already bought a house for refurbishment (it's an Edwardian mid-terraced property in an inner suburb of Manchester); produced the design and specification of the eco-refit - which has Building Control approval; set up a not-for-profit legal structure for the project; and got the necessary funding in place (all loan money - we're not dependent on any grants).
I had a meeting on-site with the main contractor today. They want to get the scaffold up, and start work on the roof and repointing the front wall (with possible brickwork cleaning). The advantage of this approach is that they start off in their comfort zone, and I have a few weeks to get some of the more specialist "eco" stuff ordered and delivered.
Speaking of deliveries, one of my big challenges is to work around United Utilities, who have got the road closed to do a sewer replacement. We knew for some time that this would be happening; what we didn't know was that they would change their minds about which order to do the various areas in, just as we got our money through and wanted to start work! So right now we can get up as far as next-door for deliveries at the front, and we can get a small vehicle (car or Transit van) to the rear, but in two weeks' time both of these routes into the property will be blocked, for four weeks (if they keep to their schedule).
The other meeting I had today was with someone from the sprinkler company. Now I totally agree that installing sprinklers seems like a bizarre place to start with an eco-house! I'll write a separate article explaining the thinking - but first the meeting. The sprinkler guy spent quite some time on-site looking at pipe runs etc. They're expecting all holes and openings to be made for them in advance, which is something I need to go back to the main contractor about. It's really complicated to think through the interaction between sprinkler pipes (which are rigid), regular heating and domestic water pipes, electrical cables, and insulation. One particularly tricky area is the front attic room, where there's so little full-height ceiling that it's not possible to get full coverage just from ceiling-mounted sprinklers, so it looks like we will have to put one in the ceiling of the dormer - which is already a difficult area to treat because of complex roof timbers in confined space.
We're going to put in a rainwater harvesting system - used for WC flushing - and the tank will be shared with the sprinkler system. Current thinking is to get the sprinkler first fix done first - so that any making good can be done in plenty of time. But this raises a scheduling issue, as the rainwater tank is big (2.4m x 2.4m) and difficult to get on-site whilst the road blockage is in place. So I realised after the sprinkler guy had left that I may need to ask them to make a separate visit to connect up the tank - or perhaps during the commissioning.
