Simon Hawthorne wrote:


Ok, here come the questions.....

1 Will my boiler cope with pumping water to the loft for the
bath, shower & radiators?


Depends on whether its a pressurised system or not. If not, how high the
water will go depends on header tank height.

Seeing as you are embarking on majorwork here, I'd be tempted to say a
new boiler will not be the worst expense incurred, so budget for one in
case. I am not familiar with boiler brands so I can't tell if you have
conventional, combi or mains pressure (system) boiler.

I would strogly advocate going to combi or system boiler anyway tho,.
simply to get decent hot water pressure round the house - it ends up
cheaper than loads of shower pumps anyway! Comnbis unless backed up by
hot water stores or rather large in peak output cannot handle more than
one shower at a time IME, so ifd you are a house with lots of showers
and kids, consider system boiler and mains pressure.



2 Will my boiler cope with the additional strain of 3 rads in
the barn?



Only an overall heat loss calculation on teh house will tell you what
output you need to make sure you can keep the house warm in - say- -5C
conditions which is generally what is considered 'worst case'. Others
will support the view that of you want a warm cos house, investigiatin
existing levels of insulation and upgrading wherever possible if buildig
work is to be caried out anyway, is the most cost effective solution.

BTW don't get carried away with double glazing. IME the greatest heat
loss in an old house is via the upstairs roof, followed by draughts,
followed by the walls, followed by the downstairs floor. Windows and
doors, if properly sealed, are not the biggest problem unless vast areas
of galss exist (not likely in an 1870 house).


3 Can I add thermostatic rad valves throughout? If I want to
change them from the yorkshire type, will I have to change the
microbore pipe?



I would say yes, but have little experience with microbore. If you can
do it, split teh CH into seperately thermostatted zones instead of
TRV's, oherwise TRV's are a cheap compromise.


4 How much of a job is fixing the roof on the barn and how much
is it likely to cost?


Depends on whether its a strip and replace tiles felt and battens job -
or serious rotted timbers needding carpenters t re-fettle, probably
scaffolding, and possibly weatherproofing. Suggest getting quotes from
firms in the area large enough to sue if quality poor, and using those
as guideline. To felt, tile and batten a medium sized roof is in the
3-8k mark depending on size, intricacy and material quality.



5 To convert the 35' room, I'd like to plasterboard it - maybe
with some sort of insulation on the back of the board - is there
anything in the market place like this?


I think so. However you should be using at least 2" of insulation, and
it is probably better to line out teh interior with studwork. If you use
12" simply use Celotex, if you have 4-6" use rockowwol (cheaper). Make
urse at least 4 times as many cables for TV's phones, lights etc etc are
laid as you will actually use. They can be left coiled up behind
plasterboard and marked on a plan IN CASE you need them.

You alwasy need SOME of them.



Thanks in advance - I know I am expecting a lot but I'm sure the
comments I'll get will be a honest and give me a starting point.



I thnk the rational approach is to

List all teh have to haves
List all the nice to haves
Put them in order of desperation.
Try and assign costs to each one
Then shuffle and juggle till you have a schedule of work that you can
actually do within HALF your budget.

Do lots of background research, and try and do disruptive things all in
one block.

Never start something you cannot fund by an overrun factor of two, as
estimated by the trades etc. That way if it does work out twice as
expensive, you are not ruined, if it doesn't, there is always another
project on your schedule.



Thanks in advance

Simon