refurbing a country cottage on a budget ? Re-generate an old or tired space and give it a fresh breath of life. Click here for answers, information and tips

[scotsmart]

With no "introductions" forum i shall have to briefly begin my story here-in being as far as i can see the next most suitable location?

Ok so hello from Lochaber Scotland a few miles south of the stupendous Mallaig village in West Lochaber overlooking the legendary silver sands of Morar and the Small Isles beyond, as beautiful as it daily is, this also sets us certain challenges in terms of weather and power cuts as we go through this renovation these will become apparent im sure.

We firstly it should be pointed out are Housing Association tenants which places a few extra restrictions upon what we can and cant physically do to this property although most alterations/adaptions are allowed eventually so long as not affecting the structural strength of the property we have found in previous tenacies we have had of a similar nature, so we should with the relative boxes ticked and permissions granted be safe to continue onwards to our ideal country Idyll a long sought after property finally becoming the reality some 20 yrs later after the family grew up amd its now just myself, the missus and our wee King Charles puppy "Georgie"

So where to begin there are many things that go well beyond what in anyones remit could/would be classed as "charachter" from god awful Artexed ceilings to unlevel walls and floors to contend with, lack of access so driveway in planning, to badly warped interior doors, a terribly draughty home heated solely by expensive and uncontrolable storage heating options only, so a more reliable multi-fuel option is being currently considered and thats just for starters then there is just grass and mud outside so a whole garden from scratch is going to need to be designed and built but thats for another day...

And to the biggest bug bear of all we have been here almost two full months now we have yet been unable to source any proffessional assistance offering via local shops, websites and word of mouth "cash in hand" we have yet to gain any satisfactory quotes, timescales or help really pointing to the desperate need of many trades in these areas, let alone some sort of possibly community handyman/women scheme possibly thus in the absense of such proffessionals where we can we have decided to go it alone to DIY it and duly hope to be able to glean as much information as possible from this apparenly wonderfull community.

So heres hoping in many ways the help we require is with-in these pages.........

[welsh brickie]

make a plan of what you want to tackle first,do one job at a time.
We can walk you through it,But do your homework,Check the cost of materials, delivery etc.

[scotsmart]

Yeah we have a few things we need to attend to first before we can do anything else anyway so must attend to fencing to keep the dog in and the darn awful Artex on our ceilings so plenty to be thinking about then its decoration throughout, dealing with the expensive storage heating with possiblly multi-fuel heating and rads and finally or in among all that as if thats not enough we have access (driveway) issues so a lot going on (we have the relevant permissions in hand and hope to get these shortly, but must wait it out for now)..

So im awaiting information from post in plastering section on the Artex and how to re-artex an already artexed ceiling or 5 ? we have the bags of artex and tools required but have read allsorts on failure, issues and so on which has halted progress here due to uncertainty untill i can get i sorted out in my head which way it best, cheapest and easiest route forwards and whether its with-in our scope to proceed with the job
decoration in other parts in fact the whole property halted until this can be rectified..

Also top of our agenda is draughtproofing/insulation as whilst the property is double glazed its still ever so draughty and not very well insulated on the whole which requires urgent attention as most of our expensive heat is merely escaping out the roof and elsewhere im absolutely sure so we must attend to this also as i must be kept evenly warm hence multi-fuel heating as a source of sustainable heat at hopefully a better root cost?

[welsh brickie]

ok well, dealing with the insulation and heating problems inquire at your local council for a grant, they can help you with cavity insulation and loft insulation,also check with building control if the windows were poorly fitted and draughty the council may fix it for you.

[scotsmart]

Ok thanks for that we have enquired with our electric suppliers about loft insulation but lke most things it doesnt tend to happen in a hurry they seemed to suggest that we wouldnt get cavity wall insulation due to the age of our property (being we beleive 1930's) its rather unlikely to have cavity walls anyway :) it should be noted he also suggested that we dont actually want cavity wall insulation in any case due to much of the more recent ones that have been done have caused more problems than they have solved by blocking the required airflow (certainly was our experience in our last council property that was done a few years back and we without doubt suffered serious condensation issues with afterwards) from that end we have done all we are able to on this subject however have found our HA not particularily intrested nor helpful on this matter, (even although we have below the required amount).

We are looking at ways of getting rolls of insulation here in a cost effective manner as you might argue its in some diy stores only a few quid a roll thats fine so long as you A - know how many and how thick you need it and B - have the means to get it home (our nearest source is Dewson's around 35 miles away but big rolls of insulation are no really condusive with bus travel let alone the x bus charges to get enough but we are wholly determined to sort this out to get the best heat efficiency we can.

Many thanks

[DIYDoctor2]

Hi Scotsmart

We have a project about plastering over Artex or removing Artex using environmentally friendly X Tex https://www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/artex.htm

There is a free loft insulation calculator on this page of Be Energy Smart http://www.beenergysmart.co.uk/energy-solutions/wall-loft-insulation/how-to-fit-loft-insulation/ You will also find useful information about heating methods and grants that are available to you on this site.

We would love to do a blog post on your renovation including before and after photos and/or videos if you have time?

Please get in touch https://www.diydoctor.org.uk/contact/

[DIYDoctor2]

This confirmation via twitter, about shipping, came from StoreFloor, our suppliers of LoftZone products: @LoftZone

Hello @DIYDoctor sure, we deliver anywhere in the UK for the same price. They should buy the boards locally though, they're heavy to ship.

They are in our DIY Superstore too https://www.diydoctor.org.uk/DIY-superstore/catalogsearch/result/?q=loftzone

Good Luck!

The Doctor