homebuilding.co.uk 207BoosTing
pERfoRmAnCE
Themulti-foil
insulation(above)ian
hasusedalongside
theaerogelblanket
willimprovethe
extension’senergy
efficiency.whileian
undertook the task
of insulating the roof
to the single-storey
extension, Tony the
plumber completed the
final plumbing work
(top).handles or go handle-free, the choice of colour in
gloss or matt, and the optimum mix of wide and
narrow, doors and drawers. Once you’ve nailed all
this, it’s time to strike a deal.
One of the best kept secrets in retailing is the
‘ready to fit’ ranges in DIY outlets tucked away in
fairly anonymous packaging. The glitzy in-store
kitchen displays you see when you walk in usually
feature more profitable high-end products complete
with ‘free’ design and installation assistance, which
cynics may regard as a sales ploy, but can add value
for less experienced customers.
After much prevarication, the deal was finally
done, including oak worktops and integrated oven,
hob, extractor hood, sink and mixer. Factoring in
trade discounts, we came away with enough spare
change to pay for furnishing the extension.
The whole caboodle was delivered within a
matter of days, and the process of fitting the kitchen
took me less than a week, greatly aided by having
perfectly level new floors and freshly plastered walls.
It has to be said, however, that one area where more
expensive handmade kitchen units definitely scores is
the quality of solid wood carcasses, so in our case the
wall units in particular needed additional support.Making decisions on the balconies
The Juliet balconies for the two sets of first floor
French windows have the potential to either flatter
or scar the visual perception of the whole building,
and this was yet another purchase decision we
needed to make.
After various attempts at visualising how they’d
look by superimposing images on elevation
drawings, the decision ultimately boiled down to a
choice of glass or steel. Glass has an inherent light
and clean appeal but I took a shine to some German
polished stainless steel designs until I noticed
that the space between the bars was wider than
the maximum 100mm UK Building Regulations
stipulate. Part K of the Building Regs also dictates
that the uppermost rails need to be a minimum
height of 1,100mm above standing floor level.
We finally decided that traditional black ‘Parisian’
cast iron-style balconies would best suit the
vernacular architecture of our extension. Although
balcony railings are sold in a range of standard sizes,
I wanted the one for our big side gable to be shorter
since the cill is already set at nearly 800mm above
floor level. To get this custom built, we placed an
order with Iron Octopus blacksmiths in Yorkshire.Completing the final insulation work
Not much progress had been made recently on the
small single-storey extension to our existing kitchen
since it was ‘knocked through’ a few months ago,
so we now needed to bring this part of the build
up to speed. The flat roof is constructed rather like
a timber floor with thick insulation boards placed
on top of the deck. While the structure was still
exposed it made sense to boost the (already good)
thermal performance by lining the undersides of
the deck with rolls of multi-foil insulation. But
that still left two potential cold spots — the twin
rooflight ‘turrets’ poking up above the insulated
deck. So prior to plasterboarding, we fixed strips of
super-efficient aerogel blanket, one of the highest
performing insulants on the market, around the
upper rooflight reveals. Then came the hard graft
lining the ceiling and walls with giant sheets of
2,400mm x 1,800mm 12.5mm-thick plasterboard
— heavy work! At length, with the big steel beam
clad with pink fire-resistant plasterboard, the kitchen
extension was ready for plasterer Jamie to return
and give it a quick skim.
While we were busy wrestling with plasterboard
and fixing a couple of snagging issues that had
come to light – the curiously warm toilet cistern
and the violently gushing ‘waterfall’ basin tap –
plumber Tony was beavering away installing the en
suite bathroom units and finishing some radiator
pipework. Our endeavours kept being rudely
interrupted by ear-piercing alarms set off by smoke
from Tony’s soldering iron. Flinging open the
windows didn’t help, and by the fourth false alarm
of the morning I resorted to shrouding the smoke
alarms with plastic covers, making a note to later
strip them off, otherwise this would be a guaranteed
‘fail’ at the final building control inspection!The Build