Things you wished you had installed\ bought for your home

Keedowah

Its fairly basic, but I recently renovated a house and for the radiators I chased the wall and have the pipes somewhat hidden. I think it makes them look a lot cleaner - plus your Roomba will love it!

Put in some USB power sockets.

Hive / Nest thermostat - we went for Hive and I really like it.

Pumped water to the shower - no white box on the shower wall (although this never bothered me before).

Insulate the bejaysus out of the place!

We didn't have much room in the kitchen and the one bit of wall we had was taken up with a radiator, so we replaced it with a kick board radiator, it has a built in fan that comes on when hot water is flowing through it and automatically turns off when not. The fan isn't loud.

Outside taps are handy.

Even if not putting in electric gates etc right now - have the cables in place if you decide to do it in the future - you don't want to go chasing walls at a later date.

jimd2

seannash wrote: »

Hi,
I'm at the beginning of a complete renovation and extension of my house and in looking for recommendations for things you've done to make your day to day life easier.

For example I've decided to make the downstairs all one level so that I can have a roomba robot vacuum operate whilst in at work.
Also the washing machine and tumble dryer will be upstairs close to the bedrooms as this is where the wardrobes are.

So do you have any other recommendations.

Sorry but that's pretty mad imho. Typical example of overthinking things.

Also, vibrations from the washing machine - it should be on a concrete base I would have thought.

What if you have a leak? Do you not have a washing line?

the_pen_turner

jimd2 wrote: »

Sorry but that's pretty mad imho. Typical example of overthinking things.

Also, vibrations from the washing machine - it should be on a concrete base I would have thought.

What if you have a leak? Do you not have a washing line?

whats mad about it. all the clothes are upstairs . why bring them downs stairs and bring them back up again.
it has to be done correctly but It could be great.

personally if I was designing a house from scratch I would build an upside down house so all sleeping areas are on the ground floor and the living areas upstairs with all the views and vaulted ceilings etc

elephant85

Storage. Storage. Storage.
Combi boiler.
Shower pump
Lots of sockets in the kitchen
A stove instead of open fire.
Insulate the hell out of the house.
Stoage/shelving in bathroom.
Large laundry press/ hot press.
Utility room with Storage!
Pantry off kitchen.
Hall storage for coats. If you've kids.. Storage for buggy.
If love a playroom off kitchen/living room with a glass door so kids can still see me and I can see them. Eventually would turn it into their study.. and then finally a little spare sitting room!

happywithlife

Lots of ideas for inside. One thing I regret not doing when we built was someway finishing the outside (Didn't even start it tbh and it's never going to get done at this rate). New build near me atvthe moment has kerbing and minimal l
Hardscaping done and it looks finished - if I'd my time back I'd have pulled back somewhere to do a bit outside

dbagman

Lisha wrote:

Plug point above kitchen presses for xmas lights and have them turned on/off by switch at normal level.

This one caught my eye, so essentially you'd have a switch that does nothing for 11 months of the year. That would drive me insane.

Lisha

dbagman wrote: »

This one caught my eye, so essentially you'd have a switch that does nothing for 11 months of the year. That would drive me insane.

But it's so pretty at Christmas time....

VeVeX

dbagman wrote: »

This one caught my eye, so essentially you'd have a switch that does nothing for 11 months of the year. That would drive me insane.

C'mon, use your imagination, lights never have to be left idle. You could take down the Crimbo balls and put up an illuminated float on Paddy's day, a bright bunny at Easter, some scary decorations at Halloween and then hang up your balls next Christmas.

seannash

jimd2 wrote: »

Do you not have a washing line?

Nope, not one bit of outside space unfortunately

glenkeo

We but in emergency lights at top of stairs and bottom that comes on when power goes off and recharges when power comes back on again not expensive really good when needed

sbsquarepants

the_pen_turner wrote: »

I think you need a better plumber.
we have 3 upstairs. they work perfectly.
I know of 2 used in hot presses in other houses and they work perfectly fine. they are set at 2 or 3 and keep the press at a nice warm temp.

the only time I have seen them not work is when they are fitted wrong (pointing up or with heat coming up from underneath) or when some fool covers them with curtains etc.

Just telling you what the bloke said - he does it for a living, I assume he knows more about it than I do.
I have them in my own house, they were there when I moved in. I've never really bothered to check if they function correctly or not, although to be honest with kids coming and going all the time, I'd be surprised if they are doing anything at all!

knipex

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Just telling you what the bloke said - he does it for a living, I assume he knows more about it than I do.
I have them in my own house, they were there when I moved in. I've never really bothered to check if they function correctly or not, although to be honest with kids coming and going all the time, I'd be surprised if they are doing anything at all!

To be fair TRV have their application but it very much depends on the placement of your rad, airflow around it etc. If you rad is behind a sofa, or curtains or has obstructed airflow then they will not control properly. Even where they work well their ability to control a room temperature is "limited"


They also used to have a tendency to stick, that however is much improved over the last 5 or 6 years.

I have been looking for TRV's controlled by a wireless remote room stat at a reasonable cost. I have seen multiple types with bulbs and capillaries but they are ugly and impractical..

If I was to build in the morning, with a hefty budget I would install fancoil type units with individual room stats and a central controller with web access..
I haven't 100% decided if the best option is radiator style or ducted units with the HRU air connected to the "supply air" side

The other option would but a forced air system with a small packaged AHU with heat recovery built in and a heating coil (or coils). But this would make it more difficult to control individual room temperatures...

Again their is nothing to stop a combination of both with the heating coil only used to temper the fresh air from the HRU.

BUT what ever you choose you need a good engineer to specify and design it..

El Tarangu

uhw3mqv86gzb15 wrote: »

Put the kitchen at the front of the house if you can.

What would be rationale behind this - so that the living room is at the back of the house (more privacy)? Or that the kitchen is the first room that you walk into as you come into the house?

Water John

It was the only stipulation by my OH when we were designing, nearly 30 years ago. Do Not, have people walking directly into the kitchen.

Really would not use TRVs in a new build. All rads should be plumbed individually back to a manifold. If you want to control an ind rad, you use a thermostat and actuator.

seannash

Water John wrote: »

It was the only stipulation by my OH when we were designing, nearly 30 years ago. Do Not, have people walking directly into the kitchen.

Is there a thought process behind this or is it personal preference?
Due to the way the house and extension will be laid out I have no choice but to have them enter in the kitchen but I could afford a small hallway before the kitchen if I am swayed. I just can't think of it being so off putting unless it's a very cramped kitchen

Colonel Claptrap

seannash wrote: »

Is there a thought process behind this or is it personal preference?
Due to the way the house and extension will be laid out I have no choice but to have them enter in the kitchen but I could afford a small hallway before the kitchen if I am swayed. I just can't think of it being so off putting unless it's a very cramped kitchen

In most houses you enter a hallway first, and maybe a living room second. These areas are simple to keep clean, tidy and odour free.

If you have friends or neighbours who happen to pop in, it's easy to fire them into the living room, out of sight of the dirty dishes on the kitchem counter or overflowing bin in the corner.

That's my guess.

Water John

It was OH personal choice. I think she disliked it in the house she grew up in. Make your own mind up as to what suits you.

Payton

In my old house I realized what could be better and more adaptable if I did want to change things.
I'm in the process of renovating my old family home on a smallish budget and taught long and hard.
1. Insulation in walls and attic space as there was nothing, it's probably the best thing I did.
2. Led lighting. I hated the 1 light pendant per room so I installed spotlights.
3. Open plan kitchen. The old kitchen was just in the wrong place with the washing machine in there too. So I've plumbed the washing machine in to the hall which will be included in a cupboard along with the dryer as it was empty space under the stairs.
4. Extra sockets in each room and cat 6 cable from where my modem will be to a dedicated router then to each room all behind the walls.

seannash

Payton wrote: »

4. Extra sockets in each room and cat 6 cable from where my modem will be to a dedicated router then to each room all behind the walls.

Hi Payton,
Sorry for not replying sooner. In terms of the dedicated router, wouldn't your phone be constantly connecting to new Routers as you move around the house or is it for Wifi enabled TV's in that particular room?

Ro-76

seannash wrote: »

Hi Payton,
Sorry for not replying sooner. In terms of the dedicated router, wouldn't your phone be constantly connecting to new Routers as you move around the house or is it for Wifi enabled TV's in that particular room?

I've been following this thread with interest also and wondering about this exact question.

I was planning to have a central router with wifi access points in multiple locations around the house with the same SSID. Someone mentioned ubiquiti POE devices. Will the ubiquiti APs actively manage connections and so that if I walk from ground floor to 2nd floor, my device won't still try to maintain a connection to a very distant AP while there's a stronger signal nearby?

Thx

the_pen_turner

how about a laundry chute from the upstairs down into the laundry room. sorry for the Americanisms, its seen a lot on American tv programmes. looks handy

heroics

Ro-76 wrote: »

I've been following this thread with interest also and wondering about this exact question.

I was planning to have a central router with wifi access points in multiple locations around the house with the same SSID. Someone mentioned ubiquiti POE devices. Will the ubiquiti APs actively manage connections and so that if I walk from ground floor to 2nd floor, my device won't still try to maintain a connection to a very distant AP while there's a stronger signal nearby?

Thx

Setup as access points with same ssid/security. Clients will connect to the strongest signal seamlessly and users won’t notice.

I have a tplink homeolugs configured and works
seamlessly as don’t have cat6 ran

Payton

Sorry for the confusion. I'm running a cable from my virgin media router to a network switch then to each bedroom for tv's and PS4 etc.

sbsquarepants

One thing I'd definitely do if I was building, is if you're going with bog standard stud walls to divide your rooms, put a double of plasterboard on each side oriented at 90 degrees to each other, and screw them, don't nail them, do the same on the ceilings - costs very little but makes a huge difference to the general sturdiness of the walls and also to sound transmission and if, god forbid, there's ever a fire it also makes a big difference in halting it's spread. Alternatively you could replace the plasterboard with a cement or silica board, but they can be pricey, plasterboard is dirt cheap.

DublinDilbert

sbsquarepants wrote: »

One thing I'd definitely do if I was building, is if you're going with bog standard stud walls to divide your rooms, put a double of plasterboard on each side oriented at 90 degrees to each other, and screw them, don't nail them, do the same on the ceilings - costs very little but makes a huge difference to the general sturdiness of the walls and also to sound transmission and if, god forbid, there's ever a fire it also makes a big difference in halting it's spread. Alternatively you could replace the plasterboard with a cement or silica board, but they can be pricey, plasterboard is dirt cheap.

Double slabbed ceilings are a good job. If you double slab the walls you may/will have issues with the door frames.

sbsquarepants

It's easy enough to chunk up the door frames, or I'm not too sure on the details of this but if you really wanted to surely there's a way of keeping the same wall thickness by reducing the width of the studs - some sort of SFS style galv channels instead of timber studs or something like that??

knipex

As I have been going through the house and doing it up all the ceiling have been double slabbed.

However instead of double slabbing the walls I insulated them all (internal walls) with rock-wool (sound and fire) and sealed all the joints and especially where the slabs meet the floor and ceiling with spray-foam.. The external walls got rock-wool and 2" insulated slab with spray-foamed joints.

seannash

Would love to double slab the ceilings but its a listed building so lath and plaster has to be used for them.
Definitely need to think about sound absorption between floors though.

the_pen_turner

sbsquarepants wrote: »

One thing I'd definitely do if I was building, is if you're going with bog standard stud walls to divide your rooms, put a double of plasterboard on each side oriented at 90 degrees to each other, and screw them, don't nail them, do the same on the ceilings - costs very little but makes a huge difference to the general sturdiness of the walls and also to sound transmission and if, god forbid, there's ever a fire it also makes a big difference in halting it's spread. Alternatively you could replace the plasterboard with a cement or silica board, but they can be pricey, plasterboard is dirt cheap.

I always try to get the customer to put 18mm ply of any stud wall I do in kitchens and utilities etc.
its great for adding strength and you hang stuff anywhere you want. makes slabbing a lot faster too
I use cut down window board (or stair thread) as a door frame and plant on slips to create the rebate

mjp

Building at the moment so following this thread for ideas and recommendations. Told not to forget outside plugs for Xmas lights hoovering car etc, linen press upstairs and wiring for cat 6 cables in rooms.

Shaunoc

here is a useful link for others on the self/new-build route with alot of posts
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055263035

sbsquarepants

the_pen_turner wrote: »

I always try to get the customer to put 18mm ply of any stud wall I do in kitchens and utilities etc.
its great for adding strength and you hang stuff anywhere you want. makes slabbing a lot faster too
I use cut down window board (or stair thread) as a door frame and plant on slips to create the rebate

Fire rated ply?

It would certainly be a huge help to when hanging presses etc to be able to just screw them to the wall.