Ok, I feel quite happy with my rough plans for the floor (pending limecrete quotes!)

I have had the first of a few initial quotes for heat pumps. It has been a point of discussion with my father in law as well. He is very much of the approach of doing as little as possible. The first ASHP quote has 2x 7-22kW Mastertherm BoxAir Kits. Does this seem overkill or is it ultimately more economical to overspec even if it means spending an extra £7k+ initially?

I am tempted to complete the floor insulation and UFH along with other improvements and run that on oil for a year to get a true idea of what I am using.

The EPC (from quite a few years ago now) suggested 69842 kWh per year for space heating but I know these are not always a very good representation of what will actually be used.

I am still toying with the idea of a hybrid oil/ashp option because it gives me assurance that I will stay warm but the option of becoming less and less reliant on oil as I improve the insulation. Grant have quite a neat looking option.

Ha, yes i have been using quilted overall recently. Not for my desk work yet though. I don't think the two jumpers approach will go down all that well my my wife unfortunately.

I have been thinking of approaches to low energy home working recently. radiant panels mounted to desks etc. Quite a fun project (if i had time).

I just has another quote come through for ASHPs. this one was 2x16kW Nibe units. It came in around £23k for the ashps, buffer and 300l cylinder including installation (but not including rads and ufh). I think i will have to do that bit myself to try and keep costs down.

Haha. I will definitely have a wood burner as we have a good supply of wood. It is for the existing house so i can make some improvements on that.

1/5 dug out - lots more to go. Is galpor the only way to go? From what I read you would get the same insulation value (or perhaps a bit more) with 100mm of EPS for a cheaper price with less digging out

We have a micro digger and dumper now (and labourers!).
@Peter it certainly would have been easier and cheaper but I would like to go for a breathable system. Past owners have raged several battles against the damp in the house and i would like to work with the house rather than fight it. I hope it pays off. I think that just consistently heating it and living in it will help a lot too.

The main reason I used foamed glass in places was that it provides a capillary break as well as being 'breathable'. So there is no need for a DPM above or below it. There are lots of breathable materials that do not provide a capillary break.

edit: You're quite right. I forgot to mention my other constraint, which was that the material must be freely draining.

I would have thought a french drain around the building (with a good outflow) to keep water out of the underfloor would be a better bet than having a free draining sub floor. Unless you are expecting periodic floods. If you are expecting the floods I'm not sure how limecrete would cope with the soaking.

!!!

It very much depends upon what the paint is/was. Vinyl silk paint won't be breathable whereas e.g. Dulux trade emulsion is breathable and can be painted over drying out plaster.

The wall looks like it has a texture which could be a pain to strip however if the paint is matt then perhaps sanding with a very coarse sandpaper or a going over with a wire brush on an angle grinder would damage the paint surface enough to open it up to the base wall to make it sufficiently breathable for the purpose. To get a breathable surface yo don't need all the paint off, just enough to let any moisture through to the next layer. Actually thinking about it, even if the paint is non-breathable then scratching through the paint surface to the wall should be enough, just that you would need a bit more scratching through for the more plastic type paints.

Edit to say look like a nice place - even before it's finished!!

Ground floor Glapor going in!