Settlement house 1954 - complete renovation possible?

Forget the emails, always call first and use every form of contact. As soon as you have a craftsman on site, ask him who he can recommend for the other outstanding trades. Call them directly, say where the recommendation comes from, and then everything runs much faster. Always tender smaller and medium-sized jobs via MyHammer. Better to have different craftsmen than one who does everything.

After a longer break, updates are due. Here is the comparison from spring to autumn 2020. The roof is now covered with aluminum shingles. On the opposite side, there are also photovoltaic panels (west). New windows (wood-aluminum) are also installed.

On the rafters are now 160mm PUR boards and between the rafters I inserted 120mm clamp wool.


Unbelievable how much debris one can get out of such a small house... 3x7t and 1x10t containers, only construction debris. But the rest holds together ;)

Insulated basement ceiling done independently with 100mm PUR panels. Cost just under €1000.

I then contracted out the sanitary installation. Here is a good example of what happens. Where the pipes now run into the basement, the old pipes + downpipe ran lengthwise. Why the colleagues broke a 40cm hole there is a mystery to me.


Window sills improvised from 28mm glued spruce wood and painted. Luckily done back in 2020


Electrical work was also prepared in winter. Here still with the old meter. The most expensive item is probably the Type-B RCD for the heat pump/wall box in the middle. From there on, a electrician took care of the house connection itself again.

Why the colleagues broke open a 40cm hole there is a mystery to me.

If those are concrete beams with embedded stones, then it’s probably due to the stone. They are quite crumbly if you approach them with the chipping hammer. But it’s not that bad. Plug from below, a bit of foam, a bit of sealing compound, then the insulation...

Stuff from the bottom, a bit of foam, a bit of potting compound, then the insulation...

There it is again, the foam insulation mafia:oops:

Well - there are cases where expanding foam is really useful. And then there's your window installer... ;-) But hey, one more tube and the window will meet Passive House standards!