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If you live in a 3-4 storey property with your kitchen on the lower floors and staff to cook your meals, you might consider installing service lifts AKA a dumbwaiters or microlifts, to make sure your dinners are served hot and on time and to save you the hassle of walking 3 flights of stairs every time you want something from the kitchen.
In our experience, residential service lifts are primarily installed in luxury Victorian homes in Chelsea and Kensington. These premium properties are unique in their high ceilings, traditional features, large doorways and intricate design work. If you walk down one of the premium roads in Chelsea, these stunning properties will take your breath away.
With a desire to modernise, yet preserve the properties traditional features, owners of properties like this in Chelsea and Kensington expect their architects and building contractors to find bespoke solutions to their requirements.
Having a service lift in your home is a statement of luxury; a statement of your lifestyle. In the last year, we have worked with homeowners who have had very specific requirements even of their service lifts, tailored in both design and function to suit their specific needs, whether its glass doors, LED interior cabins or special finishes to the surrounds and doors.
How much does a Service Lift Cost… approximately?
The simple answer is… it depends. It depends on several factors including:
Location – If you are set away from main cities or towns, chances are your price will be a little higher than more easily accessible locations. This in large part is due to additional travel time, mileage and potential cost of hotels, should the work be running over two or three days on site.
Floors – Probably the biggest factor in cost is how many floors the lift runs. This will increase the installation time but the bulk of the additional cost is the additional lift material as well as more complex electronics required to tell the lift what to do and where to stop.
Finishes – Cost of steel has risen dramatically over the past years which in turn has affected the production costs of service lifts as they are made primarily from stainless steel and mild steel for the actual lift structure.
Installation Time – This will depend on the nature of the service lift. For example, if the entrances to the lift doors are different sides this may take the installation team a little longer to setup. Other factors can be building sites which are difficult to access or move goods around or lift shafts which are easy to navigate around.
Service Lift Dimensions
Service Lifts come in a range of sizes and the dimensions are often decided by the goods the lift needs to carry. Whilst there are standard sizes, these service lifts can be modified to suit your specific requirements.
Can you install a service lift? Points to consider:
Will the service lift travel vertically through the floor to the correct landing? For example, if the service is installed in the garage to carry groceries, it must be able to travel vertically to the kitchen.
Are there any obstructions on or in the floor that may prevent the service lift from traveling straight up and down through the floors? Examples of obstructions may be toilets, bathtubs, plumbing lines, electrical wiring and weight-bearing floor joists.
Do you have enough space to build a hoist-way? The amount of space needed will depend on the model but be sure to leave room for the guide rail, cables and overhead. Generally, about 4 square feet is required. Having different door swings at different landings may increase the size of the hoist-way because of the interlocks.
What is the service lift being used for? Determine the use of the service lift. How large and heavy are the items that will be going into the lift? Is it carrying large loads of laundry, groceries both or something else? A typical car is 20″w x 20″d x 30″h. Residential service lifts generally have a weight capacity of 100 lb.–200 lb.
We have been working with homeowners of luxury properties in the Chelsea and Kensington areas who have or are in the process of installing service lifts in their properties.
If you need any help, advice or simply a team that can work with you to plan and prepare your home for the installation of a service lift, please do not hesitate to give us a call on 0208 191 7595. Or why not book a Free Consultation through our website.
We’ll be happy to visit your property and share some of our thoughts and recommendations.
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Basement conversions in Chelsea and Kensington are in demand as space constraints prevent rear or side extensions. Not only do they add valuable floor space to your property and increase the value of the property, but are extremely versatile and can be used for several purposes, including cinema rooms, gyms and kitchens.
If your property is in an area where a basement conversion is a viable option, or you are planning a complete property demolition and rebuild, a basement can give you that special, additional “nice to have” space for your hobbies, home business, art collection, wine cellar or children’s den. We recently converted a basement in Chelsea into a yoga studio as property owner had recently qualified as a yoga instructor and wanted a space to build her yoga business.
Whatever the purpose, it’s important to work closely with the architect and interior designer when a space is being built with a specific function. It’s also a good idea to plan the use of the space at the outset so that the construction and design are tailored to the room’s requirements.
The Chelsea yoga studio we built had some specific requirements which we thought we’d share, in case you are thinking of building one in your own home.
As the yoga room was being built in the basement, one of the most important considerations was waterproofing or tanking. Of course, this is the case when building any basement. SDA Build London is proudly accredited by the UK’s leading waterproofing brand, Delta, with all our basement conversion projects installing their cutting-edge Delta Membrane Systems.
A yoga room needs to be warm and welcoming. Our clients wanted a clean look with uniform heating throughout. We recommended the installation of underfloor heating across the room allowing for even heat distribution and a feeling of warmth when stepping onto the floor.
Flipping to coin, we also installed a ducted air-conditioning system for the warmer months, allowing for air circulation and temperature control.
Wooden flooring was used in the room for a feeling of warmth.
Another important feature was the lighting. We installed dimmer switches on overhead lights for total control of the lighting levels to suit the mood of the room.
Walls were painted in calming, soothing colours such as muted, cooler tones and warm whites. The idea is to provide a sense of calm and peace.
We installed full length mirrors across the width of one wall so that the yoga students could check posture and alignment. As this room was in the basement, and did not have a view to the outside, the combination of lighting and mirrors gave it a sense of space and light.
We built cupboards at the far end of the room for storage of yoga mats and other equipment.
When building a space, it is important to consider the ultimate use of the room. In most cases, the purpose of the room will be the determining factor in several elements such as lighting, electrics, plumbing, heating, colour and flooring.
If you are thinking about building a yoga room in your home or basement or for that matter converting your basement into a habitable space, do give us a call on 0208 191 7595 or book a Free Property Refurbishment Consultation via our website. We will visit your property, discuss your ideas and needs and share some our thoughts and recommendations on we can do for you. This is a no obligation visit, so please don’t feel like you will be tied in to us if you call us outJ
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Make sure you account for some of these renovation costs. When commencing a refurbishment project, most of us do our homework with regards to costs and budgeting. This article in Houzz by Victoria Harrison flags some “unexpected” costs that you probably haven’t added to your comprehensive spreadsheet. Download our FREE Project Management Checklist now to keep on top of your renovation.
If you’ve ever undertaken any renovation work, you’ll know most projects end up going over budget, however carefully you manage the job. Even with a sensible contingency fund, extra expenditure can creep in to disrupt even the best-laid plans.
But what exactly are these extras and how can you preempt them? Here are a few of the surprising hidden costs of renovation work for which you may want to budget.
Dehumidifiers or heaters
If you’re plastering a large area of wall or having a new screed floor poured, you’ll probably have to hire a dehumidifier or heater to remove the excess moisture in the air and help with the drying process.
These can be hired by the day, so, depending on the time of year you undertake the work and the drying speed of the plaster or screed, this cost can be anything from a couple of days hire to a few weeks, plus the electricity running cost.
It won’t be a huge amount, but it’s something that can get forgotten in the initial budget.
Refinishing internal carpentry
Another unexpected knock-on effect of replastering large areas or working with wet materials, where you raise the humidity levels throughout the house, can be that internal doors swell up and need to be rehung.
Factoring in a carpenter to refit or rehang internal doors or make small adjustments is another cost that may not be on your spreadsheet, but might be worth keeping in mind at the planning stage.
Your electricity bill
If you’re undertaking extensive renovation work for a period of months, you may need to budget for your electricity bill to rise during this time.
With power tools being plugged in and recharged constantly, and several trades working on the house at the same time, you’ll be drawing on your power supply much more than usual. It might seem like an incidental, but if you allow for this before you start, you won’t be caught out by it halfway through.
Rubbish disposal
You might have factored in a skip at the end of your project, but it’s a rare renovation that creates less waste than planned. Most projects result in large amounts of rubbish and this will need to be disposed of safely, which can add on extra pennies at the very end of your project when funds are low.
Skips aren’t cheap, so if you end up needing to hire more than one, it could add to your overspend. It’s best to consider this at the planning stage and budget for a larger skip than you think you need, or for someone to come and collect the rubbish at a couple of points during the project.
A deep clean
It’s incredible how far dust can travel when heavy renovation work or demolition is taking place elsewhere in the house. You can keep all the internal doors and windows closed, but more often than not you’ll find yourself shaking dust out of curtains and bedding in rooms away from where the work’s taking place.
If you’re living on site, you can keep on top of this on a daily basis while the project’s ongoing. However, you might want to factor in some budget for a deep clean of carpets and textiles at the very end of the job to return your house to normal once the builders have left.
Patching up paintwork
High-traffic areas, such as hallways, can take a bit of abuse during renovation work, with lots of people walking though each day and ladders and tools being carried in and out.
As such, you might need to set aside a bit of cash for redecoration once the work’s complete. Even if it’s just patching up small chips in woodwork and giving walls a fresh coat of paint, keep in mind you’ll need a little pot of money for this.
Replacement carpet in adjacent rooms
Carpet can sometimes be damaged in adjoining rooms to those where the work is taking place. If you’re moving internal walls around, carpet may have to be cut, for example, or if you have lots of people walking though a hallway to get to the room where work is being done, carpet can get damaged and need professionally cleaning or replacing.
Laying down carpet protector film can help, but dirt has a way of finding its way around even the best protection, so keep this in mind when budgeting for cleaning costs at the end of the work.
Garden reboot
Building work can have a big impact on adjoining outside areas, as skips, machinery and materials all have to go somewhere while work is ongoing. Footpaths and patio areas will have lots of extra footfall, too, so expect your garden to sustain a bit of damage.
Once the work is complete, you can take stock of the garden, but it’s worth keeping a bit of money aside in case you need to fix fencing, replace turf or replant some areas.
At SDA Build we try to list all known and potential costs in our schedule of works so our clients are not hit with unplanned costs to the best or our ability. Do give us a call on 0208 191 7595 to speak to us about your home renovation project. We’d be happy to visit your property and give you our thoughts and estimates on the cost of your project.
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In the last year, we have worked on several Chelsea Construction projects in London. Chelsea and Kensington are areas that we particularly enjoy working in as the homes here have personalities of their own. Many of them are 3-4 storeys high and are characterised by high ceilings, large rooms and traditional features which need to be both preserved and modernised. There is therefore an increasing trend of installing contemporary conveniences such as underfloor heating, SMART systems, service elevators and air conditioning amongst others. In this article, we’d like to discuss the installation of home air-conditioning systems.
Summers in the UK are becoming increasingly warmer. There has been a noticeable rise in the number of “unbearably hot” days in the last 5-6 years. Whilst fans and portable cooling units have sufficed for most homes so far, the latest domestic air conditioning systems have made it possible to have your entire homes cooled through a central system.
No doubt, these systems are more expensive than traditional one-room units, but not only are they more aesthetically pleasing, but they will add value to your property.
Installed systems usually comprise an outdoor unit that has a fan in it. The fan is then connected to an indoor unit via two insulated pipes that contain refrigerant. (The pipes, including the insulation layer, are around 28mm diameter.) The indoor units are available in various configurations:
- The high wall unit is a bulk-head that is mounted on the wall and is about the size of a couple of shoe boxes
- Low wall units look like standard radiators
- Ceiling cassettes can be mounted in the ceiling in a central area of the room
- More discreet slim-ducted units can be positioned in the ceiling or housed in grilled boxes above cupboards or near doors, as is common practice in many hotels. The ducted units can also direct the air to more than one outlet through a number of ducts, with separate dampers in each duct for individual room control. These ducts must be insulated to avoid condensation.
It is usually the ducted system that is installed in the homes we work on in Chelsea. Ducted air conditioning is the most efficient cooling system for homes on the market today.
Ducted air conditioning works by funnelling cool air from a central unit (usually installed in your loft) through a series of ducts to every room in your home. The circulation of air is usually zoned, that allows you to control airflow, temperature and turning off any zones. This reduces the running cost and allows you to have the temperature of house where you are most comfortable.
Ideally, a ducted system should be installed when you are planning a complete home renovation or building a new home from a planning and layout perspective. However, it is just as possible to install these systems as a one-off project in your home.
If you are thinking about installing air-conditioning in your home, please do give us a call on 0208 191 7595. We’ll be happy to advise you on what would work best in your property. If you are planning a complete refurb, do consider booking a FREE consultation via our website. One of our team will visit your property, discuss your needs and share our suggestions and recommendations.
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Increasingly, homeowners are ditching unsightly radiators and moving towards installing underfloor heating throughout their homes. Not only does this free up wall space, but heat distribution is more uniform and even. However, there's a lot to consider before installing it, especially if your home is not a new build. We sourced this informative article in Homebuilding & Renovating; "Underfloor Heating - A beginner's guide"
Underfloor heating is an increasingly popular choice for homeowners looking to extend or renovate existing properties, and for self builders looking to build their own homes.
However, getting your underfloor heating system right requires a joined-up approach and involves the homeowner making some key decisions.
There are two main types of underfloor heating:
- ‘warm water’ or wet underfloor heating (which we will focus on here)
- electric underfloor heating
What is Wet Underfloor Heating?
In basic terms, a wet underfloor heating system features pipes, filled by warm water and powered by a boiler or heat pump, concealed within the floor, and typically embedded within a screed.
In effect, the pipes mean the whole floor acts like a radiator, warming the room from the ground up.
A whole-house underfloor heating system will feature separate pipe runs to each room or ‘zone’. This provides the opportunity to control the temperature and timing of each zone to suit occupancy patterns. For example, the living room may need to be warm through the evening while bedrooms need to be heated later in the day.
The Benefits of Wet Underfloor Heating
There are a number of key benefits, including:
- Due to the floor’s large surface area, the heat provided only needs to be a couple of degrees warmer than room temperature — the result is a gentle heat which rises steadily upwards, with no cold spots or draughts, making for a comfortable environment
- Being ‘hidden’ within the floor, an underfloor heating system does not take up valuable wall space
- Underfloor heating operates at a much lower temperature than a radiator system (40°C compared to 65°C) and so requires less work from the boiler
- For the latter reason, underfloor heating works well with renewables, particularly ground source or air source heat pumps.
How Much Does it Cost?
Underfloor heating costs from around £20/m2 to £40/m2 installed. Factors such as the size of the property, the amount of heating the building needs and whether it is a new build, renovation or conversion, will impact on the cost.
UFH is more expensive to install than a comparable radiator system — it typically costs 20% to 50% more.
Choosing the Right Screed for Your Underfloor Heating
The thickness of the screed in which the warm wet pipes sit will have a dramatic impact on how the system is used.
A thick screed will give a longer reaction time (the time taken to warm up and cool down), while a thin screed will have a quicker reaction time.
- If the pipes are housed in the concrete floor slab (sometimes the case for new homes), this is could be 150mm thick and give a reaction time of over four hours. In this situation, it is best to run the system all day, at a lower room temperature — say 15°C or 16°C — to provide background heating to the whole house. Highlight heating, such as a woodburning stove, is a good idea in the rooms that are occupied)
- A standard sand and cement screed would typically be 65mm to 75mm thick and the UFH could take upwards of two hours to heat the room or cool down. This situation may be well-suited to rooms where we spend a lot of time, such as lounge or kitchen, but might be less acceptable in a guest bedroom
- With thinner flow screeds, we might expect a thickness of 35mm to 40mm and a reaction time of around 30 to 40 minutes — the system can be run in a similar way to a radiator system. Flow screeds offer better thermal conductivity than sand and cement, and being thinner and lighter means that they can be suitable for both renovations and new builds
Which is right and best will depend on the construction of the house, your occupation habits and how you intend to use the house.
Which Floor Covering Should I Choose?
- Tiles, stone or similar are generally accepted as the optimum covering. They absorb heat rather than insulate and allow that heat to radiate into the room, but they are not the only option.
- Timber flooring will tend to insulate and reduce efficiency, but thinner profile engineered timber has little noticeable impact on heat output. Solid timber is notoriously tricky with underfloor heating — it needs to be acclimatised for around a month. Ask your supplier for advice
- The Carpet Foundation carried out research in conjunction with the Underfloor Heating Manufacturers Association which shows that some carpets can be used with UFH. The research showed that a carpet and underlay with a thermal resistance of less than 2.5 togs does not have a significant impact on efficiency
Whatever floor covering is to be used, it is a good idea to tell the underfloor heating designer so that the pipe layout can be properly specified.
How to Control Underfloor Heating
Underfloor heating system controls feature two main parts:
- a digital zone control that will be used to determine the temperature of each room/area
- the manifolds and valves that the zone control operates
The zone control will be placed somewhere where the homeowner can make adjustments, while the manifolds will be placed out of the way – under the stairs or in a cupboard – so as to be unobtrusive.
There is no regular maintenance regime associated with underfloor heating, but if things do go wrong, it will typically be with the control systems rather than the system itself.
Underfloor Heating for Existing Homes
One of the key challenges when installing UFH in existing houses is the depth of the system. Once insulation, the screed and final floor covering have been installed, the floor height may have been raised by some 150-200mm.
There are low-profile systems, developed specifically for that situation, that can be installed directly onto existing floors that offer significant savings in retrofit situations. Nu-Heat’s LoPro system, for example, was developed for this situation.
Nu-Heat’s LoProTM10 is an underfloor heating solution for retrofit purposes with a total build-up of just 15mm.
Low-profile systems tend to have smaller diameter pipes and run at a higher temperature. The impact of this is that the floor will heat up and cool down far more quickly than conventional UFH.
Where UFH is added to an existing radiator system then a different control system will be needed. Luckily wireless thermostats (some of which can be controlled with a phone app) make installation far easier.
Retrofit underfloor heating system will always be a bit more expensive to install, but the cost could be a lot higher if existing timber floors need to be taken up or concrete floors excavated.
What to Consider Before Installing Underfloor Heating
Ultimately, the efficiency and success of an underfloor heating system will depend on the quality and design.Therefore, choosing a supplier who offers a good design service and aftercare is important. A specialist underfloor heating company is often best placed to achieve this.
If the design is wrong it is unlikely that the homeowner will know until they have lived in the house for a whole heating season — by which time it’s probably too late.
Finally, if you are choosing to pair underfloor heating with a heat pumps it is a good idea to choose one supply and install company. Both are complex systems and getting the whole heating system to work in perfect harmony can be tricky.
Is it Worth Installing Underfloor Heating?
Radiators have served us well for many years: they are cheaper to buy; they are well understood and there is a huge choice when it comes to size, style and installers. But they are less efficient and take up floor space. Perhaps the biggest problem is that in larger rooms they can produce a temperature difference of up to 4°C across the room.
People want more energy-efficient houses and a system that gives a 15% reduction in energy demand (compared to a radiator system) cannot be ignored. And that is to say nothing of the greater comfort and the increased floor space that it brings.
What is Electric Underfloor Heating?
Electric underfloor heating is often cheaper and easier (particularly in existing homes) to install than wet UFH. However, the running costs can be three times higher.
It is often a good idea to install electric underfloor heating in a small, single area like a bathroom or en suite, where it may be difficult to install wet underfloor heating.
One of the most common – and worst – uses is in a conservatory. Typically these areas need a lot of heat and are used for relatively long periods of the day (compared to a bathroom).
Then running cost becomes the key issue and the extra trouble and expense of a wet system is well worthwhile.
Many of our clients, especially in the Chelsea and Kensington areas of London are moving from traditional radiators to underfloor heating. Do give us a call on 0208 191 7595 if it's something you are considering. We can advise you on the best way forward. If you prefer, you can book a free consultation via our website, where a member of our team will visit your property, discuss your needs and share our recommendations with absolutely no obligation.
