Libby and Jonah and their young family lived in rural Wales and had decided to renovate their cold and draughty 18^th century home. They had a total budget of £165,000 but had yet to talk to an architect.

They knew they wanted to re-configure the downstairs space, fit a new bathroom and kitchen and re-decorate throughout. However they also wanted to make their home much more energy efficient and replace their ancient oil boiler and radiators.

They decided to invest in our Masterclass service with one of our energy and heating Construction Gurus. Once they’d booked their session, they uploaded their information into their Buildertrend account. They outlined their situation, what issues there were with the house, and what they wanted to achieve. They scanned the estate agents details of their home which included detailed a layout and sizes of the rooms within their home. They also sent various photos of their current heating arrangements, and a quick summary of their energy usage.

During the Masterclass videocall, Rob, their Construction Guru, spoke with the couple to discuss their brief, understand their priorities in more detail and find out more about their lifestyle and usage patterns. He outlined some of the options that might be appropriate to get their views. Rob also asked them questions about their outbuildings, and they discussed certain features within their home with him.

Rob then discussed his initial thoughts with them. He suggested they replace their crumbling single glazed windows with sympathetically styled wooden double-glazed units. He explained how they could insulate the walls, the loft space and floors as well – and detailed what additional draught-proofing measures they could take with their open fireplaces, window-shutters and external doors. During the discussion they agreed that making the property more energy efficient and taking up the floors meant that installing underfloor heating downstairs (and low temperature radiators upstairs), run by an ASHP would now become viable. It was also discussed that the large un-used pantry could be used as a plant room. The couple were also very happy to hear that their garage’s south-facing roof would be ideal for generating their own electricity via a PV array.

The last part of the session was used by the couple to ask more detailed questions and double-check their understanding. This included getting our expert to advise them how to create a document to brief their new architect. They discussed next steps and checked their rough assumptions were realistic regarding the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme.

After the session the couple received a transcript of the meeting with Rob, as well as some brief notes to help them integrate the advice into their plans.

By investing as little as £385 of their budget on our Masterclass service, Libby and Jonah were able to brief their architect much more clearly from the outset – leading to lower design fees, and a set of more comprehensive designs.