Originally Posted by Expatrick

True - although my apartment is ground floor so no benefit from below - though I am undoubtedly keeping Zsófi upstairs warm (!), 3 out of 4 perimeter walls are external, with big windows & unlike most apartments my entrance is a separate entrance opening direct onto the outside, so overall not a totally invalid indication. However the big difference is that my north facing wall is internal to the house!



Floor rug removed in summer to help keep cool!

Originally Posted by Peter_in_Hungary

There are 2 types of foundations mainly used in Hungary (although occasionally a reinforced concrete raft is used) either a full fill trench or strip foundation at the base and wall up to DPC level. For the full fill method the concrete is bulked out with stones. For strip method a concrete strip is poured at the base and a wall is built the same width as the house wall above. This wall is typically constructed of concrete shuttering blocks which are loose laid and then filled with concrete. This method is cheaper than full fill unless you have a (free) source of basalt rocks. The width and depth will depend upon the local ground conditions but will not be less than 500mm wide and 900mm deep. The strip method also has the advantage that if EWI is used then this can be carried down to the concrete to mitigate the cold bridge usually found at DPC level.

Your target house of 10m x 9m with a half height 1st floor is fairly common here but I would go for dormer windows as you get more useable space and they are much easier to get good thermal properties than the Velux type of roof windows which can lead to over heating in the summer and be cold in the winter. A 3M forint budget could be a bit of a challenge with todays prices.

I would not plan to install AC. If the house is well insulated and the south facing windows have a decent overhang from the roof to reduce solar gain then AC should net be needed. In the summer we run with the windows shut when it is hotter outside and open when it is cooler outside i.e shut during the day and open at night. Also it is worth considering mechanical ventilation with heat reclaim (MVHR) to run during the winter, spring and autumn. Modern houses with good windows and doors lack the draughts of old houses and so usually lack adequate ventilation unless design steps are taken to provide this and opening windows in the winter just doesn't happen enough.

The online building diary is filled in by the builder.

And yes learning the lingo is a pain and having a Hungarian partner/wife can be both an advantage and disadvantage (can make you lazy)


Apartments have very different heating demands to houses so a comparison is not very easy.

We've been here 25 years and run an organic farm

Originally Posted by warrenpeace

the house will have a south facing front so was planning on velux style at the north side of roof , but dormer is something i need to look into in respect to how complicated the roof design would get ,not my forte .

Originally Posted by warrenpeace

the heat recovery/ air change system has not been decided on yet but after treating many mould infested properties i am fully versed in the modern curse of hermetically sealed house . most people dont realise that even just thier breath can put a litre of water into the air in a day and if that moist warm air is not dealt with ,those cold areas of the house will have condensation problems closely followed by those lovely mould spore .

Originally Posted by warrenpeace

when you say the builder completes the site diary , would that be me as i am carrying out the work or did you mean a builder with a relevant qualification , sorry to ask again but need clarification .

Originally Posted by warrenpeace

my partner grew up in a childrens home in hodmezovasarhely and part of the daily routine was helping with the homes vegatable garden and chickens which provided a lot of the homes produce ,
we have a 2000sqm plot and my partners dream is to have this again so i will probably be asking some advice from you peter . but dont worry that is a year or 2 away (house needs building first .)

Originally Posted by Peter_in_Hungary

The Hungarian roof build-up is different to the UK. The typical roof timbers here are 10cm x 15cm rafters spaced at about 90cm attached to a 15 x 15 sole plate which is attached to a cast in situ reinforced concrete ring beam. Typically the dormer vertical timbers sit on the rafters which is why you see a lot of dormers 1m wide or if it is a wider dormer then perhaps on a sister rafter. It is the job of the architect to dream up the roof timbers and the job of the structural engineer to add realism to make sure that it doesn't fall down. Putting velux windows on the north side will avoid the solar gain but they leak more heat than dormers due to them pointing at the sky.

as usual peter very good info the velux issue i did not know about . i am in budapest early oct and am arranging to sit down with an architect to discuss my rough design and get info on how he would need to change to conform with hungary building regs .
will let you know what arises .

IMO MVHR would be the way to go and there are some reasonably cheap units that are available now and ducting is easy with a new build. You are right when you say that people don't realise the need for ventilation when they change to new windows. Locally a couple of years back a family changed to new windows and failed to account for the ventilation required for a gas heater. Unfortunately the result was a couple of deaths and hospitalisation as a result of the CO poisoning. That said the adage must be....built tight, ventilate right.
MVHR for domestic is not something im too up to date with but is something i am looking to use as per our previous discussion on the benefits of good ventilation and energy recovery .
any make/ company you could recomend so i can look into this before the design gets started in anger ?

You do the diary as you are doing (or are in charge of, in the case of subbies) the work.
thanks for the clarification peter , top man !

If the plot layout has been fixed then with advantage you could plant any fruit trees wanted in the relevant area this autum as these will take some time to start giving produce so to put them in now would put you ahead of the game.
you must be a mind reader , my partner called today to ask if we could get some tree planted before the build starts , turns out her and her daughter have been looking into fruit trees and have a friend who can source what we choose .

Have you applied for residency yet? The advice is to start that ball rolling before Brexit.

Originally Posted by wolfi

Some years ago I had the small company work again for me and I realised that there were two alcoholics on the team - in the morning their work was ok, but then. ...