What do I need in my renovation?

[penuchaf]

We're in the early stages of planning a renovation on what will hopefully be a long term house. We want to do it for us, and do it well, but we don't have endless money so can't have solid gold outside taps and a hand polished gravel driveway.

I'm a bit bowled over with all the things I need to think about so would love some tips, recommendations, pointers, whatever. For example, I want USB sockets in certain places, I read somewhere about making sure they were a certain type (grade? Output?) to ensure fast enough charging. I also need someone to talk to me in words of one syllable about network cabling and whether I need it. More broadly than that, I know I want a decent size coat/shoe cupboard, I also want an airing cupboard although this may be in the form of a radiator in a cupboard rather than a traditional hot water system.

So, please, what should I be thinking about/investigating or what do you wish you'd done when you did your renovation?

PS, it's a 1960s detached. Not a mansion.

@yikes

That’s a furphy that’s been out for a while. Tea or coffee with softened water is a negligible amount of salt. In fact if you drink softened water all day you’ve consumed less salt than a single slice of white bread.

The ionic transfer of calcium and magnesium with sodium ions is happening at a microscopic level- our water is considered very hard and is 227 parts per MILLION. That is water that has had magnesium and calcium exchanged for sodium at a rate of less than 0.02%. There is more salt in almost anything you consume than in softened water. It’s high compared to non-softened water, but it’s not actually high in any meaningful sense.

1 slice of white bread has approx 500mg of salt

0.02% of daily intake of water (2L) is 40mg of salt. If that amount of salt isn’t safe then white bread should basically be outlawed.

I agree with all the above however we have decided to have the kitchen main tap on the mains water as supposedly soften water tea tastes funny (some claim), also supposedly softened water is not good for watering plants with and for animals to drink. Don't know if any of that is true, but we will have one tap not softened just in case. Would be nice to have no limescale in the kitchen sink though.

I thought I was untouched by the rubbish people spout. ... I'm blaming my MIL. . Although when it's then stated not good for watering plants with and for animals to drink it doesn't inspire confidence.

ok I have no time for any proper research but there are many articles suggesting what I said, not sure it it is true but with so much contradicting info I will err on the side of caution and have my kitchen tap on mains water.

For example re watering plants www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/environmental/softened-water-and-plants.htm

Re pets drinking softened water pets.thenest.com/cats-dogs-drink-soft-water-10390.html

It also depends how hard the water in your area is in the first place as different amount of salt will be added depending on that.

As I'm running ours on maximum, and constantly putting salt in, I'm going to do the same can't quite let go of my 15 year long stupidity

I mean there’s no doubt- you’re getting more salt than you otherwise would but it’s minuscule, less than 1 slice of white bread. It’s perfectly fine for pets unless they basically don’t have kidneys. There is a suggestion that for the elderly and very young it’s problematic but the NHS recommend less than 1000mg of salt per day for a child under 12 months. Unless your baby is drinking 4-5 litres of water per day, they’re alright.

Keep in mind the amount of salt involved is microscopic amounts. Imagine how small 1g of salt is, and think that you’re talking HALF that from drinking your normal intake of water.

Ps- correcting my sums above - there are 1,000,000mg in a L so your intake from drinking 2L of water per day (at least in my house with 227ppm) would be 452mg of sodium. Still less than a single slice of white bread. Still less than the NHS recommended maximum for children under 12 months.

So it’s not 40mg/day but 400mg. Still less than you put in the dinner in the evening to give it some flavour.

What I actually do in my house is have the water all softened but get all my drinking water from the fridge which is filtered. I find that doesn’t have the softened water taste. Still make my tea and coffee with kitchen tap water though because I find it tastes better (although I think that’s just a preference thing)

Things that we are adding that I hadn’t thought about too much; sound insulation, ceiling speakers, quite a lot of strip leds for things like shower niches, wine cellar

The Berkey can also remove fluoride (as well as arsenic). Check out this article : theberkey.com/products/berkey-fluoride-removal-water-filter-pf2-set-of-2