The next steps in brief:
The strip-out has begun, covering the parts of the building dating from a total of three construction periods:
- The bakery building dating from the 19th century, parallel to Talstraße
- The extension dating from the 1960s (cross-wing and restaurant extension)
- And the hotel-room extension above the garden dating from the 1970s
will be completely gutted and stripped back to the shell. This is the only way to upgrade the building’s energy performance and bring it fully up to date in terms of today’s energy-efficiency requirements and energy costs. The previous gas heating system relied on gas delivered by tanker, as Sasbachwalden has no gas mains. The building’s thermal insulation no longer meets modern standards. In short, everything needs to change – and that is why “everything has to come out”.
We had originally thought that the kitchen, Talmühle’s “holy grail”, could largely remain. We now know that, as one might expect from the period in which it was built, the kitchen has no regulated extraction system and uses conventional heat-generating cookers. Working temperatures above 40 degrees are no longer acceptable and make recruiting qualified staff virtually impossible. In short, this area too is being stripped out …
In the rooms that had already been modernised, renewing the fresh-water and wastewater pipes as well as all electrical wiring makes retaining the existing furnishings practically impossible. All movable items that can be reused, particularly old cupboards and chests, have been placed in storage. They will be gradually restored over the next 2 years before being reintegrated into the hotel.
A silver lining: during the crisis in Ukraine, mattresses and bedding were needed to equip emergency accommodation for refugees. We were able to help the municipality of Sasbachwalden with our entire stock; all the items reached Kyiv and were warmly welcomed there. Before that, we had already helped the food bank in Bühl equip refugees with crockery, chairs and other everyday items.
This strip-out will soon be complete, and the appointed specialist engineers for heating, climate control, plumbing, electrics and building automation are currently presenting their planning results and recommendations. The discussion centred on the choice of the future heating and cooling system. The original plan to operate the hotel with pellet heating was abandoned in favour of connecting to the municipality of Sasbachwalden’s local heating network. Thanks to the excellent cooperation with the municipality and everyone involved, a bespoke concept was developed and implemented in a very short time and is already operating successfully. In addition, PVT modules will be installed on suitable roofs to generate both electricity and heat. The heat produced will feed into the heat-pump system and make an important contribution to sustainable hot-water provision – a crucial factor in hotel operations. At the same time, the heat pump enables modern air conditioning, something the old Talmühle never had.
