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  • HPH340: How to reclaim VAT on a self build or conversion – with Andrew Jones

    HPH340: How to reclaim VAT on a self build or conversion – with Andrew Jones

    Andrew Jones explains how to reclaim VAT on a self build home or conversion as well as sharing some common pitfalls to avoid.

    Interview with Andrew Jones

    Andrew Jones has worked in construction since leaving school. Initially he was building and selling bungalows. However, as the housing market cooled he saw an opportunity to change direction slightly and started working for a local builders merchant. Their clientele were mainly self-builders and some years later one of the customers asked Andrew for a favour… seeing him as a diligent and organised individual he wondered if he could help him file a VAT reclaim. When word got out other people started knocking on his door and soon he realised this had potential to be a business. Now Andrew Jones (The VAT man) has been running for over a decade and he has built up a team around him.

    Value Added Tax (VAT) is built into many purchases

    When the UK joined the EU in 1972 part of the qualifying criteria was to have a Value Added Tax (VAT) system in place. VAT is a tax on goods and services whereby money is passed onto the government. Sometimes you may not even realise you’re paying it!

    Andrew says a lot of everyday goods are subject to VAT. He shares an example of shopping in a supermarket.

    If you spend £100 in Tesco, probably 50% of it was subject to VAT, which currently in the UK is 20%. So out of that £50 HMRC would be passed £10 of VAT.

    In some instances, such as gas or electricity, there may be a reduced rate of VAT.

    There is an incentive to create a new dwelling

    When it comes to housing in the UK, supply does not meet demand and so the government is keen to encourage more new homes to be built. One way they do this is with the DIY housebuilder scheme.

    You are eligible for a VAT refund if you are undertaking one of two projects.

    The scheme applies to new builds and conversions

    If you create a new dwelling, and it’s for you or a direct family member, then you should qualify for this scheme (and reclaim the VAT).

    A reclaim system makes it easier for retailers

    If you bought a new home directly from a developer you would not pay VAT. However, it gets more complicated if you plan to build your own home.

    For example, as builders merchants charge their customers VAT you couldn’t just wander in and say you were exempt! It would be a logistical nightmare for them and open to abuse. Instead, as a self-builder, you reclaim your VAT from HMRC at the end of the process.

    You must make sure you’re using the right scheme

    The scheme is split into two parts and it’s important to claim under the right one!

    431NB – for new builds

    431C – for conversions

    While it may seem like a clear distinction and that nobody could ever go wrong there are some tricky situations.

    Refer to the wording of your planning if you’re unsure

    Andrew shares an example of someone who is tackling a barn conversion but is also extending. There could be quite a large new build element of this project though.

    I quite often hear it said: “Oh yeah, I’m doing a new build barn conversion.” But there’s no such thing. It has to be a new build or a conversion. So the way that is decided the majority of the time is by the wording of your planning.

    The contractor on a new build should not be charging VAT

    If you’re using a main contractor on a new build project then materials and labour should be charged without VAT. Andrew gives an example.

    Off the top of my head, the ground worker, your SIPs company… the roofing contractor, the bricklayer who’s putting the outside skin up, the window company, then we get inside the carpenter, the plasterer, the electrician, the plumber, the granite worktop company, then we get the painter and decorator, then we get outside, the landscaper, the driveway, the tarmacadam company, all these people, none of them should be charging you any VAT!

    So it’s a project price.

    If the contractor isn’t VAT registered you should buy the materials

    Don’t be put off if your contractor is not VAT registered. However in this instance you should be purchasing all the materials.

    If the contractor did buy the materials there would be no way of passing on the VAT saving to you.

    Paying contractors VAT in the first instance is a disaster. Irrespective of Peter the plumber telling you, “I’ll give you a VAT receipt and you claim it back.” It won’t happen. The rules are they should not be charging you with the VAT.

    Retain all your invoices as you go through the project

    If you are buying the materials then you pay VAT as normal as you buy all your supplies but it is critical that you retain all the invoices for the reclaim at the end of the project. Ideally this would happen when Building Control sign off the building. Then you will have 6 months to submit your claim (this change was introduced in December 2023).

    If contractors say they have to charge VAT, get them to speak to their accountants

    Some of the tradespeople you hire may think they have to charge VAT, but this is not the case. So before you sign them up, give them an opportunity to chat it through with their accountant.

    A good accountant should know or be able to find out about this scheme. Andrew says there have been times when he has had to call accountants to bring them up to speed.

    Contractors want to charge VAT to make their lives easier!

    The reason some tradespeople may be keen to charge VAT is that if they didn’t charge VAT where it should have been charged, they would be liable to pay the shortfall. So by charging everyone VAT by default they are never going to run into that problem.

    Conversions are also 0% VAT but you get there in a different way

    With a conversion, when the contractor comes to site they should be charging you 5% VAT.

    You may buy your materials in the same way with the VAT included (currently at 20%) but collecting all your VAT invoices.

    Then when it comes to your reclaim, you get your 5% back that you paid the contractor and the 20% you paid for materials.

    So overall a conversion is the same as a new build in that by the end you will have paid 0% VAT.

    Invoices must have your name on it

    When it comes to the invoices there are a few things to note:

    • They must be in your name or your partners, but not in the name of the builder
    • They could also be VAT invoices with no name on
    • The invoices must be originals, not photocopies
    • They must be VAT invoices, not order confirmations or priced delivery notes or pro formas

    A problem occurs when your builder presents you with invoices, and says, “Oh, yeah, you weren’t here, I went and bought this for you.” Or when a builder says to you, “Oh, you don’t have an account at X, Y, Z. I’ll go down… book it to me, it’ll be fine.”

    If you do end up having invoices with the builder’s name on, HMRC will not reimburse you for these.

    Be diligent and put invoices in a safe place as you go through the project

    Andrew advises putting all your invoices in a big, waterproof plastic box as you receive them.

    In today’s world invoices may be emailed to you so print them out straightaway and add them to your box.

    Think of each one of these invoices as a £50 note! In other words really look after them.

    Once your house gets signed off by Building Control the clock starts counting down

    In an ideal scenario, once Building Control has signed off your house you would submit your reclaim.

    You can only do one return and you only have 6 months in which to do this. The clock will start ticking after your house has been signed off.

    It is possible to do a reclaim before the building gets signed off

    If you run into financial difficulty and you are forced to live in an unfinished house there is an option to claim before sign off. This may provide you with a little more cash to move the project on.

    In England and Wales, there is a authority which band your property for council tax. HMRC will accept that as one of your options in order to be able to submit the VAT reclaim.

    Certain goods and services are not included in the scheme

    Andrew says there are some items that you can’t claim for. Some of these might be obvious because they could be removed (white goods, tools, equipment, garden ornaments, etc.). Other items are not so obvious.

    When you go to buy your kitchen, first of all you have the hurdle of, are they supplying and fitting it? Or am I buying it? So is it zero rated or do I pay the VAT and claim it back? Then you have the hurdle of not everything in the kitchen qualifies for VAT exemption, or discounted VAT if it’s a conversion. The items in the kitchen that do not qualify as a rule without going into any great detail, other white goods, the fridge, the freezer, the cooker, and so forth.

    Large kitchen retailers such as Wren or Howdens provide complete breakdowns of every item they’re supplying but it’s important to get this from smaller companies too because HMRC will want to make sure all items are VAT exempt.

    Carpet is not included!

    There are a few bizarre things on the list of items that you cannot claim for. Although nearly all floor coverings are included, carpet is not. Perhaps this is to do with people removing the carpet when they moved house back in the old days.

    We’ll say a scenario here of floor covering where you’ve got carpets and we’ll say laminate flooring. The bill’s £3000 plus VAT but they’ve supplied and fitted it. So the carpet element It would be VATable, as would the labour for laying the carpet, yet the laminate floor and the labour for laying the laminate floor would be VAT exempt, because they’re supplying and fitting it, but not all of it because the carpet doesn’t qualify!

    If you’re hiring someone to file your reclaim, make sure it’s a specialist

    Andrew says he outsources his regular tax return to people who do it every day.

    So if you choose to hire a tax adviser to submit this claim on your behalf, make sure it is someone who does this regularly. Going to the accountant on the high street would probably not be a good option unless they were really familiar with these claims.

    Find out more

    Visit Andrew Jones’ website – the VAT man

    HMRC – DIY Housebuilder scheme

    HMRC – VAT refunds for new builds

    HMRC – VAT refunds for conversions

    Join The Hub to access our in-depth video case study of Buckinghamshire Passivhaus, a PH15 build

    Please connect with us

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  • HPH339: What is the Housebuilder’s Bible? – with Mark Brinkley

    HPH339: What is the Housebuilder’s Bible? – with Mark Brinkley

    Mark Brinkley, author of the Housebuilder’s Bible, explains how his book can guide you towards building a better home. He also shares some of the themes that have cropped up while he’s been editing the latest edition.

    Interview with Mark Brinkley

    Back in the 1980s Mark Brinkley was a developer, buying plots and building houses or flats in almost the exact same location he finds himself in today. However when the chancellor at the time Nigel Lawson ended double mortgage tax relief there was a market crash and Mark had three plots on his books and was up to his eyeballs in debt.

    With three young children to support one option was to ride out the storm and build himself a house. It was this task that made him realise how different the process was when you’re not just creating a magnolia box to sell but instead trying to put your own expression into a place.

    That process made me realise that there was a need for a guidebook here because I was struggling, even though I was a professional builder.

    40 years of distilled knowledge

    Mark says it’s more of ‘a project’ than a book and part of its success is that it continually evolves.

    Mark has only ever written one book but it is now up to its 15th edition.

    The purpose of the book has not really changed over time. It’s a hand-holding exercise to explain the process and without trying to sell anything.

    When he put together the first edition he started to think his way through a project, writing down all the steps.

    I still try and make it as a great introduction to the whole idea of house-building in general and self build in particular.

    Mark says about 90% of it hangs together nicely but of course with so many options there are some loose ends which he adds to a section called the Apocrypha (just to continue the biblical theme!).

    Key stages in the process include:

    • Finding a plot
    • Engaging with the planners to see what’s possible (there can be limitations)
    • Working through the design stages
    • Sorting out finance (making sure you juggle your aspirations with your means)
    • Hiring a builder (most commonly through a tender process)
    • Deciding your role (will your architect supervise or could you project manage?)

    Beware the sales machine

    In 1994, when Mark released the first edition of the Housebuilder’s Bible there was little in the way of competition or other resources. In fact the internet was still in its infancy! These days you can probably find all the information online but Mark warns that it can often come laced with a product or service.

    I’m not selling any services, any materials, just good old-fashioned, hard-earned experience put down on a page.

    Mark is also keen that you decide what to do with the information. He will drop a few hints and highlight potential pitfalls but the final course of action is down to you.

    Building ‘simply’ is always an option

    The model house is a case study that Mark uses to drill down on costs. In each edition it is a different project but it acts as a reference point to show how you could build a simple house on a flat site with few complications to a comfortable but not fancy standard. From this Mark goes onto explain how you could increase the specification or do things differently.

    Don’t miss out on comfort and good ventilation

    Mark says that the green building agenda has been his abiding interest and passion ever since he started working in construction. His most recent self build project embraced the Passivhaus methodology.

    I put quite a lot of emphasis in the last edition about just how lovely it is to have a warm, comfortable, well ventilated house. It beats having a 24-inch TV screen or a £50,000 kitchen any day of the week! And just the pleasure of coming into a lovely warm space in the middle of winter is fantastic. Also having a well ventilated space because British homes, by and large, are not. They are stuffy as hell or they are leaky, and stuff like that, to me, seems common sense. For a lot of people it isn’t common sense.

    Mark believes that Wolfgang Feist and the whole Passivhaus movement has been a great help because there is a clear path of what you need to do and why… Follow all the principles and it will work.

    Installing a gas boiler was a mistake

    One transition that has been noted in the recent editions of the Housebuilder’s Bible is the move away from burning fossil fuels for heating, perhaps opting for a renewable source (such as a heat pump) instead.

    It was around 2016/2017 when Mark was considering the options for his home and the general thinking at the time was that if you built a high performance home and put in a gas boiler you would only be using a very small amount of gas. While this is true, installing a gas boiler is a decision that still irks Mark. Today the zero carbon agenda has moved on and the default has become renewables.

    Find out more about Mark’s project. He takes us through it all in The Hub.

    With every edition the numbers are brought up to date

    When it comes to building a house everyone wants to get a firm grip on costs. Much of the information in the Housebuilder’s Bible will only change subtly between editions but costs are something that have changed dramatically.

    The inflation rate has gone up 8% per year

    Mark compared the model house from the 11th edition (in 2015) with the model house in the current edition (2023) and he discovered there has been a phenomenal increase.

    That’s an inflation rate of 8% a year in building when the published national inflation rate was – for a long time – virtually zero.

    Some prices have gone up and some products have changed

    The price increases are not across the board. Mark says that timber is a good example. It doubled in price but the UK imported a lot of timber from Russia and so when they invaded the Ukraine, that supply line closed overnight.

    Some finished materials, such as kitchens and bathrooms, or paint are largely unchanged. Mark wonders whether there were huge profit margins before and that they may have eaten into them a bit.

    Other tricks to watch out for include the products themselves changing. For example, plasterboard might have remained at £5 per sheet between the 1950s and the 1990s. However, the specification was going down over time.

    By the time they’d got an aerated gypsum in there it was like having a sheet of newspaper in terms of soundproofing. So the standards were getting lower. But lo and behold, the headline price is exactly the same.

    Self build is often the preserve of the wealthy

    Mark suggests that house-building in places like the South East has gone upmarket. There are fewer self builds than 10 years ago yet the amount of money spent on them has gone up significantly. While self build can be a route onto the housing ladder with help from family members in the trade, etc. it is only possible in places where land is plentiful and affordable (such as parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland).

    Even Graven Hill is dividing into two distinct markets

    Graven Hill is a flagship ‘self build and custom build community’ which aims to diversify the delivery options giving more people the opportunity to build or customise a house. However, as Mark reads it, the self builds are all grand designs!

    The houses up on the hill, the self builds, are actually very grand houses. They’re all completely different, chaotic in the great sort of Dutch self build… Lower down the hill we’ve got the custom builds and they look much like you’d see on a developer house anywhere in the country.

    Plan well to avoid running out of money

    When you’re building or renovating it can seem like the perfect opportunity to put all your fancy ideas in place but it is important to be realistic.

    Mark shares an example of a neighbour who is preparing for a green retrofit and has had to work through three iterations, each time simplifying the scheme to reduce costs and fall within the budget. So it’s imperative to cut you cloth accordingly.

    This may be a hard pill to swallow but it beats the alternative of plunging head first into the build and then discovering halfway through that you can’t finish it.

    Stretching out the project is about the only way to continue when funds are dwindling

    While you can save a bit of money here and there, there is no magical bullet (or wonderful plumber who’s half the price of all the others!) so when you are out of funds you have to claw your way back, working to fund the next stages. Self-builders can add years to their build programme. Do not think this is an easy option because there will be a big emotional toll.

    Hiring a quantity surveyor is money well spent

    One tip Mark has is to make sure you get a professional to work out what it is going to cost.

    We hired a quantity surveyor, despite the fact that I write a book that has building costs at the centre of it. Even I get nervous when I see a set of plans and think, how much is it going to cost? You know, can I estimate it to the nearest £100,000 let alone to the nearest £5000.

    A self build industry has emerged

    One thing that has changed as Mark has released his various editions of The Housebuilder’s Bible is the support industry around self build.

    A really interesting place to go is the National Self Build and Renovation Centre in Swindon which is now about 20 years old and it’s got better and better and better… Another good place to go to is the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth in North Wales. It’s always a fascinating place to visit, full of ideas and a bit more radical than the one in Swindon, but it’s an eye-opener.

    Mark also mentions the Self Build Education House at Graven Hill.

    Online, tools like Pinterest make gathering ideas for mood board easy.

    Find out more

    Buy the Housebuilder’s Bible

    Follow Mark Brinkley on Twitter

    Transcript

    Download a transcript of this episode.

    Please connect with us

    Subscribe, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts

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  • HPH336 : Ben’s Passivhaus 5 years on

    HPH336 : Ben’s Passivhaus 5 years on

    Ben Adam-Smith marks five years of living in his Passivhaus home by reflecting on his self build journey and what the house has been like to live in.

    Find out more about my project in the archive

    When I set up House Planning Help in 2012, at the back of my mind was the desire to build a house.

    I learnt a lot over the next few years and finally secured a plot of land at the end of 2016, going through the architectural design process in 2017 and ending up in my new home in October 2018.

    Episode 235 has links to all the podcasts I made going through the project. There’s also an episode where I reflect on my performance as a self-builder!

    And if you want to take things further, there’s a complete in-depth video case study in our membership community The Hub.

    Overall we are immensely proud

    Self build is a privilege. Not everyone gets to tailor a house to their needs so we are most grateful for having had the opportunity.

    Building a house when your kids are young is a juggling act but there’s a massive pay-off if you can get through it all unscathed.

    We have a home we love… and our kids can grow up with a bit more space and comfort.

    Having an experienced team helped massively

    Building a house is a team activity and we were blessed with a skilled, supportive team.

    A big thank you to Parsons + Whittley (Chris has since retired and closed his practice), Mars Builders (Mark has since retired but his son Ricky is continuing to deliver Passivhaus projects), Gabrielle Blackman and various consultants.

    This was our first time building a house and there are plenty of things that could have gone wrong. However, with a strong team around you and the willingness to listen I think it is much harder to go wrong.

    Passivhaus delivers on its promises

    One of the best decisions we made was building to the Passivhaus standard.

    We’ve talked a lot about the methodology over the years and why it works, but going through it first hand takes you to a whole new level of understanding.

    From an occupant’s perspective you quickly forget the problems of traditionally built houses.

    The indoor living environment is fantastic

    The temperature around the house is constant and even, there are no cold spots and it’s draught free.

    The mechanical ventilation system deals with moisture, removes smells and provides constant fresh air. It’s lovely and quiet. All the space is usable. Summer comfort is a reality. And we can afford to live in this space.

    From my experience, living in a certified Passivhaus is highly desirable.

    The MVHR system has been our biggest problem

    There’s not much to go wrong in a Passivhaus as it’s all baked into the fabric of the building, but the one piece of kit you must have is a mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery (MVHR). My unit has gone wrong a number of times.

    I don’t think I will ever get to the bottom of why I have had this much trouble and I’m pleased to report I don’t know of anyone else who has had lengthy bad experiences.

    It’s worth bearing in mind that everything needs maintenance and any equipment will go wrong at some point so specify the best you can, look after it and keep technology to a minimum (following the KISS principle – Keep It Super Simple).

    I understand the importance of MVHR in a Passivhaus but my concern is for others who might not be so persistent and will just switch it off instead.

    We should have gone with a renewable heating source

    In terms of regrets, the most obvious one was specifying a gas boiler.

    At the time – remember this was 6 years ago – I thought it was important to offer a future buyer a connection to the local gas main. A few years on and this doesn’t seem so vital.

    Not only did I pass up a more renewable option, but I invested in gas infrastructure (so there were costs laying pipes out to the road, getting the company to connect us, etc.).

    Although it would not be too complicated to upgrade to an air source heat pump, would it make sense to do it immediately? There’s a lot of embodied carbon in my decision.

    A timber build system would have made the house more sustainable

    Masonry cavity wall construction is still the most common build approach in England. As a newcomer to construction I was keen to understand more about it and hopefully inspire others heading down this path to improve the efficiency of their projects.

    As the years have gone by, if anything, it seems like the proponents of masonry cavity wall Passivhaus have turned to alternative construction methods. Considering the embodied carbon and lifecycle of a building is much more important these days.

    Join The Hub to access our in-depth video case study of Buckinghamshire Passivhaus, a PH15 build

    Client intervention can backfire!

    As a client this is your project and of course you are going to feedback so that you get what you want.

    However, if you’re working with a competent team a lot of experience is worked into their approach, designs, advice, etc.

    As the years roll by it’s been fun to reflect on some of our decisions.

    For example we specified French doors to open out onto the patio because we wanted that inside/outside living. In practice these are cumbersome. We’re always worried about the kids crashing into them or the wind catching them. And on the hottest days we definitely keep these closed. So we haven’t used them as much as we thought.

    On the architects initial plans they had specified a sliding door. While this would only have opened halfway in hindsight I think this would have been a better option.

    And there were other instances like this.

    When I look at where the kitchen, laundry room and bathrooms originally were I wonder whether they were close together to increase the efficiency of the services. Pipe runs would have been really short (and that means almost instantaneous hot water).

    We also messed with the plans a bit. We couldn’t understand why we had such a large utility room when we were still wanting a bigger kitchen.

    But the consequence of having a bigger kitchen (more open plan) meant we needed a steel for extra structural support. The way they had done it would have been cheaper.

    And then our changes meant the utility room was too small to house the MVHR, so it had to go in the garage!

    Did we mess up the architecture on the North East elevation?!

    Our changes with the kitchen also meant choosing what to do with the window, because in our horse-shoe style kitchen we’d have a sink in front of one window.

    So did we make both the windows smaller or have one big and one small?

    Effectively do we try and keep the symmetry (the view from the outside) or have it as we want on the inside?

    Initially this was what was proposed

    And this is what got built (after client tampering!)

    Obviously you are part of an iterative process and things will change but try to understand your plans from the design professional’s perspective. And keep asking questions until you feel you have a clear understanding.

    Large, heavy doors need constant adjustment

    I love the big chunky windows and doors we have in our house.

    However, the larger these components get the more work the hinges have to do. No matter how well designed they are, with heavy triple glazed units they gradually go out of alignment.

    So we’ve had to have them reset a few times.

    Also bear in mind that large components can catch the wind and when they slam THEY SLAM!

    Additional shading would increase summer comfort

    Over the last few years I’ve had a chance to experience how a Passivhaus can provide a refuge in extreme weather.

    On the hottest day the UK’s ever experienced (40C+) our house was around 25/26C inside.

    This is mighty impressive. We have never struggled to sleep at night. It works.

    We could go further

    As I’ve visited more Passivhaus buildings I’ve become fascinated by houses that cut out summer solar gains almost completely. When that happens you enter a whole new level of desirability.

    The veranda at Parc Y Rhodyn

    This is not advocating for mechanical blinds because they would just be something else that will use energy, require maintenance and go wrong when you least expect it!

    Can the building do more work? Or can we introduce some temporary external shading? It’s almost a Passivhaus vernacular.

    Loose ends

    The last few points are just little things that I thought were worth mentioning.

    Our driveway turning circle still scares people!

    A little bugbear of mine is when people arrive at the house and instead of turning in the turnaround they start reversing up the driveway. It can be okay if they are skilled but all too often people start driving onto the grass.

    While I’m reluctant to hand over much more space for a turnaround we may expand it at the pinch point in due course.

    I’m not convinced by the kitchen recirculation fan

    With mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) operating around the house, you don’t want to introduce an extract fan in the kitchen because this would conflict what’s going on.

    Instead you can have a recirculating hood. In our case it is a pop-up recirculation fan with a carbon filter.

    The idea is that it takes some of the impurities out of the air. I find it doesn’t work that well and so I normally I just leave it to the MVHR if I’m cooking something simple or open the windows for a short time if it’s something smelly.

    I still love my store room (room within a room)

    This happened by accident. My office can also do double duty as a guest room and so we had originally thought about putting in an en suite bathroom. However, we concluded that it would be wasteful as it wouldn’t get used that often.

    So we kept the space and turned it into a store room.

    All these years later I still love this space. My office looks so tidy because any files or other equipment (like the printer) lives in the storeroom.

    I would definitely create a storeroom again. Climbing into the attic is a distant memory!

    Pop-up plugs in our sinks have all broken

    It’s hard to remember little details. I don’t think we bought dirt cheap plugs but it’s fascinating how one by one they have broken.

    While I don’t think this is a result of cost-cutting this is the sort of thing that can happen if you cut costs in the wrong place.

    We didn’t cost up the garden plan

    If you have pushed your finances to the limit during a house build then there may be some elements of your project that you’ll deal with once you’ve moved in.

    For us, it was the garden.

    We did commission a plan for the garden but it was always on the agenda to tackle it ourselves.

    So each year we tackle another job.

    Even with us doing the work it’s probably not far off the mark to say we’re spending a couple of thousand pounds each year (plants, outdoor furniture, a shed, etc.).

    Podcast episodes mentioned

    My entire 6-year house build (told through my audio journal)

    How well did I do on my self build?

    Is mechanical ventilation just something else to go wrong?

    Transcript

    Download a transcript of this episode

    Please connect with us

    Subscribe, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts

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  • HPH324 : Why robust planning is vital for a home retrofit in stages – with Alan Budden

    HPH324 : Why robust planning is vital for a home retrofit in stages – with Alan Budden

    Alan Budden explains how a phased retrofit might work and what preparation is required. He also shares how he’s retrofitted his own home, which includes trialling an innovative roof solution.

    The house (after the retrofit)

    Interview with Alan Budden

    Alan has been on the podcast before. Last time he explained how simple design decisions can impact on energy performance and cost.

    In this session he reflects on his own retrofit which is getting towards the final stage.

    Alan’s practice Eco Design Consultants is well versed with deep retrofit and were the architecture firm leading the Kinver project.

    Get access to our in-depth video case study of the Kinver retrofit in The Hub

    If you have the funds, tackle a retrofit in one go

    Nobody ‘chooses’ to do a staged retrofit because it’s a better option to do all the work in one hit.

    Not only will it be cheaper overall (for example tradespeople might have to make a few more visits during a phased retrofit) but the disruption will also be minimised.

    And from a planning perspective it will be simpler too.

    There’s lots of junctions you have to consider in terms of how it’s going to be weathered and work during that stage, as it could be six months, it could be 10 years between stages. That’s one of the issues. So you end up detailing things, then for the final construction detailing it back.

    Retrofitting in stages is a way to progress with the money you have today

    Recently Alan has noticed a lot more enquiries from young families who are keen to upgrade their homes.

    Unfortunately they lack the funds for a comprehensive retrofit so Eco Design Consultants recommend tackling it in stages.

    The most important aspect is to have a whole house plan before you start.

    A staged retrofit could allow you to stay put during building work

    Depending on the size of the house one benefit of a phased approach is that you might be able to move around the house while the work is being done, thus save money on moving out and renting accommodation.

    Retrofit at an appropriate stage in the maintenance cycle

    All houses require maintenance and upgrading so there will naturally come a point where you’ll be spending money on your home anyway.

    The house still had single-glazed windows

    The single-glazed windows were not fit for purpose and had been something Alan had wanted to change ever since he bought the property. While he could have upgraded to double-glazing he bided his time so that it would be a switch straight to triple-glazing. His cladding was also tired and needed replacing so doing all these things together can contribute to the project costs.

    The front of the house (before the retrofit)
    The back of the house (before the retrofit)

    Think of a deep retrofit as creating a house for life

    A deep retrofit is significant work so it’s unlikely that you’d just want to sell the house straightaway afterwards. So you should be trying to make the house work for you now and into the future.

    Think carefully about how you want to live in the house. Could you also add a bit of value (by increasing floor area, if needed)?

    Can the house shape be simplified?

    Alan wanted to do the design work himself

    Despite having an architecture practice at his disposal, Alan thought the ethical approach was to do the design work and modelling himself. Consequently progress was slow, being confined to evenings and weekends.

    Modelling the house in PHPP is a key step

    Alan says that after deciding how you want to live in the house and optimising the layout, the next step is to begin modelling it in the Passive House Planning Package. Setting an energy target for the project, such as the Passivhaus retrofit standard EnerPHit, helps inform decisions about insulation, windows, etc.

    The shape (or form factor) of the house was improved

    Where the first floor was slightly smaller than the ground floor Alan decided to square up the building. This increased the floor area, allowing for a new dressing room and increasing the size of the en suite. but also simplified the shape of the building.

    Alan’s knowledge meant he could optimise his approach

    When selecting materials Alan was always looking at a balance between cost, performance and embodied carbon.

    I looked at some interesting things with the external wall upstairs. Timber frame work projects off the wall with GRP brackets with just ordinary cavity wall insulation inside. So I’ve looked at the DriTherm 32, the DriTherm 36 and a couple of others, so it’s different types of mineral wool. And as it was less… the thermal conductivity was worse, the density was less, and the embodied carbon was less and the cost was less. So trying to optimise how thick the insulation was, and which ones I used was quite interesting. And depending on what sort of brackets I could get as well for the timber frame. So it was quite a complex lot of options.

    Think how you can stretch funds

    Alan planned to do parts of the work himself to save money and therefore, hopefully, take the project further.

    He was also planning to test a new roof system which would be manufactured off site and placed onto the existing trusses, but it had a few teething problems. Knowing there would be a delay in the programme there was nothing to be gained by hiring builders to get through the work quickly.

    The builder was happy to step in as required

    Alan describes how he and his family put on the membrane (from the scaffolding). The builders then came and put the brackets on and the timber framework. And then it was back to Alan and family to fill it with insulation. And so on.

    After taking the roof off the utility room and building upwards, they stripped the tiles off the rest of the building and made a few adjustments in preparation for the new roof cassettes.

    A stick-on airtightness membrane, Siga Majpell 500, was installed.

    A multi-purpose roof was manufactured off site

    Alan has always been interested in how retrofit might be tackled at scale and as such he’s been part of a group developing an innovative roof panel system.

    With funding from Innovate UK the project has progressed and he has become the guinea pig for the first full installation.

    The idea was to develop a structural roof panel that includes PV and solar thermal, using that to heat the house.

    Off-site manufacture comes with benefits

    Using a crane the panels were lifted into place in just one day.

    This is a big health and safety benefit because it reduces the amount of time that people are working at height.

    Alan comments that making the roof panels have more than one purpose should bring about some economies of scale.

    Unfortunately some of the technology underneath the panels that was being used to cool them didn’t work as planned, so they are looking at an alternative and hoping to lift off two of the panels off and replace them with new ones. Then they can get them plumbed in and see how much energy they are reaping from the roof and how that’s helping to improve the performance of the PV.

    Project delays meant Alan was without a roof for 6 months!

    With development delays and then the pandemic Alan was caught in a tricky situation. He had taken off his old roof, added a membrane and then discovered the roof panels were not ready!

    The manufacturers of the membrane normally suggest that it can be exposed to the elements for up to a month.

    So Alan had a challenge on his hands, particularly when a big storm came along.

    My roof was left exposed for just over six, including the winter, which is not the best of times, which meant that I was getting condensation forming on the inside because the insulation was planned to be put on the outside and I had some insulation left in the loft to keep us a little bit warm in the winter. So I was having to mop it down, which shows you really, the amount of water I was taking off was quite considerable. At the worst times, I almost had a bucket full of water. I was at the end of it with my mop! And it does show you how much moisture you’re putting out as a family. And if that’s going to condense somewhere that could cause all sorts of problems. Luckily I could see it, I could deal with it. And now obviously that’s gone away.

    The membrane did survive and seems to be doing its job.

    Get the MVHR online as soon as the house becomes airtight

    In a new build the MVHR might be commissioned towards the end of the process but in a staged retrofit it needs to go on sooner, otherwise moisture and CO₂ will build up.

    The only downside of that is you will probably go through more filters as they get clogged up with the dust and the dirt from both the outside and the inside. Alan has been switching off the unit altogether if there are particularly dirty or dusty jobs going on.

    The insulation will go internally on the ground floor

    Alan wanted to keep some of the brickwork visible externally to match other houses in the estate, which means an internal insulation strategy is required downstairs.

    The windows downstairs will open outwards to maximise insulation on the frames

    All the windows upstairs have been changed because they went within the external insulation so they’re opening inwards. On the ground floor we’re doing internal insulation and those windows can open outward so we can maximise the insulation onto the frames on the insides. So there’s a number of windows downstairs still to be done. I did, we did take a few opportunities to insulate some of the windows on the ground floor, for instance outside our snug and the downstairs toilet because there’s some external cladding there with some vertical battens instead of horizontal just to emphasise… a bit of architecture! And also squeeze in a bit more external insulation.

    There’s added motivation as they near the end of the project

    The final stage of the project will be to insulate internally on the ground floor and replace the windows.

    One of the things that’s happened because of the extended programme is that we’ve been able to keep going. We weren’t necessarily expecting to do the ground floor stuff straightaway but it’s carrying on now! And because upstairs is so much warmer than downstairs, it’s really given us an emphasis to say we need to get this done. You realise the difference. Generally upstairs has been about three to four degrees warmer than downstairs. And that shows all the Passivhaus physics that air moves when there’s three to four degrees difference.

    The builders will come back to replace the windows

    With a house that’s getting warmer as the project progresses, the builders will be coming back to install the windows.

    This will get the changeover done quickly.

    Then it’s back to Alan and family to tackle the internal insulation room by room.

    So we’ll put some studwork up, insulate it, membrane it, re-plasterboard and finish it off. And also on the ground floor, what was going to be phase three that I think might happen at the same time is the floor insulation. The plan is to dig up the screed, put down a phenolic insulation and the board on top.

    A preliminary air test was conducted before the roof went on

    Having installed all the airtightness membranes as a family, Alan wanted an airtightness test before the roof panels went on.

    There were a few reasons for this. While they are always interested in an overall score, it’s more about identifying key leakage hotspots that can then be fixed.

    As with the Kinver project, once the roof is on there will be little hope in fixing leaks in this area.

    That’s why attention to detail is important. The number on this first test was 1.7 air changes per hour at 50 Pascals.

    Biggest risk with retrofit in stages is having to redo work

    Alan says one takeaway from the project is the importance of a well thought out initial plan.

    One thing I’m not enjoying quite so much is in our utility room and kitchen, I had already insulated some of the wall there with 50mm of polystyrene, mainly because at that stage, I was worried about the interstitial condensation. So I was limiting it to what I could do. But because now I’m insulating some on the garage side as well, I can increase the thickness of insulation internally. So I’m having to take out some insulation to put different stuff back in, which is a little bit frustrating to be honest. So get the whole plan done, make sure that works, and then do bits towards it, because that way you’re not going to be replacing those bits.

    Find out more

    Visit the website of Eco Design Consultants

    Follow Alan on Twitter

    Transcript

    Transcript-of-House-Planning-Help-podcast-episode-324-Alan-Budden

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  • HPH322 : An EnerPHit standard retrofit of a Victorian mid terrace home – with Guy Hargreaves

    HPH322 : An EnerPHit standard retrofit of a Victorian mid terrace home – with Guy Hargreaves

    Homeowner Guy Hargreaves reflects on adapting and expanding his Victorian mid terrace home, retrofitting the whole building to EnerPHit standard.

    Interview with Guy Hargreaves

    Initially we chatted with Guy Hargreaves (episode 297) about his aspirations for upgrading his period property for energy efficiency, comfort and to future-proof it for a less hospitable climate. He had gone through the design process and gained planning consent to adapt and extend the property, and targeted Passivhaus standard (largely helped by the form or shape of the building) for the project.

    In this episode Guy returns after the renovation and reflects on the construction stage as well describing what the house has been like to live in.

    Guy has been fantastic in sharing the journey in our membership community, The Hub.

    Go behind the scenes of this deep retrofit. Get access to our in-depth video case study in The Hub

    Access issues meant a lot of manual labour

    The project began in February 2021 with the strip-out but initially everything had to be removed through the front door! As the one-way street was narrow construction waste had to be dealt with immediately, so it was placed into the back of a truck, driven to the builders’ yard and sorted there.

    Access improved after a ‘win win’ arrangement

    As time went by, Guy managed to negotiate access through a private car park at the rear (on an adjacent road). In return he offered to resurface the car park at the end of the process, fix the lights and replace the fence.

    The rear (before work began)

    Before the renovation

    Visualisation of renovated home

    Visualisation of the proposed scheme (at the rear)

    New foundations were prepared for the extension

    At the rear of the property a small lean-to extension was demolished and fresh foundations were dug for the new extension which would be the width of the property. A digger was craned into the garden from the car park to make the excavation work easier.

    Tonnes of soil was removed to prepare for the new foundation.

    Then the concrete went in, followed by a layer of insulation and a floating concrete slab.

    Steels help open up the old house, but were not necessary for the retrofit

    A key element of the brief was to open up the space and so a couple of walls on the ground floor had to go. Structural steels spanning the width of the house were added to take the loads from above.

    Some steels already existed in the house from previous renovations but these needed to be replaced.

    A contingency is always essential on a retrofit

    It is impossible to predict everything that may crop up during a retrofit which is why a healthy contingency fund is always required. One ‘nasty’ on this project was the condition of the bay.

    Although a homeowner’s survey was conducted when the property was purchased it did not flag up any issues. However as the building was stripped back cracks around the windows and crumbling brickwork were revealed, and it became clear that a structural engineer would have to take a closer look.

    The outcome was that the bay needed to be rebuilt at ground level with some underpinning necessary at basement level.

    Insulation and airtightness strategies change around the building

    With a mixture of new and old, brick and timber, combined with planning constraints the technical design utilises several difficult wall build-ups. For example, at the front of the property the appearance had to be preserved and so an internal wall insulation strategy was necessary. This breathable build-up has several layers including a diathonite plaster (the airtightness layer), wood fibre board and a lime based plaster.

    The ceiling height in the basement was not as generous as the floors above but removing a 75mm screed layer gave them a bit of wiggle room to add 40mm of rigid insulation.

    Up in the attic room rigid insulation was used in the roof. And at the back of the house softer wool batts were filled the timber frame.

    Larsen truss built on site for rear extension

    The new extension is timber frame and uses a twin stud Larsen truss (300mm) to create a decent size cavity for the required insulation. Cutting and erecting it on site is a simple and cost effective route to achieve high performance.

    The room at the top of the house was expanded

    A previous owner had converted the loft but the sloping ceilings made it slightly awkward space so Guy planned to open it up on the garden side (south side), which also affords the best view in the house.

    Original rooflights before dormer room was created

    The skylights before the renovation

    Guy understood the overheating risk of the dormer room

    That whole south side we glazed in a rather aggressive and somewhat controversial scheme that is going to be a work in progress over time because that dormer is the top of the house… The heat in the house tends to rise into the dormer and add to the solar gain.

    External blinds will be installed if ever needed

    While over-glazing will lead to overheating Guy did not have his eyes closed. Instead he made sure that there was a strong back-up plan. So there were plenty of window ventilation options as well a reverse cycle heat pump, which can be used for cooling. However, if the temperature becomes unbearable then the ultimate solution will be external shading.

    Guy stepped in as quality control

    Much like Mike Coe’s experience in Portree, Guy decided to monitor quality.

    He was on site every day checking how the airtightness layer was coming together, highlighting potential weak spots.

    Airtightness became a personal challenge

    I knew that we would get the insulation right. But I had absolutely no idea that we would get the airtightness right. And the airtightness, it’s like a stop go thing. It’s like blowing up a balloon. If there’s a hole in it you will get found out.

    The biggest worry would be areas where the airtightness layer gets hidden by the construction.

    Interim airtightness tests highlighted areas that needed attention

    Guys likens airtightness to ‘compliance’ in the corporate world. He suggests that those in charge of the results should almost be separate from those doing the work.

    Pressurising the fabric of the house and using smoke pens to identify leaks was essential to eliminating draughts and improving airtightness.

    Airtightness is really about chasing down your problems.

    Pausing construction to perfect the airtightness is not realistic

    In an ideal world the required airtightness would be achieved before any finishing work was carried out.

    With a team of builders on site it becomes increasingly difficult to address small airtightness issues without progressing work elsewhere in the building.

    Delays in ordering increased pressure

    With supply chain issues the sequencing on this project added another layer of complexity. Lead times could change overnight.

    Architects’ contract administration a good call

    One of the more valuable things we did was to engage with my architect in an administration contract, which included a fortnightly visit on site, and that kept a level of professional focus on what was needed, what was coming up, where the timing was, what was being realistic, etc.

    The Passivhaus standard became a step too far

    EnerPHit is the retrofit standard for a reason. It is hard to modernise existing buildings and this is why it’s a slightly less stringent target.

    Although Guy held onto the goal of achieving the Passivhaus standard target of 0.6 air changes per hour (@ 50 Pa) until the ‘grim death’ there came a point where he realised it was too much of a stretch.

    Work in the basement apartment had been halted to focus on the main house so that Guy and Susan could move back in as soon as possible.

    So the first ‘official’ airtightness test of the main house was after they had moved back in (March 2022). At this point it became harder to carry out remedial work.

    And an airtightness test for the basement was still needed for an overall result (which came a few weeks later).

    The final result for the whole house was 0.95 (ACH @ 50 Pa).

    Knowing the ‘Hurculean’ effort that went in Guy is immensely proud.

    That’s what the EnerPHit standard is about… recognising the almost exponential effort in getting from 1 ACH to 0.6 ACH (@ 50 Pa) in a property that’s already built.

    Comfort tops the benefits

    Guy laughs about being able to wear shorts and a t-shirt almost all year round!

    He also points out how quiet and still the house is.

    With an all electric house the bills are likely to be 1/5 of what they were before, but clearly there has been a massive upfront investment.

    Solar PV is the only missing element!

    In some respects the people I’m feeling most envious about today are those who have 10 kilowatts of solar PV on their roofs.

    With an efficient heat pump providing heating and cooling for the house as well as the hot water, Guy has got nearly everything for the resilience and future-proofing he wanted.

    However, there were not many good options for a solar installation. The flat roof at the top of the house was the obvious one but it only had a couple of kilowatts potential.

    I didn’t think that that was worth the trouble, to be honest. But given everything else that we were doing, it was just probably the straw that broke the camel’s back.

    Good communication and a stable relationship with your builder is vital

    Having been through building processes before Guy has been reminded how important it is to have a stable relationship with your builder. The key to this is staying calm and talking through any challenges.

    Changing your builder is a vastly complicated process and it’s made even more so when you’re halfway through a Passivhaus. And you wouldn’t find another builder to want to take it on. So having a strong relationship with the builder is super important.

    There is an appetite for retrofit in the UK

    Guy has already opened the doors of his home to local community groups interested in retrofit.

    There is an enormous appetite in Oxford, and I think probably UK wide, for all or some or most or half of the things that we’ve done to our property.

    Watch our documentary of the Kinver project in The Hub

    Find out more

    Check out part 1 – our interview with Guy before construction began

    Visit the website of Eco Design Consultants

    Transcript

    Download a transcript of this episode.

    Passivhaus Open Days

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  • HPH312 : Building a tiny house with natural materials – with Jeffrey Hart

    HPH312 : Building a tiny house with natural materials – with Jeffrey Hart

    Jeffrey Hart, natural builder and host of the Building Sustainability Podcast, explains what he’s learnt designing and crafting his own tiny house.

    Interview with Jeffrey Hart

    From an early age Jeffrey Hart had a love for making things. He recalls visiting a friend’s house and using a few tools and some scraps of wood to make toy boats. His teachers also encouraged him and would even open up the school on Saturdays so he could continue his project work. After studying industrial design at university he worked as a graphic designer for a while before taking a break and going abroad.

    On his travels he came to a small town in Canada where the inhabitants had built themselves homes from straw bales and incorporated re-used materials. It wasn’t long before they got him involved plastering and just like that he was building again.

    After 5 years on the road, Jeffrey returned to the UK with his mind set on natural building. A first step was enrolling on The Prince’s Foundation Building Craft Apprenticeship which offered practical training and served to introduce him to like-minded people.

    Finding affordable land is a challenge for any house build

    Jeffrey had been searching for land for a house build for some time but ran into the same old problems.

    • Buying a piece of land without planning permission was a massive gamble.
    • Buying a piece of land with planning permission was costly and meant he would have little money left for the build.

    So for many years he lived on a canal boat. This kept his costs down and meant he could stay in London because the cost of rent was pushing him further and further out. It wasn’t without hardships though.

    “The hard reality of winters when you’d get home and I had a diesel heater as a heat source, you turn that on. And all you could really do was get straight into bed wearing all your clothes, because it will take that long to heat up. And that was just my normal life for a long time.”

    Building a tiny house keeps costs down

    Having travelled for a number of years and also lived on a boat where you could only stand upright in certain places, the prospect of a bespoke tiny home was attractive.

    Jeffrey had all the skills to build it and relished the opportunity to make this a showcase project.

    Land was still an issue, but instead of buying a plot he was now looking to park his tiny home somewhere.

    A movable home doesn’t need planning permission

    Tiny homes are built on trailers for one important reason: it sidesteps planning regulations. In other words you don’t need to own land because you have a movable house… you just need to find somewhere to park it temporarily.

    Jeffrey sent emails to every landowner he knew

    Although a lot of Jeffrey’s emails were ignored his persistence paid off. By probing his existing network Jeffrey was able to source a great opportunity, a win win situation in fact.

    The owner of a 700 year old estate in West Somerset proposed a work exchange for his rent, and this is when Jeffrey knew his tiny house project was all systems go.

    Think how you want to live in the house

    Jeffrey wanted to be fully immersed in the design and build of his home.

    After years on the boat he also had certain pain-points to avoid.

    Top of that list was a warm house with better cooking facilities, and the ability to stretch out on the floor for exercise, etc.

    Not having designed anything since university he went to basics to figure out his layout.

    “I drew out on squared paper the very small footprint of my house. And then I got a little piece of paper that I made the size of a bed, and I got a little piece of paper that I made the size of a desk, and a little piece that looked like a wood stove, and I moved them around.”

    So Jeffrey had the frame and structure all designed out, including the size and placement of the mezzanine.

    “What I realised quite early on is that I don’t have that architect ability to know what is a comfortable space just by seeing it on a floor plan. I knew that I needed to get the design 80% there. And then I needed to get inside and actually feel the space.”

    A tiny house starts with the trailer

    Most tiny builders start with a trailer that is 2.5m x 6.5m.

    The trailer is rated for 3.5 tonnes. You can buy a bigger, bulkier trailer but then you need a bigger, bulkier vehicle to move it.

    So the key constraints of a tiny house build come from the trailer – a width constraint, a height constraint and a weight constraint.

    The ‘weight budget’ impacted on every decision

    Using a spreadsheet Jeffrey was able to tally the overall weight of the building.

    This in turn added another layer to the decision making.

    For example, when it came to insulation it was not just about looking at the different materials and their properties.

    “Choosing woodfibre over wool adds 100 kilograms to my weight. And I’ve tried to explain this when I was talking to people. I’d phone up people for advice and they’d just laugh and go, it’s insulation, it’s light. Well it’s not when you add it all together. And then you’ve got a maximum limit of 2.9 tonnes. So 100 kilograms is a 29th of my weight budget.”

    Jeffrey hit his weight budget simply by making a well insulated, well detailed building.

    Therefore his design means key components, such as the kitchen, come apart and can be removed.

    Not all tiny homes are healthy or well built

    During Jeffrey’s research he discovered that a lot of tiny house projects had issues. For example they might use a stud frame infilled with spray foam (that contains all sorts of nasty chemicals) or there might be considerable thermal bridging around the steel base.

    This provided extra motivation to make this build a showcase for natural materials and good design.

    Tiny house living should be as green as it gets

    Reducing the scale of any project is the biggest step you can take towards eco living.

    However, Jeffrey points out that a 600kg steel trailer is a big carbon emitter.

    There’s also the question of how often these houses get moved… but Jeffrey is hoping to stay put for a while at least.

    Highly efficient homes embrace building science

    Jeffrey was keen to apply everything he had learnt in his career, making this a highly efficient building. Thus he focused on creating a high performance building envelope and including triple glazed windows and a mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery (MVHR). This is certainly not common in the tiny house world.

    “I do think it is quite rare to do a full wind tightness, fully taped exterior, a proper, breathable airtightness membrane interior.”

    Plant-based materials are used as much as possible

    It’s a standard timber frame (a box frame that starts above the trailer to avoid cold bridging) with wood fibre bats between the framing. Cork clads the entire exterior.

    The flooring is local ash from a saw mill 20 minutes away.

    The work surfaces use London Plane timber that had been planked and left unused on the Somerset estate.

    Building alone requires a different mindset

    Being both client and builder has been one of the biggest challenges of this project. Through choice Jeffrey has done 99% of the work himself. However, he’s not used to this and has had to reset his expectations of what can get done in a day, week, month or even year.

    Therefore while he’s solving problems there’s nobody else progressing the build.

    “I’m so used to different parts of a build happening at the same time, they all come together and fit into each other. But for me just building, I have to just work on one little thing, move on to the next, and keep going like that.”

    The wood stove is a necessary evil… for now

    Jeffrey is fully aware that getting heat from combustion is not a great idea both for internal and external air quality. However, an electric heating system that runs off solar was out of his price range.

    So he’s installed underfloor heating to future-proof his home so that as the cost of solar comes down he can switch across (and it’s also available if he ever ends up parking somewhere with an electrical hookup).

    Biophilic design led to the cruck frame

    In the centre of the house is a round wood timber frame.

    Through the Building Sustainability Podcast he’s got on to the idea of biophilic design, using natural elements in your building for the health benefits.

    “It’s excessive and it doesn’t particularly hold any real function. It adds some stability to the build. But it’s overall just there because I think it’s a beautiful thing to live in a space with trees in their most natural form.”

    Keep learning and experimenting

    Jeffrey set up the podcast for two reasons. Firstly he felt that there weren’t many good podcasts about natural building. He also realised that now that he was running sites he was the one teaching others what to do rather than learning himself. Having a podcast allows him to have thought-provoking conversations.

    I think some of the best episodes are when I go on a slight tangent and I’m talking to… a great example, I was talking to some people from an organisation called Full Grown, and they grow chairs. They use coppice and grafting techniques to grow chairs, still on the tree. And then after so many years they cut it down, turn it upside down, and it’s a chair.

    After making this episode he then discovered there was someone in Germany attempting to grow houses!

    Find out more

    Visit the website of the Building Sustainability Podcast

    Follow Jeffrey Hart on Instagram

    Follow Jeffrey Hart on Twitter

    Download a transcript of this episode

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  • HPH311 : Should we celebrate architecture that performs poorly?

    HPH311 : Should we celebrate architecture that performs poorly?

    Richard Hawkes from Hawkes Architecture reviews the Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) of the RIBA House of the Year longlist and asks why we are showcasing poorly performing architecture.

    Interview with Richard Hawkes

    Richard Hawkes is the founder of Hawkes Architecture, which has developed a speciality for designing outstanding houses that are built in open countryside. There’s a clause in the National Planning Policy Framework that makes this possible in exceptional circumstances (and Richard has been on the podcast before to explain how it works).

    However, in this podcast he’s going to be reviewing the EPCs of projects that have featured in the RIBA House of the Year competition.

    Measuring performance is an important check

    When Richard built his house Crossway he received funding from Cambridge University to monitor various aspects of its performance. The research wanted to explore building physics and lifestyle.

    So sensors were placed in various parts of the construction, including on the breather membrane layer, within the insulation and inside the thermal envelope.

    The temperature was measured at these various points as well as relative humidity.

    In terms of lifestyle, early versions of OWL Monitor and Current Cost Monitor were used to measure wattage and time.

    Richard gives an example of finding out how much his iPhone cost to charge over the course of a year. It was just 35 pence! In other words we have very little sense of which appliances are using the most energy.

    Building performance evaluation should be commonplace

    Some people are measuring apples on one house, some people are measuring pears on another house and somebody else’s measuring oranges, and each one of them might say, “Oh my house is doing really well.” But it’s difficult to find the data to compare one with another. EPCs are trying to do that, but it’s not the best tool ever.

    An EPC is a rough guide to how a building performs

    An Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is a document that tries to reflect the energy efficiency of a building on a scale of A-G. Thus an A-rated property should perform the best and have the lowest bills. Although it records many useful aspects of the building, such as insulation values and airtightness, it makes a lot of assumptions in the Standard Energy Procedure calculation (SAP). Therefore it has plenty of critics who conclude it is inaccurate.

    It is a legal requirement that all buildings have an EPC and therefore if you build a new house you will need one before Building Control will sign off.

    In order to get an EPC, an energy assessment will be carried out by an accredited energy assessor. The certificate will then be valid for 10 years.

    You can look up a building’s EPC using a government database – England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

    The Energy Performance Certificate for Crossway

    EPCs are calculated differently for older buildings

    As there is less information available for older buildings they use a slightly different system called RdSAP or Reduced Data SAP.

    Crossway has recently been reassessed with RdSAP

    With EPCs introduced in 2007, Richard’s self build ‘Crossway’ was one of the first houses to need to renew its EPC. Despite having used the original SAP for the first certificate the reassessment had to use RdSAP!

    “As I understand it, Reduced Data SAP doesn’t have any allowance in it for MVHR. You go what?! What other things did it not have?”

    Even the assessor added to the list of failings saying there was no way to account for solar gain and no way to add airtightness results.

    ***Fortunately since recording this podcast Richard has found out that the SAP accredited body, Stroma, have agreed that Crossway can still be assessed under SAP, but there will need to be a new airtightness test.***

    RIBA House of the Year 2021 – longlist data

    Celebrated projects often do not perform well

    Richard keeps a log of all his practice’s projects and he was intrigued to see how their EPCs compared to projects given the top accolades.

    So he obtained the EPCs for all the latest RIBA House of the Year projects.

    “I know that in these awards there is a requirement to submit details about energy performance, but the fact that the house that won doesn’t actually have an up-to-date EPC certificate, doesn’t have an EPC certificate that represents the building with that development, I find that problematic.”

    Only one of the houses on the longlist of 15 projects was an A-rated house, the Devon Passivhaus by McLean Quinlan.

    Richard then extended the research to cover all years of the competition.

    In the duration of the competition there have only been two A-rated houses that have won.

    Across all the longlisted projects (roughly 250 houses) the average airtightness is 4.1!

    “We know how good heat recovery ventilation is at helping to reduce the heat requirement for a building, in maintaining air health and CO₂ levels, relative humidity. But for the average, across all of those buildings built just in the last decade to be that high I think it’s really quite shocking.”

    Conversely Richard’s own practice Hawkes Architecture has 17 projects to date and every single one is an A-rated house. The average SAP score of his projects is 102 compared to the average of the House of the Year projects being just 81.

    Better building regulations drives up standards

    Richard points out that improving building regulations is one way of changing the status quo.

    He also mentions that RIBA even has the 2030 Climate Challenge, which is a much more stringent benchmark.

    However, the House of the Year competition demonstrates that RIBA do not consider performance essential.

    Architectural excellence ought to have a technical requirement

    “It’s really important that our buildings are responsible with the way they consume resources. And I don’t believe that they are judged in that way, either in what they used in their operational life, in energy terms, or the energy that goes into making them, disposing of them.”

    Find out more

    Hawkes Architecture

    RIBA House of the Year competition

    Interview with Nigel Dutt about Devon Passivhaus

    Follow Hawkes Architecture on Twitter

    Download a transcript of this episode

    Please connect with us

    Subscribe, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts

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  • HPH310 : Important takeaways from an exemplar straw panel Passivhaus

    HPH310 : Important takeaways from an exemplar straw panel Passivhaus

    Juraj Mikurcik, Nick Grant and Mike Whitfield reflect on the award-winning Old Holloway project, which is built with EcoCocon straw panels and is a certified Passivhaus.

    This podcast is slightly different to normal because it’s been compiled from video footage. The video, which can be seen above, is a 10-minute overview of Old Holloway (or you can watch a 2-minute version here).

    Passivhaus specialist Nick Grant and Passivhaus builder Mike Whitfield have both been on the podcast before. Architect Juraj Mikurcik has been a friend of House Planning Help over the years and we were delighted to see his home win at the UK Passivhaus Awards and highly commended at the ASBP Awards.

    This podcast explores what makes this house build so special.

    The design decisions are easy to read and appreciate

    In an era of climate emergency we should all be thinking about limiting our environmental impact and reducing our energy consumption.

    Old Holloway (with a floor area of 95m2) was built to a tight £150k budget and achieves so much. Not only is it a highly efficient home, but it’s been built with as many plant-based and non processed materials as possible.

    Constraints impacted the form of the house

    The project faced tough planning challenges to get a building consent, needing design approval from the Duchy of Cornwall estate (who sold Juraj the land) before even submitting an application to the local authority. These constraints led to a single storey building and perhaps the rural aesthetic.

    The architectural design of the building

    Nick Grant says it’s his favourite house for all sorts of reasons. Mike Whitfield feels the atmosphere in it or soul quality is really good.

    Sufficiency and affordability informed the scale

    When it comes to scale it’s about finding the right balance. If you build too big you have redundant space whereas if you build too small then people struggle to go about living their everyday lives.

    Juraj compares Old Holloway to the TARDIS, because it looks small from the outside but feels big from the inside. An open cathedral ceiling helps create a great sense of space.

    Old Holloway’s floor plan

    Nick also believes small buildings have an advantage.

    “Small buildings can look interesting because the texture and contrast of the materials is enough. When buildings become very big that’s not enough. So however characterful the render is or the brick, it still looks big and bland, so you then start articulating the building and adding bits on because you think it looks plain.”

    Re-evaluating how much space you need is a smart move… but it’s also important to build what you can afford.

    Materials matter when building a Passivhaus

    If you care about the environment then reducing the embodied energy of the building is essential.

    Mike says that some people believe it’s either natural materials or energy efficiency.

    “You can construct an argument to say that the embodied energy in a Passivhaus isn’t that important because you’re going to save so much energy over the life of the house.”

    This might for example lead you to build with insulated concrete formwork.

    Juraj specified a Passivhaus certified straw panel system.

    Mike continues.

    “Ecococon gives you a really instant, pre-fabricated system that is genuinely low energy.”

    The structural concrete slab is also the finished floor

    At the base of the house a concrete slab has been used, but this structural slab doubles as the finished floor. It took Juraj an incredible 90 hours to polish it!

    An insulated raft is made using the ISOQUICK system
    The concrete pour
    Juraj spent 90 hours grinding down the slab and polishing it
    The structural slab is also the finished floor

    This route is cost effective. The only downside is that it’s tricky to guarantee a certain finish.

    The straw panels are wrapped with an airtightness membrane

    Nick’s house was built with straw bales and he often dissuades people from bale building because it’s hard to get them to perform well.

    Juraj stresses that EcoCocon is a timber panel based system, produced in a workshop, that uses compressed straw as the infill insulation. As such it’s even a Passivhaus certified component.

    To achieve Passivhaus airtightness requirements the building is wrapped with a membrane on the outside. Nick explains that generally having the airtightness layer on the outside is something they try to avoid. Juraj has been careful to specify the right product in order to avoid condensation issues. The membrane has vapour openess and the whole build was modelled in WUFI.

    An airtightness membrane with high vapour openness wraps the house externally
    Warmcel is pumped into the roof void
    Studwork goes up internally
    No paints are used internally; the clay plaster is the final finish

    Don’t be afraid to experiment and seek advice from others

    Old Holloway is clad in charred timber. This is something Juraj had been wanting to experiment with for some time. He loves the finished effect it created, even if the process was time-consuming.

    Charring the cedar
    The finished cedar cladding

    Juraj believes the crinkly tin roof is the biggest bargain of the whole project. He calls it a ‘very Australian detail’.

    Nick says that it’s good to see it used simply.

    Woodburners/stoves are not a great fit for Passivhaus

    One thing Juraj would do differently is not include a woodburner. Although it can be incorporated in a Passivhaus (and has been here) there are lots of reasons to deter you.

    • There are better ways of providing the background heat.
    • It’s old-fashioned thinking (burning anything releases a lot of particulate which is not good for health). People like Passivhaus because of the indoor air quality but having a logburner – no matter how sealed the system is – does release particulate into the room (which appears on the MVHR filters)
    • It is a faff to clean up
    • It takes up space
    • You have to keep children away from it
    • Even though it’s sized correctly, it is not the same experience as a roaring open fire in an in-efficient house. Nick comments that on social occasions the fire is always out before he arrives because the house is already warm enough!

    Nick, Mike and Juraj all have fires, but now say they wouldn’t do it again.

    Mike suggests that if somebody is fixated on having a fire, then go for a bioethanol burner. This can give the effect of a fire but doesn’t need lots of kit. And if you decide it’s a waste of space you can just get rid of it!

    Juraj erects a sail for additional shading in extreme heat

    Total control over solar gains in summer is a masterstroke

    Sensible glazing ratios, a significant roof overhang and a pop-up awning make Juraj’s house one which will not overheat.

    The Passivhaus process is always looking for the best form factor. Old Holloway is not an exact rectangle because it dips in on one edge. This hasn’t been done because the shape looked boring and it needed to be articulated: this provides complete solar shading of the biggest windows in summer and a nice area to sit outside whatever the weather.

    Nick comments:

    “You go from a box it’s more expensive, so then you’ve got to say is it giving me some value for money, and here I think it really does.”

    Find out more

    Visit the website of Old Holloway

    Visit the website of Mike Whitfield Construction

    Visit Nick’s website for Elemental Solutions

    Follow Juraj Mikurcik on Twitter

    Follow on Nick Grant on Twitter

    Download a PDF transcript of this episode

    Please connect with us

    Subscribe, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts

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  • HPH309 : Keeping costs down by embracing simplicity – with Kirk Rushby and Polly Upton

    HPH309 : Keeping costs down by embracing simplicity – with Kirk Rushby and Polly Upton

    Architects Polly Upton and Kirk Rushby explain how they used their expertise to deliver a striking, high performance home for a very reasonable budget.

    Interview with Polly Upton and Kirk Rushby

    Having worked at top sustainable architecture practice Architype for many years, Kirk Rushby and Polly Upton were well placed to tackle a Passivhaus project, but bided their time for the right opportunity.

    Keeping their cost base low gave them a head-start

    Buying a house that they could easily afford in their early years at Architype meant that as their salaries increased their costs did not and so they were able to save money each month. Ultimately this put them in a strong position with cash to hand.

    They never stopped considering the opportunities

    Even though most plots they found were beyond their financial reach they didn’t give up, instead considering various opportunities and thinking that maybe in 5 years or so things might slot into place. Thus anything they learn about the process or sites now might help them down the road.

    However, this persistence paid off sooner than they imagined.

    They were prepared to take on a plot with challenges

    After looking at a few sites they came back to one that had been on the market a while. On the edge of a village, it afforded views to the hills beyond… but there were some drawbacks. The key challenge was access, which was via a low tunnel under the railway. This would make bringing materials to site tricky.

    Also being down a private road there were numerous potholes and there was going to be some noise from the railway line.

    While this might have been putting other people off, Polly and Kirk felt they could address these challenges. For example, just building to Passivhaus standard would have big acoustic advantages inside the house and eliminate most of the noise from the railway line.

    Reducing the floor area helped them keep to budget

    The site came with outline planning consent which was perfect for them, as architects, because they could design their own house.

    With a fixed budget they had to make sure they had enough money for the project and could see it through. This is where their architectural background came into its own. They started with a rough cost per square metre figure and then went into more detail of how they were going to build it and what each of those elements would cost.

    When they couldn’t afford it, they reduced the house size and started again

    “We designed a 160 square metre house and then we realised that we probably couldn’t afford that. And then we realised that maybe we didn’t even need it. So we shaved about 30 square metres off and didn’t really feel like we lost anything.”

    This refinement was an ace up their sleeve. They reached a natural point where if they made the house any smaller then it would become difficult to make the space planning work.

    ‘Upside down’ living was an easy choice

    Sharing a similar work experience the core decisions were easy. They wanted to have bedrooms on the ground floor and the living space above (where the views would be better). They planned to use timber frame, which was familiar to them and would also be more practical for delivering to site.

    It was the smaller decisions like choosing the wall finishes that prompted more discussion!

    The house has a ‘warm’ roof

    Where some people might have a cold loft space, Kirk and Polly opted to keep the top ‘half storey’ of the house within the thermal envelope, giving them more usable space. This is where there office is situated and also where you get the best view.

    Each window opening was carefully considered

    Polly and Kirk wanted a window arrangement where each window was just the opening.

    This meant balancing up daylighting, views, solar gains and cross ventilation (through the openings on the east and west) while also trying to avoid complexity.

    On the south side they decided to have a couple of larger windows which would not open. This would be cheaper, as well, plus they didn’t need these windows for cross ventilation purposes.

    With the main view out to the west they came up with a manual shading strategy for their big door involving roller shutters.

    Justifying the cladding choice was the main planning hurdle

    Getting full planning permission was fairly straightforward. In fact the main discussion with the planner was over the corrugated metal cladding for the walls and roof.

    “We had to convince the planner about the detailing and provide some precedents to show it wasn’t going to look like a big agricultural, clunky shed and it was going to be quite refined.”

    The non-concrete foundation worked well

    With the constraints of the site they wanted to avoid the stress of a concrete delivery. So they took advice from Passivhaus specialist Nick Grant and structural engineer Andrew Collinson about using a compacted gravel foundation.

    They weren’t afraid to pull in favours

    Initially Polly and Kirk didn’t know their neighbours or have friends in the area but as time went by they felt more comfortable with getting support when they needed it. Whether it was paying the farmer to help with his telehandler or asking the local builders’ merchants to receive a timber deliver, it made life easier and kept the costs down.

    Polly’s brother Matt built the house

    Enlisting a family member to be your builder can be fraught with danger, but both Polly and Kirk felt Matt was right for the job. Polly knew he was a hard worker, who plans well, knows the building industry and is cheeky when negotiating with suppliers. His ‘can do’ attitude also goes a long way.

    This was to be his first full house build although he’d done a large extension before.

    There were nightly meetings!

    As Matt didn’t live nearby he stayed with Polly and Kirk during the week. That meant that there’d be intense discussions about what was going to happen the next day, the next week or the next month.

    Polly’s dad and a couple of Matt’s friends were the only other workers through the project.

    Getting services connected took ages

    The build took 15 months and during most of this time Matt was without power.

    “We started trying to get the ball rolling the summer before we started building. And we didn’t get the last telephone line in until we’d already moved in so it took a long, long time.”

    Kirk believes the utilities companies don’t have the same sense of urgency that you do. Plus there were agreements with third parties to arrange, which all takes time.

    Luckily Matt was able to crack on under battery power and using an extension cable from a friendly neighbour. This was yet another advantage of a dry construction method.

    Supply chain issues impacted on some decisions

    Building through the pandemic there were some big supply chain issues. This meant that they had to think on their feet. Fitting out the interior was subject to what was available at the time so being flexible really helped.

    The design of the house helps avoid overheating

    The house has been really comfortable through their first summer. Even when it got up to 31C outside, at the top of the house inside it was only 25C. So the design of the house, with its roof overhang and shutters, does the work.

    Polly comments: “You learn that at about one o’clock, you need to close the shutters on the big west door.”

    The programme is subject to real life

    Kirks suggests that amongst the things he’d like to do differently would be to make the programme more straightforward. However, the reality of it is that there are delays with some things and you have to fill the time with other jobs you can do.

    Find out more

    Visit the website of Architype

    Follow Polly Upton on Twitter

    Transcript

    Download a transcript of this episode

    Please connect with me

    Subscribe, rate and review the podcast in iTunes

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  • HPH307 : Can you have integrity as a housing developer? – with Mike Webb

    HPH307 : Can you have integrity as a housing developer? – with Mike Webb

    Mike Webb explains why he chose to build to high ecological standards even though he could’ve made more money by just complying with building regulations.

    Interview with Mike Webb

    Mike Webb grew up in South East London but had his first taste of construction in Tenbury Wells, where he helped refurbish a 17th century, Grade II listed coaching inn. After selling the hotel he and his wife Audrey started investing in property. Mike has also built his own home and ran his own solar PV company. More recently he took on a major development in Seaton, Devon.

    The Victorian house in Seaton Beach

    Mike moved quickly when he recognised the opportunity

    In 2015 Mike was walking along Seaton Beach promenade when a chance remark from one of his friends alerted him to the potential of a site: “If I win the lottery tonight, I’m going to buy that house.”

    The location was impressive with views straight out to sea but the dilapidated Victorian house was squeezed between two bigger buildings. There were also signs of regeneration in the area with the recent arrival of the Jurassic Coast Visitors Centre, a new Tesco and new housing around the corner. Mike bought the property within seven days.

    Well established relationships helped him secure finance

    After putting together a broad-brush business case for the project which included the value of the plot, the cost of demolition, the cost of the build on a square metre basis and also the best guesses of the values upon selling, Mike approached a long-standing friend and asked to borrow £2.5 million.

    “If you’ve got a friendly banker in your pocket, it’s always helpful. But he did say right at the get-go, “Happy to bank roll this one, but don’t ask again.” So I knew the terms of engagement from day one.”

    As a rule Mike doesn’t normally work with friends but he knew that this was the only way to make this project happen.

    And his ‘banker’ did get all his money back with the profit share… and has even enjoyed some of the accolades that have come to this award-winning building.

    ‘Maximising the planning potential’ freed up money to invest in quality

    Mike explains that in property embracing the old adage ‘location, location, location’ is essential. Blessed with a seafront plot, the next step was gaining consent.

    “We fought hard to get eight individual apartments on there at a relatively cheap cost per plot acquisition basis. So as a consequence, we’d got a little bit in hand. And also I’d got the confidence of a friendly banker with a fairly competitive interest rate for development finance.”

    Clifton Emery in Exeter, were commissioned to come up with an iconic building that would get the planning gain. Although the scheme was refused initially with a little tweaking it was approved 9 months later (but this delay came with considerable additional costs).

    Keep developing your skillset

    At a CPD (Continuing Professional Development) at Coventry University Mike met Emma Osmundsen and learned more about Passivhaus. Her talk about building better struck a chord and had planted the seed for making this a high performance development. Emma later shared some contacts with Mike, notably that of Tomas Gartner, an architect who specialises in Passivhaus and at that time was working with Gale & Snowden Architects.

    Quality sells

    With a strong sales and marketing background Mike is always considering the objections of potential buyers. Doing everything to the best of his ability stacked the deck strongly in his favour.

    “Whilst the location was amazing, we then made it super eco. We made it super safe because for example, we’ve got smoke vents, misting systems, dry-risers, sprinklers in the building.”

    A comprehensive specification helped the tender process

    Having gained planning consent, architect Tomas Gartner took over and adapted the scheme from a standard build to a Passivhaus project. With a full bill of quantities and lots of attention to detail tender documents were produced and sent out to five shortlisted builders.

    Mike believes the biggest risk of the whole scheme was hiring a contractor that couldn’t deliver to the required standard. Classic Builders Southwest were appointed after careful consideration. They weren’t the cheapest but Mike had confidence in them having seen some of their other schemes and he had developed a good relationship with their senior management team. They also could deliver the project in the shortest time.

    External factors caused some costs to rise

    While Mike tried to nail down cost as much as possible, there were certain supply chain issues in light of Brexit and then disruption with COVID.

    Upskilling the team came with multiple benefits

    Mike says one of the best things they did was take the teams from Classic Builders and Fords of Sidmouth for training at WARM in Plymouth. This had been Tomas’ recommendation.

    Collaboration and education

    Training helped the team understand the goals of the project and how they would need to work on site to deliver them.

    Only with buy-in was it possible to achieve these stringent standards.

    Tomas also suggested that Mike train as a Passivhaus consultant so that he had a deeper understanding of the job.

    Where there’s a curve there’s a cost!

    While the original architects were charged with making the building iconic they were not planning to deliver a Passivhaus. So their initial designs left all sorts of challenges for Tomas and the team.

    “In terms of the costs, there was a little bit of a bun fight between ourselves and the QS and the main contractor as to some of the finer points and detailing of this. It took a while to get it done, it slowed the programme down, but I’ve got to say the execution of the project by Classic (Builders), the way they delivered it with their supply chain, the curves are absolutely immense. If I did it again, I probably wouldn’t bother.”

    The structure of the building changes as it gets higher

    There are various reasons why the building uses more than one construction method.

    At the ground the building must be able to withstand flooding. Mike explains that it’s effectively been built on a beach in a flood zone and protected by a sea wall.

    87 concrete piles (13 metres deep) hold up a concrete ring beam, which is insulated from beneath.

    “We start our insulation level well below the finished ground level. We then have a robust concrete box that was poured in situ, and that has external EWI wall insulation on it. We then had a concrete transfer slab that has 20 tons of steel in it and there were about 20 lorries of concrete went into it, but it’s 325 mm thick, and it oversails the footprint of the building. So you can imagine the structural engineering challenges to get that to support the remaining building cantilevered above the concrete box beneath.”

    At this point construction switches to Porotherm clay blocks which are wet plastered on the inside with a parge coat to give you good airtightness detail and rendered on the outside so is a very simple rainscreen cladding.

    Each of the Porotherm floors then support concrete planks that are then suspended off the central spine wall which is again built from a Porotherm block but it’s a solid core, one that’s filled with concrete to give us some thermal mass within the building.

    Structural thermal breaks have been used for the balcony

    Finally ‘a timber frame bungalow’ is perched on the top, which is the penthouse. This was clad in zinc.

    A Bauder EPDM roof went on the very top… with one of Mike’s most complex solar PV installations.

    The view looking down at the roof from a drone

    Have faith in putting the environment first

    Mike concedes that he could have made more money by lowering standards but that’s just not how he wants to operate.

    “We’re not all about the bottom line, we’re all about the quality and the ongoing benefits that that building will give for its lifetime. So yes, we do sacrifice profit for the environment, which is a bold statement for a small company. Me and my wife have a modest existence. We’re not particularly flash rich people, we don’t need to be. We enjoy doing what we do. And as long as we cannot lose money on it, it would be nice to do another one and another one and another one.

    Mike is proud of what he’s achieved

    Pride is perhaps the most interesting measure of this project.

    Mike reflects on the factors that have contributed to these properties selling well and for good money.

    “Would we have sold the whole of the apartments for over £500,000 without the curves? Because of location, probably yes. Would we have sold them for over that sort of figure without the Passivhaus certification? Probably yes. But these are always going to be the known unknowns in this journey of ours. I think looking back on it, it’s a building that me and my team can be suitably proud of delivering. And the curves certainly do set it apart from anything else on the seafront.”

    Seaton Beach is the first multi-block certified to Passivhaus Plus standard in the UK.

    Find out more

    Visit the website of Seaton Beach Developments

    Visit the website of Classic Builders

    Visit the website of Fords South West

    Visit the website of Norrsken

    Follow Mike Webb on Twitter

    Transcript

    Download a transcript of this episode

    International Passivhaus Open Days

    One of the best ways to understand what a Passivhaus is by visiting one. Fortunately the International Passive House Association organises Open Days twice a year, once to understand summer comfort and then again to see how Passivhaus comes into its own in winter.

    Find out who is taking part.

    Please connect with me

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