Judith Leary-Joyce shares her experience of retrofitting a Victorian end-terrace house to reduce energy consumption, make it more healthy and comfortable, and leave a sustainable legacy for future generations.

Interview with Judith Leary-Joyce

Judith Leary-Joyce has a life long passion for climate justice and sustainability, being one of the first members of Friends of the Earth. This passion touches every part of her life, so when she and her husband decided to undertake an extension of their Victorian, end of terrace home, it was not long before the thread of sustainable building had been pulled and a full retrofit project was underway.

Through the process, Judith decided to collate all of the most useful information she had learnt into a book called the Beginner’s Guide to Eco Renovation: Understand the Basics and the Best Questions to Ask.

‘Retrofit’ is the word you want

Judith and her husband have lived in their Victorian end of terrace home since 1979 and over this time have undertaken a number of renovations. But it wasn’t until they began to look at extending the ground floor at the rear in a sustainable way that they discovered the world of whole house ‘retrofit’.

“We realised, it doesn’t make any sense to stick a really good eco build on the back of a leaky house. And then after a long night of the soul, many lists, we came out saying no, we want to make the house a legacy for the future.”

Most homes a ripe for a retrofit

Judith says we must recognise the environmental impact of outdated housing and the necessity of retrofitting them for comfort, health and energy efficiency. Everything that we do has an impact on the planet, and our housing is one of the largest investments that we can influence to be greener.

“21% of UK emissions come from leaky homes. In the UK, every home built before 1990 needs a retrofit.”

Adopt one ‘eco’ habit at a time

Judith speaks openly about how she manages to live a climate conscious life and how important it is to make small and gradual changes. Her green lifestyle includes refusing plastic wherever possible, eating vegan or vegetarian meals, banking ethically (not supporting fossil fuel companies, for example) and driving electric vehicles, but this didn’t happen overnight. Her key message is to try your best and be conscious of the impacts that your actions have on the world, but most importantly identify the areas where you might be best able to make changes.

“If you look at everything at once around climate, and it’s getting worse and worse and worse, I can get into paralysis… So my way of managing over the years has been to take one thing at a time and get to be like an eco warrior about that.”

Become an informed client

One challenge you may face with a retrofit is finding builders with the appropriate experience. Therefore it becomes really important that they buy in to what you are trying to achieve. Judith’s builder was happy to co-operate but was new to some of these principles (continuous breathable insulation, an airtightness layer, a well thought out ventilation strategy) so Judith and her husband had to ensure that they were educating themselves on the correct processes and acting as quality control.

“We had just builders, we didn’t have eco builders. And of course, they just wanted to do what they’ve always done and go down to the local building yard and get exactly what they want. We were saying, we’ve got to order it and it’ll take four days to come… That went down like a lead balloon. ”

Breathability must be maintained in old houses

For older homes, maintaining breathability (vapour openness) is essential to prevent issues like damp and mould from occurring. This influenced the choice of wood fibre over petrochemical-based products.

“It’s an old house; anything before 1930 is going to be a breathable build. So we had to be breathable and to understand why.”

Check the quality of work regularly

Judith and her husband stayed in their house while the work was carried out. Although there were challenges, such putting up with the dust and having nowhere to retreat to, they were able to be present and involved in the project.

“The real value of that was that we went round each evening to see what they’d done, and we were checking was it okay.”

Find passionate and knowledgable people to help guide you

Judith explains that not all professionals, including architects, were fully engaged or supportive of the retrofit. As a result she decided to take matters into her own hands by finding passionate and knowledgeable experts to offer advice. Judith highlights that often the best people are within the sales or tech support teams of sustainable building companies. They are often experts who are thrilled to share their knowledge.

Plan your work and then work your plan

Having a comprehensive plan before you carry out any work on site is a really good idea. Much as with a new build project, a retrofit requires a level of detail and that comes from working through the design process.

Judith has put everything she’s learned into a book

The eco renovation was a learning journey, with Judith continually researching and adapting to new information and best practices. However, she wants you to get ahead more easily. So she’s written a book called the Beginner’s Guide to Eco Renovation, which maps out the process and aims to set you up for success.

Find out more

Visit the website of Eco Renovation Home

Buy Beginner’s Guide to Eco Renovation: Understand the Basics and the Best Questions to Ask

Judith’s Tedx Talk

Judith’s Youtube channel

Judith on Instagram

Transcript

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