Furniture maker Lucinda Leech shares her story of building a modest, but beautiful eco home.

Interview with Lucinda Leech

As a furniture maker Lucinda Leech has experience of working with many types of wood, has practical skills and attention to detail, all of which she has brought to building her own eco-house. Lucinda was at the forefront of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) movement in the 1990s and is aware of the complexity of issues around sustainably sourcing timber. Having “retired” from furniture making she was presented with the opportunity to build her own timber house. Acting as both project manager and worker it has become a labour of love.

We’ve got better at understanding what ‘sustainable timber’ is

In the early days, sustainability wasn’t even spoken about within the timber industry but by the 1990s it became a concern due to significant deforestation, particularly with regard to tropical timber. Lucinda did a lot of research and travelling to understand the reality on the ground. At the time people were saying, “mahogany is murder” and encouraging a boycott of tropical timber, but Lucinda believes that this just made the situation worse because the locals came to view tropical timber as worthless, something to get rid of as fast as possible, so that they could grow cocoa or coffee to make money. Lucinda and several friends worked with individual communities, rather than logging companies, to buy timber from them at a value that was closer to what would be paid for the final product. This cut out the middlemen and gave communities a reason to look after the forest, to treat it as a harvesting operation rather than clear felling like the large companies were doing.

Tropical forests are much more varied than our forests in the UK. To put this into perspective the UK has around 26-28 native species of trees. In Ecuador, Lucinda carried out an inventory on less than a hectare of land and found 136 species. When they repeated the research in a different village they found another 136, but only about 20 of those species were found in both. So Lucinda’s role was to find out how people used the individual timbers, to give an indication of how they could be used in the UK.

FSC and PEFC are two systems that identify sustainable timber

The project continued the conversation around sustainable timber and better sourcing, and eventually led to creating the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). This certification system and others like the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) provide trusted solutions to help protect the world’s forests and tackle deforestation, climate, and biodiversity challenges. So if you’re looking to use timber on your project, make sure it carries one of these certifications.

Site plan – copyright Architype

There was ‘a potential plot’ in her own garden

Lucinda has just over an acre of land in rural Herefordshire, with her existing house set over in one corner, which left scope to fit in a new house without them being on top of each other. She never thought she would get planning permission, but she tried and was successful! The sloping site has a number of trees on it, and Lucinda was keen to protect as many as possible, so it took two or three years to work through how to do it before starting the build.

A detailed brief is at the heart of the design process

Sustainable architecture firm Architype‘s Herefordshire office is a stone’s throw from Lucinda’s site and although they don’t usually take on one-off dwellings, as neighbours, on this occasion they were able to help. Elly Deacon Smith was appointed for the project.

Lucinda’s plan was always to retire to the new house, so she wanted a property that was small and easy to look after. It had to be big enough for her and occasional visitors, for it to be an eco-build, primarily made of wood, modest but beautiful.

“I wanted it to be an eco-build… primarily wood, modest but beautiful.”

Lucinda wrote a detailed brief before she started, broken down into different sections, what sort of space, the budget, what she wanted it to look and feel like. She believes that clarifying all those things before you begin is really useful.

They also slightly shifted the location of the house further up the slope to give access to more light and better views.

Lucinda says that she really enjoyed the design process, working with Elly, going to and fro with ideas, and refining everything. They were taking a Passivhaus approach which helped fix the orientation, the amount of glazing, the details of the structure and the amount insulation. In the end the house may not meet all of the Passivhaus performance criteria, as there were a few changes along the way, but it will be very close.

Choosing your team is an important part of the process

Lucinda didn’t want to work with a builder who was just going to take the whole thing off her hands, with her just visiting once a month to check on the progress. She admits that the company she used were remarkably long suffering, coping with the amount of time she spent on site and her input. They hadn’t built a Passivhaus before but were really keen to learn. They developed the design from the pictures that were drawn for planning into something that could be built efficiently and in quite an interesting way.

Challenges can always be overcome

Lucinda was in the builder’s office finalising the details, when the COVID lockdown was announced, so that delayed the start date. However, it also meant that her son and daughter came back home and were available to help with the project in their free time. Several of their friends also returned to the area, and whilst they weren’t allowed to meet socially, Lucinda could employ them all to work together on the building site. She feels that she benefited a lot from help during COVID, as well as it causing delays. Brexit was also around this time and the I-beams had been ordered from Germany which caused delays and fear that they may never turn up. By the time they arrived, it was mid-winter, so they couldn’t start work until the following spring. There was a lot of stopping and starting, and then the actual structure went up quite fast. But then there was a lot of waiting around for other things to happen and she hasn’t been pushing it. For Lucinda enjoying the process is key, she likes having builders around and has no particular need for the house to be finished quickly.

Sometimes the most sustainable approach requires a bit more thought and effort

Access was a key constraint when considering how to build the house. Not only do they have the slope to contend with but there isn’t vehicle access to the top of the site where the new house is situated, so the last 20-25 metres is a footpath. Part of this is about preserving the trees on site. This meant that using big machinery, such as a crane, was not going to be possible. Some elements of the house have been pre-fabricated off site, including panels and all components for the roof.

The foundations minimise the use of concrete

Rather than having to excavate and put a concrete slab down for the foundations Lucinda used concrete canvas. It’s a fabric impregnated with cement which is about 8mm thick, and you roll it out like a carpet and spray it with water. It sets hard and then the building is suspended above it. Lucinda tells us there is only a small amount of concrete in the building, about three and a half cubic metres altogether. The building sits on concrete columns, octagonal shaped as that was the easiest thing to build with a shuttering ply. The columns are different depths, according to what they found as they dug the holes. They are reinforced and then there are two steels, after that, everything is timber, at between 200mm and 800mm off the ground, as the sub level follows the slope.

Timber is used in an efficient way

The structure of the house is timber portal frames, with a rigid frame made of timber columns and beams that support the roof and walls. The frame transfers the structure’s weight to the foundations, which allows for large spans without internal ties, giving an open space within. The individual frames are fixed together with plywood gussets which are connected by the racking board, which is OSB on the outside and Smartply on the inside. The Smartply gives it a continuous airtightness layer on the inside, which makes for a simple structure. Lots of taping is needed, but it is a relatively straightforward way of creating robust airtightness layer, rather than a loose membrane which could get damaged.

Lucinda saved money by doing a lot herself

The builders delivered an airtight shell for Lucinda to fit-out herself. At the point of the handover they had battened externally, ready for the cedar shingles to go on. Lucinda had always envisaged putting on the shingles by herself, but hadn’t thought there would be 10,500 of them and how awkward the job would be. So she got her builders back to help with some sections.

As she didn’t have scaffolding she was extremely fortunate to enlist the help of a relative, who is not only an architect but a rock climber! Lucinda explains how he rigged up ropes and dangled off a harness for a month putting the shingles on the upper rows.

As project manager Lucinda has worked closely with her plumbers and electricians to understand how everything works and to make sure she is doing things in the most logical and efficient way.

The timing of the build didn’t help her budget

Lucinda began with a rough ‘pounds per square metre’ cost and looked at the cost of other people’s builds so she could pitch where she wanted to be. However, she was not fortunate in her timing as timber prices pretty much doubled over the first year of construction. That made a huge difference and required her to make some modifications. For example, the price for standard Canadian tapered shingles was about £60- £65 a bundle when she started. She needed around 120 bundles and by the time she came to the order them, they had gone up to £155 pounds a bundle, so they had nearly tripled. This just wasn’t going to be possible within the budget, so she ended up using UK grown shingles, which in fact were grown a few miles from her site and then processed in Shropshire. She hadn’t even thought of doing it that way but it fitted with the ethos of the build much better. They may not be quite as long lasting and look different to what she had expected, but Lucinda is still pleased with her decision.

Don’t be afraid to work in your own way

Asked about what she’s learnt through the process Lucinda confesses that she knew you shouldn’t alter the designs once the build has started. However, as the project progressed she realised she wanted more double height space area internally. Of course there were ramifications but it was still something she wanted to do.

Similarly when project managing, she feels she could have lined up the tradespeople further in advance. For example she tended to wait until she was ready for an electrician before finding one, and then had to wait because they are all booked up. While this would move things along more quickly she feels more in control doing one step at a time rather than trying to manage five trades at once.

Determination will see her complete the project

Whilst the house may look near completion, Lucinda is still working through a list of tasks. Last month it was getting ready for the airtightness test, making sure that the taping was complete and protected where necessary. She’s also been working out details for the staircase and designing the kitchen, which she reckons she is overcomplicating, but she can’t help herself!

On the construction side, she’s putting in extra batons before the plasterboard goes on, ready for fixing things later. She’s also waiting for people to do various tasks, the plumber to move a couple of pipes, the electrician to bring in the last cables, etc. She needs a little bit more wood chip to finish the paths in the garden and for the drainage system. The next big thing is plasterboarding and plastering.

Using an ‘eco plasterboard’ could lower emissions from the fit out

When it comes to the most carbon intense areas internally plasterboard and plastering are significant. Lucinda had hoped to use a low carbon alternative plasterboard from Adaptavate, but it is not yet available commercially. The company already make a lime-based plaster Breathaplasta which can be applied on top in much the same way as a gypsum plaster.

A house build can be a labour of love

Lucinda just does a little bit each day. Perhaps more is achieved on some days than others but it’s an enjoyable process, even if a little exhausting at times.

Ideally, she doesn’t want to move in until it’s completely finished, because she thinks that gives her the drive to keep going. Once you’ve moved in you never finish things!

As for when she might move in, her children think it’s not about living there at all, but about making it and she will keep going for as long as possible.

Find out more

Visit the website of Architype

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