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HPH216 : Do self builds get any easier for a seasoned pro? – with Mark Brinkley

HPH216 : Do self builds get any easier for a seasoned pro? – with Mark Brinkley

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With decades growing his knowledge of self-building, Mark Brinkley shares some of the surprises, challenges and joys involved.

 

Interview with Mark Brinkley

Mark Brinkley has been immersed in the world of self builds and renovations since the early 1980s, working firstly as part of a group who were building and renovating properties in and around Cambridge, before completing his first self build in the 90s. In the years since then he has been writing up this knowledge in articles and the phenomenally popular Housebuilder's Bible.

For the last 18 months, and 25 years after his first, he has been concentrating on his second self build.

 

Have a go and see what happens!

This was the philosophy Mark and his companions started out using. Rather than coming to the construction industry from a traditional route of apprenticeships, they each turned their hands to the various trades with a ‘give it a go' approach, learning on the job and taking courses. The one trade they each attempted but decided they should leave to the experts was plastering!

Mark considers themselves to have been “gifted amateurs,” rather than as good a builders as they probably thought they were at the time!

 

Being the client was a bigger job than anticipated

Having accumulated building plots thinking that he and his partner would become property developers, the housing market downturn in 1991/92 left him in a position where, in order to gain more space for his family, he had to build on one of those plots for himself. Mark found all the decision making incredibly taxing, with the realisation of what a big job being the client is. While there were textbooks on how to build a house, what he couldn't find was guidance on what you should put into a house and what makes a good house. The subsequent success of his book, Housebuilder's Bible, led him to concentrate entirely on his writing.

“I’ve spent years going around interviewing people, visiting businesses and looking at houses, but actually doing the process, I’d forgotten what a lot of hard work it is and how taxing it is. Even with this whole lifetime’s worth of knowledge about what you can and can’t put in a house.”

 

It was important to challenge themselves with their second self build

Together with his architect, Mark has wanted to challenge themselves with this build and experiment with new techniques and materials, like the metal roofing and external cladding. Luckily the team of tradespeople working with him have been up to the task, and engaged and enthusiastic in their undertaking of it.

 

The street view was a key element of the design

The design for this build went through three or four iterations and liaising with the planners, conservation officer, and keeping neighbours on side, before coming to a final design they were happy with. What was important to Mark was the street view and trying to create a wow factor, with the amenity of the building being considered later.

The old warehouse that was originally on the site was an oblong box with a pitched roof. Mark's build covers the same footprint, just with a little extra height. It also probably would have had a pitched roof, but neighbour's complaints that they wouldn't be able to see the chimneys on the other side of the house meant they had to work through a complicated process of giving it a flattened profile.

Theirs is a tight site with no space around it, so all materials have had to be kept either in the house or garden. If work needs doing on one room, it means moving everything out to another room or somewhere else. This has caused challenges when it comes to trying to find things!

“One of the old sayings is that it’s the biggest shopping trip of your life. It’s also the biggest cleaning session of your life!”

Despite huge amounts of pre-planning, Mark and Mandy have remained open to change and been flexible about the decision making as they go along. One example of this has been with the living room ceiling. Originally drawn as a plastered ceiling, they decided they would prefer something more interesting and have been experimenting with lime-washed Douglas Fir. With the leftover planks they have been making slatted shelves for the airing cupboard.

At the time of the interview Mark and Mandy had only moved in a few days earlier, so it will take a while before they get to grips with and know how effective their solar panels will be at providing sufficient electricity and hot water for the house. Using PVs seemed sensible, rather than packing in more insulation and having even smaller rooms.

Being an urban build has presented extra challenges, with consideration about traffic management, getting skips and cranes in and out and deliveries blocking roads.

 

Keep a very careful eye on spending

On this project Mark is acting as the builder, as a service company with accounts at various builders' merchants. Some of the big subcontracts, like the roofing, he has put out to tender, but others are a case of searching for suppliers, building a relationship with them and negotiating on price.

Often the price will be based on a day rate, which Mark has always found to work well and feels has not been taken advantage of.

“If you do it on a price, you could end up arguing about the extras, this changed and that changed. I want the freedom to come in and make changes.”

To a certain extent, Mark is a believer in the saying that if you're on time, you're on budget. He is currently a little over-time and a little over-budget. He estimates his overspend is likely to be around 5%, which will come from within their contingency sum.

Mark recommends starting out with a generous budget and keeping on top of spending. His meticulous spreadsheet of costs currently extends to nearly 600 rows of data!

 

More options available has made decision making more complicated

Mark doesn't believe that the actual process of building has changed much since Victorian times, with people getting involved and solving problems. What has surprised him though is the amount of red tape that has been introduced in the last 25 years, with the planning process being much more time consuming and every job being riddled with planning conditions.

Mark finds that the range of options available to him now is phenomenally larger and more complicated than it was back in the 90s. Even with the seemingly simple task of selecting light switches there are dozens of different styles to choose from.

“You actually get fatigued by these ridiculous decisions you’ve got to make, when actually all you want is a functioning house.”

Building this house has, Mark says, taught him how little he knows:

“I do know a lot about it, but without having been doing it continually for twenty years, you get a very different perspective commenting on it, writing it and interviewing people. There’s nothing quite like doing it to realise you’re at the cutting edge. And also, finding out where the bounds of your knowledge are.”

Mark does find that the process of self build takes over your life, what with employing people on a daily rate and wanting to make sure the money is spent properly, to having many a sleepless night!

Thankfully he has been keeping plenty of notes throughout this project and at some point will look to pass on this knowledge with a new edition of the Housebuilder's Bible.

 

Find out more

Visit Mark Brinkley's blog

Follow Mark Brinkley on Twitter

Listen to Mark's House Planning Help podcast about how self build in the UK compares to Germany

Listen to Mark's House Planning Help podcast about putting together a budget

 

Transcript

Download a transcript of the interview with Mark Brinkley.

 

The Hub update

Our video case study at Buckinghamshire Passivhaus is coming towards the end, but this month we have a new episode about plastering the interior and how the brick slips will be attached.

We also have a new course on developing house designs.

And our guest on this month's progress call is Adam Dadeby from Luft MVHR.

If you're not yet a member then find out how to become one at houseplanninghelp.com/join.

 

Please connect with me

HPH203 : Putting craftsmanship at the centre of your eco build – with Will Anderson

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Author and self-builder Will Anderson talks about realising his self-build dream not once but twice!

 

Interview with Will Anderson

Will describes himself as “a writer, actor, builder and craftsman”. His account of his first self-build was published in The Independent newspaper and is now available to buy as a book. His previous work has included writing and contributing to other publications with an environmental angle.

A tree inspired a house with high environmental standards

Around the year 2000, Will Anderson and his partner snapped up a rare South London plot. The very big tree it housed inspired the name and design of Tree House: a house that would work like a tree. Wanting to do their very best for that plot meant building a house that was not only wonderful to live in, but had the very best ecological performance.

Will says any extra costs were justified by long term savings, adding, “If you built a house that had the very best environmental performance, it would also, hopefully, be the very best for you.”

Technology helped Tree House achieve its ambitious goals

Will was interested in the Passivhaus standard and had even contacted Wolfgang Feist, but in 2004 it wasn’t an established approach in the UK. So Will worked with his architect, Peter Smithdale of Constructive Individuals, to deliver a house that was self-sufficient in energy and “zero carbon”. To manage this meant combining a fabric first approach with “quite a lot of technology”.

The high-performance house included a PV cell array, and a hot water panel. Furthermore, a ground source heat pump was installed in boreholes in the small plot. Will says this tried and tested technology continues to work very well, explaining, “They’re quite simple bits of technology compared to boilers.”

Will built with the plot next door in mind

Tree House was detached, but they knew that eventually it would become semi-detached, as there was a plot next door. Thinking ahead, Will avoided putting windows on the northern elevation that would become a party wall.

The people who owned the garden in question appreciated the consideration and gave him first option when they decided to sell the land. He took the chance to build his second house, The Orchard.

Where the two houses meet

Will had to overcome issues of planning and party walls

Building onto a detached property presented some challenges. For example, the render board had to be removed from Tree House and another timber frame wall built and filled with insulation. Furthermore the two walls couldn’t be attached (apart from some metal ties at the very top) to ensure acoustic isolation.

Getting the right design and gaining planning permission took a long time too, but one of the biggest problems was the party wall agreement. Will advises getting a really good party wall surveyor and paying attention to the detail of the party wall award, adding, “You need to just make sure you’re properly protected.”

The Orchard has an improved fabric but less technology

Will wanted The Orchard to use less technology but still be very comfortable. This meant improving the fabric of the house in order to cut out the heating system. Contractors and materials were more familiar with Passivhaus principles by then and The Orchard benefitted from a purpose built external airtight layer.

The Orchard is ventilated non-mechanically, a deliberate decision on Will’s part. He is very pleased with their Ventive passive heat recovery ventilation system, commenting, “We’ve got a completely draft free, stable interior temperature, but we still have good air quality without having all the business of mechanical ventilation.”

Heat-recovery ventilation cowls

 

Will wanted to get more hands-on second time around

Helping finish the building of Tree House gave Will enough confidence to get more involved the second time around, although he says, “You need to know your limits, obviously”. So, even though he had done a bricklaying course, he called on an experienced bricklayer when he lost confidence on the garden wall after the tenth course of bricks.

Some subcontractors will have their own helpers and will want to do all their work on their own terms. But Will says there are others who won’t mind you joining in. For example, given Will had some experience, the frame company, Touchwood Homes were very happy for him to lend a hand.

The Arts and Crafts Movement inspired Will’s labour of love

As part of the house building process, Will made his own workbench. That it has remained part of the main room says much about Will’s love of handmade items. The Orchard is inspired by the Arts and Crafts Movement and its architects, many of whose houses he has visited. What he likes so much is “the handcrafted approach, the delight in materials and in a kind of clean but very rich design.”

Although he started without any craft skills, Will learnt a lot of trades to build The Orchard, including ceramics, even making tiles from their excavated foundations clay. To find the right course Will recommends trying out what’s local. He found one reasonably nearby in Croydon, where he learnt joinery, bricklaying and plastering. He went further afield for the more specialist skills: cabinet making in Kent and stained glass making at the Working Men’s College in North London.

Learning skills had to be balanced with designing and building

At the design stage, Will was already thinking about how to incorporate these crafts aspects, meaning careful planning was needed. He admits it was tricky to move between design, doing courses and starting on site and keep it all going at the same time.

For example, the open-plan kitchen in the main living space had to be part of the overall design to make sure it would fit in: it was built long before the house! Likewise the two-storey, triple-glazed, staircase window, finished with stained glass, was always part of the design.

Self-builders need support and patience, and to understand the industry

Will says that self-building with no experience isn’t so hard if you get the right people to do the right jobs and you have enough patience. Understanding how the building industry works is important too. For example, Will advises being flexible rather than getting frustrated if builders don’t start when they said they would. “In the building industry, that’s absolutely standard. Not because builders are unreliable, but because people’s timetables and schedules are always shifting,” he explains.

New technology can help with using reclaimed materials

Will has used reclaimed materials in both houses. For example the parquet flooring uses African, Australian and Asian woods that would be impossible to source sustainably today. Modern glues can “recharge the bitumen”, so it didn’t need to be removed. This made the process easier but it was still labour intensive, especially as each room used a different wood and a different pattern.

The blocks of wood had to be cleaned then set out properly. Will’s method was to build out from a long spine of blocks down the middle of the room. Care was needed to avoid the pattern going wonky and having to cut blocks to fit them in. Next everything was sanded down to a new surface and then oiled. Will reflects, “A massive, massive amount of work that was. But I absolutely love it.”

Careful planning has paid off

As the name suggests, Will wanted to build an urban orchard. He knew he wouldn’t get big machinery to the back of the house after it was built, so before he started building he replaced a lot of the poor soil with “really good quality muck”. Now the front and back gardens are densely planted with fruit trees and outside the thermal envelope are a larder and a conservatory where Will grows more tender fruit.

As so much of the house is hand made it has been a long project, but all the work and planning was worthwhile. Will says, “We’ve taken a long time over it. But we’re going to be here forever, so that’s okay.”

Find out more

Read Will's blog Building The Orchard

Read Will’s book about Tree House

Transcript

Download a transcript of the interview with Will Anderson

 

Please connect with me

HPH199 : The challenges of building close to your boundaries – with Oliver Smallman

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Self-builder Oliver Smallman tells us about planning, building and living in his London Passivhaus.

© Tim Wilcockson

Interview with Oliver Smallman

Oliver and his wife are not absolute beginners at self-building. They co-designed a house in Corfu where they have lived on and off for 27 years. As Oliver sums it up, “Probably not the best design I’ve ever seen in the world, but with the most remarkable view.”

Photo courtesy of RDA (http://www.rdauk.com/)

A rare chance to build green in London

While the Corfu project was a tremendous experience, Oliver had no intention of self-building again. However, when he had an opportunity to buy a house in Chiswick, with an unusually large garden, he saw the chance to use new, ecological building methods to build a Passivhaus.

© Tim Wilcockson

The sunken design meant opting for concrete

Oliver designed his Passivhaus with Richard Dudzicki, of RDA Architects. They originally planned to use Structural Insulated Panels but the site was very constrained and Richard saw the potential for sinking the house below ground. Thus they chose a piled site and a concrete build.

Oliver had already fallen in love with the use of boarded concrete and explains, “The concrete walls on the interior, boarded and plain and smooth, were always in the plan.” The mixture of textures is part of what Oliver calls, “concrete as a look”; they even allowed the errors of the pouring to remain.

© Tim Wilcockson

The brief called for concrete, convenience and light

As well as using concrete, Oliver wanted to avoid the house being dark. He says lots of glazing along the south of the house works well for a Passivhaus.

In terms of style, he had grown used to travelling in his work life and Oliver appreciates functional touches like having the lights over your bed and the switch at hand. “It’s a little bit “hotel-y” but it really suits me,” he says.

© Tim Wilcockson

Neighbours objected to the modern design

Although the planning application was recommended for approval, about 40 local residents came to the planning meeting with extremely negative reactions and three councillors stopped the application.

One reason given was excessive size, despite the majority of the house being underground. They also argued the house was not “in keeping with the area” but Oliver has a different perspective, asking, “Why would you build a replica of a house that was built in 1949 or 1950? You’d be mad!”

© Tim Wilcockson

Repeated planning applications didn't just pay lip service

Rather than sacrifice his contemporary design, Oliver tried to absorb feedback to gain his neighbours’ support. This meant some meaningful compromises where the design was blended in. For example, Oliver chose to match the white exterior walls and bricks of the other houses in the road.

A smaller second design allowed more green space, but the application was rejected again. Oliver then lost his appeal on the grounds that he wasn’t providing parking. Further reducing the top floor enabled off-street parking to be included in the next application.

© Tim Wilcockson

Getting planning consent took four applications

Having seen the application a number of times, twelve Council members gave up their Saturday morning to come and look at the site. The opposition party made representations but Oliver says they made the mistake of behaving rudely. As he explains, “I think the Council officers probably thought, ‘You lot are nuts and this guy’s doing something perfectly reasonable.’”

At the next vote, the same three councillors objected, but the others disagreed, so planning permission was finally granted four years into the process. Oliver notes that the final design fits the street and has become accepted. The modern house is softened by use of greenery and locally appropriate materials.

© Tim Wilcockson

Research led to the right concrete and windows

Although Oliver was inspired by the use of concrete in stations like Westminster, his design contrasts it with wooden floors. In addition, he used Portland Whitener to lighten the colour. Oliver went to the Concrete Centre and signed up for the course in concrete pouring. “You can’t just phone up a concrete company and they bring you concrete and pour it and then it looks like this,” he says.

Oliver also did a lot of research to find the right triple-glazed windows. He has been happy with the certified Passivhaus windows and service provided by Internorm.

© Tim Wilcockson

A tight urban site presented challenges

The eight by eighteen metre site meant building close to boundary walls. The existing house had to be underpinned and Oliver needed to protect his neighbour’s house and cherry tree while digging a four-metre hole within three metres of them. To give Oliver the security to start digging out, a specialist company was used to sink the concrete piles.

Digging a large hole on such a tight site meant that space for storage and machinery was permanently on the move. As Oliver says, “It’s like a dance. When we were piling it, the piler would be in one corner, the concrete machine would have to be in another one.” They even built a platform to put the digger on to remove the last piece of soil.

 

© Tim Wilcockson

The Passivhaus offers comfortable, healthy living

When the house was complete, Oliver actually rented it out for a while. Staying in his existing draughty house meant he appreciated the difference even more when he moved in. Three things surprised him. Firstly, how quiet the concrete-built, triple-glazed house is. Secondly, the fantastic air quality and thirdly, living draught free, with the same temperature everywhere.

Oliver isn’t dogmatic about the Passivhaus method but is extremely satisfied. “There may well be better solutions in the future, but I’ve now had the opportunity to live in this house for nearly a year and I absolutely love it,” he says.

© Tim Wilcockson

Leaving a legacy costs more

Oliver’s house is designed to last and be efficient. As he explains, “I’m trying to build something that uses very little power and little energy, and I’ll be long gone but it’ll be a very valuable asset either for my own children or for somebody else.” In fact, he says his energy costs are easily under £500 a year.

However, Oliver admits the build cost more than he’d intended, saying, “I thought I could do it for £400,000 and I built it for £600,000 finished.” Digging out the soil had been much more expensive due to bad weather. Moreover, he could have saved on some specifications but paid more for feel and durability. For example, he fell in love with the floor in the Saatchi Gallery. He reveals it cost “a crazy amount of money” but the untreated Douglas Fir will last hundreds of years and could be sanded a thousand times.

© Tim Wilcockson

Oliver’s tips for self-builders

Commercial builders tend to avoid low energy builds as they are less profitable, but Oliver remarks that the more people who put up good buildings, the more the country as a whole will benefit.

His key advice is to persevere. As well as using Google for research, he has two other top tips for green builders:

Find out more

UK Passivhaus Awards 2016

RDA Architects

 

Watch a video on Chiswick Eco Lodge

Transcript

Download a transcript of the interview with Oliver Smallman

Please connect with me

Finding Land

If you want to build a house then the first thing you need to do is find land. Suitable parcels might be few and far between. And when you do find one, you could face fierce competition. Not only from other self builders, but also developers with deep pockets and bags of knowhow. Our free course will lead you through how you find your dream plot.

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ECO DESIGN 101

So your heart is set on building an eco home but you don’t know where to start. Well, that’s why we’ve developed a 10-part e-course to help you understand some of the important decisions you are going to have to make. Can you have a comfortable, healthy home with low running costs . . . that’s also good for the planet?

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