Year: 2008

Often made from recycled newspapers, cellulose fibre is a loose fill insulation. Description As a loose fill insulation it does not come in blankets, sheets or boards, rather as a loose fibres that are blown or laid into place and must be protected from drafts or breezes. Additionally, to maintain optimal performance it must be…

I promised I’d post a picture of the view from the gable end bedroom so here it is. the view across the valley I’m pleased with the window and the view and light that it provides – the thick wall and small window provide a narrow glimpse of the outside. A slight shame in that…

Perhaps one of the most talked about and attractive recent innovations, sheep’s wool insulation is of particular attraction to those of us who to the woolly West or North of the UK. But does it live up to the hype? the donor! Description Sheeps wool is a renewable by-product of the farming industry. It has…

We have windows and a couple of doors, both big and small and all of them white. They’re not all in yet, but we’re getting there. a new white window… The windows are hardwood and were hand-made relatively locally from (sustainable we are told) African hardwood. I never intended to go for hardwood windows –…

From a full Passivhaus design to a simple loft conversion the effective use of insulation has never been more high profile. One of the key features of current renovation and new building design is the effective utilisation of insulation to minimise heating requirements. Whilst in the UK we historically tended to think of insulation in…

Insulation. June has been a pretty slow month … progress has been dominated by insulation and plasterboard. First fix electrics and plumbing are complete. The roof and walls are being insulated and plasterboarded. Internally, the old stone barn is being lost behind a new structure of wood, plasterboard, insulating panels and rock wool. It feels…

Expanded Polystyrene insulation is made from small beads of polystyrene that are heated to expand them. To create boards, the beads are heated further to fuse the beads together. Boards are typical used in walls, roofs and floors. Polystyrene beads can be used as lose cavity fill in masonry walls. Description Lose or in boards…

last weekend’s raking out In what seems to be an annual event, I’ve restarted repointing the exterior of the barn. When working with lime you have to take a break over the cold, wet winter months – it’s taken me this long to get restarted. This time, I’ve taken a more scientific approach and attempted…

As should be pretty obvious to any regular reader of this site, I’m pretty keen on the use of design patterns to ensure the goodness-of-fit between building plans and specifications and the requirements of the eventual end-users of a building. Patterns help inspire, guide and polish building design at all levels. A Pattern Language ~…

One of the (admittedly very dull) things that I spend quite a lot of time thinking about and experimenting with is the presentation of information. One of the newish developments that is overused on the web, but can be very effective is the word cloud. A word cloud is made up of the key words…

Competition now closed I’d love the forum to become a useful resource for asking questions and getting answers related to ‘healthy house’, sustainable, ecological & environmentally aware building. There are other places out there to ask questions but they can at times be daunting, unwelcoming sorts of places. I want to keep things friendly and…

Now we have pipes (and lots of them as well). In addition to lots of electricity cables, we now have complex pipe-work that will form the basis of the even more complex heating and hot-water system that we’ll be installing. This also means that first-fix electrics and plumbing is now complete… (worthy of a small…