Year: 2009

Way back in 2007 I put a small raised bed into a clearing in our patch of woodland. We had some old sleepers that needed moving away from the barn and this seemed like a sensible thing to do with them. The bed has a weed control liner and 10 to 12 inches of mixed…

As it’s already embarrassingly late I’ll make the February update a whistle-stop tour of what progress has been made. My clay-paint painting is going well (if slowly) although I think in places, where I’ve not been so careful in getting the grain of the application of paint quite right – by that I mean where…

It’s been a while since a VAT update so I thought I’d review the current position, especially in view of the pre-Christmas credit-crunch fuelled reduction in the standard rate of VAT from 17.5% to 15%. My own VAT reclaim will be due soon – by early Summer at the latest, so I thought I’d review…

Also know as PIR. Polyisocyanurate is essential a stronger more fire retardant development of Polyurethane. As may be expected it shares many of the characteristics of Polyurethane. Description Usually produced as a foam panel insulation, PIR foam panels coated with aluminium are used for the prefabrication of ducts and flues commonly used in heating and…

As the building progresses so some of the clean lines that I’m so fond of start to emerge. Below are some of my current favourite examples, more can be seen in my Picasa web album – (following a couple of technical hitches flickr seems to have abandoned me for the time being…) They are to…

MyBarnConversion.com is not the natural place for philosophical discourse but the building of the hearth in the barn has changed the way I view the building. It seems that the central position of the hearth against the gable end wall and within the building, its associations with fire and the power that has on the…

Often abbreviated to PU, Polyurethane is usually applied as a foam insulation sprayed onto the underside of roof rafters. Description A complex manufactured compound, polyurethane has traditionally been manufactured from petrochemicals and so has a few green credentials except for those gained from the energy it saves. Recent developments toward the use of polyols derived…

As well as bitingly cold weather the New Year has seen some slow progress on the barn. The hearth has now been installed ready for the chimney and stove and then eventually a joined together, operational heating and hot water system. I’m really looking forward to getting that up-and-running, it’s been so long in planning…

My concerns over the ability of Wales to achieve its zero carbon dream by 2012 appear to be shared by the political community. According to a news item on the Energy Saving Trust website our Housing and Planning minister Margaret Beckett has decided that the meaning of ‘zero carbon’ is now to be re-evaluated. “We…

The fact that I’m writing my December update in the middle of January tells a story of its own. The cold weather & Christmas have slowed down activity to a barely perceptible drag. The stove eventually turned up after several phone calls and a nagging doubt over claims of what was in stock and what…

In the same part of the world as the MBC barn is the Lammas ecovillage. As a venture into sustainable living on a far grander scale than our own meagre and partial attempt, it is a endeavour of both ideological and political personal interest. I applaud the vision of this initiative, the scale seems right…

Mineral Wool is an inorganic product manufactured from glass or rock. Most commonly seen in the UK in the form of rolls used for loft insulation it is also used in granular form as a cavity wall filler and as rigid slabs in construction. Certain products use recycled glass and can so claim green credentials.…