A room with a view
April 18th, 2008 - Posted in eco-building - by Sarah|
We’ve made lots of progress this week despite getting 106.1mm of rain (as of 7pm this evening). We have finally reached the point where we can get on with things regardless of the weather.
After finishing the wrap we started to attach cavity battens which will create an air gap between the inner and outer walls. This is something that was added to our design to satisfy the council as they just couldn’t understand that lime plaster was not the same thing as stucco (cement plaster). It has increased the cost of the building significantly as we have had to get stainless steel cavity closure flashings as well as the extra timber etc. required. All our external flashings have been specified as stainless steel -we were told by our architectural designer that this was a regulation because we are only a couple of km from the sea. Talking to neighbours is beginning to cast some doubt on the veracity of this though so we will double check before we build the house (assuming we ever get consent – 4 months and counting). Stainless steel is more ecologically sound (infinitely recyclable, less chemical input) than colorsteel or galvanised but is also a lot more expensive.
We had a particularly successful day today. We started off by cutting the hole for the window, adding the necessary flashing above and below and then setting it in place. It will have to come out again when the next layer of wrap goes on but for now a) it’s out of the way and b) we have a window! Then we had an insulation frenzy and filled all the gaps in the framing with our Terra Lana R2.2 wool/polyester batts. This was an incredibly quick, easy and enjoyable job that would have been horrible if we’d used the standard glass fibre insulation.
We also had the 3rd electrician round to quote for moving us from temporary to permanent supply and signing off the wiring in the workshop. We should hopefully have the quotes in some time next week and be able to get that moving too.
Earlier in the week, on the one fine(ish) day we had, we attached the first of the gutters. These are colorsteel to match the roof. We have not been able to avoid PVC droppers (the piece that links gutter and downpipe). The outlet is temporarily linked directly to our land drain sump until we get around to connecting it to our water tank and adding an overflow pipe.
Bush plumbing
October 15th, 2007 - Posted in bodging, eco-building, sustainable living - by Brendhan|
As you may have already read, our sustainable, low impact, water supply will be sourced from rainwater collected on our roofs. As we don’t have any permanent roofs yet we decided to connect our conservatory roof up to our water tank. While researching the environmental impact of various building materials for our house we discovered just how bad PVC is for the environment. We have decided to keep as far away from it as possible and will not be buying any more now we have used up the guttering we had left over from the shed.
The last of our PVC guttering – using it is better than throwing it away!
Although it’s common knowledge that plastics aren’t particularly good for the environment, what’s less well known is that PVC is especially bad. Every aspect of its lifecycle releases really nasty toxins into the environment – most notably dioxins and phthalates. Both of these are known carcinogens and hormone disruptors and both are bioaccumulative (ie they build up in the body faster than they are broken down). The manufacturing process produces most of the pollutants but PVC goes on to leach its various additives into the environment over its lifespan and when burnt (either for disposal or accidentally) yet more toxic chemicals are released. Even when buried in landfill sites the chemicals added (often heavy metals) in order to plasticise and stabilise PVC can leach into the groundwater. To find out more about the problems of PVC visit this Greenpeace web page and read the PDF on it. Okay that’s my rant for Blog Action Day – back to the bush plumbing story.
I suspect this method of assembly is not endorsed by the manufacturer of either the roofing, guttering or piping. The installer is very happy with it though as it definitely looks great! It works too, the 25000 litre tank we bought a little while ago is starting to fill up – it’s just above the outlets at the bottom of the tank already.
