Eco renovation in County Down
Against a backdrop of the predicted need for 4.4 million new homes by 2016, and increasing pressure on greenfield sites, the Ecology is keen to stress the importance of making the best use of our existing stock of housing, for the environment and the need for regeneration, both urban and rural. James writes of his experience from Northern Ireland.
"There are so many nice things about our house. Remarkable for Northern Ireland, there are two bridleways within throwing distance. The birds are delightful - being so high we can often look ravens, kestrels, buzzards and peregrines straight in the eye. Despite the scorched earth effects of sheep overgrazing that is so common in the Dromara hills, the hillside opposite is still covered in some natural tree cover. It is frontier territory where Protestant north meets Catholic south and is ethnically mixed, at least in politico-religious terms."
"The best thing about our house is that it is not going to be demolished as part of a replacement programme. Since 1979 the Ulster countryside has been despoiled by shiny white bungalows either because of the grants available and/or the ease with which you can get planning permission if there is an existing building."
"Saving the house, built for the local schoolteacher around the turn of the century, was one thing but aspiring to develop it in an ecologically responsible way, has been an adventure. A lot of 'green' books were bought which tend to stress the ultimate in green credentials, using techniques and materials that are neither cheap enough nor easily available. It was perhaps an inevitable realisation that using the skills of local people with local materials was the way forward."
Resource & energy efficiency
"Being so windy, a small generator is being installed to harness enough renewable energy for all lights and some sockets. Heating is being provided by a multi-fuel stove, with an oil burner as back-up (locals have warned me about being snowed-in in the winter) and waste-water is being recycled into reeds and vegetables. Slabs of insulation, used in refrigerated lorries and recovered from a dump, provide dense insulation and, on all walls, apart from those facing south, glass wool insulation has been packed into new frames. About two thirds of the slates were re-used after being stripped off the roof. Quarry tiles on the floor were re-laid on top of insulation. Full of woodworm but still sound, boron-based preservative on the roof timbers has hopefully prevented further damage. New windows are double glazed (the inner panel K glass) and made from local timber. Like the no-dig method of gardening I have ended up intervening more than I would have liked. Lifting perfect floorboards and tiles has provided much needed insulation but has been a lot of work. More plaster has been stripped off existing walls than I originally thought necessary."
"Joy in the garden turned to horror not just at the sight of my first New Zealand flat worm but the discovery of 2 feet of rocky spoil that had been dumped evenly in the garden from the excavation, in the 1960s, of a cavernous septic tank. With great difficulty a small forest of fruit trees and bushes has been planted through this clay and stone matrix."
"Our house. It actually feels so good to say that. It is the first house that I have ever owned although I do share it with my wife Angela and two children, Katie and Joey."
