Grand Designs - 18th Feb
Discussion
Watched last night, missed the start, wife said the place they knocked down was lovely.
Although it's not exactly what i'd build, I thoroughly enjoyed it, it was refreshing to have a 'relatively' normal couple too, not some stuck up turds, okay they were 'eco' friendly, but in all honesty, I think if I were doing a new build, i'd throw in some renewable s
t, just because I like how that stuff works, not because I want to save the world.
Great stuff.
Although it's not exactly what i'd build, I thoroughly enjoyed it, it was refreshing to have a 'relatively' normal couple too, not some stuck up turds, okay they were 'eco' friendly, but in all honesty, I think if I were doing a new build, i'd throw in some renewable s
t, just because I like how that stuff works, not because I want to save the world.Great stuff.
Tuna said:
cardigankid said:
lord summerisle said:
cardigankid said:
On the negative side, I don't buy into the airtightness agenda, which is promoted by the man made global warming lobby and overcomplicated Building Regulations. Experience tells me that if the building fabric can't breathe nasty stuff starts to happen, anaerobic bacteria, rot etc.
Like my old Building Tech. Lecture used to bang on about - Built Tight, Ventilate Right.Used to eulogize about the Glasgow Tenements, about how good their design was. and comparing the air changes between the tenement, and a barratt house.
And the much higher bateria/mould/dust levels in the barratt house, because of this lack of air change.
There's a huge difference between a Barrat house with poor ventilation and a modern passive house. The latter focuses on ventilate right part of the 'build tight, ventilate right' mantra, and is proving very successful on the continent. Unfortunately the vast majority of builders in the UK haven't a clue when it comes to building to the necessary standards to make such things work. Hence mouldy old barrat houses.
Just to look at cardigans kid's misconceptions:
It costs electricity to run. Yes, and it saves significantly more on heating bills.
Breeding ground for MRSA. Not at all, we're talking about a dry system here, at normal household temperature levels, not a wet heating system.
Ears popping. Part of the ventilate right concept is to allow airflow internally. Unlike older houses where every door has to be draught proofed to stop those uncomfortable cold draughts, a passive house will have an air gap at the bottom of internal doors. Every room will have a flow of fresh air in or out. No doors popping.
Air quality. You get significantly higher in passive houses. Read up and you'll find asthmatics and allergy sufferers signing the praises of their well ventilated homes.
Waste of heat. This isn't something you can apply to a badly insulated, badly built house typical of most UK building. As the guy on GD said, get it right and your heating bills are so drastically reduced that you can export energy back to the grid. You can have the wife walking around in her silk nightie in the winter because distributing heat evenly around the house doesn't waste energy. No hot spots, and no cold corners.
It's no good looking to Glasgow Tenements for examples of current building practise. We are years (decades) behind most of Europe and Canada, who have been building much higher quality homes on these principles for years. This isn't experimental stuff, out there it's proven and effective. Sadly, the average UK house buyer is so terrified of anything that isn't 'traditional' brick and block, that we just don't see these methods applied properly over here.
Furthermore, and I have had experience of this, airtightness is NEVER fully achieved and always creates problems, even if it is desirable, which I doubt. Hence all the seals on our man's front door. I'll bet that will be a joy to open every morning, at least until the seals self destruct. It is also only one of many considerations about airflow in a house, and another one is that in an open plan double height environment, however good it looks heat rises and you get draughts. Nor is airtightness an essential prerequisite of heat insulation or heat recovery, it's just one of the current buzzwords, just like 'passive' which had a meaning at one time which it is rapidly losing, 'carbon neutral' and 'sustainable' which is frequently used to justify designs which are anything but.
I would not suggest for one moment either that Barratt build a quality house, or that we should be replicating 19th Century tenements. I am saying that there are lessons to be learned from the latter. I do not have a single door draught proofed, and I do not have any draughts, at least none that I notice.
The more complex a building is - and that one was made complex to achieve the appearance - the more difficult it is to achieve laboratory results. As for no cold spots, I am sure he has plenty, not least at the outside edge of the terracotta arch as I mentioned.
Sure we are miles behind Europe, but not for the reasons you give, and before we go charging round sealing up our doors and windows and putting in mickey mouse HVAC systems, I suggest that we look a bit more closely at some real examples.
Edited by cardigankid on Thursday 19th February 10:59
Tuna said:
dirty boy said:
Watched last night, missed the start, wife said the place they knocked down was lovely.
Should've gone to Specsavers. The old place was a garden shed painted to look like a timber framed house. Even the 'tiles' on the roof were painted on.scotal said:
Has your build started yet Tuna?
Hahahahahaha... 
You're a funny man. I like you.
No, we're meeting with the foundation guys tommorrow and building regs go in next week with a bit of luck. We've avoided the wet winter weather and hope to break ground in a month or so.
We were a bit confused by the programme last night. At one moment we were concerned that someone had made a documentary about us when we weren't looking. Caravan in field (complete with sewer pipe to nearby manhole cover), sprogs, chickens, piled and cast foundations... all seemed terribly familiar.
Kudos to the guy for making a unique building, but it wasn't really to our taste - with the square rooms jutting into the central arch, it felt like a shanty town under one of the arches at St Pancras. It seemed a little typical of many architect designed pads - loads of focus on the how, and use of clever materials, but not so much focus on the aesthetic details that would make it into a home. Still, I'd rather something like that got built and people tried out new and left-field ideas than the usual design by committee rubbish we see being built most of the time.
Curious you should mention St Pancras, because that is a building with genuine passive ventilation, and designed in about 1870.
Anyway, if you want a real ding dong, show us some pictures of what you are planning and we'll set you right and no mistake!
Anyway, if you want a real ding dong, show us some pictures of what you are planning and we'll set you right and no mistake!
Edited by cardigankid on Thursday 19th February 11:02
cardigankid said:
Curious you should mention St Pancras, because that is a building with genuine passive ventilation, and designed in about 1870.
Anyway, if you want a real ding dong, show us some pictures of what you are planning and we'll set you right and no mistake!
It took him 4 years to get planning, and he was knocked back IIRC due to the view of the property form a hill a mile away... ithink being "set right" is the last thing Tuna needs.Anyway, if you want a real ding dong, show us some pictures of what you are planning and we'll set you right and no mistake!
Edited by cardigankid on Thursday 19th February 11:02
(I also now have a mental image of you being like the Harry Enfield character "you don't want to do it like that, you want to do it like this" Which is unfortunate.
cardigankid said:
No, you cock, its the hotel, where the stairwells at the end of each corridor are designed as natural warm air stacks.
Ahhh. I went in there on a tour before they started work on it.... not once did they mention that. You're interesting. ETa If a little brusque.Edited by scotal on Thursday 19th February 11:06
scotal said:
cardigankid said:
No, you cock, its the hotel, where the stairwells at the end of each corridor are designed as natural warm air stacks.
Ahhh. I went in there on a tour before they started work on it.... not once did they mention that. You're interesting. ETa If a little brusque.
cardigankid said:
Coco H said:
I loved the house - a great concept and they took risks.
He was funny and actually quite normal. Not suprising she got up the duff so quickly - what else could they do in that caravan. Buy you did see the harsh side of living in a caravan for that long and with a baby!
If the kid had got pneumonia it would have been no laughing matter.He was funny and actually quite normal. Not suprising she got up the duff so quickly - what else could they do in that caravan. Buy you did see the harsh side of living in a caravan for that long and with a baby!
V8mate said:
scotal said:
cardigankid said:
No, you cock, its the hotel, where the stairwells at the end of each corridor are designed as natural warm air stacks.
Ahhh. I went in there on a tour before they started work on it.... not once did they mention that. You're interesting. ETa If a little brusque.scotal said:
Coco H said:
Also - at the start behind the old bungalow - you could see another house's roof just behind their plot - was I imagining that?
If J111 has the info r right (first post page 5, there are a couple of houses nearby. 
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