Practical Advice on Building an ECO House

This the first in a series of articles looking at the successful build of an ECO house by Rob and Maggie Sauven at Gurnard Marsh.

Rob, who is Managing Director of Vestas Blades, first came to the Island in 2000 when he worked on the relocation of the Vestas factory. After spending much of the first winter staying at the Royal Corinthian he came across a plot for sale when out walking along the beach at Gurnard. The plot, with it’s panoramic view of the Solent, looked ideal for sustainable re-development. Hidden below, however, were major difficulties that tested his engineering knowledge, patience and determination.

The hidden issues were the Island’s main electricity cables to the mainland, a live sewer and numerous other pipes that required clever engineering to retain access while a piled and table top type foundation was required above. It took four long years for Rob & Maggie to obtain planning permission which gave them plenty of time to get their building plans worked out to perfection.

With planning permission granted, Rob & Maggie took their own sketched plans to a local architect to re-draw, taking into consideration building regulations and local planning laws. To make for an efficient build they kept all fixtures and fittings within the standard sizes readily available via the internet and local builders merchants. These were all pre-specified before the build, setting their position on paper to reduce later costs. The internal design of the house has a simple layout that reduces the amount of plumbing and electricity ducting whilst the exterior uses sustainably sourced cedar cladding and standard triple glazed units.

The architect’s drawings were then passed onto a timber engineering expert (sourced on the internet) to create a structural plan of the timber frame. This, in-turn, was then quoted on by three timber frame builders. (Timber was used in this case as it came from a sustainable source, an alternative would be a steel frame.)

To create the foundations a soil sample was taken to a depth of 20 metres and then sent off for analysis. The results were then passed onto a specialist foundation engineer who drew up plans based on these and Rob’s own drawings that took in to consideration the various cables and pipes that required future access. The foundation plans were then quoted on by three foundation specialists.

The final element left to find was the roofing material which was decided as reclaimed Welsh slate. Rob & Maggie used the internet to find a supplier and work out the amount required.

In Essence:

Find your plot
Work out what you can do
Talk to your planning department
Keep your design simple
Source the best professionals for each element
Use the internet to source services and materials

In the next article we will take the build on to a ‘dry shell’.