Posted on October 2nd, 2012
Lucy Pedler. Director: The Green Register
Since June 2010 we’ve been running our ‘Eco-refurbishment and The Green Deal’ seminar where ‘warts and all’ presentations of residential case studies give delegates in-depth information on how to retrofit their buildings in a sustainable, low carbon way. But one of the frequently asked questions raised in these seminars is ‘what are the risks of interstitial condensation when applying insulation to an existing building?’
As the economy plummets but fuel prices sore, construction professionals are increasingly working on upgrading their clients’ properties rather than new build projects but are very concerned that by adding roof, wall and floor insulation this will move the dewpoint and cause moisture to build up within the fabric of the external envelope. This can cause damp to build up, mould to grow and potentially damage the fabric – or worse still, structure – of the building elements. Alarm bells start to ring and no professional wants to be faced with a possible lawsuit for negligent practice.
Other concerns repeatedly raised in our Eco-refurbishment seminars are ‘Which is the best way of insulating an existing external wall – inside, outside or the bit in between’, ‘How can I achieve airtightness when refurbishing buildings?’ and ‘How can the design team and builders effectively communicate to achieve best practice detailing?’
As always TGR loves to respond to our delegates’ requests for more, unbiased information and we decided to tackle these issues head on by running a series of new ‘All in the Detail – achieving Best Practice Detailing for Eco refurbishments’ seminars around the UK.
Our first seminar was held in London with over 40 delegates attending the whole day. The speakers were chosen firstly because of their in-depth knowledge of eco-retrofit projects and secondly because they were all experienced practitioners and could share some of their practical experiences of building airtight, well insulated refurbishments but with little or no risk of interstitial condensation.
The first – and judging by the delegates’ feedback by far the most well received – speaker was builder Rafael Delimata, director of Bowtie Construction – contractors with a passion for sustainable building. Rafael used a combination of teaching techniques to explain how his company has consistently achieved best practice detailing in retrofits. Using full size construction mock ups of wall and roof junctions he had made especially for the seminar, Rafael illustrated how to achieve very stringent airtightness standards and the challenges of getting continuous, unbroken layers of insulation, vapour checks and breather membranes.
Rafael also used videos to demonstrate examples of difficult detailing such as at roof hips and valleys, dormers, window and door reveals. Architects’ drawings were displayed (anonymously of course!) to show where detailing was tricky and how better communication – both through drawings and between site managers and operatives – would achieve better standards of airtightness and insulation.
The best thing about Rafael’s presentation was that he could prove that his retrofit jobs actually worked using a combination of careful site practices, good communication and a thorough understanding of the technical information on tried and tested building products.
Finally, Rafael addressed the thorny issue of the cost to install low impact building materials, hidden costs like wastage and storage, delays if products need to be reordered and how builders save money compromising on quality or using substitutes.
The next speaker was Mick Morris from Airseal insulation who talked about moisture control in existing buildings and what happens when insulation is added, particularly when it is non-breathable. The risks and dangers of moving the dewpoint and trapping airborne moisture in elements of a retrofit project were also covered.
Next on was Valentina Marincioni, a scientist from NBT who shared some fascinating research she is working on with University of Central London on moisture movement in buildings. Valentina explained that there are three key principles to delivering low energy refurbishment solutions through the building fabric: thermal coherence, air-tightness and moisture control. In order to insure that a fabric solution is delivered correctly NBT have developed a Material System based approach and Valentina outlined the importance of one of these areas, fabric moisture control and the use of moisture modelling software WUFI to assist in the retrofit design process. The research shows that it is a very complicated subject and that the WUFI software systems take into account subtle differences such as location, orientation and even different types of bricks.
Our final speaker was Jean Pierre Wack, director of eight associates who used an extremely interesting case study of a passivhaus standard retrofit house in London to demonstrate quite how far we would have to go to achieve this very stringent standard.
With The Green Deal’s somewhat underwhelming launch on the first of this month (rumour has it that January will see a revamped relaunch) this seminar could not have been more timely as it has helped construction professionals understand the complexities of introducing green measures into existing buildings, something we are going to have to increasing get our heads around as the impacts of climate change on our poorly performing building stock become evident.
Posted on July 21st, 2011
By Alan Mash | RIBA | AM Design
Having been wooed by the venue; the warm welcome at the reception and the very enjoyable refreshments on offer, the day got even better with some splendid and entertaining presentations. The speakers were excellent, up to the minute with info and very well presented. By the end of the morning session I thought that it couldn’t be bettered. How wrong I was. Anyone who doubts that we, that is the inhabitants of this planet, have to make substantial changes to the way we live and use the precious resources available, would need no further persuasion. Professionals, those of us who have chosen careers in the shaping of the environment we live, have a responsibility to take on board as much information as possible and use it to ensure our clients make the correct decisions. Some options are not cheap but in the long term the rewards will manifest themselves in the sustainability of the planet and us!
The day’s event was a great success. Everybody was buzzing with enlightening info and enthused to go forth and multiply! The day was rounded off by more splendid nibbles and delicious Canadian beer. What more does one need? So, any new prospective members should get on board. This train is moving. Don’t miss it, all in all a day to remember.
The Super E® House conference was held in partnership with the High Commission of Canada and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Canada’s national housing agency.
Posted on March 23rd, 2011
On 11th March I attended the British Institute of Interior Design’s (BIID) first Retrofit conference in London. TGR has been running Healthy Interiors seminars for years now. I have been waiting for Interior Designers (IDs) to embrace sustainable issues, so I was pleased to be part of this event, billed as ‘The first Retrofit Conference directly addressing this sector of the industry’.
Prior to the event I was on a judging panel for the BIID Awards for Residential and Commercial Retrofit Awards and there was also a category for Sustainable Product Award. Despite there being a disappointingly low number of entries, I enjoyed reviewing the submissions that attempted to tackle the environmental impact of IDs work. The awards were presented by Wayne Hemingway who gave a truly inspiring talk about his and his business partner/ wife’s modest beginnings and their ethos. Despite his success, his ego was nowhere to be seen and he presented a cast iron case for using reclaimed products and materials. They’re cheap, unique and they reduce waste: a bit of a no-brainer.
On the expert panel with me in the afternoon were some very interesting people. In particular Russell Smith from Parity Projects who talked about a tool that could be used to assess the environmental impact of retrofits, which sounded like a far more useful tool than the ineffective EPC’s currently in use.
TGR is planning a full day Retrofit seminar for IDs on 14th July in London with case studies from the commercial, residential and hospitality sectors, so take a look at our events page in a few weeks for more details.
Posted on October 14th, 2010
Need advice on your green building projects? The Green Register is pleased to announce a FREE green building event for members of the public, taking place at The Create Centre on the 13th November between 11am and 3pm (advance booking advisable but not essential). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on September 23rd, 2010
ech2o are pleased to announce we have some funding to carry out a series of workshops in the SEEDA region with Housing Association or Local Authority tenants. These fun and interactive workshops are designed to provide tenants with practical and behaviour change solutions to reduce their water consumption, resulting in lower water and energy bills and reduced CO2 emissions. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on September 21st, 2010
During this year’s World Green Building Week, The Green Register has announced plans to celebrate its 10th birthday in Manchester, London and Bristol. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on January 21st, 2010
Green shoots: I am delighted (and relieved) to say that The Green Register has had a very positive start to 2010.
Firstly, we are celebrating surviving 2009-a year when many small businesses and organisations like us did not survive the credit crunch. TGR has done so and this is despite numbers at our 2009 events dropping due to tightened budgets. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on November 27th, 2009
Kevin McCloud was a big hit in his ‘breakout session’ at yesterday’s Green Register/RIBA SW conference ‘Towards a Green Heritage’ that took place at Swindon STEAM museum.
The challenge of combining sustainability and conservation issues were thoroughly debated at the conference with input from conservation officers, architects and engineers. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on November 19th, 2009
Judging by the response and animated discussion that took place in the class immediately following the talk it was clear that the students were very appreciative of what they had heard and had understood the relevance not just in the project they are currently working on but also in their everyday working lives. Mick Jones of Barking College summed it up with “Job well done!”
Posted on July 23rd, 2009
The Green Register held its new Accredited Eco-refurbishment seminar in Bristol on 24th June with a satisfyingly full house. We had three things in mind when creating this course – architects workload slowing down, people not being able to afford to move (and so needling to refurbish/expand their current abode) and the demand for advice on refurbishing houses using eco-principles and hey presto the course was born. Read the rest of this entry »
