Understated eco
Nick and Annette Templar seized the opportunity to build a new family-sized home with robust eco credentials in the garden of their old house.the result? A fabric first approach that subtly places sustainability at its heart
A couple in Worcestershire create their dream home filled with eco credentials
Nestled at the back of a quiet residential culde-sac, Annette and Nick Templar’s detached contemporary home stands proud with a striking modern pergola ushering visitors into its fold. From the outside the mainly brick façade with cedar sections gives the impression that the building is a solid, comfortable family home with good proportions. And that’s true. But what sets it apart is a lot of what you can’t see, its green credentials. Understated and modest, there’s no sedum roof or obvious eco design. The Templars have wrapped sustainability into the fabric of the building — as well as high levels of floor and wall insulation, there’s an air source heat pump, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) system, rainwater harvesting and triple glazed windows and doors with average U values of 0.6 W/M2K, too. Here, Nick shares the couple’s eco self-build journey…
SO, HOW DID YOUR SELF-BUILD JOURNEY START NICK?
I remember it clearly: it started with a conversation I had with a friend, who’s a civil engineer, on a cold November day back in 2012. He was telling me that the 20 old asbestos garages that were sat down the bottom of our gardens were going to be ripped down by a developer. He said: “If you get access into the bottom of your garden you could build a bungalow or, if you buy some land off your neighbour, you could build a house.”
AND WHAT DID YOU INITIALLY THINK ABOUT THE IDEA OF BUILDING YOUR OWN HOME?
I thought, “how fantastic!” I’ve always been nuts on DIY. I’ve helped people with their extensions and converted a loft before.we bought the house we lived in, at the back of this garden, in 1985. It was a wreck at that point and we slowly did it up over 12 years with young children in tow, so I had an idea of what’s involved in building works. I was quite ready to take on the challenge!
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
I approached the developer who was building the four houses on the site of the old garages and I told him I wanted to build a house in my garden, which was originally a sizable 242ft long. A stroke of luck had it that unless I sold the developer the piece of land he needed from my garden to make the turning circle for the new houses, he wouldn’t have been able to build them. So he gave me all my services in return for the piece of land he needed, which saved us nearly a third of the cost of the build.
I did employ a land agent to negotiate buying part of my neighbour’s garden, which she kindly sold to us, so we ended up with a decent sized plot to build on.
WHAT WAS THE PLANNING PROCESS LIKE?
Initially the idea was to build a retirement bungalow, but we wanted something really family orientated and energy efficient — this was really important. So, we talked to Martin Scriven, a local land agent, who drew up a floorplan of a house on the back of a serviette — and it looked fantastic! The developer of the houses surrounding us also got his technician to draw up plans but I felt a little underwhelmed.
So, for us, the next step was to contact RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) to find an architect who could transform the ideas into plans. I asked RIBA for someone local — that’s when they recommended Mark Griffiths.
Mark had just set up his architectural practice and was keen to hear our ideas. He looked at the technician’s rather ordinary plans, overhauled them and the elevations and created an impressive, well designed contemporary family home. But then it got a bit tricky. Bromsgrove planning office initially said no to the design.
We originally had a sunken flat roof running along the main ridge line (which you couldn’t see from the front) to accommodate solar panels and bee hives on the roof — I’m a keen bee keeper. They also said we couldn’t have lots of wood or render on the exterior either. The view of the house was just too modern, too forward thinking — they just didn’t like it.
HOW LONG DID IT TAKE BEFORE THE PLANS WERE PASSED?
Along with Mark we re-did the plans a couple of times before they were passed and we could build what we have now. It took five months to achieve planning, mainly due to the local planning authority’s ‘non performance’. Mark completed the drawings for planning, Building Regulations and construction, which was really helpful.
WHEN DID THE BUILD START?
Having found a builder, work started on site in October 2015, so nearly three years on from that first conversation. The groundworks were very straightforward and there were no nasty surprises.
WHAT BUILD ROUTE DID YOU TAKE?
We took on a main contractor for the floors, walls and roof: the main fabric of the building. Mark oversaw the builders. I remember Mark turning up one day early on in the build and he’d spotted that the builders had used the wrong colour mortar, so he told them to take a wall down and redo it. It was great having someone on site to initiate those conversations! We actually couldn’t have done this project without Mark, we were very fortunate in finding him.
I managed the rest of the trades and subcontractors together — the plasterers and the plumber, for example. I also did a lot of research and bought everything from the MVHR system, to the rainwater harvesting system, the doors and windows, front pergola entrance and staircase fretwork. And I was on site every day because initially we were living in the original house so it was an easy trip down the garden.
SO WHEN DID YOU MOVE IN?
We sold our house while building work was still going on but for a month we couldn’t live in the new house and had to live with my sister and commute.
One day I was too tired to drive back so we camped out and then ended up moving in with no running water! We had a tap in the garden and one light bulb.we didn’t have any internal doors so couldn’t even camp out in one area — they were one of the last things to be fitted.we moved everything in at the end of March 2017, but the house wasn’t comfortable until the end of June 2017.
WERE THERE ANY CHALLENGES DURING THE BUILD?
There’s usually something unexpected that happens when you build your own home. I remember the two lorries delivering the bricks for the house couldn’t get up the road.there were packs and packs of bricks to be unloaded. By this time we’d begun digging the foundations so the bricks had to be put on the driveway at the original house.the piles were so high we couldn’t even see the front of the house! So I employed a school leaver and gave him a wheelbarrow and some gloves and it took him 11 days hauling all the bricks down to the site at the bottom of the garden. He did a marvellous job.
WHY DID YOU WANT TO BUILD AN ENERGY EFFICIENT HOME?
That’s a good question. It may have been from living in a 1920s house with draughty metal windows: in the winter you’d realise there was ice on the windows! It was the first priority though to make this home energy efficient. Everything revolved around it. I did a lot of research myself. I worked out I’d need an airtight house with at least triple glazing, an airtight front door, MVHR system, rainwater harvesting and an air source heat pump, too.
We did look into Passivhaus but to achieve Passivhaus certification on this house we would have had to pay an extra £22.5k, so we decided to adhere to the principles of it instead.
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT SELFBUILD THAT YOU DIDN’T KNOW BEFORE?
If you’ve done it before you know what to look out for; you know the twists and turns. But when you’ve never travelled the route before, it can be a bit of a rocky journey.
We didn’t change much during the build; Mark said we hadn’t deviated from the original design. But there were a few times along the way when we didn’t have a clue but we had a lot of luck and it’s about finding the right people.with trades you’re chancing something good. Our plasterer came about from talking to a neighbour, and he turned up at 8am on dark November days — he was magnificent. I’d say when you employ someone, find an obsessive!
AND I’VE GOT TO ASK YOU, WOULD YOU DO IT AGAIN?
Yes, I would love to! But Annette isn’t so keen.
It’s a nice, quiet place to live. It’s a great family home with everyone here at Christmas around the table.there are still a few little jobs to do but the next big project for me is the garden.