Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability

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This practical and essential guide to retrofitting for energy efficiency seeks to provide answers to this and other the questions homeowners of old houses are asking. Whether your house is medieval and timber-framed or a Georgian, Victorian or Edwardian terrace, it can be made more energy efficient and sustainable, and this practical and comprehensive handbook will show you how. His work has appeared in numerous publications including The Daily Telegraph, Period Living, House & Garden, Grand Designs, Homebuilding & Renovating, Real Homes and Listed Heritage. He is sustainability correspondent for Show House, a title aimed at the housebuilding industry, and is a judge of the What House? Awards for new housing. Unintended consequences is a phrase that increasingly crops up when considering energy efficient retrofits to old buildings. This is partly because there is much that is still not understood about what happens when retrofit measures are introduced into older structures. More worryingly, unintended consequences often result from the fact that retrofits are not always well thought through in terms of selecting appropriate solutions and considering how they might interact with one another. This practical and essential guide to retrofitting for energy efficiency seeks to provide answers to this and other questions homeowners of old houses are asking. Whether your house is medieval and timber-framed or a Georgian, Victorian or Edwardian terrace, it can be made more energy efficient and sustainable. This practical, comprehensive and fully illustrated handbook will show you how.

One useful tool, which helps understand these relationships better, is the responsible retrofit guidance wheel developed by the Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance (STBA). This depicts a range of measures and encourages exploration of the advantages, concerns and interactions that result. Drafts actually make you feel colder than the building really is, so introducing secondary glazing or draft proofing around windows can make a big difference to comfort levels. Roger Hunt, co-author (with Marianne Suhr) of Old House Handbook, is an award-winning writer and blogger with a particular interest in sustainable and vernacular architecture and the materials and techniques used in construction. He is the author of Rural Britain: Then and Now, a celebration of the British countryside, Villages of England and Hidden Depths, an archaeological exploration of Surrey’s past. Revised and updated throughout , and with a foreword by Kevin McCloud, Old House Eco Handbook includes chapters on the building envelope ; roofs and ceilings ; windows and doors ; walls ; floors ; paints ; energy, air and water ; plus a brand new chapter on retrofit materials . Retrofitting should be an holistic process and, for this to happen, it’s essential to know the eventual goal and have a plan or ‘roadmap’. This will enable the most appropriate measures to be selected and their interrelationship with one another to be better understood, even if they’re introduced over an extended period of time as funds and opportunities present themselves. If planning is inadequate, conflicts may occur and work might have to be undone to accommodate future phases of work or to rectify problems.The book is written in a logical, smart and accessible way. There will never be a one size fits all solution, but books like this do help to provide readers with a palate of ideas and possible options to ensure restorations are done in as sensitive and effective a manner as possible. As we aim to live in more sustainable ways it also makes sense to bring into the 21st century many old and wonderful buildings that just need some TLC. In this way we can reap the benefits of the smart new ways that are evolving to restore and renovate older buildings. How should we go about making old houses energy efficient without devaluing future sustainability or the appeal and character of old homes by the use of inappropriate solutions? This practical and essential guide to retrofitting for energy efficiency seeks to provide answers to this and other the questions homeowners of old houses are asking. Whether your house is medieval and timber-framed or a Georgian, Victorian or Edwardian terrace, it can be made more energy efficient and sustainable, and this practical and comprehensive handbook will show you how. Revised and updated throughout, and with a foreword by Kevin McLoud, Old House Eco Handbook includes chapters on the building envelope; roofs and ceilings; windows and doors; walls; floors; paints; energy, airandwater; plus a brand newchapter on retrofit materials. In association with The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, this is a must have for owners of old houses looking to make their homes more energy efficient and sustainable. Chapters Include: 1. Old houses can be green 2. Old house to eco house 3. The building envelope 4. Retrofit materials 5. Roofs and ceilings 6. Windows and doors 7. Walls 8. Floors 9. Paints 10. Energy, air and water 11. Old house for the future Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy Efficiency and Sustainability by Roger Hunt – eBook Details I’m passionate about trying to make buildings sustainable and cut our carbon but at the same time we’ve got to have places that are accessible, enjoyable and important to people.” PDF / EPUB File Name: Old_House_Eco_Handbook_-_Roger_Hunt.pdf, Old_House_Eco_Handbook_-_Roger_Hunt.epub

Roger says it's a complex subject as we have to embrace the value of the building in terms of beauty, aesthetics and our love for them, along with the monetary value. Take time to understand your building Author Roger Hunt explains why period properties need treating differently when it comes to achieving successful retrofit projects. Interview with Roger Hunt As we learn more and more about smarter ways to make old houses warmer, less damp, draughty and more pleasant places to live, this book is an interesting contribution to this growing area of blending modern insights with ancient buildings and techniques. We review the Old House Eco Handbook by Marianne Suhr and Roger Hunt. Available to buy here. Join the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) to learn how to make your home - whether it is medieval and timber-framed, Georgian, Victorian or Edwardian, detached or terrace - energy efficient and low carbon without devaluing the future sustainability or character of the building. Full Book Name: Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy Efficiency and Sustainability

Old House Eco Handbook A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy Efficiency and Sustainability, reviewed

Roger Hunt, co-author (with Marianne Suhr) of Old House Handbook, is an award-winning writer and blogger with a particular interest in sustainable and vernacular architecture and the materials and techniques used in construction. He is the author of Rural Britain: Then and Now, a celebration of the British countryside, Villages of England and Hidden Depths, an archaeological exploration of Surrey's past. He lectures on building-related issues, is a judge of annual awards for new housing and serves on the editorial board of the SPAB magazine. His latest renovation project is a 1900 house on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA. It is important to make the distinction between those breathable buildings, and ones from around 1919 onwards, when construction methods changed to concrete and cement being used with a focus on keeping water out. Those buildings need to be treated differently, as getting the retrofit techniques wrong can store up problems for the future. Start with a plan for the whole building Roger is the co-author of New Design for Old Buildings from RIBA Publishing as well as the bestselling Old House Handbook and the companion volume Old House Eco Handbook, published in association with the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB). He is the author of Rural Britain: Then and Now, a celebration of the British countryside featuring photographs from The Francis Frith Collection; Villages of England; and Hidden Depths, an archaeological exploration of Surrey's past. He also contributed a chapter to the Reader's Digest book The Story of Where you Live and wrote Hamptons International's millennium book The House 1000-2000. Don't try and use modern materials that are incompatible with an old building. Particularly don't use an insulating material that is going to stop your building from breathing.

This practical and essential guideto retrofitting for energy efficiency seeks to provide answers to this and other the questions homeowners of old houses are asking. Whether your house is medieval and timber-framedor a Georgian, Victorian or Edwardian terrace, it can be made more energy efficient and sustainable, and this practical and comprehensive handbook will show you how. Join the SPAB on this course to learn how to make your home - whether it is medieval and timber-framed, Georgian, Victorian or Edwardian, detached or terrace - energy efficient and low carbon without devaluing the future sustainability or character of the building.Roger defines old buildings as being anything from medieval through to Victorian and Edwardian terraced houses. They were houses typically made from breathable materials, such as lime mortars, renders and plasters. How should we go about making old houses energy efficient without devaluing future sustainability or the appeal and character of old homes by the use of inappropriate solutions? The Old House Eco Course was excellent - thanks to all who contributed. It was very interesting" - Builder