Richard Greenland
Last week I wrote about a remarkable eco-home being built from materials reclaimed from the site and from ebay.
Framing for covered atrium
The first photo shows the progress of the covered atrium, constructed of cut-down green oak railway sleepers and D/G panels recovered from the site (disused glassworks). You can also see the insulation sheets between the timbers. The oak will move a lot as it seasons, so it has been oiled to slow the drying, and a system allowing the glass to slide independently of the wood will be needed to ensure water-tightness.
Ed cutting insulation sheets
The second photo shows Ed cutting up and erecting insulated panels for the walls. These are from the redundant refrigeration unit bought on ebay I mentioned last week. Ed uses a grinder to cut them to eight-foot lengths, and expanding foam to stick them together. They are expanded polystyrene sandwiched between two sheets of aluminium which gives them lateral stability and abrasion resistance. They have little load-bearing capacity, but combined with wooden support posts are an incredibly quick and insulating way to construct walls. The insides can be lined with plasterboard to provide a good finish, and the outside cladded in wood.
Mark’s policy is to let people get on with what they are good at and not get in the way. He gets annoyed at TV property programs where the fussy clients want holes knocked in walls to move a light switch over 6 inches. He’s had a cabin built in Morocco as a holiday home. Most people’s take a year or two, and they couldn’t understand how his took just three months. The reason is he just let the local guys get on with it as they already know what works best as a home and the easiest way to construct it. Most people can’t stop themselves from interfering and this takes extra time and cost.
