|
|
 |
The
Ecohome : Ground floor living
room
In a building with no cavity walls there
are two possible ways to insulate the external walls - inside or
outside. Gil and Penney decided that for the front elevation of
the house internal insulation would be easier to detail while allowing
the external brick appearance to remain, in keeping with the street.
The material chosen was Knauf dry-lining board which although synthetic
has a much higher performance. Two layers of 52.5mm boards (one
layer around the reveals) were securely fixed to the wall with dabs
of resin and mechanical fixings to achieve insulation levels equivalent
to 150mm of rockwool. The returns at each corner were included to
allow an overlap with future insulation on the opposite faces of
those walls.
This overlap is used where insulation is discontinuous, to reduce
the 'cold bridge' effect, which can reduce the effectiveness of
the insulation and lead to localised condensation problems. The
dry-lining was then plastered with ordinary gypsum. The room was
then painted using white emulsion, a low VOC paint - this is not
the 'greenest' paint that could have been used.
The window sills and hearth were finished
with hand-made, English tiles with a plain glaze in a deep cobalt
blue, to give the room a clean, Mediterranean calm. The low cost
aluminium blinds were chosen to add to the sleek finish.
The skirtings, architraves and door were
taken away and dipped, to remove the paint. The off-site use of
strong paint-stripping chemicals was weighed up against the environmental
disadvantages of discarding and replacing those elements with new
materials.
The floors were cleaned, sanded, mended and
coated with a natural hard-wax oil by OS Colour as used in the new
British Airways headquarters.
Installation of the double glazed PVCu windows by the previous owner
was a mixed blessing. They replaced old single glazed sash windows
which would have been unacceptably draughty and cold (but which
could have been refurbished and upgraded).
The fact that double glazed units were installed meant that not
all the windows had to be replaced at once, giving a bit of breathing
space to save up the money to eventually replace all the plastic
windows, with high quality, sustainably produced wooden double glazed
windows with low emissivity coating and gas fill.
The blinds will be augmented with thermally
lined fabric blinds to increase night time insulation.
The original cornice, damaged by the installation
of the dry-lining, will be made good by a local specialist.
Continue
the tour >>
|
