Grand Designs (1999–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - The Eco-house, Suffolk - full transcript
Rob Roy builds an environmentally friendly home in Suffolk.
Hello and welcome to Grand Designs.
Every programme in this series so far
has shown us how building your own house
represents something of a new beginning.
Well this week's couple, Rob Roy
and Alida Saunders, have
found a wonderful setting
here in the heart of Suffolk. And not
only do they intend to build their own
house from scratch, they also intend
to entirely change the way they live.
And this is the untouched greenfield
site on which Rob and Alida are going
to build. Now they're putting up a house
which is not only a home for them
and a workplace, but it's also going to be
ecologically efficient and
environmentally friendly.
And I suppose a sign of their commitment
is that they're going to build it
themselves.
And if that isn't enough, then take a look
at the house that they're leaving behind.
Rob and Alida are selling this beautiful
Victorian four bedroom house which
they've spent five years renovating
and decorating themselves.
Rob used to work as a taxation consultant.
Although he had intended to give
up his job to build his new
house, he was made redundant
two months ago. Alida works as a
part-time nurse and she also restores and
sells antique furniture.
They've three daughters, Amber
six, Poppy four and Freya one.
Oh yeah, the complete guy to set him
up and goes in first because for some
reason we're taking
that one for the caravans.
We're not fanatics and I think what
we like to prove when we move into this
house is that you know you don't have to be
hairy hippies for another word. You
can be normal people living normal lives
but still be very environmentally aware.
Where did you get your inspiration from?
Well I've always been interested in
green issues and I'm very keen to live
in a very healthy environment
not just on the outside
but actually in my own home. It's
going to be a very comfortable home, very
warm, very cheap to run,
very light, very spacious
and hopefully very stylish. I mean
we're going to prove to people that you
know this can be done.
Look who we just found in the lot.
I see where you were.
I was with Daddy.
You were Daddy were you?
Come on, come back.
This is the last time they'll live in a
real house until their new home has
been built.
Rob and Alida have decided that in
order to save money they must live on
site in a caravan.
Well Kevin welcome to the new abode.
Oh yes, this is hardly the eco home is it?
Far, far from it let me assure you.
But the porch is nice, it
looks like you've built that.
That's right, we knocked that together,
that's where the washing machine,
the fridge and dirty coats,
hats, boots and the rest go.
This is the kitchen.
This is the kitchen, sink, cooker.
Bigger than mine I can tell you.
Wow, you know we like to live in
salubrious surroundings here and so forth.
And we have an imaginary door into...
That's right and this is the lounge,
dining table, panoramic viewpoint and
there'll be a fire here, television.
Hey it works, don't worry it works.
Including brick wall,
what's in that door there?
Well that's the office, that's where
the non-site work goes, that's the
business room in other words.
Look and there's another caravan.
And then through into caravan number two.
Right.
And in here is where the bathroom will be.
You mean, you mean shower room?
OK, it's not going to have a bath,
it'll have a shower, it'll have a shower.
And this is your bedroom,
this must be your bedroom.
That's right, this is...
You stand anywhere in this place and
you're in another room without knowing.
Yeah that's right, another panoramic
viewpoint and this is where Alida
and I will sleep and fray.
Oh and you've looked
at the pretty little stencil.
Well that's right, that's Alida's touch.
Alida's decorated isn't it?
Yeah she's very good at the paint
effects and she wanted to make a good.
effort with this even though
it's a temporary living space.
So where are the girls?
Well come through here and take a look.
Oh look at this, joy. What beds?
Yeah.
Where are they from? They look Swedish.
This is Romanian,
this is Poppy's and this
one over here is
German, that's Amber's.
Chunky, they're great.
What about Freya, where's she going?
Freya will be over there.
Right.
We've got a little German bed cot for her.
Yes.
They won't want to leave this of
course, you know that, don't you?
Yeah I know that's the problem.
Now I think that's enough caravan
for me, I want to look at the real house.
Okay, okay. Let's go look at some plans.
So what's this?
Well this is the bathroom which must
be fitted in the caravan by the end of
next week if we're
going to move in on time.
In the caravan?
Yeah.
Well now is this the plan of the plot?
That's right, that's uh...
I have to say it is the most amazing
place, it's quiet, very very beautiful.
Thanks.
Lovely setting.
So what have you got planned for the site?
Well we want to build our eco house
more or less right where we're sitting.
Back in the middle?
That's right. We're sitting just at
the back of the house on the tip of the
veranda and there's the view.
There's the back garden?
Yeah, facing due south. You know
you can look at some pictures of the
proposals here.
Yeah.
They're quite detailed aren't they?
They are.
These were produced by Neil our architect.
Yes. And what did you go to him with?
Did you have any proposals that you
went to him with?
Well we derived our own set of plans.
Have you got them here?
Yeah, yeah.
Couple of drawings here. Which uh...
Ah ha! Right.
The old hand drawn ones.
One thing actually that leaps out
straight away is the fact that his drawing
of the roof pitch is much
much steeper than yours.
It's yours is at 45 degrees, his is
presumably, I don't know, a local angle.
I had approached this from the
point of view of fitting solar panels for
either electricity or water heating
to the south facing pitch of the roof.
And therefore had chosen the best
average angle of incidence to get the best
best sunlight.
Neil has raised the pitch angle partly
for aesthetic reasons but partly also
to accommodate things like the
mezzanine flooring for the girls' bedrooms.
Rob and Alida's
main inspiration was
the home of their
architect Neil Winder.
He also built his own ecologically
friendly house and its look has greatly
influenced the new design.
Neil's design creates a spacious
ground floor. There's a large kitchen and
dining area next door
to a quieter sitting room.
Upstairs the girls' bedrooms
have mezzanine floors.
This means the girls' beds are on a
separate platform in the roof giving
them more floor space
in the lower area to play.
The build will use green materials
with eco add-ons including draft lobbies
to keep warm air in.
Solar panels on the veranda roof to
heat water and a composting toilet.
All waste passes to an underground
treatment plant. Solids are separated and
collected for use as compost in the garden.
Dirty water from the house is cleaned
through a series of Reed beds before
being returned to the environment.
Even rainwater is collected, filtered
and used for the washing machine.
It all complies with building regulations
and over time will save money,
even if it does raise a few eyebrows.
So Rob, tell me about the composting
loos and what kind of threat or
perceived threat do they
present to the community here?
Well, none as far as I'm concerned really.
Any objections made in connection
with the composting loos I think are
really borne out of ignorance of what
we're going to do.
Right. Because there's absolutely
no reason to believe that a composting
toilet or Reed bed system should put
anything noxious into the environment.
And the neighbours, have
they voiced any opinion yet?
Well, they're as friendly as can be
and as interested as can be. What they
may say to the
planners in private is
their own affair,
but from my point of.
view I think that they're on our side.
This site cost Rob £45,000 and he
intends to spend £75,000 on the build.
They're funding the project partly
with their own capital, but they're going
to need a mortgage of £49,000.
For now, however, Rob and Alida
still face the daunting issue of getting
planning permission. Today, they've
a meeting with the planning officers.
Unfortunately, some locals have sent
in objections to Rob's Reed bed system.
This means the officers can't pass
the plans themselves, which instead will
have to go before the planning
committee, although the officers can make
recommendations.
All Rob and Alida
can do is explain
their ideas carefully
and hope for the best.
But they will look at it
critically, as is their job.
So how do you balance that against,
say, the potential objections that some
of the consultees
who live in those
sort of 1960s, 1970s
buildings may raise?
I would expect a lot of people who
live in the more suburban designs would
appreciate a traditional design,
but nevertheless pursues sustainable
development objectives.
What advice would you have
for would-be self-builders?
Basically, I'd say, first of all,
contact your planning department as
quickly as possible.
You'll find them willing and happy to talk.
Secondly is ascertain from them if
they'd like to get planning permission in
principle.
If the design is likely to be controversial
rather or unusual, again, raise
this at that very early stage with
maybe some just sketch designs, not
important designs, and
see what the reaction is.
If you as a self-builder invest a lot
of time and money and then take that
to the planners at a late stage,
you might find yourself getting into a
confrontational situation
with the authority.
At last, judgment day has arrived.
Well, we're here in Beckles at the
public hall where the planning committee
is going to consider our application
for the house which we want to build.
So it's a bit of a nervous time, of course.
Be positive, yeah.
You're right, be positive.
Be positive.
Okay, let's go.
All right, see you.
See you later.
Bye.
The committee is made up of local
councillors who have no direct background
or training in planning.
Selling an eco house to these
people is not going to be easy.
Well, that was close.
Told you so.
The planning officer had recommended
approval with conditions and one
councillor spoke
against it because of
sewerage, which is
complete rubbish because…
If there's main drainage,
why don't we use it?
Yeah, he wanted to…
That's what it's there for.
… condition to use main drainage,
which misses the whole point of such an
eco building.
But we've got it and we're buzzing.
Yes.
Nine months after first approaching
the planners, they can get on and move
into the caravan. Rob and Alida have
to hand the keys of the house to the
new owners today, so it has to be spotless.
For Alida, this includes cleaning the
toilet and dreaming of her new one.
The new compost toilet will be slightly
larger. It could be like sitting on
a normal toilet.
The only difference would be we won't
have a lever up here in the system. It
will have a little pedal on the
floor like you have in a train.
So we have to do that.
You have to press it once for
wee and second twice for the solids.
It's going to be okay. I mean, I'm
not going to empty it out. I mean, that's
Rob's job. That was the agreement.
Not that it's going
to be nasty or
anything. It really
will just be dry, dry.
excrement and it'll just be
thrown onto the garden. It'll be
absolutely fine. It'll just be
powdery. I'm still not going to do it.
After the move, the
family settles in for
the first of many
nights in the caravan.
A duck or a goose from Bunce
or a nice Turkey from Bean.
And when Mrs Fox had told him what
she wanted, Mr Fox would creep down into
the valley in the darkness
of the night and help himself.
That's a wall out.
Yeah, and that's where we're in.
That's right. We've made it.
Yeah, it's the end of stage one.
I never ever want to do that again.
It's now July and Rob has been
researching every aspect of the build for
over 15 months.
Now the architect, Neil Winder, has
completed the working drawings, Rob is
taking the entire project on his shoulders.
He's going to choose the materials
and build and project manage the entire
house himself.
He'll be aided by his work team,
made up of friends and local craftsmen.
The qualifications for the job are to
be ecologically aware and share the
philosophy of sustainable
building and sustainable ways of life.
I mean it's crazy that in this day
and age we're still building houses,
which involve water that's been
processed to make it incredibly pure and
suitable for drinking and flushing
gallons of it straight down the toilet.
People have certain taboos and
prejudices about their crap because it is
something they want to flush and forget.
I try to be as green as I can.
I've never really got the desire to
build my own house, I'm quite happy to
build it for other people.
We all know each other and we come
to the same sort of lifestyle, we're all
the old hippies and suffocates I suppose.
I think I am very lucky, not simply
because I've got these five men working
on our house, but I've got five
friends working on our house.
The first job is to dig 21 holes for
the foundations. Although they used a
digger, it's a precise process
and refinements need to be made.
In keeping with the way Rob is
approaching the build, he's even learnt to
use a theodolite
to get the position
of the concrete pads
millimetre perfect.
That's it, 4.608, spot on.
This is actually one of the whole
things about this project. You don't need.
lots and lots of trained
professionals for a self-built project.
You need lots of advice, you need
lots of guidance and in terms of this, the
advice was half an hour being
instructed on how to use it.
But that's all that is necessary.
There's so much people can do themselves,
you don't need experts
to do it for you all the time.
But it's not always successful.
I'm going to have to go and redo some
figures and then come back and start
this all over again.
Rob's learning process means two
holes are in the wrong place, causing a lot
of extra spadework.
There are ways in which we could
have, or Rob could have gone about this to
make life a little easier at this stage.
So we weren't wallowing in mud and
holes didn't fall in and you know, it's a
lot of, it's extra effort which
at this stage of the game,
it would be nice just to get on and
get the foundations done whilst the
weather's good.
We don't know when the weather will break.
It's an important time because it's
Rob's first deadline. The concrete's due
today and there's still work to be done.
But thanks to some last minute calls,
the number of workers has doubled.
Well we're going to the end of the
first, the first truckload of concrete.
It's going really well.
The team got together and started
working extremely quickly. It always takes
time for the teams to gel and
it's gelled really, really well.
So I'm really pleased
with the way it's going.
Once finished, the foundations are a
series of pads for the house to sit on.
The idea is that they use less
concrete than a standard house.
But Rob is concerned
that they may not be as
eco-friendly in reality as
they've looked on paper.
The idea is to have
a minimal footprint
of the building on
the, on the earth.
And you know, 21 holes filled with 20
cubic metres of concrete has perhaps
gone against that more
than I really wanted it to.
This is the Baltic Sea. I've come to
Sweden because it's one of the world
leaders in eco-friendly building.
And there's one very
simple reason for this.
It's very, very cold here. With a
climate like this in Britain, our heating
bills would literally go through the roof.
We'd all be spending three,
four, five times as much on fuel.
It's lunchtime now and in about
40 minutes it's going to be dark.
Now, with the fall of night, the
temperature here drops to around minus 20
degrees.
But instead of simply turning the
heating up, the Swedish have focused all
their attention on the design of the house.
To start with, the first floor is in
the roof. This makes the house less.
tall and less exposed to the elements.
Once inside, you can
immediately feel how different it is.
There are no drafts and there are no
uncomfortable changes of temperature
going from room to room.
And this is because the house has
been so thoroughly insulated that there's
really very little need
for additional heating.
So much so that if you lived in this
house in Britain, you'd hardly need to
heat it at all.
But for reasons I'm at a loss to
explain, we don't really use any of these
building technologies
as standard in the UK.
I mean, take these windows for example.
They're triple glazed, they're built
to the highest specifications in the
world, and they're also soundproof.
But if you want to
get hold of them in
Britain, they're almost
impossible to find.
This structure will take
everything that the weather
can throw at it and it's
not made of concrete.
Concrete is one of the most polluting
materials in production that we have
in the world.
Instead, this building is
made out of one of the
most traditional and
eco-friendly materials. Wood.
Rob has found a company that makes
timber frames in a ground-breaking way.
The harsh climate actually helps here.
Because it's so cold and there's less
sunlight, these fir trees grow more slowly.
This means that the rings are much
closer together, making the wood harder
and stronger.
The middle section of the tree is cut
into lengths, but the rest of the wood
is not discarded as is usually the case.
Instead, it's put through a process
using steam and a vacuum to explode the
wood's fibres.
It's then compacted under high temperature
to form a very strong board which
doesn't use any glue and is low in toxins.
These boards are then set between
two lengths of the pre-cut timber and
stuck together using a low-toxin glue
to form the rigid I-beams Rob will use
to build the frame of his house.
The finished product is as strong as
an oak beam, but the most amazing thing
about it is how light it is.
This section is 40 feet long
and I can lift it by myself.
This means that not only is it relatively
cheap to transport, but also that
Rob doesn't have to employ an army
of men to help him build his house.
What with it being light and easy to
saw, it means that Rob has chosen the
almost perfect material.
The only trouble is it
has to travel 1,200 miles
to get to Suffolk and
that's a lot of fuel.
Back on site, they're behind schedule.
The engineer's drawings
have been delayed,
setting the build
back by over a month.
As the frame makes its way from
Sweden, Rob has been working on the ring
beam which sits on the foundations
and forms the base of the house.
Rob chose to make it from a reclaimed
tropical hardwood that's very heavy
and hard to work with.
It also seems unnecessarily strong.
This is unbelievably over specified
and unbelievably over strong.
The house may blow off it if there's
a hurricane, but this will stay there.
It will probably hold this bit of
ground flat in the next earthquake.
After the delays with the ring beam,
the benefits of the Swedish timber can
be seen immediately.
Just two weeks into the construction
of the frame and all of the first floor
walls have been completed.
The entire house will be
constructed using these beams.
They're measured, cut
and then nailed together.
First, the floor joists go in,
followed by the wall panels.
Once in place, they're
nailed onto the ring beam.
It's frightening to think it's all held
together by nails and if you think
that sounds a little insecure, it is.
It's only when this board is nailed
onto it that the structure becomes solid
and rigid like a box.
The work is demanding and the
hours can be long, but the builders aren't
just motivated by a daily wage.
In order to see why, you have to
get to the site first thing in the morning.
It's 8am, the site is silent
and there's nobody around.
The workers are here, but they're in
the shed where they spend the first ten
minutes of every day meditating.
Does meditating actually help you
produce better and more work? Does it mean
that you're more focused?
Yes, I think it does. All the guys
are able to focus more effectively.
We're able to key into each other
more effectively, so as a team we
communicate, we operate
in a very efficient manner.
So I think it has lots of different
benefits, but I know for instance that.
Will focuses a lot of love on the building.
For myself, I
visualise me sitting on
the veranda of the
finished house on a.
warm summer's afternoon
looking over the garden.
And then think in terms of self-love.
In terms of the guys, I will visualise
them being very happy and I think
very reassuring, comforting and loving
thoughts for them.
Is there a connection between building
an eco-house and meditating as you're
doing here, other than the one that
some people might make that you're just
a bunch of cranks?
Well, no, I think the most obvious
one is that I am a meditator and I am
building an eco-house. And
meditation is part of caring for oneself.
And if you care for yourself, it
helps you to care for other people.
Building an eco-house is caring
for the earth. So it is part of that, that
overall philosophy.
To take this male bonding a stage
further, Rob has decided to form a
co-operative with the other builders that
could design and build eco-houses from.
planning through to construction.
But this build has not only given Rob
the idea for a new business, it's also
given him a new found confidence.
In terms of myself, I suppose I've
been surprised that I am as resilient as
I am, that I am as
persistently enthusiastic
as I have been
and continue to be.
I was made redundant
back in March and there
were some doubts
about my abilities then.
I said, "OK, why was
I made redundant?
What was wrong with
my own performance?"
And I think doing this project has
really vindicated any doubts in that I
know I can manage projects and deal
with people and get on with people and
really produce something of great value.
Bad weather has led to delays and
Rob's redundancy has thrown up a practical
challenge. He needs a mortgage.
But since he's only recently started
working freelance, he's been struggling
to find a lender.
We haven't been able to get hold of a
mortgage and our own money to build
the house came to a
point where we'd run out.
What's the direct
effect of these
financial problems on
the build day to day?
Well, potentially that we run out of
money and have to stop until we obtain
a mortgage.
They scrape enough money together
for food and living expenses with Rob's
freelance tax work and Alida's
restored furniture, which he sells at a
local antique shop where
she works one day a week.
It's very difficult at times.
How do you cope? What do you do?
Well, you just get out.
You do something different.
Like come here?
Yes.
Yes, you really need to have your
own space. It's very important. So we've
had a few setbacks right from the
beginning really. The foundations, the
problems, the weather's been appalling
right the way through the summer.
So we haven't been lucky and it's
been very difficult really. I mean, it's
all I thought it would
be. I mean, there
are really bad days.
I can't deny that.
So how do you feel about the build?
It's a bit scary. I mean,
we hadn't planned for this
to happen. I think Rob's
redundancy really didn't help.
Didn't help.
And that sort of spoiled all our plans.
But it is very worrying. I mean, I
can't say that I'm not concerned about it.
But I suppose the worst case scenario
is we have to sell up as we are now
and find somewhere else to
live and start all over again.
Sell the site and sell the plot
with the building half finished.
Sell the dream, yes.
Sell the dream.
Shortly afterwards, work stopped for
six weeks while Rob looked for a loan.
Their dream was hanging in the balance
until he managed to borrow some money
from his dad.
So the build can
continue, at least for now.
They start work on the
gables which support the roof.
Rob has a system that keeps a record
of how much timber is left and what
each piece should be used for.
But it's not always easy to understand.
This next one's round about
3.3 metres apart from the bevel.
Right.
So 3.3 metres on panel 29
should be that one, I think.
It's either going to be
that one or that one there.
I'm not too sure what the...
This one should be there.
There are more delays
as they attempt to
work out the best way
to construct the gable.
We need three people, one on
each corner, when we nail it together.
Okay.
How far out of straight do you think it is?
That much.
So we're talking about
a flexor about five mils.
Just five millimetres out
and Rob feels this is okay.
But Dave insists the process must
be absolutely precise if it's to work.
You'd be very pushed to flex this
panel when it's built by that amount.
Unless we align this to a straight edge.
Look, Dave, live with it.
I think you asked...
I think you're being a bit
too panicky, quite honestly.
Dave hand-builds wooden boats for a living
so that his approach
to this sort of
material is going to
be very, very exact.
Now, in virtually all
circumstances, that's a blessing
because this house is millimetre perfect.
But sometimes it's just a
bit too much of a blessing
and like this, Dave need
not make it that perfect.
In the end, after much
debate, Dave gets his own way.
Okay, enough talking.
Let's just get it done
because we've spent far
too long on this panel already.
Having been pulled apart and reconstructed,
finally the gable is erected.
It took a day and a half to put up
when it should only have
taken a couple of hours.
You know, the way that Rob and
his guys are building this house,
putting the nails in every 100mm,
measuring it all out very accurately,
it's taking, of course, forever.
They're building it like real
craftsmen, medieval craftsmen even.
If they were conventional builders,
putting it together as they do,
we reckon they
could probably get this
finished in about a
quarter of the time.
I wanted to ask Rob why, ever
since the construction of the ring beam,
he was going about the build in
such a painstakingly slow manner,
costing him more
money and putting himself
and Alida through
added hardship.
So do you think that it's worth all this?
Do you think that that sacrifice of time,
of living in the caravan for
these extra months through winter
is a worthwhile sacrifice?
It is a worthwhile sacrifice
because don't forget,
the overall philosophy of the
build is one of sustainability,
of sensitivity to
the earth, and those
ring beams are a
totally recycled product.
So that has a massive component to it.
You've also got to be
pragmatic, haven't you?
There you are, the children, the leader,
you're stuck in that caravan
all blinking winter, I mean.
Remember, building this house
isn't just a matter of building it quickly,
you're building it economically.
It's also a matter
of demonstrating
several points about
sustainable building.
But if you're going to take this
and try and sell the idea wrong,
isn't it important to sell an
idea which can be built quickly,
as well as being sustainable?
Well, yeah, absolutely.
And something we can say about this
house is we use reclaimed ring beams,
but we would advise
against doing that
because of the time it
takes to machine them,
the time it takes to fit
them and level them.
We would advise on a time
basis to use glulam in the future.
But we have had such a valuable
time learning about this material,
learning how to build this sort of house.
Expensive school to go to, isn't it?
It's worth it, though.
I really don't think it's worth it.
I hope so. For your sake.
I want to get out of here desperately.
I do now.
But is it serious inside?
Yes.
There's a bit of you shivering away.
Yes, I don't like it at all. I hate it now.
There's just no space and
the children are very boisterous
and, you know, Freya's getting bigger now.
She was a little tiny thing
when we first came in.
It's just getting so difficult.
How's the finance side of things?
Because you've kept
the budget for the house
separate from your domestic
accounts, presumably.
Yes, we had to do that.
Well, I mean, I suppose
the worst occasion was,
we got to a Friday one weekend
and I had no money for food at all.
I couldn't go shopping.
What did you do?
I spoke to my mother and my
darling mother gave me some money.
But, you know, we've got through it.
You managed to get some
more money, didn't you?
Yes, I managed to
get hold of a mortgage
broker, so things
are going on there.
We actually had an argument
and she, in a fit of rage,
picked up the yellow pages and got a
mortgage broker and phoned him up.
She said, "You had a big Barney about it."
She said, "What did you say?"
No, I didn't have a Barney.
I just screamed and shouted
and went crazy, slammed the door,
got the yellow pages and
found a broker in five minutes.
I said, "Right, now what
are you waiting for?"
And how long it had
taken Rob to not do this?
Well, a few weeks.
Long enough for you to go crazy.
You're still together?
Only just.
Neil, our architect, said to us
after, in light of his own self-build,
the wisest piece of advice he gave us was,
"You'll spend about a
year building your home
"and then you'll spend about a
year rebuilding your relationship."
But you were supposed
to be living in this
house next door and
that's the last laugh.
And you're not.
And you're not going to be for some time.
When is that going to be?
When we move in.
I don't want Rob to answer this question.
I want you to tell me.
Well, supposedly we're going
to be in by the end of April.
So when are you going to be in?
Probably about June.
I cannot agree at all.
That sounds to me as though a
leader has just thrown down the gauntlet.
It's the end of February
now, which means
Rob has got two months
to complete the house
and prove Alida wrong.
If not, he's going to have
to suffer the consequences.
Thanks to Alida, they've got a mortgage.
Now it's up to Rob to
get the job done by April.
His only way is to employ
some contractors to help out.
Their jobs are to tile the roof
and install the plasterboard.
Rob had hoped to
use reclaimed tiles,
but old tiles, although
very eco-friendly,
couldn't be secured to the roof tightly.
So Rob shopped
around and found a
manufacturer making
tiles using local Clay.
At least they don't come from Sweden.
In fact, if you want to be green, then
being a good shopper is a necessity.
Green goods are out there, but
they're not always easy to find.
Ironically, one place you can
find what you want is in London.
Rob and Alida have come here to shop,
because this is the nearest thing you
can find to an eco-build supermarket.
There's everything
here, from solar
panels to environmentally
friendly paints,
and it's all under one roof.
So, what attracted you, Alida, here?
I'm here on a shopping
trip, specifically to buy paint.
Right.
Environmentally friendly paint.
Do you like these colours?
Yes, they're really very nice.
I mean, the paint charts
aren't very inspiring.
They're all a bit wishy-washy.
And I would like a few strong
colours around the house.
But there's these wonderful pigments here,
in really bright colours,
which are fantastic.
I thought I'd find you in the basement.
Hi, Kevin.
Are you going to use these solar panels?
Yes, we are.
These are going to go
on the roof of the veranda.
Really?
At the back, not on the roof of the house?
That's right.
And they're going to what? They're
going to heat the water in the house?
Yes, the whole idea of these panels
is that the energy from the sunlight
hits the panel,
water which is trickling down inside
the panel is heated up by the sunlight,
and then it's pumped into
the house, stored in a cylinder,
then used for hot
water in taps, and also
for heating some of
the space of the house.
How much is it going
to cost to... We want
to spend about three
grand on the system.
This is the business end
of water management, is it?
That's right. After all the planning
and talk, this is the real thing.
Yes. So what's unique about
this Commodore Garden toilet?
This is a low flush toilet.
It's also a dual flush toilet.
Basically, you can use two
or four litres to flush the toilet.
In this country, the
standard loo uses nine
litres to flush away
whatever you've done.
Now, that's nine
litres, generally, of
perfectly good, drinkable,
high-quality water.
So we think it's an
absolute waste of that
resource to flush it
all down the toilet.
This one's different. I recognise this one.
This one has no flush at all.
This just uses sawdust.
That's right.
Basically, the idea
about this is you
simply sit on the toilet,
you do your business, it falls
through into a composting chamber,
and after a while, it composts down
into a really nice, friable compost.
I mean, this is poo?
Yeah.
Composted after about a year, that is.
Blimey. It's like John Innes' number three.
Well, yes, it's ready for the
garden right now. Fantastic.
So why aren't you having this system?
Why are you having the wet one?
Well, that's really down to
Alida more than anything.
Yes, I wasn't happy to
have something like this.
I wanted a conventional-looking toilet.
I didn't fancy the
idea of my children
getting hold of this
container of sawdust
and emptying the whole
lot into the toilet in one go.
Let alone falling down the
tube into the poo pit below.
We've still got a composting toilet,
and yet we've got a normal,
conventional toilet to sit on, to look at.
And to use. And to use.
What you must remember when
eco-building is that there's no one thing
which is going to make you instantly green.
Every little bit helps,
and it's really up to you to decide
how far you want to go with it.
But consider this.
If you just insulated your house
to Northern European standards,
not British building standards,
you could cut down on the energy
you used to heat your house by half.
Now, that would mean lower bills,
but you would also feel the difference.
Needless to say, insulation is
something that Rob takes very seriously.
So much so that he and his team
have learnt how to install it themselves
so they can act as official installers
once their eco-build
company gets off the ground.
The outside of the house is
ready to be clad with Douglas fir
and larch weatherboarding that's
come from Thetford Forest nearby.
Although it is traditional cladding,
the details need careful working out.
After such a long
build, this can be very
demanding, and
tempers can get frayed.
It depends where the inner edge
of your vertical board is coming,
because it needs to bridge.
It needs to go across the face of
this one, which is three-quarters.
I want this project to be over.
I want to really be able
to get on with other things.
I've been focused on
this, I feel, for too long now.
I want this to be finished, I
want to get on with the business,
I want to get on with my
family, with my friends,
I want to get on with
the garden here as well.
So there's a little bit of
impatience building up with me.
I think for you it's a
bit different, isn't it?
Well, I want all those things, but
I feel a bit numb at the moment.
I look out the caravan window and
I sometimes don't feel anything but
resentment.
And I think they're finding it quite
difficult now, especially Amber.
She said to me the other day,
"Mummy, are we really poor?"
Yes.
I still know we're not that poor.
And when am I going to
be in my new bedroom?
So I think they're getting
a bit impatient now.
Flying in the face
of adversity, and with
the end almost in
sight, they press on.
Alida's skill at
finding second-hand
goods in the papers
is proving invaluable.
I try and find most things
that we need in the free ads.
I found a mortgage broker,
which has been good.
We just managed
recently to get a load
of Victorian doors
from the whole house,
and they're really beautiful.
We've also got all our
reclaimed floorboards.
I've managed to get a nice wood burner
for the kitchen, system, family room.
And I'm now looking
for another wood burner,
the back boiler,
for our sitting room.
It's now the end of April,
and the build is not ready.
But there's no
sign of defeat, just a
determination to finish
as quickly as possible.
Rob's triple-glazed windows,
another Swedish import, have arrived.
The timber cladding is completed.
The water system is dug
in, including the sewage
treatment plant, and the
Reed beds, and a pond.
The solar panels arrive, and inside
the house, the kitchen's installed.
And at long last, Alida
gets in to start decorating.
Rob has been working flat out for
months to get this house finished.
He and Alida have been
living this project for nearly a year.
Now that it's finished, it's time
to see what they've made of it.
Have a look in here then, Kevin.
It's all decorated.
Amazed?
I am amazed. I honestly thought
you'd be living in a kind of shell still,
but it's nothing like a shell.
You've got plasterboard up, and
you've painted, and it's floors are down.
It's a little bit to do, but
not quite finished yet.
Are you not? What, little sort of details?
Well...
Or major works?
You'll walk out to the
veranda, will you, from here?
That's right, yeah.
Just open the doors and
extend your living space.
You've got your kitchen over the
other side of this wonderful plinth.
It's our bath.
It's very clever, isn't it, because it
hides all the gubbins, and so you
just don't notice the sink, the
cooker, the worktop from the other side.
It's dedicated to
the finer arts of life,
cooking, eating,
drinking... Washing up.
...and washing up, yes.
But it's very successful, I think.
It does work very well.
You must show me the rest of the house.
Yes, come on, I'll show you.
Rob's built it.
I want to see what you've done to it.
Well, Kevin, this is our sitting room.
Oh, yeah.
Very nice, liveable space, isn't it?
Yes, I'm really excited. It's turned
out far better than I thought it would.
The light is just spectacular.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm really excited by it.
Well, I mean, you've got these big
windows for the South to get all that
solar gain, but the
benefit, of course,
you get all that light
as well, don't you?
That's right, and we'll have the
wood burner here in the winter, and it'll.
be a real cosy room.
Whereas the kitchen is
more of a contemporary style.
Yeah, and bustling.
Yeah, this'll be softer
and warmer and just cosy.
You're a real homemaker, aren't you?
Yes.
Show me the bedroom.
Yes, come upstairs.
Oh, well, yeah, it's slightly
less finished up here, isn't it?
Yes, it's quite a bit more work.
No banisters.
Well, this is our main bedroom here, Kevin.
Oh, this is finished at least, isn't it?
Yes, nearly, yes.
Unlike all that lot out there.
Yes, it's a nice room. It's got
absolutely wonderful view, so I can lie in
bed and look out the window.
That was the idea of this.
It has, hasn't it?
Yes, it's gorgeous.
It's fabulous.
This is Poppy's bedroom here.
Oh, yeah?
It's rather different, isn't it?
Great. What a great seat.
Oh, and there's a platform.
Yes, bed platform.
Up here. How fantastic.
Of course, Kevin, we
will have value strays
and a proper staircase
here for Poppy.
Oh, no, really?
Oh, look at this.
It's magical.
It's very generous, isn't it?
It's got a wonderful
view out of her window.
What a wacky space. I tell you,
she's going to love it, isn't she?
Yes, it's lovely.
Oh, they both are.
Well, it's very versatile.
What an adventure space.
Yeah.
And this is the very ordinary looking
composting toilet with water in it.
Well, it's not quite a composting toilet.
It's a low flush toilet, which
then leads down into
the composting chamber.
Does it work?
Yes, it does.
Oh.
So this is the business end of
your grey water recycling, yeah?
So what's this?
We only want the best quality used
water, really, for flushing the toilet.
So what comes out of the bath and
the shower is recycled through this.
And the nasty stuff which comes
out of the kitchen sink and the...
All the greasy stuff.
Yeah, and the washing machine.
That goes off down there
to be cleaned by the reeds.
That's right.
The whole thing anyway
is going to get hidden
underneath your beautiful
non-existent veranda.
Of course, the roof of
the veranda is where
we're going to put
the solar panels...
These things here, yeah?
...into the water.
And because we haven't been able to
build the veranda yet, we've rigged this
one up here temporarily.
Ah, boy, that is really hot.
That's right.
A nice sunny day like this and it's
producing loads of hot water for us.
Yeah.
Anyway, look, we talked about
all the water going up the garden.
Yes.
Let's go and see where it ends off.
I want to go and see your treatment plant.
So this is the reeds filter.
No, we're standing on the Reed bed.
I was going to say, where are the reeds?
Remind me how this thing works.
Well, this has only just been set up.
It does. So how are you
going to treat your grey water?
Well... Flood it into there.
Well, the reeds in the Reed bed
are actually just the second stage of it,
the first stage,
of the bacteria which
live amongst the stones.
Oh, really? So they're doing the
job, like in a sewage treatment plant,
they're doing the job of
cleaning the water, are they?
And when they have finished their
life cycle and they die, then the reeds
live off their residue.
So the water flows from
here into that... That's right.
...tender, yeah?
Well, that will
overflow into the ditch
which runs along the
back of our plot here.
And that will be clean, that water?
Oh, yeah. It will certainly be
cleaner than the water in the ditch.
We reckon we'll be using about 40%
of the average amount of water that a
family of this size would use.
OK. And no sewerage charges?
That's right.
Rob's build has been experimental.
In the end, he's £24,000 over budget.
The land cost £45,000,
the build costs came
to £99,000, making
a total of £144,000.
Rob's had the house valued at
£210,000, so he's made a paper profit.
And with the heating
bills coming in at
around £60 a year and
low water consumption,
building green will mean
substantial savings over the years.
I like the fact that this house is
made from sustainable materials,
but you've also got to consider
its visual impact on its environment.
It's a very tall building
compared to the others around it,
and what with the
startling blue paint, I
think it sticks out
rather uncomfortably.
Well, you both look very, very tired.
You've got this far, really,
on your own strength.
I mean, you know,
you haven't had very
much support, have
you, along the way?
It's not like you've had a...
you know, you're architecting your project
manager and your builder, because
you've been doing everything.
Yes, we've gone our own.
Although I think we've really got
to recognise the help and support
that all of the guys who have worked
on the building with us have given.
It's been very difficult for
us as a couple, very difficult.
I've personally found it very difficult.
If it hadn't been for the children, I
think I probably would have just gone
off for a while.
But it's all worth it, definitely.
But we're going to be OK.
It's absolutely fantastic
to see it in place,
and the rooms working and feeling the
way that we set out to make them feel.
It's lovely. It's different.
It's unusual. It's just beautiful.
It's going to be a very
lovely environment to live in.
Also being a very healthy
environment to live in.
I think I'll just feel more at peace,
knowing that there's no harmful
emissions from my home.
Let's go to one. Let's go to one.
It's been one of
those experiences that,
in retrospect, we'll
call an adventure
and something which quite
definitely has been worth doing
because of what we have at the end of it.
We've changed our lifestyles dramatically,
but I think it's been worth it.
Rob has pushed himself
to the limit on this build.
He's self-built, he's self-financed
and he's self-managed this project.
And on top of that, he's done it
all according to a set of ideals.
He and Alida have put all they
have on the line, even their relationship,
in order to build a home that
embodies everything they believe in.
I'm not sure that I could make
all the sacrifices that they have.
After all they've been through,
they deserve to be happy here.
Next week, we're in Cornwall for a
state-of-the-art chapel conversion
that brings owners Gavin Allen and
Jane Fitzsimons their share of problems.
To me, it's not worth having it
if that's what it's going to cost.
It is not worth going through
what we're going through now.
because there's so much more
at stake than just the chapel.
Every programme in this series so far
has shown us how building your own house
represents something of a new beginning.
Well this week's couple, Rob Roy
and Alida Saunders, have
found a wonderful setting
here in the heart of Suffolk. And not
only do they intend to build their own
house from scratch, they also intend
to entirely change the way they live.
And this is the untouched greenfield
site on which Rob and Alida are going
to build. Now they're putting up a house
which is not only a home for them
and a workplace, but it's also going to be
ecologically efficient and
environmentally friendly.
And I suppose a sign of their commitment
is that they're going to build it
themselves.
And if that isn't enough, then take a look
at the house that they're leaving behind.
Rob and Alida are selling this beautiful
Victorian four bedroom house which
they've spent five years renovating
and decorating themselves.
Rob used to work as a taxation consultant.
Although he had intended to give
up his job to build his new
house, he was made redundant
two months ago. Alida works as a
part-time nurse and she also restores and
sells antique furniture.
They've three daughters, Amber
six, Poppy four and Freya one.
Oh yeah, the complete guy to set him
up and goes in first because for some
reason we're taking
that one for the caravans.
We're not fanatics and I think what
we like to prove when we move into this
house is that you know you don't have to be
hairy hippies for another word. You
can be normal people living normal lives
but still be very environmentally aware.
Where did you get your inspiration from?
Well I've always been interested in
green issues and I'm very keen to live
in a very healthy environment
not just on the outside
but actually in my own home. It's
going to be a very comfortable home, very
warm, very cheap to run,
very light, very spacious
and hopefully very stylish. I mean
we're going to prove to people that you
know this can be done.
Look who we just found in the lot.
I see where you were.
I was with Daddy.
You were Daddy were you?
Come on, come back.
This is the last time they'll live in a
real house until their new home has
been built.
Rob and Alida have decided that in
order to save money they must live on
site in a caravan.
Well Kevin welcome to the new abode.
Oh yes, this is hardly the eco home is it?
Far, far from it let me assure you.
But the porch is nice, it
looks like you've built that.
That's right, we knocked that together,
that's where the washing machine,
the fridge and dirty coats,
hats, boots and the rest go.
This is the kitchen.
This is the kitchen, sink, cooker.
Bigger than mine I can tell you.
Wow, you know we like to live in
salubrious surroundings here and so forth.
And we have an imaginary door into...
That's right and this is the lounge,
dining table, panoramic viewpoint and
there'll be a fire here, television.
Hey it works, don't worry it works.
Including brick wall,
what's in that door there?
Well that's the office, that's where
the non-site work goes, that's the
business room in other words.
Look and there's another caravan.
And then through into caravan number two.
Right.
And in here is where the bathroom will be.
You mean, you mean shower room?
OK, it's not going to have a bath,
it'll have a shower, it'll have a shower.
And this is your bedroom,
this must be your bedroom.
That's right, this is...
You stand anywhere in this place and
you're in another room without knowing.
Yeah that's right, another panoramic
viewpoint and this is where Alida
and I will sleep and fray.
Oh and you've looked
at the pretty little stencil.
Well that's right, that's Alida's touch.
Alida's decorated isn't it?
Yeah she's very good at the paint
effects and she wanted to make a good.
effort with this even though
it's a temporary living space.
So where are the girls?
Well come through here and take a look.
Oh look at this, joy. What beds?
Yeah.
Where are they from? They look Swedish.
This is Romanian,
this is Poppy's and this
one over here is
German, that's Amber's.
Chunky, they're great.
What about Freya, where's she going?
Freya will be over there.
Right.
We've got a little German bed cot for her.
Yes.
They won't want to leave this of
course, you know that, don't you?
Yeah I know that's the problem.
Now I think that's enough caravan
for me, I want to look at the real house.
Okay, okay. Let's go look at some plans.
So what's this?
Well this is the bathroom which must
be fitted in the caravan by the end of
next week if we're
going to move in on time.
In the caravan?
Yeah.
Well now is this the plan of the plot?
That's right, that's uh...
I have to say it is the most amazing
place, it's quiet, very very beautiful.
Thanks.
Lovely setting.
So what have you got planned for the site?
Well we want to build our eco house
more or less right where we're sitting.
Back in the middle?
That's right. We're sitting just at
the back of the house on the tip of the
veranda and there's the view.
There's the back garden?
Yeah, facing due south. You know
you can look at some pictures of the
proposals here.
Yeah.
They're quite detailed aren't they?
They are.
These were produced by Neil our architect.
Yes. And what did you go to him with?
Did you have any proposals that you
went to him with?
Well we derived our own set of plans.
Have you got them here?
Yeah, yeah.
Couple of drawings here. Which uh...
Ah ha! Right.
The old hand drawn ones.
One thing actually that leaps out
straight away is the fact that his drawing
of the roof pitch is much
much steeper than yours.
It's yours is at 45 degrees, his is
presumably, I don't know, a local angle.
I had approached this from the
point of view of fitting solar panels for
either electricity or water heating
to the south facing pitch of the roof.
And therefore had chosen the best
average angle of incidence to get the best
best sunlight.
Neil has raised the pitch angle partly
for aesthetic reasons but partly also
to accommodate things like the
mezzanine flooring for the girls' bedrooms.
Rob and Alida's
main inspiration was
the home of their
architect Neil Winder.
He also built his own ecologically
friendly house and its look has greatly
influenced the new design.
Neil's design creates a spacious
ground floor. There's a large kitchen and
dining area next door
to a quieter sitting room.
Upstairs the girls' bedrooms
have mezzanine floors.
This means the girls' beds are on a
separate platform in the roof giving
them more floor space
in the lower area to play.
The build will use green materials
with eco add-ons including draft lobbies
to keep warm air in.
Solar panels on the veranda roof to
heat water and a composting toilet.
All waste passes to an underground
treatment plant. Solids are separated and
collected for use as compost in the garden.
Dirty water from the house is cleaned
through a series of Reed beds before
being returned to the environment.
Even rainwater is collected, filtered
and used for the washing machine.
It all complies with building regulations
and over time will save money,
even if it does raise a few eyebrows.
So Rob, tell me about the composting
loos and what kind of threat or
perceived threat do they
present to the community here?
Well, none as far as I'm concerned really.
Any objections made in connection
with the composting loos I think are
really borne out of ignorance of what
we're going to do.
Right. Because there's absolutely
no reason to believe that a composting
toilet or Reed bed system should put
anything noxious into the environment.
And the neighbours, have
they voiced any opinion yet?
Well, they're as friendly as can be
and as interested as can be. What they
may say to the
planners in private is
their own affair,
but from my point of.
view I think that they're on our side.
This site cost Rob £45,000 and he
intends to spend £75,000 on the build.
They're funding the project partly
with their own capital, but they're going
to need a mortgage of £49,000.
For now, however, Rob and Alida
still face the daunting issue of getting
planning permission. Today, they've
a meeting with the planning officers.
Unfortunately, some locals have sent
in objections to Rob's Reed bed system.
This means the officers can't pass
the plans themselves, which instead will
have to go before the planning
committee, although the officers can make
recommendations.
All Rob and Alida
can do is explain
their ideas carefully
and hope for the best.
But they will look at it
critically, as is their job.
So how do you balance that against,
say, the potential objections that some
of the consultees
who live in those
sort of 1960s, 1970s
buildings may raise?
I would expect a lot of people who
live in the more suburban designs would
appreciate a traditional design,
but nevertheless pursues sustainable
development objectives.
What advice would you have
for would-be self-builders?
Basically, I'd say, first of all,
contact your planning department as
quickly as possible.
You'll find them willing and happy to talk.
Secondly is ascertain from them if
they'd like to get planning permission in
principle.
If the design is likely to be controversial
rather or unusual, again, raise
this at that very early stage with
maybe some just sketch designs, not
important designs, and
see what the reaction is.
If you as a self-builder invest a lot
of time and money and then take that
to the planners at a late stage,
you might find yourself getting into a
confrontational situation
with the authority.
At last, judgment day has arrived.
Well, we're here in Beckles at the
public hall where the planning committee
is going to consider our application
for the house which we want to build.
So it's a bit of a nervous time, of course.
Be positive, yeah.
You're right, be positive.
Be positive.
Okay, let's go.
All right, see you.
See you later.
Bye.
The committee is made up of local
councillors who have no direct background
or training in planning.
Selling an eco house to these
people is not going to be easy.
Well, that was close.
Told you so.
The planning officer had recommended
approval with conditions and one
councillor spoke
against it because of
sewerage, which is
complete rubbish because…
If there's main drainage,
why don't we use it?
Yeah, he wanted to…
That's what it's there for.
… condition to use main drainage,
which misses the whole point of such an
eco building.
But we've got it and we're buzzing.
Yes.
Nine months after first approaching
the planners, they can get on and move
into the caravan. Rob and Alida have
to hand the keys of the house to the
new owners today, so it has to be spotless.
For Alida, this includes cleaning the
toilet and dreaming of her new one.
The new compost toilet will be slightly
larger. It could be like sitting on
a normal toilet.
The only difference would be we won't
have a lever up here in the system. It
will have a little pedal on the
floor like you have in a train.
So we have to do that.
You have to press it once for
wee and second twice for the solids.
It's going to be okay. I mean, I'm
not going to empty it out. I mean, that's
Rob's job. That was the agreement.
Not that it's going
to be nasty or
anything. It really
will just be dry, dry.
excrement and it'll just be
thrown onto the garden. It'll be
absolutely fine. It'll just be
powdery. I'm still not going to do it.
After the move, the
family settles in for
the first of many
nights in the caravan.
A duck or a goose from Bunce
or a nice Turkey from Bean.
And when Mrs Fox had told him what
she wanted, Mr Fox would creep down into
the valley in the darkness
of the night and help himself.
That's a wall out.
Yeah, and that's where we're in.
That's right. We've made it.
Yeah, it's the end of stage one.
I never ever want to do that again.
It's now July and Rob has been
researching every aspect of the build for
over 15 months.
Now the architect, Neil Winder, has
completed the working drawings, Rob is
taking the entire project on his shoulders.
He's going to choose the materials
and build and project manage the entire
house himself.
He'll be aided by his work team,
made up of friends and local craftsmen.
The qualifications for the job are to
be ecologically aware and share the
philosophy of sustainable
building and sustainable ways of life.
I mean it's crazy that in this day
and age we're still building houses,
which involve water that's been
processed to make it incredibly pure and
suitable for drinking and flushing
gallons of it straight down the toilet.
People have certain taboos and
prejudices about their crap because it is
something they want to flush and forget.
I try to be as green as I can.
I've never really got the desire to
build my own house, I'm quite happy to
build it for other people.
We all know each other and we come
to the same sort of lifestyle, we're all
the old hippies and suffocates I suppose.
I think I am very lucky, not simply
because I've got these five men working
on our house, but I've got five
friends working on our house.
The first job is to dig 21 holes for
the foundations. Although they used a
digger, it's a precise process
and refinements need to be made.
In keeping with the way Rob is
approaching the build, he's even learnt to
use a theodolite
to get the position
of the concrete pads
millimetre perfect.
That's it, 4.608, spot on.
This is actually one of the whole
things about this project. You don't need.
lots and lots of trained
professionals for a self-built project.
You need lots of advice, you need
lots of guidance and in terms of this, the
advice was half an hour being
instructed on how to use it.
But that's all that is necessary.
There's so much people can do themselves,
you don't need experts
to do it for you all the time.
But it's not always successful.
I'm going to have to go and redo some
figures and then come back and start
this all over again.
Rob's learning process means two
holes are in the wrong place, causing a lot
of extra spadework.
There are ways in which we could
have, or Rob could have gone about this to
make life a little easier at this stage.
So we weren't wallowing in mud and
holes didn't fall in and you know, it's a
lot of, it's extra effort which
at this stage of the game,
it would be nice just to get on and
get the foundations done whilst the
weather's good.
We don't know when the weather will break.
It's an important time because it's
Rob's first deadline. The concrete's due
today and there's still work to be done.
But thanks to some last minute calls,
the number of workers has doubled.
Well we're going to the end of the
first, the first truckload of concrete.
It's going really well.
The team got together and started
working extremely quickly. It always takes
time for the teams to gel and
it's gelled really, really well.
So I'm really pleased
with the way it's going.
Once finished, the foundations are a
series of pads for the house to sit on.
The idea is that they use less
concrete than a standard house.
But Rob is concerned
that they may not be as
eco-friendly in reality as
they've looked on paper.
The idea is to have
a minimal footprint
of the building on
the, on the earth.
And you know, 21 holes filled with 20
cubic metres of concrete has perhaps
gone against that more
than I really wanted it to.
This is the Baltic Sea. I've come to
Sweden because it's one of the world
leaders in eco-friendly building.
And there's one very
simple reason for this.
It's very, very cold here. With a
climate like this in Britain, our heating
bills would literally go through the roof.
We'd all be spending three,
four, five times as much on fuel.
It's lunchtime now and in about
40 minutes it's going to be dark.
Now, with the fall of night, the
temperature here drops to around minus 20
degrees.
But instead of simply turning the
heating up, the Swedish have focused all
their attention on the design of the house.
To start with, the first floor is in
the roof. This makes the house less.
tall and less exposed to the elements.
Once inside, you can
immediately feel how different it is.
There are no drafts and there are no
uncomfortable changes of temperature
going from room to room.
And this is because the house has
been so thoroughly insulated that there's
really very little need
for additional heating.
So much so that if you lived in this
house in Britain, you'd hardly need to
heat it at all.
But for reasons I'm at a loss to
explain, we don't really use any of these
building technologies
as standard in the UK.
I mean, take these windows for example.
They're triple glazed, they're built
to the highest specifications in the
world, and they're also soundproof.
But if you want to
get hold of them in
Britain, they're almost
impossible to find.
This structure will take
everything that the weather
can throw at it and it's
not made of concrete.
Concrete is one of the most polluting
materials in production that we have
in the world.
Instead, this building is
made out of one of the
most traditional and
eco-friendly materials. Wood.
Rob has found a company that makes
timber frames in a ground-breaking way.
The harsh climate actually helps here.
Because it's so cold and there's less
sunlight, these fir trees grow more slowly.
This means that the rings are much
closer together, making the wood harder
and stronger.
The middle section of the tree is cut
into lengths, but the rest of the wood
is not discarded as is usually the case.
Instead, it's put through a process
using steam and a vacuum to explode the
wood's fibres.
It's then compacted under high temperature
to form a very strong board which
doesn't use any glue and is low in toxins.
These boards are then set between
two lengths of the pre-cut timber and
stuck together using a low-toxin glue
to form the rigid I-beams Rob will use
to build the frame of his house.
The finished product is as strong as
an oak beam, but the most amazing thing
about it is how light it is.
This section is 40 feet long
and I can lift it by myself.
This means that not only is it relatively
cheap to transport, but also that
Rob doesn't have to employ an army
of men to help him build his house.
What with it being light and easy to
saw, it means that Rob has chosen the
almost perfect material.
The only trouble is it
has to travel 1,200 miles
to get to Suffolk and
that's a lot of fuel.
Back on site, they're behind schedule.
The engineer's drawings
have been delayed,
setting the build
back by over a month.
As the frame makes its way from
Sweden, Rob has been working on the ring
beam which sits on the foundations
and forms the base of the house.
Rob chose to make it from a reclaimed
tropical hardwood that's very heavy
and hard to work with.
It also seems unnecessarily strong.
This is unbelievably over specified
and unbelievably over strong.
The house may blow off it if there's
a hurricane, but this will stay there.
It will probably hold this bit of
ground flat in the next earthquake.
After the delays with the ring beam,
the benefits of the Swedish timber can
be seen immediately.
Just two weeks into the construction
of the frame and all of the first floor
walls have been completed.
The entire house will be
constructed using these beams.
They're measured, cut
and then nailed together.
First, the floor joists go in,
followed by the wall panels.
Once in place, they're
nailed onto the ring beam.
It's frightening to think it's all held
together by nails and if you think
that sounds a little insecure, it is.
It's only when this board is nailed
onto it that the structure becomes solid
and rigid like a box.
The work is demanding and the
hours can be long, but the builders aren't
just motivated by a daily wage.
In order to see why, you have to
get to the site first thing in the morning.
It's 8am, the site is silent
and there's nobody around.
The workers are here, but they're in
the shed where they spend the first ten
minutes of every day meditating.
Does meditating actually help you
produce better and more work? Does it mean
that you're more focused?
Yes, I think it does. All the guys
are able to focus more effectively.
We're able to key into each other
more effectively, so as a team we
communicate, we operate
in a very efficient manner.
So I think it has lots of different
benefits, but I know for instance that.
Will focuses a lot of love on the building.
For myself, I
visualise me sitting on
the veranda of the
finished house on a.
warm summer's afternoon
looking over the garden.
And then think in terms of self-love.
In terms of the guys, I will visualise
them being very happy and I think
very reassuring, comforting and loving
thoughts for them.
Is there a connection between building
an eco-house and meditating as you're
doing here, other than the one that
some people might make that you're just
a bunch of cranks?
Well, no, I think the most obvious
one is that I am a meditator and I am
building an eco-house. And
meditation is part of caring for oneself.
And if you care for yourself, it
helps you to care for other people.
Building an eco-house is caring
for the earth. So it is part of that, that
overall philosophy.
To take this male bonding a stage
further, Rob has decided to form a
co-operative with the other builders that
could design and build eco-houses from.
planning through to construction.
But this build has not only given Rob
the idea for a new business, it's also
given him a new found confidence.
In terms of myself, I suppose I've
been surprised that I am as resilient as
I am, that I am as
persistently enthusiastic
as I have been
and continue to be.
I was made redundant
back in March and there
were some doubts
about my abilities then.
I said, "OK, why was
I made redundant?
What was wrong with
my own performance?"
And I think doing this project has
really vindicated any doubts in that I
know I can manage projects and deal
with people and get on with people and
really produce something of great value.
Bad weather has led to delays and
Rob's redundancy has thrown up a practical
challenge. He needs a mortgage.
But since he's only recently started
working freelance, he's been struggling
to find a lender.
We haven't been able to get hold of a
mortgage and our own money to build
the house came to a
point where we'd run out.
What's the direct
effect of these
financial problems on
the build day to day?
Well, potentially that we run out of
money and have to stop until we obtain
a mortgage.
They scrape enough money together
for food and living expenses with Rob's
freelance tax work and Alida's
restored furniture, which he sells at a
local antique shop where
she works one day a week.
It's very difficult at times.
How do you cope? What do you do?
Well, you just get out.
You do something different.
Like come here?
Yes.
Yes, you really need to have your
own space. It's very important. So we've
had a few setbacks right from the
beginning really. The foundations, the
problems, the weather's been appalling
right the way through the summer.
So we haven't been lucky and it's
been very difficult really. I mean, it's
all I thought it would
be. I mean, there
are really bad days.
I can't deny that.
So how do you feel about the build?
It's a bit scary. I mean,
we hadn't planned for this
to happen. I think Rob's
redundancy really didn't help.
Didn't help.
And that sort of spoiled all our plans.
But it is very worrying. I mean, I
can't say that I'm not concerned about it.
But I suppose the worst case scenario
is we have to sell up as we are now
and find somewhere else to
live and start all over again.
Sell the site and sell the plot
with the building half finished.
Sell the dream, yes.
Sell the dream.
Shortly afterwards, work stopped for
six weeks while Rob looked for a loan.
Their dream was hanging in the balance
until he managed to borrow some money
from his dad.
So the build can
continue, at least for now.
They start work on the
gables which support the roof.
Rob has a system that keeps a record
of how much timber is left and what
each piece should be used for.
But it's not always easy to understand.
This next one's round about
3.3 metres apart from the bevel.
Right.
So 3.3 metres on panel 29
should be that one, I think.
It's either going to be
that one or that one there.
I'm not too sure what the...
This one should be there.
There are more delays
as they attempt to
work out the best way
to construct the gable.
We need three people, one on
each corner, when we nail it together.
Okay.
How far out of straight do you think it is?
That much.
So we're talking about
a flexor about five mils.
Just five millimetres out
and Rob feels this is okay.
But Dave insists the process must
be absolutely precise if it's to work.
You'd be very pushed to flex this
panel when it's built by that amount.
Unless we align this to a straight edge.
Look, Dave, live with it.
I think you asked...
I think you're being a bit
too panicky, quite honestly.
Dave hand-builds wooden boats for a living
so that his approach
to this sort of
material is going to
be very, very exact.
Now, in virtually all
circumstances, that's a blessing
because this house is millimetre perfect.
But sometimes it's just a
bit too much of a blessing
and like this, Dave need
not make it that perfect.
In the end, after much
debate, Dave gets his own way.
Okay, enough talking.
Let's just get it done
because we've spent far
too long on this panel already.
Having been pulled apart and reconstructed,
finally the gable is erected.
It took a day and a half to put up
when it should only have
taken a couple of hours.
You know, the way that Rob and
his guys are building this house,
putting the nails in every 100mm,
measuring it all out very accurately,
it's taking, of course, forever.
They're building it like real
craftsmen, medieval craftsmen even.
If they were conventional builders,
putting it together as they do,
we reckon they
could probably get this
finished in about a
quarter of the time.
I wanted to ask Rob why, ever
since the construction of the ring beam,
he was going about the build in
such a painstakingly slow manner,
costing him more
money and putting himself
and Alida through
added hardship.
So do you think that it's worth all this?
Do you think that that sacrifice of time,
of living in the caravan for
these extra months through winter
is a worthwhile sacrifice?
It is a worthwhile sacrifice
because don't forget,
the overall philosophy of the
build is one of sustainability,
of sensitivity to
the earth, and those
ring beams are a
totally recycled product.
So that has a massive component to it.
You've also got to be
pragmatic, haven't you?
There you are, the children, the leader,
you're stuck in that caravan
all blinking winter, I mean.
Remember, building this house
isn't just a matter of building it quickly,
you're building it economically.
It's also a matter
of demonstrating
several points about
sustainable building.
But if you're going to take this
and try and sell the idea wrong,
isn't it important to sell an
idea which can be built quickly,
as well as being sustainable?
Well, yeah, absolutely.
And something we can say about this
house is we use reclaimed ring beams,
but we would advise
against doing that
because of the time it
takes to machine them,
the time it takes to fit
them and level them.
We would advise on a time
basis to use glulam in the future.
But we have had such a valuable
time learning about this material,
learning how to build this sort of house.
Expensive school to go to, isn't it?
It's worth it, though.
I really don't think it's worth it.
I hope so. For your sake.
I want to get out of here desperately.
I do now.
But is it serious inside?
Yes.
There's a bit of you shivering away.
Yes, I don't like it at all. I hate it now.
There's just no space and
the children are very boisterous
and, you know, Freya's getting bigger now.
She was a little tiny thing
when we first came in.
It's just getting so difficult.
How's the finance side of things?
Because you've kept
the budget for the house
separate from your domestic
accounts, presumably.
Yes, we had to do that.
Well, I mean, I suppose
the worst occasion was,
we got to a Friday one weekend
and I had no money for food at all.
I couldn't go shopping.
What did you do?
I spoke to my mother and my
darling mother gave me some money.
But, you know, we've got through it.
You managed to get some
more money, didn't you?
Yes, I managed to
get hold of a mortgage
broker, so things
are going on there.
We actually had an argument
and she, in a fit of rage,
picked up the yellow pages and got a
mortgage broker and phoned him up.
She said, "You had a big Barney about it."
She said, "What did you say?"
No, I didn't have a Barney.
I just screamed and shouted
and went crazy, slammed the door,
got the yellow pages and
found a broker in five minutes.
I said, "Right, now what
are you waiting for?"
And how long it had
taken Rob to not do this?
Well, a few weeks.
Long enough for you to go crazy.
You're still together?
Only just.
Neil, our architect, said to us
after, in light of his own self-build,
the wisest piece of advice he gave us was,
"You'll spend about a
year building your home
"and then you'll spend about a
year rebuilding your relationship."
But you were supposed
to be living in this
house next door and
that's the last laugh.
And you're not.
And you're not going to be for some time.
When is that going to be?
When we move in.
I don't want Rob to answer this question.
I want you to tell me.
Well, supposedly we're going
to be in by the end of April.
So when are you going to be in?
Probably about June.
I cannot agree at all.
That sounds to me as though a
leader has just thrown down the gauntlet.
It's the end of February
now, which means
Rob has got two months
to complete the house
and prove Alida wrong.
If not, he's going to have
to suffer the consequences.
Thanks to Alida, they've got a mortgage.
Now it's up to Rob to
get the job done by April.
His only way is to employ
some contractors to help out.
Their jobs are to tile the roof
and install the plasterboard.
Rob had hoped to
use reclaimed tiles,
but old tiles, although
very eco-friendly,
couldn't be secured to the roof tightly.
So Rob shopped
around and found a
manufacturer making
tiles using local Clay.
At least they don't come from Sweden.
In fact, if you want to be green, then
being a good shopper is a necessity.
Green goods are out there, but
they're not always easy to find.
Ironically, one place you can
find what you want is in London.
Rob and Alida have come here to shop,
because this is the nearest thing you
can find to an eco-build supermarket.
There's everything
here, from solar
panels to environmentally
friendly paints,
and it's all under one roof.
So, what attracted you, Alida, here?
I'm here on a shopping
trip, specifically to buy paint.
Right.
Environmentally friendly paint.
Do you like these colours?
Yes, they're really very nice.
I mean, the paint charts
aren't very inspiring.
They're all a bit wishy-washy.
And I would like a few strong
colours around the house.
But there's these wonderful pigments here,
in really bright colours,
which are fantastic.
I thought I'd find you in the basement.
Hi, Kevin.
Are you going to use these solar panels?
Yes, we are.
These are going to go
on the roof of the veranda.
Really?
At the back, not on the roof of the house?
That's right.
And they're going to what? They're
going to heat the water in the house?
Yes, the whole idea of these panels
is that the energy from the sunlight
hits the panel,
water which is trickling down inside
the panel is heated up by the sunlight,
and then it's pumped into
the house, stored in a cylinder,
then used for hot
water in taps, and also
for heating some of
the space of the house.
How much is it going
to cost to... We want
to spend about three
grand on the system.
This is the business end
of water management, is it?
That's right. After all the planning
and talk, this is the real thing.
Yes. So what's unique about
this Commodore Garden toilet?
This is a low flush toilet.
It's also a dual flush toilet.
Basically, you can use two
or four litres to flush the toilet.
In this country, the
standard loo uses nine
litres to flush away
whatever you've done.
Now, that's nine
litres, generally, of
perfectly good, drinkable,
high-quality water.
So we think it's an
absolute waste of that
resource to flush it
all down the toilet.
This one's different. I recognise this one.
This one has no flush at all.
This just uses sawdust.
That's right.
Basically, the idea
about this is you
simply sit on the toilet,
you do your business, it falls
through into a composting chamber,
and after a while, it composts down
into a really nice, friable compost.
I mean, this is poo?
Yeah.
Composted after about a year, that is.
Blimey. It's like John Innes' number three.
Well, yes, it's ready for the
garden right now. Fantastic.
So why aren't you having this system?
Why are you having the wet one?
Well, that's really down to
Alida more than anything.
Yes, I wasn't happy to
have something like this.
I wanted a conventional-looking toilet.
I didn't fancy the
idea of my children
getting hold of this
container of sawdust
and emptying the whole
lot into the toilet in one go.
Let alone falling down the
tube into the poo pit below.
We've still got a composting toilet,
and yet we've got a normal,
conventional toilet to sit on, to look at.
And to use. And to use.
What you must remember when
eco-building is that there's no one thing
which is going to make you instantly green.
Every little bit helps,
and it's really up to you to decide
how far you want to go with it.
But consider this.
If you just insulated your house
to Northern European standards,
not British building standards,
you could cut down on the energy
you used to heat your house by half.
Now, that would mean lower bills,
but you would also feel the difference.
Needless to say, insulation is
something that Rob takes very seriously.
So much so that he and his team
have learnt how to install it themselves
so they can act as official installers
once their eco-build
company gets off the ground.
The outside of the house is
ready to be clad with Douglas fir
and larch weatherboarding that's
come from Thetford Forest nearby.
Although it is traditional cladding,
the details need careful working out.
After such a long
build, this can be very
demanding, and
tempers can get frayed.
It depends where the inner edge
of your vertical board is coming,
because it needs to bridge.
It needs to go across the face of
this one, which is three-quarters.
I want this project to be over.
I want to really be able
to get on with other things.
I've been focused on
this, I feel, for too long now.
I want this to be finished, I
want to get on with the business,
I want to get on with my
family, with my friends,
I want to get on with
the garden here as well.
So there's a little bit of
impatience building up with me.
I think for you it's a
bit different, isn't it?
Well, I want all those things, but
I feel a bit numb at the moment.
I look out the caravan window and
I sometimes don't feel anything but
resentment.
And I think they're finding it quite
difficult now, especially Amber.
She said to me the other day,
"Mummy, are we really poor?"
Yes.
I still know we're not that poor.
And when am I going to
be in my new bedroom?
So I think they're getting
a bit impatient now.
Flying in the face
of adversity, and with
the end almost in
sight, they press on.
Alida's skill at
finding second-hand
goods in the papers
is proving invaluable.
I try and find most things
that we need in the free ads.
I found a mortgage broker,
which has been good.
We just managed
recently to get a load
of Victorian doors
from the whole house,
and they're really beautiful.
We've also got all our
reclaimed floorboards.
I've managed to get a nice wood burner
for the kitchen, system, family room.
And I'm now looking
for another wood burner,
the back boiler,
for our sitting room.
It's now the end of April,
and the build is not ready.
But there's no
sign of defeat, just a
determination to finish
as quickly as possible.
Rob's triple-glazed windows,
another Swedish import, have arrived.
The timber cladding is completed.
The water system is dug
in, including the sewage
treatment plant, and the
Reed beds, and a pond.
The solar panels arrive, and inside
the house, the kitchen's installed.
And at long last, Alida
gets in to start decorating.
Rob has been working flat out for
months to get this house finished.
He and Alida have been
living this project for nearly a year.
Now that it's finished, it's time
to see what they've made of it.
Have a look in here then, Kevin.
It's all decorated.
Amazed?
I am amazed. I honestly thought
you'd be living in a kind of shell still,
but it's nothing like a shell.
You've got plasterboard up, and
you've painted, and it's floors are down.
It's a little bit to do, but
not quite finished yet.
Are you not? What, little sort of details?
Well...
Or major works?
You'll walk out to the
veranda, will you, from here?
That's right, yeah.
Just open the doors and
extend your living space.
You've got your kitchen over the
other side of this wonderful plinth.
It's our bath.
It's very clever, isn't it, because it
hides all the gubbins, and so you
just don't notice the sink, the
cooker, the worktop from the other side.
It's dedicated to
the finer arts of life,
cooking, eating,
drinking... Washing up.
...and washing up, yes.
But it's very successful, I think.
It does work very well.
You must show me the rest of the house.
Yes, come on, I'll show you.
Rob's built it.
I want to see what you've done to it.
Well, Kevin, this is our sitting room.
Oh, yeah.
Very nice, liveable space, isn't it?
Yes, I'm really excited. It's turned
out far better than I thought it would.
The light is just spectacular.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm really excited by it.
Well, I mean, you've got these big
windows for the South to get all that
solar gain, but the
benefit, of course,
you get all that light
as well, don't you?
That's right, and we'll have the
wood burner here in the winter, and it'll.
be a real cosy room.
Whereas the kitchen is
more of a contemporary style.
Yeah, and bustling.
Yeah, this'll be softer
and warmer and just cosy.
You're a real homemaker, aren't you?
Yes.
Show me the bedroom.
Yes, come upstairs.
Oh, well, yeah, it's slightly
less finished up here, isn't it?
Yes, it's quite a bit more work.
No banisters.
Well, this is our main bedroom here, Kevin.
Oh, this is finished at least, isn't it?
Yes, nearly, yes.
Unlike all that lot out there.
Yes, it's a nice room. It's got
absolutely wonderful view, so I can lie in
bed and look out the window.
That was the idea of this.
It has, hasn't it?
Yes, it's gorgeous.
It's fabulous.
This is Poppy's bedroom here.
Oh, yeah?
It's rather different, isn't it?
Great. What a great seat.
Oh, and there's a platform.
Yes, bed platform.
Up here. How fantastic.
Of course, Kevin, we
will have value strays
and a proper staircase
here for Poppy.
Oh, no, really?
Oh, look at this.
It's magical.
It's very generous, isn't it?
It's got a wonderful
view out of her window.
What a wacky space. I tell you,
she's going to love it, isn't she?
Yes, it's lovely.
Oh, they both are.
Well, it's very versatile.
What an adventure space.
Yeah.
And this is the very ordinary looking
composting toilet with water in it.
Well, it's not quite a composting toilet.
It's a low flush toilet, which
then leads down into
the composting chamber.
Does it work?
Yes, it does.
Oh.
So this is the business end of
your grey water recycling, yeah?
So what's this?
We only want the best quality used
water, really, for flushing the toilet.
So what comes out of the bath and
the shower is recycled through this.
And the nasty stuff which comes
out of the kitchen sink and the...
All the greasy stuff.
Yeah, and the washing machine.
That goes off down there
to be cleaned by the reeds.
That's right.
The whole thing anyway
is going to get hidden
underneath your beautiful
non-existent veranda.
Of course, the roof of
the veranda is where
we're going to put
the solar panels...
These things here, yeah?
...into the water.
And because we haven't been able to
build the veranda yet, we've rigged this
one up here temporarily.
Ah, boy, that is really hot.
That's right.
A nice sunny day like this and it's
producing loads of hot water for us.
Yeah.
Anyway, look, we talked about
all the water going up the garden.
Yes.
Let's go and see where it ends off.
I want to go and see your treatment plant.
So this is the reeds filter.
No, we're standing on the Reed bed.
I was going to say, where are the reeds?
Remind me how this thing works.
Well, this has only just been set up.
It does. So how are you
going to treat your grey water?
Well... Flood it into there.
Well, the reeds in the Reed bed
are actually just the second stage of it,
the first stage,
of the bacteria which
live amongst the stones.
Oh, really? So they're doing the
job, like in a sewage treatment plant,
they're doing the job of
cleaning the water, are they?
And when they have finished their
life cycle and they die, then the reeds
live off their residue.
So the water flows from
here into that... That's right.
...tender, yeah?
Well, that will
overflow into the ditch
which runs along the
back of our plot here.
And that will be clean, that water?
Oh, yeah. It will certainly be
cleaner than the water in the ditch.
We reckon we'll be using about 40%
of the average amount of water that a
family of this size would use.
OK. And no sewerage charges?
That's right.
Rob's build has been experimental.
In the end, he's £24,000 over budget.
The land cost £45,000,
the build costs came
to £99,000, making
a total of £144,000.
Rob's had the house valued at
£210,000, so he's made a paper profit.
And with the heating
bills coming in at
around £60 a year and
low water consumption,
building green will mean
substantial savings over the years.
I like the fact that this house is
made from sustainable materials,
but you've also got to consider
its visual impact on its environment.
It's a very tall building
compared to the others around it,
and what with the
startling blue paint, I
think it sticks out
rather uncomfortably.
Well, you both look very, very tired.
You've got this far, really,
on your own strength.
I mean, you know,
you haven't had very
much support, have
you, along the way?
It's not like you've had a...
you know, you're architecting your project
manager and your builder, because
you've been doing everything.
Yes, we've gone our own.
Although I think we've really got
to recognise the help and support
that all of the guys who have worked
on the building with us have given.
It's been very difficult for
us as a couple, very difficult.
I've personally found it very difficult.
If it hadn't been for the children, I
think I probably would have just gone
off for a while.
But it's all worth it, definitely.
But we're going to be OK.
It's absolutely fantastic
to see it in place,
and the rooms working and feeling the
way that we set out to make them feel.
It's lovely. It's different.
It's unusual. It's just beautiful.
It's going to be a very
lovely environment to live in.
Also being a very healthy
environment to live in.
I think I'll just feel more at peace,
knowing that there's no harmful
emissions from my home.
Let's go to one. Let's go to one.
It's been one of
those experiences that,
in retrospect, we'll
call an adventure
and something which quite
definitely has been worth doing
because of what we have at the end of it.
We've changed our lifestyles dramatically,
but I think it's been worth it.
Rob has pushed himself
to the limit on this build.
He's self-built, he's self-financed
and he's self-managed this project.
And on top of that, he's done it
all according to a set of ideals.
He and Alida have put all they
have on the line, even their relationship,
in order to build a home that
embodies everything they believe in.
I'm not sure that I could make
all the sacrifices that they have.
After all they've been through,
they deserve to be happy here.
Next week, we're in Cornwall for a
state-of-the-art chapel conversion
that brings owners Gavin Allen and
Jane Fitzsimons their share of problems.
To me, it's not worth having it
if that's what it's going to cost.
It is not worth going through
what we're going through now.
because there's so much more
at stake than just the chapel.