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Paul begins his EnerPHit project

There’s a reason why Grand Designs do a ‘revisited’ series. Projects take time – and patience! Paul understands this better than most; he first started drawing up plans for his own home renovation in 2014.

We’re happy to report work began on site in July, and Paul’s dreams of creating an EnerPHit home that is comfortable and healthy for his family to live in is finally becoming a reality.

Paul briefing the team on site.

The project

Progress on site is going well despite this also being a bit of an experiment for Paul in which he’s using materials he hasn’t tried before. He says:

“I’m also using this retrofit as a bit of research and development for our design practice – I have to walk the walk if I expect our clients to take the plunge on these types of projects…”

 

Build diaries

As well as keeping us updated with plenty of Instagram shots, Paul is also documenting his project in a series of build diaries for Homebuilding & Renovating magazine.

Paul is documenting every aspect of the project. In his first column, he goes back to the beginning and explains why he chose to retrofit his a 1960s semi-detached house rather than self-build. Here’s a taster:

“I would love to build my own home; what architect wouldn’t? However, finding land at an affordable price is one of the biggest hurdles for anyone looking to self-build.”

Read the rest of the column here.

In his second diary, Paul discusses the many positives of doing an eco retrofit and is completely honest about the hurdles along the way!

“We’re architecturally one of a pair and drastic changes to our house made our adjoining neighbours understandably nervous.”

Continue reading here.

In his latest column, Paul discusses why he decided to work with contractor Terry Huggett Developments (a no-brainer when you look at Terry’s quality of work) to achieve the level of quality needed to reach the EnerPHit standard.

From this…

To this…

The extension is taking shape

For anyone wanting to find out more about EnerPHit and how this relates to the Passivhaus standard, Paul has also written a guide explaining the difference between the two, what’s involved and how to achieve the certification.

Both pieces will be online soon, (we’ll post a link when it is) but in the meantime, you can read both articles which are in the January 2019 issue, out now.