Eco Home Shellharbour::About Page

We are building a demonstration Eco Home

The aim of the project is to build ourselves a sustainable home and to showcase the latest in green building technology and design. When we were researching and designing our home we found there were not a lot of lived in examples of eco homes, a lot of the examples were built for shows and now dismantled. We have set out to build a home jam packed with eco design, ideas and technology. Our home will be one of the most sustainable residential Demonstration Eco Homes in Australia, with the aim of being self sufficient in both energy and water use along with processing most of our own waste on site. The home will be the first in Shellharbour City self sufficient for water and waste water needs in a residential zoning. We aim to demonstrate simple and high tech solutions to our energy and water crisis in Australia. We believe the answer is on our roof. Our roof has the capacity to harvest enough rain and sunshine to meet our water and energy needs as a household.

Community awareness and education that a “green home” does not mean a “tree house” or massive sacrifices in lifestyle are an important part of this demonstration. We wish to build a functional home that will be lived in, in suburbia by an ordinary family, showcasing the project during construction and beyond via this web site. Future World, The National Eco Technology Centre in Wollongong is going to use our home as a remote display.

The answer is on our roof

One of the key elements we wish to demonstrate is that the Answer is on our roof. The roof of our suburban homes holds the answer to our water and energy crisis. Our roof has the capacity to service our entire water and energy needs. If new houses were regulated and or subsidised to have solar hot water, solar power and water tanks big enough to catch the house holds water needs, the pressure to build new power stations and water desalination plants would be greatly reduced.

Why

We have been blessed with the task of looking after this place we live called earth. The good book says "In the beginning God created the earth and it was good". For too long now our footprint has been too large. It is about taking charge of our actions and leaving smaller footprints. We need our existence to be sustainable. As in the comic "Environmental Turtle" the earth will run out of the resources to support our energy hungry existence. God has given us this amazing gift, the question for me is how best can I look after it.

When we started designing this project in 2006 it seemed alternative, a bit out there. I hope that my children and their generation will ask what was all the fuss and why didn't we do more to make our home environmentally sensitive.

How it all started

I guess it started out slowly with us getting a worm farm, having a compost heap, I have had a no dig vegetable garden for a long time. For us the turning point was the water tank. I think when we put the tank in it opened our minds to a whole new way of thinking, water didn't just come out
of a tap, we knew this but now it was quantifiable, it raised questions, how much rain did it take to fill it? How much roof area was its catchment?
How much rainfall did we have overnight?, What was our average yearly rainfall?, How much Sydney Water were we using daily?

The following list is not in any order but these are the initiatives we adopted around our home which in turn inspired us to build Our Eco Home.
These initiatives can be easily achieved and retro fitted in most homes.

Sustainability Initiatives Adopted around the home

a.. Built a no dig vegetable garden
b.. Worm farm for all organic kitchen waste
c.. Compost bins for all garden waste
d.. Feed dog or guinea pig all other kitchen waste
e.. Shred paper and cardboard for guinea pig bedding
f.. Compost soiled guinea pig bedding
g.. Use pizza boxes in worm farm as covering
h.. Worm farm/compost for dog waste used later on non cropping gardens
i.. Move guinea pig cage around garden for manure
j.. Installed 4500l rainwater tank
k.. Use wetting agents in the vegetable garden to reduce watering
l.. Mulched all gardens to reduce watering
m.. Installed sediment pits to all storm water
n.. Put 4l tub in kitchen sink to catch water eg. when running tap waiting for hot water, used on pot plants
o.. Bucket in laundry sink to collect hand washing water used on pot plants
p.. Use planet ark washing powder and put water onto garden from washing machine
q.. Use ENJO cleaning products
r.. Use natural cleaning products eg. vinegar as fabric softener
s.. Installed roman blind as an efficient insulator
t.. Had an energy audit carried out on our home
u.. Installed water saving roses to showers
v.. Installed energy saving light globes throughout home
w.. Replaced the inefficient down lights in main living area
x.. Have a printer with large refillable cartridge
y.. Use a thermostatically controlled natural gas heater for optimum energy efficiency

I attended The Green Build expo now known as G-Rex Australian International Green Build & Renewable Energy Exhibition and Conference www.grex.com.au This inspired me to design our own home and to showcase it so others might be inspired as I was from the displays and talks
at G-Rex.

Timber

Our home will feature recycled hardwood timber flooring, decking and bridge beam lintels. The one hundred year old flooring oozes of quality and character, telling a story of a bygone era. The bridge beams have their own rougher character providing a scale of timber rarely seen in new homes these days.

The down stairs service area of the home is to be lit with recycled florescent lights. These have been salvaged from demolition sites. The florescent lights are energy efficient and don't need to be pretty.

We are installing an Nova Clear black water treatment plant which will treat all our waste water. (See Water Use and Re-use)
The treated water is Class A and suitable for above ground irrigation and for use in the home to flush toilets and wash clothing. This effectively halves our daily requirement for fresh water and gives us the other half to use on gardens and external use. Water is precious and should be recycled where possible.

The aggregate material we are using is chipped up recycled plastic car bumper bars and hose reels. We believe this to be a first. In place of quarried stone as the drainage aggregate behind our retaining walls we are using the chipped up plastic material. The material is inert, stable and best of all
light weight. The issue with retaining walls is removing water efficiently from behind them as this is what adds to the load bearing weight against the walls and leads to wall failure in under engineered walls. The beauty of the plastic is that it is light weight and does not absorb water. This aids in the fast removal of the water from behind the wall.

Crushed concrete brick and tile used as aggregate for backfilling retaining walls.
Recycling this product reduces the need for quarried rock.

The retaining wall blocks we are using are made from the left over concrete returned to the concrete plants in the agitator trucks where it is poured into moulds to form these blocks. Historically this concrete would be tipped out on site or on the neighbouring block etc. now it is recycled into these great gravity wall blocks. The blocks we are using are 1.2mx0.6mx0.6m and weigh around 900kg each. Most concrete plants now have similar blocks available. The blocks are very cheap at around $20 each, the costly part being the delivery and installation depending on the gear available to you.

First job was to build the retaining wall in the backyard. The blocks are left over concrete in the
trucks is taken back to the plant and tipped into moulds.

The back filling of the retaining walls is being done with recycled crushed concrete and brick from our local waste disposal depot. It is a cost effective and renewable resource utilising materials that were buried as land fill in the past. It is screened to 40mm and makes for a very good course aggregate suitable as a drainage material. The Kennards hire mini dumpers made the job of placing 145 tonne much easier. Kennards have a range of dumpers, transporters, diggers and even specialist conveyors to handle all sorts of materials.

The retaining wall blocks are a Brick and Block product which utilises 40% slag dust in their retaining wall block.

Structural Strength
AlphaLite™ sacrifices nothing – except weight.
AlphaLite™ delivers strength equivalent to conventional masonry products, but weighs up to 30% less.

Durability
AlphaLite™ masonry units are designed to exhibit high durability against chemical attack such as chlorides, sulphates and mild acids. AlphaLite™ masonry units are ideal for use in structures close to the sea, in areas where sulphates are present in soils and in industrial installations where chemical storage or chemical spills are possible. All AlphaLite™ products comply with Exposure Grading as defined by BCA.

Increased Productivity
AlphaLite™ masonry units are significantly lighter in weight, by up to 30% less when compared to conventional masonry products currently available. The benefits and savings are dramatic.
The architect is able to design with less weight. Masonry contractors can increase productivity, with tradesmen able to improve output with less effort. The AlphaLite™ is a smart choice.

Thermal Insulation
AlphaLite™ masonry units exhibit high thermal insulating capacity compared to normal concrete masonry and precast concrete units.
AlphaLite™ masonry units reduce heating and air-conditioning costs and cost of installation.

Brick and Block retaining wall block start to take shape. These blocks are 40% slag dust.

When the wall is built it is pumped full of concrete with steel reinforcing all the way through it for structural strength.

The internal staircase for the home is a checker plate steel staircase purchased from a demolition yard. The heavy duty industrial stairs were
purchased early and designed into the home. Another piece of history, the eye beams in the staircase are stamped AIS Kembla, the name of
Port Kembla Steelworks before the days of BHP and Bluescope.

We have utilized mostly recycled product for the setting up of our trellis for our berries to grow on. The second hand posts support wire rope
removed from old wind back truck covers. All the fittings and joiners are also from the covers. The only fitting we had to buy new was the turn buckles.

Site Disturbance

Many believe in the theory of minimal disturbance of the site when constructing your Eco home. That is to utilise the slope of the land and any other features, altering the natural environment as little as possible. Many of the designs you will encounter have a peering system to minimise disturbance. We have taken the opposite approach, the house effectively sterilises the ground in it's footprint once you build on it. So for us this is the logical place to create all your disturbance. We have designed in such a way that we have excavated out under the foot print of the house and used it as garages, service area, workshop, water storage and water treatment area. This has resulted in a massive amount of disturbance to the site in this location,
but in doing so has halved the amount of overall area we have had to disturb on the block. It is important to consider how and where you dispose of
the unwanted clean fill so as not to have a negative environmental impact else where. I think the best use is to recycle the fill into another development which requires fill. This may reduce the need to purchase quarried material for that development. All of our top soil is being retained for use on the site in our terraced permaculture gardens.

We know there has been a lot of praying for rain ....and God heard the cry of his people!

Long term protection: Kordon

Kordon offers long-term termite protection to new buildings, and also acts as a moisture vapour barrier when installed under a concrete on ground flooring. It can be used in wall cavities, against retaining walls, around plumbing penetrations, infill and raft slabs and other types of constructions to form an impenetrable barrier against subterranean termites.

The pest control by FumaPest included penetration protection around all pipework with these Kordon sleeves.

Kordon

Kordon is a totally Australian made product, developed to suit local conditions. It had been extensively tested by the CSIRO - ABSAC, the Australian Pest Control Industry and is manufactured and accredited by Bayer Environmental Science in Australia. The Kordon termite barrier system is universally accepted by Local Councils and meets the requirements of the Building Code of Australia and AS3660.1 the Termite Protection Standard for
New Buildings.

Flexibility of Application

Kordon is sufficiently flexible to meet even the most difficult and complicated situations, such as, buildings with multiple penetrations or step downs. Kordon can be molded around unusual shapes and can quickly be cut and joined to form a continuous barrier. Our retaining wall stepped in from the 300mm block to the 200mm blocks. The Kordon moulded over the step neatly.

All the wall below ground is covered with Kordon by FumaPest . This is an
eco friendly white ant barrier where no spraying is required.

Environmentally Safe

Bayer has declared Kordon to be harmless to people and an allergy free product. Kordon is recommended for primary schools and for aged care buildings. It is not scheduled by the Australian Regulatory authorities as a pesticide product but is classified as a 'building product'. Deltamethrin is a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide - meaning it is modeled on the natural extract of the pyrethrum plant... it's that safe. This gives us peace of mind for the long term knowing that we have an environmentally safe product providing our Termite Control.

Made Tough for Building Site Conditions

Kordon is a robust product. It takes a sharp knife to cut Kordon, a blunt object has little chance of penetrating the product. If a hole is made accidentally, this can be easily repaired by cutting a patch and taping the area. We had no issues with the strength of the product when we added the crushed concrete backfill. The strength of the product allowed fast backfilling without being paraniod about damaging the membrane.

Kennards Hire dumper being articulated could get into nearly anywhere.

This was the area we debated, calculated and re-calculated. Our intention was to put a minimum 100 000 litre concrete tank under the house.
This option was proving to be expensive and we started looking for alternatives. As this concept is not an easy retro fit we had to get it right upfront.
We wanted to be self sufficient with water. We had to calculate roof surface area, average annual rainfall, length of time between decent rainfall, annual usage and storage capacity necessary to make it all work. We found several different formulas for working this out. (see Water Calculations). We want to have excess water as we will have a large permaculture garden. After calculating and re-calculating we have decided on a 40000 litre fibre reinforced plastic squat tank which will fit in the garage under the house.

Gravity feeding a soaker hose from a water tank is a great way of efficiently dispersing water slowly so it can be absorbed into the soil profile with little run off. Unless you have a foolproof memory I would advise you get a tap timer as gravity fed water is silent, it is not like leaving water running from
a tap connected to Sydney Water.

Combining the 40000 litre rainwater tank with the Nova Clear treatment plant will mean we should never run out of water and will not need to be connected to Sydney Water for water or sewer. This is the first home to achieve this in a residential zoning in Shellharbour City. To ensure we had calculated correctly we simulated the last three years water usage and rainfall, this gave us water tank levels on a month by month basis. Given that
the last three years have been drought and we used a smaller roof area than we actually have we considered our results were conservative.

As Australians we do not have a tradition of recycling water at all well. We only like to use it once and often don't use it responsibly on that occasion. We have some of the best water in the world and we waste it on flushing sewage, which is then treated and pumped into ocean outfall. The amount we drink constitutes about 1% of the daily average usage of Sydney Water household consumption. The issue of re-use was taken very seriously in our design. The aim was to be water self sufficient which means we will have to catch the water we use on site, treat it once it is used and use it again.
The two primary areas of water use and subsequent re-use that required thought were grey water and black water. We have chosen to use the Nova Clear, Nova Clear black water treatment plant. This system treats all waste water producing Class A water and is approved for above ground irrigation.

This equates to our home using one quarter of the average Sydney Water household water usage.

Black water refers to the water polluted by sewage. Grey water is the water polluted by washing such as shower bath and washing machine.

In our last home we started out doing the simple things around the home. Installing water efficient shower heads kicked us off. We put a 4 litre ice cream container in the half sink in the kitchen, when we required hot water we would turn on the hot tap and catch the 3 litres of cold that would come through before the hot water. This water was used to water our pot plants. When we installed our 4500 litre rainwater tank we eliminated the need for Sydney Water outside. We did do the piping of the washing machine water onto the garden using Planet Ark washing powder with no adverse effects
on the garden. We stopped doing this process as it is not recommended. See NSW Health guidelines or your relevant state statutory authority for use
of grey water. The Nova Clear system we are using in Our Eco Home takes all the guess work and health risk out of using waste water. It delivers Class A water consistently year in year out.

The water calculations for this design have been derived from our former residence. The home was three bedroom, two and a half bathroom
home with three toilets. Our family is two adults two children.
Our average daily usage of Sydney water is between 400 and 632 litres per day, 400 being the latest bill.
544litres is based on an average derived from consumption at our former residence.
Based on 544L/day the break down is as follows
132L/day toilets(24 flushes@6L/flush)
80L 2 showers 10 min. with water saving roses 4L/min
100L Bath water
140L washing machine
40L hand basins
52 Kitchen, drinking, and Misc.

By recycling all our water through the Econ Nova system the 544L per day of recycled water is broken down into 272L per day being recycled to the toilets and washing machine. This will provide a daily excess of 272L/day for outdoor use in the orchard and garden. This reduces the fresh water requirement from 544L/day down to 272L/day.

To calculate storage capacity of rainwater required to service a household using 272L/day we worked on the principle that the longest period of no significant rain is three months(90 days) on the coast. It is more realistically two months but we have worked at worst case. 90 days x 272L equals 24480L of storage as a minimum requirement.

We worked on an average annual rainfall of 660mm(2006 rainfall for our previous address in a drought year) falling onto a 200m2 roof area would produce 132000L of water per annum. This averages out at 11000L/month if it were to fall evenly. Obviously it does not fall evenly over the month but on average we use 8160L/month and receive 11000L/month of rainfall.

We have chosen a 45000L tank as the primary tank under the house which gives us the capacity to store excess water per month along with having the capacity for the three month at worst dry period. The following chart is a simulation of rain harvested minus consumption. The figures used were 8200L/month consumption(rounded up) along with rainfall data collected at our previous address over the past three and a half years. As you can
see from the simulation the water level in the tank does not get below 20000 litres. In fact over the course of time we recieve more rainfall than can be stored on a 45000 litre tank.

The future is on your Hands….and the future is now!
Enjo’s Fibre Technology offers you a Solution to help reduce Global Warming.

Using minimal water and no chemicals you can now clean your home quicker and more effectively than ever before and become part of the environmental solution.

With Enjo we can all do our bit for the environment and at the same time enjoy a clean, healthy, chemical free home. Enjo gloves and cloths are designed to be used only with water eliminating the need for any chemicals in your home. When using Enjo Cloths and Gloves to clean your home you no longer need to buy plastic bottles and spray cans full of chemicals.

The environmental aspect of using Enjo Products is just one of the many benefits you will enjoy as an Enjo User. Your health is a priority and what better way to improve the health of you and your children by having a chemical free environment.

Enjo Products really work giving you a much cleaner clean in much less time. For more information on these fabulous products check the website www.enjo.com.au or call Amanda Bexim on 4261 1818.

The challenge for us is to create a sustainable home on a tight budget. Much of the reading material available on sustainable developments suggests that it is as economical to build an eco friendly home as it is to build a standard or tradition home. This information does not normally come with figures backing up the statements or showing the real cost of such a project. So far we have found this to be true for good design and orientation of
the home. Once you start to include water recycling and solar power you can expect the price to extend beyond the average m2 rate. We want to use
this project as a case study of just that. Watch our blog as the project evolves.

We set ourselves a budget by approaching a builder and seeking the average m2 price for housing construction. By the way this was $750-1000 per square metre, dependant on design and taste. Already we are learning that the project builder who we first approached was conservative in his pricing until it came to putting it in writing!!!. From this we were able to set an overall budget for the size house we wanted to build based on using standard building costs. The challenge has now been to find cost effective ways to help reduce the overall cost of construction and choose products that were eco friendly and cost effective. We are now owner building. There are savings to be made, but you have to be prepared to do the negotiating, quoting and running around looking for bargains. They are out there, but it is not every ones forte. Looking for recycled products for the home starts as a hobby and soon ends up an obsession.

Solar passive design has been one of the key design elements in the design of this home. Most of the North facing walls are glass doors or floor to ceiling windows using glass technology. Our East facing walls are also predominantly glass. The East facing walls should typically have limited glass
due to the hot morning summer sun penetrating and heating the home. The rainforest vegetation next to us screens most of the hot morning sun. Louvres have been designed to maximise view of the rainforest and limit the windows having direct exposure to summer sun. Timber louvres are to be installed as fixed louvers above the North facing exposed glass, the slats angled to create maximum shading in summer and maximum sun in winter. Vertical slatted screens on rollers may be installed to the East facing glass to screen early morning summer sun with the ability to roll back for
afternoon view and winter sun if the tree canopy is not enough.

Cross ventilation in a home is very important for both air quality and for summer cooling. Our design lacks a little in this area. The cross ventilation is adequate in our living dining kitchen area with large opening doors to both the east and North with central hallway leading to the south. The East West cross flow is poor as our home is designed with minimal windows on the west side to limit exposure to the hot westerly sun and prominent winter Westerly winds.

Floor ventilation to the refrigerator is to be installed. This increases the energy efficiency of a refrigerator by twenty five percent. (Michael Mobbs)

Thermal mass is the ability of a product to store energy. The better the product can absorb this energy the greater the thermal mass rating it receives. Timbercrete blocks have a very good thermal mass rating as they have the ability to absorb the heat energy during the day and diffuse it of an evening.
In summer this means the blocks absorb the heat in the home helping to keep it cool and disperse it of an evening when the air around cools down.
In winter they absorb the heat from the sun and disperse it as the temperature drops. This too helps to maintain a comfortable living climate. This slow process means that they effectively delay or make for a time lag in the dispersing of the suns energy ie help to reduce fast heat gain in summer and reduce fast heat loss in the cold of winter.

Products with a poor thermal mass rating heat up and cool down fast with the surrounding temperature. Products with a high thermal mass rating
heat up and cool down slowly helping to maintain a constant temperature.

The orientation of any home on a block is very important. Our design has tried to accommodate the needs of each room and orientate them for maximum comfort. As such the living areas are all to the North and East of the home. These living areas can take advantage of the warm winter sun streaming in the North facing glass as the sun sits lower in the sky during winter. The North and East facing glass will be shaded in summer by the angled louvers. A cool breeze flowing into the living area over the water features under the North and East facing glass adding to the cooling effect.
The West of the home accommodates the bathroom, toilet and laundry with the West wall consisting of very small high set windows under the eaves protected by louvers. The bedrooms to the South of the home will be cool for sleeping. These are typically the rooms which do not require heating in winter also.

Natural heating will be achieved through the use of glass on the North side of the home. In our temperate zone the sun is further North in the sky over winter. The lower angle of this sun results in penetration through the glass heating up the air in the living areas. The very good thermal mass rating of
the Timbercrete blocks means that they will absorb this heat and slowly disperse it during the evening as the outside air temperature drops. The Timbercrete blocks also have very good insulation properties and will help retain the warmth created by the suns penetration of these rooms. The glass is designed to allow the penetration of the short waves from the sun. When they pass through the glass into the room they turn into long wave radiation (warmth) and are trapped by the insulation properties of the glass.

Water features and air flow will play a large role in naturally cooling the home. Our design has incorporated a rill water feature which runs along the North and east walls of the home below the glass doors and windows. The cross ventilation will create air movement across the water features bringing water cooled air into the home at ground level.

SolarVenti is a Solar powered Heater and cooler. This system of solar powered fans and a solar panel on the roof provide mechanical air movement through the home to further compliment the natural heating and cooling. A series of solar powered fans and ducting will draw cool air from the downstairs garage area which is mostly underground. Constant ground temperature guarantees this cool air. In winter warm air is drawn from ceiling height and put through the solar panel mounted on the roof. This heated air is returned to the home at floor level to rise again to the ceiling.

The home has three forms of insulation. Firstly glass technology in the Hanlon Aluminuim Windows trapping the long wave radiation after the suns rays have penetrated the glass in winter. The second being the Timbercrete block work and thirdly the Polyair insulation in the roof, wall cladding and floor. The three forms of insulation help to maintain a constant temperature in the home. The floor insulation gives us gretaer control of the air temperatures between upstairs and down. These two environments can be kept seperate and the variation in air temperature used to our advantage, particularly in summer when the very cool air from downstairs can be drawn up into the living areas. The aim is to reduce the temperature variation and keep it constant on the living level of the home. A constant temperature helps create a comfortable living environment.

Introducing Polyair, a lightweight, easy to install, all purpose building insulation product. Polyair incorporates the reflective properties of aluminium foil with the insulating properties of air bubbles to create a versatile product for both commercial and residential applications.

The first thing you notice about Timbercrete is its uniquely beautiful appearance. Each brick and block has been carefully handcrafted, adding character and elegance that is impossible to replicate. With unheard of versatility, Timbercrete allows you to design your own brick, so that you choose the size, colour, texture and shape. Timbercrete adds a very unique edge to your home.

Timbercrete is amazingly environmentally friendly all the way from its raw ingredients through to its everyday use. Its main ingredient is recycled timber waste (cellulose), so no tree has ever been cut down specifically to make Timbercrete. The bricks are air dried, which is vastly more energy efficient than the conventional kiln dried process of clay bricks. Incredibly, Timbercrete greatly reduces your carbon footprint by actually trapping the carbon that would normally end up as greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. On top of all this, its fantastic insulation qualities mean Timbercrete homes are energy efficient throughout the year.

The “Cobblestone Series” is the most popular of the range and is a unique signature block. Each block is individually hand crafted, with slight variations of curved faces and dimensions inherent to the hand-made process. This variation is intentional in order to create the unique cobblestone appearance with the charm and character of the old world. The mortar thickness will also reflect this variation, ranging from 10mm to 30mm.

We have chosen the 200mm single skin load bearing block in the cobblestone series.

Timbercrete showing plumbing running up through the block and metal strapping laid every 2 courses - Timbercrete power point block

Leisure Coast Kitchens came highly recommended to us from two close friends who had recently used them for a new kitchen and a laundry. So for us this was good enough as a starting point for our kitchen. When I explained to Leisure Coast what we were wanting to achieve environmentally in our home I was also further impressed with the way they embraced the concept and were able to introduce us to Laminex Industries Eco Board. The laminate kitchen we were proposing just became more eco friendly with the use of the low emission board. The Essa stone bench tops recommended by Leisure Coast helped to finish off the design of the kitchen.

Leisure Coast Kitchens have been a pleasure to deal with, making the kitchen go like clockwork from the design through to install. Everything was done in the time frame set down, communication has been a pleasure, staff turned up on time every time they said they would. The finished product is just as we expected it with no surprises. The quality of the workmanship has been great.

Our windows and doors are all aluminium framed with Viridian Comfort Save glass, from Hanlon Windows and Doors. Aluminium has high embodied energy but are for a lifetime and can be recycled at the end of their lifetime. All our North facing walls are mostly glazed. We chose double sliding doors as they provided a cost effective means of having large amounts of glazing with maximum openings to aid cross ventilation and provide good ventilation to ensure internal air quality is sustained. The high quality aluminium windows and doors provide for a maintenance free system for many years to come. We even had Hanlons design a glass aluminium front door to match the slightly industrial feel to the home.

The Invisi Guard stainless steel mesh screens supplied by Leisure Coast Security Doors provides additional flexibility for our cross ventilation. These security screens allow the home to be kept secure whilst providing for maximum opening of our sliding glass doors. This allows for the cool air to be drawn through the home over night on the hot summer nights when Southerly breezes come through late. Alternatively they can be left open when you go out and still have peace of mind that the home is secure. The added security of the invisi guard allows you to have fresh air flow to the home whenever you desire. The stainless steel mesh also meets with the requirements for bushfire prone areas where a higher level of construction is required.

We have strategically placed aluminium framed glass skylights throughout the home, in the stair well, one in each hallway, one in the kitchen and one in the outdoor entertaining area which will also provide additional light to the lounge room. Alan from A1 Home Improvements custom built these for us. They are glazed with Viridian Comfort Save glass to ensure good thermal performance. The sky lights have been designed so they can be openable. This will give us additional flexibility with our air movement and natural heating and cooling if we need it.

It is amazing to see the difference in internal light when these were fitted. They were all fitted in one day and the holes had been covered with temporary colorbond covers while they were being glazed. The installation gave an instant impact. The additional light will hugely reduce our energy use from lighting.

This has been quite a challenge. The building industry is shocking for waste. Most trades would rather go and cut a new piece than look around for one already cut. It has been interesting trying to break this mindset and watch the reaction of the various trades.

The first thing we did to reduce waste on site was to challenge Council about the condition of consent that insisted on a minimum 3m2 waste bin.
To me this was encouraging waste. The bigger the bin the bigger the stuff you could fit in it and the more likely off cuts and excess material would end up thrown out. I was able to use our shipping container as the so called waste bin. We started out by only providing 10-20 litre buckets as waste bins.
For one you can’t fit much in it and for two it then makes people think more about what they will do with an off cut. I set up designated spots for off cuts and it was interesting to see it didn’t take long before the carpenters standing the frame started going to this spot to look for a bit of timber before going and cutting a short length of a new length. This may sound petty or even tight but it is amazing how much material you can save by this approach. I also supplied a stack of off cuts of framing pine and pallet pine from packing to use as braces and packers which again reduced the need to cut off the full lengths and overall reduced waste. Some of these packing timbers have been used two and three times and then ended up as packers themselves in non structural locations. All these uses recycled timber and reduced the need for new plantation timbers.

Timber offcuts bagged ready to be chipped by friendly Earth and return as garden mulch

When you apply this methodology across all trades and all materials the waste reduction becomes noticeable. So far we have created nearly 2m3 of waste. We have recycled the 1m3 bags which the brickies sand came in (which the brickies said you just cut down the side as it is easier to shovel out the sand !!!). As a result of not doing this they have become very useful around the site as waste bins and for storing other leftover products. The contents of the 20litre buckets get sorted and the waste goes into the bags. The other bags have become recycling bags. One is for cardboard as everything is packaged in cardboard. Friendly Earth Landscape Supplies have a chipper which can chip everything from wood to cardboard to plastic. The cardboard will be chipped up and reused in the worm farm as a moisture holding topping over the farm. Worms love to eat paper and cardboard. The by product then becomes a soil builder for the permaculture garden. The leftover gyprock has been bagged and will also be chipped up into a powder again to be used as gypsum. This clay breaking material will be beneficial for our slightly clay loam soils. All the small off cuts of timber have either gone to a friend’s fire place as kindling or later in the project we have been bagging this also to chip up and come back as pine mulch for our gardens. The polystyrene packaging is also being chipped up and is to be used as aggregate drainage material for behind the retaining walls. We have had a designated box for household recycling such as drink bottles, cans and paper. This has been taken and placed in our fortnightly recycling pickup. Another box has been provided for steel and metal off cuts which has been disposed of at the local waste disposal steel recycling bin.

Waste gyprock bagged ready to be chipped up by Friendly Earth and used back on site as a clay breaker

Sorting can be time consuming, but the rewards in terms of using less product producing less waste and in turn reducing tipping fees I believe is well worth it. The waste reduction to landfill alone makes it worth while.

In a previous life and admittedly it was ten years ago I used to do site cleans for new home sites at the end of construction, At this time it was not unusual to take away between 16 and 24m3 of rubbish/waste generated from the construction of one standard new home. It will be interesting to survey some project builders and see what they allow for waste and deem to be acceptable in 2009.

I quickly learnt as an owner builder it was critical to have a good report with a hardware store both for price, service and advice. I was very pleasantly surprised on my second or third visit to United Mitre 10 that the staff remembered me from the previous visit, addressed me by name asked me how they could help and always took me to the isle where I would find the product I was after. This was a very pleasant change from being told Isle 36 and having to go up and down isles with no service at all.