Self Build & Renovation: Live! by NSBRC

Welcome back.

It's episode seven of

Self-Build and Renovation Live.

We're back up on the mezzanine here,

my favourite location, I have to say,

here at the National

Self-Build and Renovation

Centre in Swindon.

I do pre-warn you, by the way,

if you hear noises and beeps,

this is a live, living,

breathing site that we're on right now,

where they're getting ready for the big

national tail fiddle

renovation show that is

from next friday through to

the sunday so bear with us

if there's the noises

hopefully it'll be okay my

name is chris doors from

visual pr we've got a full

house straight away my

co-host I'm going to call

you this time yeah

absolutely uh nick one

obviously the

sustainability manager yep

that's right yeah thanks

for having me back chris

it's good you missed the

last one you were away I

think from that one

That's right.

Yeah, I dare to go on holiday.

Everyone did a great job

talking about employee

ownership on the last one.

It was a good one, that one.

I enjoyed that one a lot.

Also,

we've got some very special guests here.

You'll see the names up on the screen.

Delighted to say that we've

got Clive Spencer, who is a self-builder.

I think that's the best title to give you.

Definitely the best title, yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

where we're going to

actually get to understand

it from a real perspective

and we're going to protect

ourselves uh for people

that are going to do this

where we've got rosie

farmilo correct yeah I

pronounced that right I

should have checked that

before um who is trusted

traders a part of which

which we'll go into more

this detail in a moment so

welcome thank you

because people need to be

protected when they're

looking to do all these things.

I can see the nod from Clive

as well from experience going, yes,

you do.

So welcome, everybody.

Nick,

the whole idea of this one is to have

a look at

but this is now real life

that people someone that's

actually gone and done it

all the aspects and someone

that looks out for them

because next week's show

Friday the thirty first of

January through to the

second of February yeah

absolutely right people get

to come here and see all

parts any part of what we

get involved in that's it

So we were really keen.

We're ten days out from our

biggest show of the year,

National Self-Blood and

Renovation Show on Friday

the first of January

through to the second of February.

Nine to five.

Anyone that wants to come, you know,

would be great.

But we were really keen

where we've gone into a few

different topics in these

in these episodes previously.

Really keen to bring in some

different voices.

You two have some people

that are actually going to

be at the show as well.

and are going to be giving talks,

giving different

perspectives on what it's

like to actually do a

self-build and actually how

do you protect yourself and

make sure you're getting

traders you can trust.

So two different angles,

what we've looked at before.

Brilliant.

Can I do a little bit of a

pitch of what the show is?

Which, incidentally, I just want to say,

down at the bottom there on the screen,

you'll see there is the

website address to go to,

nsbic.co.uk forward slash what's dash on.

forward slash the national

self for a renovation show

or just go to events on the

website and you'll see that

so yeah there you go we've

promoted it as well thanks

very much um yeah so before

I defer to you too I guess

I'd just like to give a bit

of an overview of what what

is the show for anyone

that's new to the national

self and renovation center

and why would you want to

come along yeah and then

I'll defer to you to kind

of talk about probably the

more in-depth more

interesting bits that

people are maybe here to listen to um

So the show is a three day

event that you can come

along to for free as long

as you book your tickets in

advance on the link that we've included.

Yeah.

Twelve pounds on the day.

So why not book now?

And that can be one,

two or three days that you come.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I think people often

come for one day and think, oh, actually,

I need to book for tomorrow.

Now I want to try and absorb

some more information here.

But really, why would you want to come?

If you're interested in doing a self build,

a renovation,

retrofit any kind of home

improvements custom build

any of the above

The NSBLC really is a

one-stop shop for all your needs.

Lots of different voices,

lots of different schools

of thought on helping you

make decisions there.

Lots of options.

Yeah, absolutely.

And really,

this weekend at the end of January,

it's always our busiest,

most popular of the year.

I think people are in, new year, new me.

This is going to be the year

that I do this project.

So it's really seeing the

centre at its absolute best.

But the fact that we are

also here throughout the year,

six days a week,

It can be, if you haven't been before,

it can be your introduction

to us and you can come back

and speak to us and our

partners whenever you want, really.

So that's great.

But in terms of what's actually here,

we'll have two theatres on the day,

which have packed agendas

of some amazing speakers and really,

really diverse in terms of

what they cover.

two of which are here today.

And really,

that is going to cover anything

through from finding a plot,

getting plan permission,

funding your project,

designing your build,

thinking about what type of

building system do you want to use.

And actually, if you're interested in that,

we did a great episode two weeks ago,

Battle of the Building Systems,

looking at the pros and cons.

We were troublemakers, weren't we?

Yeah, you were.

But then thinking about, okay, well,

how does that relate to

types of foundations, roofing, windows,

doors?

How do I make my build sustainable?

How do I make it affordable?

Whatever matters to you.

How do you make it beautiful?

Whether you're thinking about finishes,

whether you're thinking

about renewable kind of tech.

Whatever it is you're interested in.

When we do the Wanda,

which we'll do next Friday,

we'll be with the roaming cam,

the big thing that's always

stood out to me is that

you'll also get to see

things that you possibly

haven't thought of.

You didn't even know you had to think of,

but you kind of go, oh, wow,

that's an option.

It's really good to come

along with an idea of what

do you want to get out of your visit.

Absolutely.

And maybe have a list of the things, oh,

I would really like to try

and learn about these things.

But I can guarantee you'll

come away with a longer

list also of the things you

didn't know you didn't know.

Yes.

So that's why it's really

valuable that we're here

anytime you want to come back.

There's some amazing tech here.

Yeah,

if you do try and do it all in one day,

your head's probably going to explode.

But it's a great starting point.

But yeah,

I would also just like to shout out,

we've got beyond our

speakers in the two theatres,

we've got our trade village,

which you can see behind me,

where we've got over two

hundred different partner

companies who will be

exhibiting here and experts

on all sorts of things that I mentioned.

And I'm going to be able to

help you with any of that, really.

What's on my list to not

forget talking about?

I don't want to forget

talking about our parking is free.

You will not be stung with

the parking cost when you get here.

We have plenty of parking.

Yeah.

So your visit truly is free.

The only thing you might

want to pay for is go and

get a drink in our coffee house.

And also you can buy food

there for lunch as well.

And the other thing you

might want to pay for is we

do have EV chargers as well.

So if you've got an electric vehicle,

we've got somewhere you can

plug in if you'd like to do that.

that's probably the end of my pitch.

So let's get on with the episode, I guess.

Well, absolutely.

And I mean, what I did love, Clive,

is watching you nodding in recognition of,

you know,

the things that Nick was saying

that was here.

Yes.

Because you've been to the

shows and the courses multiple times.

Indeed, yes.

yes and I I would um I would

say that it was one of the

most useful aspects in the

lead up and actually during

our build as well really

yes yeah to be able to

actually come and look at

the products in the flesh

as well as know what you're

looking at and how they

might be used was extremely valuable

Brilliant.

Well,

if I can just make sure I now

position yourself,

because obviously you're

going to be speaking,

and it's not just a self-built case study,

but it's a passive house

case study as well.

Indeed, yeah.

As I understand it,

your situation was it was a

dilapidated bungalow beyond repair.

Yep.

And so it was a control, alt, delete,

and you have created what I have to say.

And I'm going to put this up

on the screen now as well.

A beautiful looking self-build.

I do love it with that much class.

Speak to us about, and apologies, Nick,

I'm probably doing this out of order,

but I think it makes sense now,

is where did, first of all,

the motivation to do a

self-build and the

confidence to do a self-build come from?

um excuse me the motivation

was was um the type of

house we were building

because you can't passive

house if you google passive

house for sale you'll be

lucky if you find them

there there's well

certainly when we were

building that or planning

it in twenty fifteen twenty sixteen

um so the motivation to

actually build one was

mainly that because you

couldn't you couldn't

obtain one otherwise um uh

the I can't remember what

the other part of the

question was yeah so uh

giving you the confidence

to do it as well yeah

because I mean I sit here

now thinking wow it's quite

an overwhelming proposition

This one was slightly

different because I will

confess that this is my third self-build.

Potentially,

I suppose you could say that

it was a more complicated

house because of the

passive house element, although actually,

as things went, it didn't really...

for us to make it more complicated.

It went very smoothly.

But yeah,

having done the other two

definitely helped.

And as I was saying earlier on,

you do become an expert, unfortunately,

at the end of your self-built project,

which is rather frustrating.

You want to be an expert before it.

So that definitely helped,

having done the previous ones.

which again hence your

comment though is that you

get to come back in through

it because you become a bit

more of an expert as you go

through it so you then kind

of go okay well now I

understand how that leads

to that and I want to

understand that yes indeed

and of course each time you

do a different because the

previous houses although

they exceeded building

regulations because I've

always been interested in sustainability

um this one was way well

beyond the performance of

those so each time there's

new areas to to learn about

new materials well actually

particularly materials

which comes back to the

national self-building

renovation center of course

because all the time

particularly with

sustainable and

environmentally friendly

high performance housing

there's new materials

coming online all the time

of course and being able to

see those in the flesh

so important reading about a

recycled newspaper

insulation in a magazine

you know you you kind of

build a picture and um but

be able to come and see it

and see what it looks like

it brings it to life yeah I

mean your sustainability

started even before you

were building it was the

destruction and removal of

of the existing you put a

lot of effort into that yes

yeah because the one thing

that we didn't want to do

was the choice of plot we

were looking for either a

virgin plot or a property that

was basically beyond economic repair.

We had a structural surveyor look at ours.

We did live in our bungalow

for six years before we knocked it down.

And the structural surveyor

who came and had a look

said we were lucky it never

fell down on us.

It was pretty bad.

But yes, when it comes to the demolition,

we took most of it apart ourselves,

sold all the roof tiles,

packaged up what we could.

and uh yeah denailed timber

and put it on facebook

marketplace there are other

sites that you can sell on

but uh yeah um uh yeah

contacted companies to

recycle the plastic windows

and it was amazing um we

literally ended up with a couple of skips

yeah yeah it was it is

incredible I mean obviously

the main bulk of the house

was um the masonry and the

concrete blocks which we um

we imported a concrete

crusher to crush that up which

which actually was one of

the most amazing pieces of kit.

I was expecting a lot of noise,

a lot of dust,

and it was really quiet and

no dust and very undramatic.

So yes,

that will be used as the material

rather than importing stone

for the foundations.

oh the rockery the rockery

wasn't from the bungalow

the rockery was yeah that

was a bit of surprise we

did a a ground test before

construction and we went

down about just every meter

and they all looked like it was

as we expected soil and

brash which is small pieces

of stone but had we gone

down another couple of

inches we would have

realized that we're on

solid rock so well

basically we had a small

quarry going for a while

and the stone rather than

it would have taken

thirty-five lorries to get

rid of it because we could

only get ten tonne lorries to the site.

So we decided to make a

rockery at the end of the garden.

Make it a feature.

Make it a feature.

It was a win-win.

To import that much stone

would have cost a fortune

and to get rid of it would

have equally cost a fortune.

I know quite a bit of stone

has been removed and put it back up.

I think we're just stealing

part of that rock.

It's just in the very corner.

It's somewhat larger than

what you can see.

I mean I love all of that I

mean before rosie just then

the other one give us an

idea what it's been like

but far exceeding expectations.

I mean,

we were expecting the classic one

is the money you're going

to save in operating it.

And I mean,

it's really catching on now because,

I mean, Wales, for example,

only in the past few weeks

has decided to create a

patent book for Welsh social housing.

It's going to be to the

Passive House standard.

And in Wiltshire,

there are social housing projects

basically because it

involves fuel poverty.

It certainly helps.

It goes a very long way

because you're using energy for heating.

So yes, that's the classic one.

That's beginning to catch on now.

one we weren't necessarily

expecting was the

unbelievable comfort it's

uh every room is pretty

much the same temperature

adjustment slightly but

there's no being shot

opening a door and going

into a cold room um the air

quality is very hard yeah

you can actually sense that

the most the thing that we

noticed when we go around eventually yeah

is that you generally notice

that the humidity is not

quite right you got so used

to it being the right

intensity yeah you do often

notice that well you notice

stale air and if you can

right which is it's all

sorted out for you in a

pacifist which is wonderful

keep getting told about the

production needs just as

well because that goes down

a lot doesn't it yeah

obviously it's actually

pollen free so if you're if

you're another benefit if

you're a fever sufferer and

you have the right filter

spitted I mean obviously it

will depend on the impact

and there are like most

things you standards but um

yes pollen filtering is a common

it does sound we've got to

pick one of these in the

future absolutely um I'm

definitely going to come

back to you in a minute I

also want to pick up on the fact that you

It's not breakable,

as in you went against the

grade because one of the

things they tend to do is

get you to reduce your glazing.

And you went, well, no,

we've got these beautiful views.

So I want to leave us with

that cliffhanger in a

moment that we're all going

to come back to that part

because I love the fact

that it isn't that you are

railroaded that way.

still got that flexibility,

so I do love that.

But I really do want to thank Rosie,

because apologies, Rosie,

you've sat there patiently.

I'm going to hear about it.

I want to hear more.

The first thing I wanted to say,

I said I was going to throw one out,

but I think of you as rich,

which everybody knows about.

You're an arm of that,

which is trusted traders.

That's right.

What's the difference?

course yeah so which as

everyone knows is uk's

consumer organization we

recognize which best buy or

which the supermarket

everyone knows those logos

and with traders that was

developed because we could

see this kind of gap in the

market where customers were

just getting ripped off by

rogue traders or cowboy

traders and it was causing

such huge influence

quite about life savings

perhaps not getting the

jobs done to the standard

that they're expecting and

so which steps into that

market in order to help

reduce that consumer

detriment so we're not a

lead generation platform I

know it's you can find

other ones online quite

quick and easy to check and

sign up to but we missed we

want to make sure we are

the best of the best really

so we've got really high

expectations of our traders

anyone who's endorsed with

us so they've got to pass sort

rigorous assessments and

join us as well and

continue to meet our

standards to be endorsed by

us so that's the difference

and kind of why we stepped

into that space fine so

apologies if I refer to you

with untrusted faith but I

can get away with it yeah

that's fine that's all

right I'm just used to getting

here at the show what's what

you all reveal top of

course today the first of

february I believe it's on

the importance of choosing

a trade you can trust so we

completely understand that

people might want to use a

company that they perhaps

found online or can

recommend their business as

well and that's not a

problem not everyone's

going to use which to find

But we're going to be

focusing on three main things.

So who, which trusted traders are,

and why we exist.

We're going to be talking

about the different systems as well,

because there's a lot out there,

and it would be quite

overwhelming from a consumer perspective.

And the third one,

and probably the most important one,

is we're going to be giving

tips and advice to customers.

And that's to make sure that

they're armed with this

knowledge that when they've

found a company that they want to talk

they can carry out all the

necessary checks before

letting them into the home

and part of their home.

It's to empower people to

feel a lot more relaxed.

I'm not going to take you

down a rabbit hole here and

get you in trouble here,

but just to briefly talk

about the fact that you

felt that this was

important because even when

people tried to go to bed,

What's the buzz phrase that

makes you run a mile?

Passive house principles.

If people start talking

about passive house principles,

there are rabbit holes that

start appearing yeah um even

though you think oh well

great you need to be these

bodies in place to sort of

protect us going so I'm not

doing one yet but I'm gonna

roll myself into that one

uh doing these projects is

that we need to know that

that they are up to certain

standards yeah well that's

the key word yes the

passive house standard is one thing

working with the principles

of it is something else and

of course there's so many

new pieces of equipment new

working practices coming in

you know I mean I'm sure

you know majority by far

the majority won't be done

maliciously it's possibly

just by lack of experience

or lack of adequate

training you know so um but

yes there are there are

rabbit holes out there yeah

absolutely well

rosie how um how does

trusted trader uh work from

a user perspective now I

know that this request

really came from you is

that from the the price

perspective or from the

trade perspective really

yeah so how how does that experience work

Absolutely.

So you don't have to be a

WICH member to use WICH Trusted Traders.

It's completely free of charge as well.

So you can go online and you

can search for the sector that you need.

So let's say, for example,

you're having what we've done,

pop in Rufus area, so West London maybe,

and you want to search for those,

all the traders.

area and it will show by

either review rating you

could do it by that

distance as well people can

call us as well we're happy

to help but we always

recommend that customers

contact at least three

traders to get a really

kind of good comparison of

quotes once they've found

someone that they want to go with

with the knowledge which

have carried out all of our

checks and they've gone and

they've done the work we

always encourage customers

to then leave for the work

they've done because that's

really nice isn't it to get

a bit of feedback from the

trader but leaving a review

that we're really proud of

as well within which

because the review process

is something that we have

worked on tirelessly so now

say that all of our reviews

are one hundred percent

moderated we've done this

for quite some time now so

essentially we're checking

that customers have

actually the trader have

that job carried out um

which or can be said for

say you go on google you

might google a business uh

read their reviews verified

and so when customers need

a witness to trade they can

be confident everything

they're reading on there is the

it doesn't even make it

there unless it's verified

exactly that and positive

and negative we want

everyone to be aware that

the trader is providing

that service from I mean

obviously you're talking

about the traders

themselves have got all

these standards that we

talk to and you mentioned

they've got to adhere to it

so they've got to achieve

it in the first place how often are they

checked if you will yeah

great question so in order

to join us there is a

stringent process so you've

got to make sure that

they're eligible first of

all um which involves

things like financial health checks

as well to make sure that

there's nothing that could

be a potential reference to which,

but also making sure that

there's nothing worrying

out there for consumers as well.

We'll then get them booked

in with our trading

standards professionals so

they have an assessment done.

So depending what sector they're in,

that could be either a telephone call,

a video call or face-to-face

and that's great that's

where we really get to like

lift the lid on the

operations and other things

kind of like and they'll

check everything from

making sure they're

providing customers

complaints policies maybe

about how they handle

complaints and from that

assessment they'll then get

given a report so that

report will show them the

actions they'll need to complete

to join our scheme.

Whilst they're doing that as well,

we're also contacting their

customers to make sure they

are who they say they are,

they do what they say they're doing,

to really make sure that we

are endorsing the best of the best.

Once they have completed

those actions and

everything's looking great,

that's when we can sign

them up to use our logo,

profile page with us,

and they sign up to our

code of conduct as well.

Following that,

from your question how often,

it's every year.

Wow.

Yeah, so we carry out annual checks.

the team did a fantastic job

so we're looking at things

like making sure their

insurance is still in like

valid and in date and we

want to be making sure that

if anything's sort of on

our radar that we've

discussed that with the

traders as well too because

we want to make sure that

they're still compliant and

living up to our standards too.

I mean, his mind is massive.

Someone who's been through

the project for months.

Yes, I can imagine.

It's a very reassuring thing

to know for companies

that's been vetted to that extent.

You're engaging with a lot

of different organisations.

And, of course, that volume of money,

it's not a few thousand.

If you were to undertake a

self-book for this project,

it's going to be hundreds of thousands.

It's almost certainly going

to be all your life savings

and everything else included.

The biggest project you ever do, isn't it?

Well, it will undoubtedly be.

to just have to do another

one but yeah exactly I mean

it just sounds uh like it's

not it's a must-have um so

you and apologies I'm going

to get to repeat this but I

think in context of what

you've just said as well

from the the consumer perspective

You don't need to be a

member to be able to see those.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's it.

So I don't know if any of

you are members or not,

but any one of us could

just log on today and sorry,

not even log on,

just go to the website and

just go from there.

So completely free.

And it is worth noting as well,

and I've just spoken about

the assessment process.

But it's something that

about forty percent of

businesses that actually

apply with us get endorsed,

which sounds like a strange

stat to brag about,

but it is just worth it.

Exactly that.

If we can't confidently hand

on heart say we can endorse this business,

then we won't do.

But what we do do is

encourage past consumers

that if they perhaps know

of a company or maybe

they've used a business

that they think is worth

the recommendation,

they can refer them to us.

We'll still carry out our checks.

is like a nice voucher if

you can see the sales thank

you if they if they refer a

company to us as well and

it sounds to me like it's

not a one and done you know

they fail to do it they

will have a list they go

this is the reason why if

you can work on that give

you another look absolutely

yeah so we can encourage

customer and businesses to

reapply in the future but

in order to get into our

systems although they've

got to make sure that

they're up to our standards that's

I don't know whether to ask

this because I don't know

the answer up front,

but I'll ask it anyway.

You said it's great that we

can go and look without being a member,

but is there a benefit in being a member?

Absolutely, yes.

So if you own a business,

no matter what size,

so we've got sole traders

all the way up to national franchises,

when you join us,

you of course get the Which

Trusted Traders logo.

Everyone recognises that logo anyway.

It's associated with which

you immediately get that

sort of reputation,

being trustworthy and reliable.

profile page for this.

So again, you're searchable for consumers.

You also get access to

alternative dispute resolution service.

So that is an amazing

independent third party

where if you get a

complaint from a consumer

and perhaps can't resolve one-on-one,

you've got that to fall back on as well.

And we provide, you know,

relevant trade and sector

updates regularly too,

because we want to be

supporting businesses as

much as we're supporting customers too.

Thank you.

But from a consumer perspective,

is there a membership?

I know you said you don't have to,

but is there a consumer-based membership?

Oh, no.

So if you wanted to be a witch member,

you're welcome to sign up,

but trusted traders, no,

that's completely free of charge.

Got it.

Fine.

Yeah, absolutely.

I did pull up about the mediation process,

which I think when we first

spoke about this, I thought, yes,

that's so important to making this work,

isn't it?

Look at this.

Everything else is great,

but if you then have

something that goes wrong,

if a trader that's gone

through all those processes, yeah,

they've been great in the past,

but what if they're not great for you?

And actually, no,

that's there to help you out.

That's great.

Absolutely, yeah.

We encourage businesses to

try and resolve any issues

with the customers up front

because we should hope that

they've been involved in the resolution.

We do also step in and

mediate if we need to.

so we can provide um a reset

inspection so that depends

what sector it's in we can

carry out a survey so that

helps support consumers or

traders depending on what

is possibly happening with

it with the work that was

carried out that the apr

the alternative dispute

resolution service is there

as a final backup as well

to really kind of help

resolve any complaints

things happen, don't they?

And it's about how it's

resolved during that and

working all together.

Clive,

obviously you're going to be

speaking as well at the show on Friday,

I think.

Yes.

What can people expect from

that presentation?

I'll do a brief summary of

what Passive House is in

case people don't know.

I'll be looking at the main

affected our design um we've

done a lot of monitoring on

our property um so I'll be

sharing the results of that

and they're up to date as

well I completed them

yesterday in fact for last

year so they'll be up

results I won't show them

then no but basically

they'll be looking at

energy use air quality um

all those aspects

of it um and some of the

benefits that people may

not thought of and just

generally the experience of

living in world highest

recognized low energy home

environment so and now I'm

going to go back to what

sort of positioned earlier

because I saw the photo of

it one of those lovely sort

of with a lot of glaze in

and I do love that but of

course as a an over

generalization one of the things

blaze but you were like oh

we want to see the view yes

um well it was one of the

one of the uh the the facts

uh that yes that was

probably potentially

problematic in the design

of such a house although I

mean the the advice is that

majority of glazing is on

the south side our plot is

east facing so obviously

that was never going to happen

But it was interesting

during our planning stage,

I spoke with one of the

leading architect practices

in the country and they said,

they just visited a house

with mostly north facing glazing.

can be done but of course

the payoff is more so um

and the same with us we had

to we didn't manage to have

the glazing we wanted but

we did have to operate

shading measures um because

overheating can become a

problem well in usually

that the the reflection

you won't have any problem

heating your house whatsoever.

Just ask a neighbour in,

they'll do the job for you.

But yeah, overheating,

it's not just passive houses,

it's all houses that are

becoming more energy efficient.

And of course with the

latest building regulation amendments,

you know,

it's been recognised that overheating

can't have an issue.

So yes, there is potential for overeating,

and it definitely needs to

be taken seriously.

And of course,

if you are building a passive house,

the one wonderful thing is

that it uses the passive

house planning package, PHBD.

And with that,

it was all highlighted

before we even started construction.

So we knew it was manageable.

We knew how to manage it.

There was one window, actually,

that we didn't

detail for shading,

and that was the one west facing window.

And we subsequently have

used natural foliage to

shade that citrus trees,

which has worked.

So, yeah,

there was ways of working around it.

And that was the key point, the PHP,

did I put enough P's in there?

Yeah, you did, yeah.

It gave you that indication and you said,

well, okay, but we actually want this.

It still gives you the

signpost how to get where

you want to get.

It's, you know, pretty cool,

active shading.

yeah well I mean our active

shading was it was um

external shutters external

blinds um um because our

windows are east facing the

sun starts off on the

horizon and it's an awful

long way before it gets

above any physical shading

so you on the west generally need to

block window rather than

relying on brick cellars to

shape them which you can

use on the south side but

equally as you said with

the foliage it showed that

for the western side that

was an option yes yeah it

was a we were prepared to

put our external shutter on

but we thought we'd try the

foliage first and it was enough so

I know you might think it's

just something I found really,

really cool, but A, it looked great,

and B, it was like, okay,

you don't need to be

railroaded into the long

decisions for what you have

in your heart and head.

It's just find out how you

can achieve what you want

to achieve and achieve those standards.

Other things such as filter changing,

how does that

It's something you need to

do once every six months.

It's one of the reasons that

you need to have your NVHR

located in an easily

accessible position because

it's not something you want to put off.

And I can imagine if it's in

the back of a loft and

you've got boxes in front of it,

it could easily be

something you want to put off.

So yeah,

it's not something you need to do

very often,

but it's a very important task

to help to keep your heat

structure clean.

I can't remember if I actually asked this,

but quite a general sweeping question.

Why did you want to go passive house?

I know it sounds fairly obvious,

but I'd like to hear your take on it.

Well,

we bought our property in twenty

fourteen and at that time

the Code for Sustainable

Housing was in place and we

were expecting to build our

house a few more years

along than we expected.

By the time we were going to

be building it,

Code Six would have been in operation,

which was zero carbon housing.

So we were already prepared

to build a zero carbon house.

The government decided to

remove that requirement.

In fact, the Future Home Standard,

which is coming out this year,

is the first new way to

progress into zero carbon housing.

But in the time that there was...

lack of direction and

guidance moving to passive

house was the obvious

answer it didn't take a lot

when you google sustainable

energy efficient houses to

find what passive house and

we came to one of the

lectures uh the master

classes here itself and

center before we built and

if that wasn't enough we

then took part in or

visited a passive house through the

It was on a cold day, minus two outside,

and I can remember the very

kind lady who allowed me to

look around her house said,

I presume you've got underfloor heating?

And she says, no.

So I'm just literally

walking in an environment

like that on a cold day,

which isn't being artificially heated.

That was one of the things, wasn't it,

that you were given advice about going,

no, don't go underfloor heated.

Yes, well,

I had underfloating in my previous house,

so I was familiar with the

way it can react slowly.

I mean,

they have developed underfloating

that's very near the surface,

so it responds quicker.

But as I'll talk about in my

presentation and illustrate

with some of our monitoring data,

the temperature in a modern

well-insulated house can

respond very quickly to sunlight,

especially in the spring

and autumn when the sun's

low and any physical

shading won't be operating.

So you need a heating system

that's responsive too.

And I'm always trying to

make sure I'm not nicking

too much of your presentation,

because we want people to go and see this,

to hear all about it.

And which is what you

mentioned is I can say that

you are carbon neutral.

I'm not going to do the energy

and things like that we can

leave that as surprises but

one that I loved seeing is

that you achieved an air

tightness of naught point

three changes per hour

which is twice as good as

you needed to achieve the

fact of our standards yes

yes yeah but that was we

were extremely pleased with

that yeah in fact the

contractor who our main

contractor had actually

achieved one in one of

their previous buildings

and we do suspect that um

it could have been had an

even higher rating because

unfortunately we forgot to

put the keys in the

keyholes so we actually had

open and of course

One statistic that was in

one of the Passive House

workshops that I attended

here was something that was

so good and really interesting.

At the time, we're going back a few years,

building regs changed their

tightness from ten, which was at the time,

down to eight.

But when they were at ten,

that's like having a hole

about the size of a cash

machine in your house all the time,

open to the outside.

a passive house is about the

size of a credit card.

So when you think of the

size of a few big holes,

that's a significant factor.

Although that's what it's

going to be like day to day.

So actually maybe you've

done a fairer test of what

your real life experience is like.

Yeah, that's true actually, Nick.

Yeah, that's probably true.

You just made me feel better.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I also do understand, yeah,

you want data to look at it.

I think for a construction team,

it's a really important thing,

the air test,

because it actually gives

them an indication of

basically how good a job

they've made of it.

So I think it's an important statistic.

I like that.

And of course,

it's very important for passenger.

You need to get that down

below nought point zero.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Can I just add really quickly,

if there's anything about...

any of the terminology being

used talking about passive

house talking about mvhr

anything that we've talked

about a couple of our

previous episodes go into a

bit more depth they do so

we have a passive house

episode which is all about

what is passive house what

is the passive house trust

why do you want to know

these things um we also

have a previous episode

about heat and energy which

will touch some of those

solutions including mdhr

and thirdly drop an email to marketing

but yeah I've been told that

they can ask you the

questions uh and I was

going to come to you

quickly nick is that uh

study that's going to be

presented at the show so

the friday saturday sunday

so I'm just going to repeat

because we're about halfway

through now so friday the

first of january through

sunday the second february

if anyone's tuned in since

I said that last

We've got the link again on the screen.

At the National Southland

Renovation Show each day we

will have presenters who are a real life

done several audit projects

of their own um so clive is

obviously about his but I

just wanted to do a little

give a little of their time

to the other two as well

which are going to be

brilliant um so we actually

have um a study which will

be really interesting um so

this is a nineteen sixty

fifties um bungalow which

is quite local to the area

actually as well which has

been retrofitted um so you

all know from previous

episodes that retrofit is

close to my heart yeah

And our new retrofits are

coming later this year,

so we're really excited for that.

But in the meantime,

come and hear Kate talk

about her retrofit project

and what she's done with

that old bungalow that

actually needed a little bit of love.

that introducing a

ventilation as well to offset that.

She's introduced solar panels.

She's actually extended the

first floor a little bit as

well at the same time.

So there's loads of really

good stuff that's gone on there.

And something that's

completely other end of the

spectrum really is a timber

frame self-build that's

been built by Frank

Technology within the

initial framework of a barn.

And you can see some

pictures of both of these

on our website as well.

So it's a barn conversion,

but it's not a barn conversion.

Yeah,

it's this big new timber structure

within that.

And it's these huge wide open spaces.

I love how these shows are

all coming together,

because as soon as you said it,

the talk of our friend Andrew Jones,

the VAT man, where he said,

as long as there's three

sides that still exist,

we can claim the VAT back.

Yep.

I remember I remember I

listened to these it does

it does it does yeah oh

cool so that's that's over

the three days five on the

friday uh the retrofit on

the saturday you're on the

days off my head and then

between the frames yeah

that's it so those are

those are the three case

studies that we'll be

showcasing and yours is in

the frame as well isn't it

yeah completely different

design yeah absolutely so

that's that's really cool

but yeah amongst many many

other talks and seminars

from traders fair dues um

rosie I know we've chatted

about what your

presentation is about but

on a wider scale uh what

else might visitors uh want

to come and support

Yeah, of course.

And we're also going to be

presenting on Witch's new tool.

So it's a home energy

planning service tool.

It's really relevant for

this conversation.

But it's this fantastic, again, free tool.

You don't have to be a Witch

member to use this either.

You can access information

to make your home more

energy efficient and

ultimately help with energy

bills as well.

So depending on what your

ambition is and perhaps

what your home needs,

it will recommend anything from new tech

solar panels or ground

source heat pumps all the

way through to your

classics like insulation or

double doors perhaps but it

will depend what you're

after but I had a play on

it when it was last

launched it was it was

really really great so

we'll be having that at our

stand as well whilst we're

here okay so definitely go

and have a chat with you

guys about that uh as well um

Clive,

I know you're an advocate of

community shows.

I think I've got note that

you came at least in time.

But not just to the shows, to be fair.

I think that was here at least.

And you do recommend going

and attending those, don't you?

Oh, for sure.

Including areas that you

hadn't even thought about

doing and whatever else.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I can remember my school motto.

I've never got close to it

at this stage in life.

I really didn't.

But acknowledge your strengths.

And...

I can absolutely vouch for

the knowledge that I picked

up here and elsewhere was

definitely strength when it

came to doing the self-build.

And to be able to identify problems early,

to be able to discuss them

in a way that your

contractor will understand,

that you understand is

extremely important.

And that included even

seeing the permanent

displays that are here.

Yes, to see something in the flesh,

it's so different.

Well, and feelings.

I mean, we chose our doors from here.

And just literally being

able to physically open a door,

that feels robust.

You can look at the seals and think, yeah,

they're going to work.

When we were wanting to do

this on the show with the roaming camera,

he had two distinct examples

to stand out for me one a

big fan unit and he went

it's silent now the problem

is you can read this stuff

on the website we can even

have it certified by which

and trusted traders that

absolutely but it doesn't

give us the context does it

but we were stood by that

film we were going

We took a risk.

We put the microphone right up to it.

We did.

We did.

It sounded like a helicopter.

We didn't panic at all.

We knew we were going to be safe.

And the other one that we

could have walked through

was the rock wall installation.

A little tunnel you can walk

through where you can hear

the insulation working

because it just deadens the

sound as soon as you walk

through that little tunnel.

We were talking before we

walked in and then into it

and it just went dead.

And of course, us as a production crew,

we were going,

this is what we need to put

in the studio.

That's how deep my voice is now.

Exactly.

Great.

And you've got all of those things there.

I mean, I remember so many things.

and all sorts of other

things that can introduce

literally you need to also

wander with an open mind I

think would you agree with

that sentiment yes yeah

yeah there might be things

here that you think yes for

sure yeah I know that but I

get your point that you can

overload as well good don't

do that why we recommend

coming more than once

exactly but the first thing

is for once you know then

you'll see actually how

much it's going on

She's great.

I like as well I don't know

whether you experienced

this five uh because I

don't really know where it

came about is that you've

got the the the cure is I

say qr code your barcode

and it can include that you

can actually zap it to

receive some information

but don't start hounding me

yes I like them definitely

but you've also got the one

that's just called me yeah

yes yeah I just think

that's a nice nice little

thing in the trade village

that's behind us

given a scanner so you don't

have to walk out with bags

full of stuff you don't

need to take flyers from

which is a sustainability

manager will destroy you if

they're walking out yeah

I'm there with a recycling

bin he's in tears yeah it

really it just kind of puts

it in your hands who do I want

um actually there might be

on some of the stands um

there'll be multiple

barcodes on some of them

saying give me a call about

this send me a brochure

about this and they'll vary

and it really just puts the

decisions in your hands

absolutely now I know I've

touched on it the plan is

as well as everything

that's here the full

schedule of the

presentations of uh you can

have a look at those and

just start to make a plan

which ones you want to go to one to one

down below us here that you

can you can arrange those

just wander around and see

everything now we are also

wandering aren't we yes

this is the main event

right yeah absolutely of

course it is uh we're

wandering I think we're

aiming for four times I

don't know yeah first day

of the show so for anyone

that's here perspective for

anyone that might join us

this is your access point

to come and engage with joe

right so through any of our

social channels wherever

you're watching this video

so whether that's youtube

facebook linkedin

um if I'm lucky enough that

this bit gets a clip you

might be on other channels but yeah um

or any of those social

channels that you can watch

as we're interacting with

our partners and wandering

on the show on the day.

If you're here as a visitor

and you would like to come

and have a chat with us on camera,

we would love that.

And it would be great to

hear how's your day going.

Just bring everybody in.

Exactly.

So no shying away when we

come at your stand, for example,

with the camera and mic.

But, yeah,

I'm hoping that we'll get some

visitors and get, you know,

what they do at home for them.

And I think, you know,

equally for those that still don't know,

should we go with this again?

It would be a nice insight that goes, yes.

Yeah, exactly.

But I think the other thing

you touched on there,

moving on to my broadcast,

but you did touch on the

one-to-ones that are going

to be going on with experts as well.

So there are twenty minute

one-to-ones that you can

book with the majority of

our experts to give presentations.

And there's a whole booking desk.

So that's it, yeah.

So you'll go and see Casey

or Claire on the booking

desk on those days.

You'll see me there on

Saturday and Sunday as well.

But if you want to book anyone with you,

either seen their presentation or not,

but we would usually

recommend go and see the presentation,

then get the personalized

version afterwards.

Go and hear what they have to say,

and then go and say, oh,

here's my project.

Do you need to know who that

one-to-one's going to be,

or is there a list of people?

No, so you can book them on the day.

You can only book them on the day.

They won't be all booked ahead of time.

So arrive early,

and we'll get you booked in.

But whoever's on that

booking desk will help you

kind of schedule around, oh,

I don't want to miss book time.

Yeah.

or any of the schools and

education exhibits as well.

So try and find a gap around

what it is you don't want to miss.

So wherever you've got gaps,

you can try and match those

up with some of those experts.

I suppose you made it

one-to-one competition.

What about your project?

Pressure now on our guest

for the final time, Clive.

Any single piece of advice

you'd give someone coming

to the next week or the next weekend?

When Nick said choose what you want to do,

I can remember there were

so many things I wanted to do.

back into it and bring a notebook.

Yeah.

Plan sounds like a good one

to do from what you said then as well.

Did you tend to get it all

into one day or did you

sort of like come back?

I think I mostly came on the one day.

But it is doable.

It is doable.

But I do remember there was

often conflicts and there was lots of...

Actually, that would be my advice.

If you can study what's on before you come,

that's really handy because

there will be things that

resonate with you.

Yes,

we really want to hear about

mechanical ventilation.

So yes,

if you get to look at the schedule

before you go.

well yeah that's it well

we've got our two different

stages there will sometimes

be uh two different

visitors getting really

into festival stage but um

there will be conflict

between there sometimes if

you have to decide which

one do you want to go to so

that's actually where if

you are to come up multiple days

Not all of them, but some are.

Some will be repeated and

some will have a different,

one of our partners giving

a different presentation.

Again,

you might want to go to each of

those if you want to hear

the different perspectives.

And this is really to both of you.

I get the impression,

and I am going to come to

you for the same question,

but I get the impression it

doesn't matter what stage you're at,

whether you're thinking about it,

whether you're just at the early stages,

Midway through, you mentioned, Clive,

that you did it where you'd

come back during the phases,

different phases of it.

It's worth coming back no

matter what stage you're at.

Absolutely.

Rosie, you say off then,

what's a piece of advice

that you'd give to people coming along?

Absolutely.

That was going to be my number one.

But I also think,

just to follow on from what I was saying,

come with an open mind.

We are going to be helping

educate consumers about how

they can carry out checks for businesses,

even if they don't need to use which.

We understand that.

That's not a problem.

We want to be making the

best decisions out there.

So, yeah,

come with an open mind and maybe

come for shoes as well.

yeah sounds good to me so

friday first of january to

sunday the second of

february uh over the three

days tickets completely

free uh to get in as long

as you book them in advance

shows yep so not event shows

yes that's what's on that's

it sorry yep um and get the

ticket booked for uh and

equally one thing I want to

pick up that was really

useful you mentioned that

you could be here on one of

the days and I said on the

friday of the saturday oh I

need to come back a

saturday but I haven't

pre-booked the classes with

pre-book on that other

second day isn't it yeah

that's it yeah that's it

You can keep them back,

so that's no problem.

I think that's a key one as well to know.

Anything that we haven't

covered on the shows?

Anything that I haven't

asked our lovely guests?

Anything from you guys?

Yeah,

anything that I have that you haven't

added?

I think you did a good job.

Well, there we go.

No, thank you so much for coming on.

Great suggestions, Nick.

I think it was wonderful to

get that personal side of it.

Welcome.

Very much appreciated.

Well, thank you very much for joining us.

And I hope you have a

wonderful time at the show

from the thirty first of

January through to the

second of February.

And I hope you get

everything that you want

when projects start to

continue or finish how you want them to.

But from us here on

Self-Building Renovation Live,

we'll see you again very soon.

Cheers.