We couldn’t have done it without:
- Bill Cave, Mick Ridley, Matthew Bailey and particularly our site manager Del Brown, all from our main building contractors Speller Metcalfe
- A brilliant site team led by Dell, but including Gary, John, Matthew, Kerry, Kurt, Stuart & plastering team, Dave the painter many others
- Eddie at Gallande Joinery who made our stairs so beautifully
- Matthew Hill at Leeds Environmental Design Associates, engineer
- Richard Hartshorne at Shire Consulting, structural engineer
- James Bunyan, our ecologist from Worcestershire Wildlife Consultancy
- Zoe Langfield and Patricia Gomez from Birmingham City Planning
- The Ecology Building Society (1.25% mortgage discount for Code 6 homes!)
- David Cotton, West Midlands Police, Secured by Design advice
- Niall Crosson and Penny Randell of Ecological Building Systems for advice and supply of airtight membranes
- Ed Hill, Building Control officer
- Jasper and his team from Wales who installed the Warmcel insulation
- Roy Stephenson from Vitral who produced two of our four rooflights
- DJE Electrical Contractors, especially Simon, Craig and Nigel
- RHF Mechanical and Electrical engineers, especially Dave and Rick
- Greenshop Solar Ltd, led by Roger Budgeon with Eddie, Ollie and Paul
- Gary Williams from Williams Ironmongery
- Chris Duggan who built our website, and explained how Twitter works
- John Newson, Balsall Heath is Our Planet
- Serena, Noreen, Sue Skillet, Tindal School and all our neighbours who patiently put up with the building site (albeit a “considerate constructors” one!)
- Old Home Super Home network, run by the Sustainable Energy Academy
- Energy Saving Trust, helping with staff on our open days
- Association for Environmentally Conscious Building
- Support and encouragement from all our friends, families and colleagues
You might also be interested in:
At the Northfield Ecocentre we offer free advice by city and guild trained advisors, in our plan to reduce Northfield’s carbon footprint. We can see how much energy you’re using, how you can save and which energy saving features/installation would suit you best. We then put you through to the people who can install and get you the features you need . If you would like this free service either pop into the Northfield Ecocentre which is located at 53 Church Road, Northfield , B31 2LB. Make a phone call on 0121 448 0119 . Or contact us via email at enquiries@northfieldecocentre.org.
Hi John
Many thanks for the open day – it has certainly inspired us to look again at what we should be doing to our (slightly unusual) 1930s/1980s house to improve its energy performance (and maybe improve other aspects/give us more space).
One thing that I might have asked at the end of your talk yesterday (but didn’t) is what the best way to start this process is – I’d like someone to be able to tell me more than just “pile in more loft insulation” – someone who can tell me whether the solid brick wall that is part-inside/part-outside the house is an issue; whether the existing large windows at the front should be replaced (and if so what with!) and so on – but not with a vested interest in selling me product X or a purely box-ticking exercise…
How might someone go about finding that kind of consultant? Is someone in your list here a good starting point?
Many thanks again
John (& Karen)