Self Builder's Guide To Eco Houses

There has never been a better time to self build an eco home. Barely a decade ago, prospective eco house builders would have to make do, adapt and invent to get the most basic products necessary to build a house that could be called environmentally sensitive or sustainable. Today, well, you can't move for eco-products, offers and articles - like this one - on the subject.

By Gordon Miller

Previously, eco-self builders (although few of the pioneers would ever have called themselves by the name) would have to jump through hoops to be permitted to build with any material other than conventional ones. Rammed earth? You must be mad! Straw? Forget about it!

How Easy Is It To Eco Build?

Matters are a little better these days - although not for everyone. Brian Waite, who lives in the Cumbrian countryside, 'next door to a dairy farm, so my neighbours are two acres of tin sheds, a one million litre slurry tank and two 10 metre high silos' was initially refused permission to build a zero-carbon home, constructed using straw bales - because, the planners said, they are an 'alien' material. Fortunately, on appeal the planners saw reason.

Straw bales, as Grand Designs' viewers will know, are an excellent construction material. They have high thermal values, no embodied CO2, can be shaped and are a plentiful and cheap building product. They have yet to catch on in a commercial way with UK house builders - and are unlikely to do so - but like rammed earth it offers an alternative to conventional brick and concrete construction.

Are Eco Homes Durable?

One man who knows all about self building an eco house with straw is Rob Gulley of RJ Gulley Builders. The company specialises in unusual building projects such as barn conversions and Rob has built one eco home - a traditionally jointed timber frame and straw bales home - that earned him the title of Federation of Master Builders' Builder of the year for Energy Efficiency 2007.

Gulley says, 'The main reason people first start looking at building an eco home is to reduce the negative effect they may have on the environment through the home they live in. There are, however, more benefits to eco homes that at first people may not be aware of - for example the durability of the materials. There are eco houses in America that were built in the 1900s that are still standing and being lived in.'

'The eco home that I built will definitely see me into the grave! The durability of natural products is amazing. As long as the materials do not suffer damp or any animal infestations then the durability should be as good as conventional materials - if not better.'