Upstairs nearly completed.  Still to do: cladding on the cheeks of the dormer, fascia and guttering, upstairs windowsills, patio, flooring downstairs. 

It was time to think about decoration and we did not want our sustainable journey to stop here. I looked into sustainable paint brands and it seems there are a number of considerations. First of all what ingredients go into the paint? Do they include lots of harmful VOCs? (volatile organic compounds).  Ingredients like vinyl resins, synthetic dyes, petrochemicals derived from oil, acrylics, formaldehyde, and ammonia can contribute to health issues (particularly for anyone who’s already living with asthma or eczema). However, the effects of these ingredients are hotly debated. Some companies claim that as they can be found in natural sources, they aren’t inherently bad, but other companies disagree.  How are they manufactured? What about the packaging? Dulux also had a range of paints that used recycled paints, and even paint that absorbed toxins from the atmosphere (see https://www.airlite.com/en/). Some info here about the sustainability of some major brands: https://www.sustainableki

  Steve from the Green Building Store came along to commission our MVHR system. He said it all looked good and he was happy with the installation we had carried out. Using a anemometer he measured the flow of air from each value and balanced it accordingly. He then talked us through the settings on the MVHR machine (video above). It was important not to set the automatic bypass temperature too low as we could have a situation where the heat is being lost via the summer bypass at the same time as the underfloor heating is on. The bypass temperature is an average over the whole house. We have the underfloor heating thermostats set at 21 degrees C, and the bypass temp at 23 degrees C. We will see how it goes. The bypass doesnt stop until the temperature goes down a whole degree otherwise you would have it opening and closing constantly. The air in the house feels to fresh. We are hopeful that the fresh, filtered air will make life easier for our family members who suffer with asthma. The

 With an upside down house, one thing we needed to solve was sound insulation between the upstairs and downstairs. We didn't want people asleep in bedrooms to be disturbed by anyone upstairs either late at night or early in the morning. We consulted Encon insulation in Newmarket and they put us in touch with a specialist who recommended the Isomass acoustic proofing system whereby the bedroom ceilings are 'decoupled' from the joists above by a series of bars and blocs.  " Isocheck Isoblock & Isobar is a high performing sound reduction system designed to offer a more robust alternative to a standard resilient bar with similar low profile (space saving) features.  The Isocheck Isoblock and Isobar system comprises a vibration absorbing steel channel which is secured to studs and joists with isolation blocks.  Attaching the isolation block to ceiling joists, timber and metal studs simply and easily secures the Isobar furring channel and decouples the gypsum board from