The two local seminars that we have held have been a great success. It was a really good chance to meet more of the smaller, local architects who it has not been practical to visit but who are still just as keen to go green and the response has been fantastic.
The first of the seminars consist of a talk about Lime and Earth, their uses and why they should be used more and an overview of Thermafleece insulation and also the Thermoplan blocks from NBT. The second session is all about Hemcrete with a video at the end of it showing how and where it has been used etc.
We have seen over 30 different practices in the two seminars and are looking to hold another two in the Autumn for other practices that were not able to attend or for other architects from practices we have seen that haven’t attended our sessions. The recent publicity on the Grand Designs shows and all of the promotion we have been doing has increased the attention focussed on Hemcrete and increased the number of enquiries we are receiving.
The recent huge hike in oil prices has made life rather uncomfortable for most people and although financially painful it has made us all think about how to use less fuel, both in our vehicles and our homes. Unfortunately it takes this sort of pinch to wake us all up and realise that we need to change the way we use energy, the way we build and the way we all move about our little planet. A recent report in the NewScientist suggested that for every dollar rise in petrol prices in the US, sales of SUV’s decreased by 25%, so much so that General Motors has said that they will soon discontinue production of these vehicles, we can only hope that others will follow!! Who says expensive oil is a bad thing!!
The other upside to high oil prices are that investment and research into alternative technologies also increases. The cost of oil based products or products reliant on cheap energy also increases such that products such as Hemcrete become even more cost effective and therefore attractive, really kick-starting large scale sustainable construction. This move toward alternative technologies will only do us good!!
The Homes for Good exhibition, at the Bath & West showground, was great for us. We saw around 250 people over the two days, which may not sound that many but we were all talked out with sore feet by the end of it. Our practical demonstration of how easy it is to build with Hemcrete and the earth plaster demo were a real help as it showed people that all of our materials really are just as easy to use as other mainstream materials, if not easier. All of the mess and noise that we made were also quite a draw……or maybe irritation if you were another exhibitor!!!
We shall also be exhibiting at the Bath & West Show this year, running from the 28th to the 31st of May, as part of the ECOS Trust stand. They are exhibiting a timber framed building with various different sustainable systems making up the walls, one of which will be Hemcrete. So if you want to be able to ride some fairground rides and learn about sustainable construction, this is the show to come to!!!!!!!??????
The fruits of our promo drive over the last 10 months are finally coming to bear. We have now quoted to supply or install for 16 Hemcrete houses, with another 3 or 4 projects in the pipeline and are now making some good sales. Its a modest but reassuring response from the many architects and developers that we’ve seen. With the incredible interest that the manufacturers have received in the last year or so this figure is set to rise hugely.
This year we have set a couple of dates for seminars for people to come to, which is designed to be a format that small practices or individuals can come to and see the materials and discuss any queries they have with them. We have two events booked in so far, one just outside Crediton at the Waie Inn on the 14th of May and another at the Genesis Project in Taunton on the 3rd of june, which will be easier for those coming from Bristol and Bath. The events are open to anyone who wishes to come along and learn more about our range of materials, the benefits they give and how to use them. Just call us on 01363 866999 to book a place.
A slightly grand title but it catches your attention!! Ecobuild was a vast improvement this year, the stands were better quality, more varied and were generally ‘eco’ too. This year incorporated Earls Court 1 and 2 and had several hundred exhibitors and had lots of small companies with really innovative products which made a nice change from last year and has given us some new products to add to our range. We hope to be adding some clay based plasters, an insulation made from recycled water bottles and one or two other products to the list.
Tradical Hemcrete has just had it’s LABC approval which is great news. This means that not only will the material pass building control without question but you can also insure projects through the LABC insurance scheme as well as Zurich. This will be a welcome relief to those whose projects are underway or nearing commencement as there were some queries from building control due to their lack of understanding of the material.
We have also had some news from the manufacturers of the Naterra blocks, they are producing a block which will be moisture resistant. This will combine the obvious benefits of using recycled materials with the thermal mass of earth but also the ability to be used for external blockwork. The block is being tested by Hanson (who seem to have taken over everything in the last year) and will be available later on this year. We have a case study which will be posted on the website soon and shows how well the internal block system works.
Finally we have our rainwater harvesting system set up now and will be launching our new ‘rainmortar’ range of lime putty based mortars and plasters. Given that our roof should shed 250,000 litres of water each year this system will save us a fortune in water rates, not to mention make the mortars even ‘greener’. We wear our green halos with pride!!
P.S. We will be at the Homes For Good exhibition at the Bath & West showground at the end of the month, come on down!!
Apologies to anyone who was actually waiting for us to write another blog, despite having a fairly quiet time just after Christmas we seem to have been playing catch-up with everything not finished last year and unfortunately the blog was left out in the cold.
It has been a fairly steady start to the year with both the construction and products sides being fairly quiet. However now we have reached the end of February everything has picked up rather dramatically and we are wondering why we didn’t relax and enjoy the quiet time.
It’s time for Ecobuild - Hoorah! We are looking forward to some really exciting products on the stands this year. The organisers have actually dragged in some real eco companies and products this time as last year consisted of around five really novel products with the rest of the stands being occupied by architects, ground source heat pump manufacturers and solar panel manufacturers, oh and loads of concrete!!??.
AbeySmallcombe will be on the Natural Materials Live stand and will be demonstrating cob building, various natural construction materials (of which some are ours!) and will be giving people ideas on how to green themselves. There will be a Tradical Hemcrete stand from Lhoist, Lime Technology and Hemcore and Akristos, the manufacturers of our clay-plasterboard blocks will also be there. The exhibitors list is pretty extensive so I should allow plenty of time to walk around if you are going, there should be some really interesting things to see.
We won’t be exhibiting at Ecobuild but I shall be giving a talk in the Accoya Theatre on Earth construction at 11.50 on the Tuesday, all hecklers welcome. Our first show of the year is the Homes For Good exhibition at the Bath & West showground (see http://www.ecostrust.org.uk/h4g/) at which we shall be exhibiting and speaking.
We look forward to seeing you at one or the other!!
I could get morbid and say ‘Ah, the end of another year, where did it go, they go so quickly these days, what have we done with this year’. However, we’ve had a fantastic year, we’ve reached out to 85 different architectural practices in the South West in the last 6 months and we have somewhere between 10 and 15 projects in the pipeline for next year. We know exactly what we’ve done this year, we have the bags beneath our eyes and the mileage on our cars to show for it (using biodiesel of course!!)
Next year, calamitous recession withstanding, in the South West we shall see the first truly sustainable mainstream houses being built using some of the wonderful materials that we have brought together. We have been absolutely bowled over by the interest we are receiving.
Christmas will be a good chance for us to rest and recuperate after a very busy year, it’ll give us a chance to plan how we move forward next year. We try to get information out to as many people as possible who we think it will be of interest to, however, if you have any ideas which may help please let us know!!
We wish you all a Happy Christmas and New Year. Thank you for reading this blog, as a couple of thousand of you do each month, it’s wonderful to know you’re interested.
Now put your feet up and get ready for the Towering Inferno or The Great Escape!!
We have come to the rather sad decision that we have to sell our first demonstration building. It has proved too large and costly to keep moving from show to show and is too heavy to fit on the trailer we have. Anyone looking for a 2.3m square garden office? It’ll be nice and warm!!! If you’d like more info please call or email us.
In Swindon on the 15th, 16th and 17th of November we attended the Big Green Home Show at the National Self Build and Renovation Centre. It was great for us as we met around 150 people over the 3 days we were there, most of whom were serious self builders or developers. The interest in our product range was huge, mostly in the Hemcrete and the Thermoplan blocks. We even managed to get Dick Strawbridge interested in it all and he’ll hopefully be incorporating some of them into his shows.
Whilst at the show we made contact with the makers of Thermafleece and will also be shortly incorporating this product into our range. We are slowly building up a good portfolio of products which we feel are extremely good alternatives to the conventional norm and combine ease of use with fantastic environmental credentials.
On a final note, did everyone hear about the latest IPCC report, see our resources page for a link. Even the USA are finally admitting that climate change is happening. The outlook is potentially worrying and yet it is still business as usual for most people. We need to start addressing our own actions and their consequences and not wait for the government to start legislating. Time is running out!!
We will shortly be supplying several new products which we think are fantastic enough to adorn our website, ho ho. The first is the NBT Thermoplan fired clay block, it is a brilliant highly insulated block that can be used for solid walling to give extremely good levels of insulation and thermal mass.
It is, like Hemcrete, very simple to construct with and easy to get good results with. We think it’d be great for use at the bottom of a Hemcrete wall to give a robust, well insulated base to the wall. It can of course be used to build the whole wall but being fired and coming from Germany, it has moderately high embodied energy and doesn’t lock up CO2.
Next we have the aforementioned Hemp Wool insulation, which will be in 100mm thick sheets, the perfect alternative to mineral wool, same insulation values as well. Great for eco-friendly installations and carbon capture, especially good for those who install it as it doesn’t irritate the skin!!
We also have two types of Hemp blocks for sale. One is structural, 3.3N compressive strength and carbon neutral, the other is a non-structural insulating block. These blocks have a thermal conductivity of 0.11 W/mK and lock up 1.65kg of CO2 per block. Unfortunately you have to use a mortar to lay them so this will reduce the carbon capture per block but still better than an aerated concrete block.
We are about to start our next Hemcrete project which is an extension to a house in Oxfordshire which I hope to be adorning various newspapers and magazines in the not too distant future. We have also started another project recently in which we are using Hemcrete to replace collapsed cob walls in an old barn which we may be able to get on to the local TV with a bit of persuasion………….Keep your eyes open!!
‘The Back to Earth Roadshow’ is the rather grandiose name we have given our rolling program of CPD presentations, we have presented to 21 practices so far with another 40 or so booked in up to Christmas. I suspect that Christmas may be time for a rest as most people will probably thinking about Christmas cheer and holly rather than Hemcrete.
We are still getting an overwhelmingly positive response from everyone we speak and present to, from small, local practices up to international companies. We are able to show them that the cost, which is still the highest priority, is within the same range as those for conventional materials but there is still some resistance to change. However, the green centre of the world, Totnes, seems to be embracing it and we are talking directly to clients about using Hemcrete in their new projects already.
We are still making progress with new products and hope to be stocking the hemp wool insulation in October along with a very innovative insulated clay block that can help drastically reduce heat losses through floors and foundations. Our main focus is still on sustainable masonry but when we see other innovative products we will try to bring them on board too.
From the PR that we’ve been doing, we have now got several Hemcrete projects lined up for our construction team. The largest is a barn conversion which will have Hemcrete in the roof and Hemcoat hemp plaster walls. The roof has an area of 400 square meters with a wall area of 320 square meters, this will lock up a total of 19.6 tonnes of CO2.
We now have the first of our rather bright delivery vans with hemp leaves all over it, keep your eye out, you probably won’t miss it!!
Hoorah for the sun! Finally we have had more than 10 minutes without a shower and the lime mortars are moving once again. The rain had considerably hampered our normal sales of the traditional products (although kept the water tanks nice and full) but now the sun is shining and the mortar is flowing.
In my last post I mentioned the NBT thermoplan blocks and how we might start selling them. We have since found other suppliers of similar products so may be able to offer these instead at a better price in the near future. These blocks compliment the range very well and are able to be used underground where none of our other products can be.
We are looking also at stocking more hemp products such as hemp insulation batts (similar to fibre glass but better!!) as we’re really sold on it as a building material. We have also got details from Hemcore about becoming a hemp grower. It is an extremely good crop for farmers as it grows to full height in about 3 months and is then harvested with good financial returns. It can increase the yields of subsequent crops by up to 30% because it’s deep roots draw up minerals from deep in the soil that other crops don’t usually reach. They are looking for around 10,000 acres more to be grown next year than this to keep up with the demand for these products, please contact us if you’re interested.
Finally, our new delivery van with it’s very distinctive livery is on it’s way and should be with us at the beginning of September, you’ll definitely know its us!!
We have now started our project to publicise the product range we are selling. Our new sales manager David Lacey has been contacting hundreds of architects and the Building and Planning Control departments of local authorities in the South West, sending out details of the products.
We are also offering those we’ve contacted the chance to receive a short CPD seminar. This is a detailed look at how the products are used, technical details, case studies and the many environmental benefits of their use.
We have had an overwhelmingly positive response and are presenting to architectural practices from Plymouth up to Bristol and Bath. For the larger events we shall be taking our demonstration building along so people can really see how the materials are used.
We have a new product that will hopefully be added to our product range soon, it is the NBT Thermoplan block. Currently made in Germany, it is a high performance thermal block which we feel could be used for low level masonry in conjunction with Hemcrete or other walling systems. Watch this space!!
The final piece of news is that in the next few months we shall be buying a fleet of pan mixers (exciting eh!!!). These are to compliment the Hemcrete in that you cannot economically use a drum mixer to mix it. These mixers can mix 800 litres at a time and will output 2400 litres per hour quite happily. They are designed to go on either the back of a tractor or on a telescopic handler allowing them to be moved around very easily. For more details on how to use them contact us via phone or email.