HIGH POINT


“When I showed my wife around at the end – she hadn’t seen it in a long time and she just loved it. That was kind of like self- affirmation. For someone to come in with a fresh eye and say it’s good – you just get a warm fuzzy feeling like ‘I‘ve done something really cool here.’”


make a few changes here, I’ll be happy with it.’”


FIRE With plans finally approved and demolition about to start, yet another challenge confronted the pair. Rik received an agitated midnight phone call


from the neighbours, who yelled “your house is on fire!” The Victorian cottage was somehow ablaze and the flames had spread to the neighbours’ site and damaged their shed. Thankfully, no-one was hurt. At this point, Rik couldn’t help but feel that


the project may be jinxed. Fortunately however, as the structure was being knocked down anyway, the damage they would need to cover was minimal. “We got a small claim, but nothing like the value of the house, and rightly so,” explains Rik. How the fire started remains a mystery. At first it was thought to be arson, with various cases of arson having occurred nearby. A second theory was “a freak accident,” says Rik. There’s a small potting shed next to the cottage, and the Fire Service suggested that with it being a particularly hot summer compost could have self-ignited. Richard is sceptical about this idea however.


Another positive outcome was that the team managed to salvage all the bricks from the cottage and sell them to a local merchant. “Where we could, we reused and recycled any materials that were on site,” explains Rik.


issue 02 2021


“It feels like you’re in the middle of the countryside but you’re actually two minutes from the A3”


CONSTRUCTION After overcoming all the challenges, the build finally got underway in April 2018. The project’s construction is unusual, with its envelope being built using ICF. Classed as a ‘modern method of construction,’ hollow expanded polystyrene (EPS) blocks are stacked on site, and reinforced with steel beams that lock them into position. Concrete is then poured into the structure, creating walls that provide high thermal performance. Thermohouse UK was selected as ICF supplier and installer, as Rik says that he “just couldn’t fault the product.” Due to the “one-stop shop” nature of the method, it wasn’t long after they arrived on site that the shell was complete, taking only eight weeks. “All we had to do was pop in the windows and get the roof up.”


www.sbhonline.co.uk 59


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