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Green Building Bible, Fourth Edition
Green Building Bible, fourth edition (both books)
These two books are the perfect starting place to help you get to grips with one of the most vitally important aspects of our society - our homes and living environment.

PLEASE NOTE: A download link for Volume 1 will be sent to you by email and Volume 2 will be sent to you by post as a book.

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    • CommentAuthorBluemoon
    • CommentTimeSep 27th 2014
     
    So the politicos, both red and blue, are promising an end to the housing shortage by relaxing the standards, and cramming them onto brownfield sites. Stand by for plagues of identiboxes, commercially built to the lowest standards on the smallest plots. Will there be any plots set aside for self-builders?
    • CommentAuthorTriassic
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2014 edited
     
    Posted By: BluemoonWill there be any plots set aside for self-builders?
    I would say yes, because the next government will want as many houses built as possible, by any means possible.

    Politicians need to stop New housing being 'taxed' to fund new school placed, refurbishment of the village hall, new roads or whatever funding need can be written into a community infrastructure level or S106 agreement.

    When I buy a new car I don't then get a bill for my contribution to repairing local potholes or to pay for a local lollipop person.
    • CommentAuthorTriassic
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2014
     
    I'd be interested to see from the new build statistics who is actually building new houses. When I look round locally it's the national house builders and nobody else. Maybe we need to ask where have all the small building companies gone.
    • CommentAuthormarkocosic
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2014
     
    Yeah you do Triassic: VED, Insurance Premium Tax, and Road Fuel Duty/VAT. You *more than* pay for the potholes and people dressed in yellow to try prevent mothers from mowing down each other's children outside schools. ;-)

    CIL and S106 aren't daft in concept but aren't applied appropriately: Tesco Extra costs far more to service with infrastructure (mostly transport) than a school does (mostly pensions) or Tesco Metro (mostly litter/bins) yet they pay disproportionately less in 'build tax' and 'business rates' than housing does.
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2014 edited
     
    Posted By: TriassicWhen I buy a new car I don't then get a bill for my contribution to repairing local potholes or to pay for a local lollipop person.
    You pay 'Road Tax' which was originally for that purpose, and you pay enormous ongoing fuel duty. It all goes into the general coffer, and the motoring lobby's complaint is that the per-car taxes they pay far exceeds the community's resultant costs. So why shouldn't all new building pay a one-off tax to contribute to its resultant costs?
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2014
     
    If you don't pay directly, then you pay indirectly. Going to cost the same.

    I think the real problem is that an individual does not want to pay for a service they may not need. But, and this is the real point, don't want to build a house that makes a loss.

    So if you by a bit of land for £100k, build a house on it, another £100k and you know the value will be £150k, then your not going to build it, because we are greedy and expect 'hard work' to be rewarded. Ask yourself where that money has gone.
    Now say you do the same and the sale value is £250K (£50k for your trouble), ask yourself where that extra money comes from.

    That plus or minus £50k can be flattened out by taxes, so by mixing CIL, S106, VAT, Community Charge etc, we tend to have a system where things even out to the level of long term inflation, about 4% per annum based on GDP.

    For every winner, there is a looser. In the housing market at the moment the winners are home owners, the losers are the renters. This will change when interest rates rise. So no real long term difference overall.
    Economics is a strange thing and we don't know all the details at the right time, but the trends are there for all to see.:wink:
    • CommentAuthorEd Davies
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2014 edited
     
    Posted By: markocosicYeah you do Triassic: VED, Insurance Premium Tax, and Road Fuel Duty/VAT.
    But those are when you run any car, not when you buy a new one so equivalent to rates, not the various build taxes.
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2014
     
    Makes no difference - it's still per car, just deferred. Community cost is rightly partly scaled (fuel duty) to a car's intensity of use; whereas community costs are v largely at or soon after the outset (infrastructure), barely related to a building's subsequent intensity of use.
    • CommentAuthorEd Davies
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2014
     
    But it's different per (house or car)·year; it creates a slight pressure against replacing houses in the way that vehicle taxes don't with cars. Probably a very small contribution to why we still live in houses built at the same time as and to the same standards as a model T.
  1.  
    Posted By: Ed DaviesBut it's different per (house or car)·year; it creates a slight pressure against replacing houses in the way that vehicle taxes don't with cars. Probably a very small contribution to why we still live in houses built at the same time as and to the same standards as a model T.

    I thought CIL or S106 was only charged against new build, not replacement build. IMO we still live in houses built to the standards as a model T as the forces to make change are too weak
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2014
     
    Cars are multi-prototyped to the max, whereas every building is a first-prototype. It's ironic that the only building industry sector that has any kind of ability to do multi-prototyping, the big housebuilders, is the most conservative, least innovative, most poorly quality-controlled, and quite often generates serious problems that the slightest testing regime would have pre-empted. The only development effort they put in, is in a) cost cutting and b) styling knick-knacks
    • CommentAuthorEd Davies
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2014
     
    Posted By: Peter_in_HungaryI thought CIL or S106 was only charged against new build, not replacement build.
    Maybe, but very little building is actual one-for-one replacement. It does happen, of course, and maybe it should more often.
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2014
     
    Posted By: fostertomwhereas every building is a first-prototype
    Lucky for your trade that.
    Oh a house is on stone, let's redesign it
    On mud, let's redesign it
    Near an old building, let's redesign it
    Or a new one, let's redesign it
    Half the town is new, let's redesign it
    The other half is old, let's redesign it
    Near the sea, let's redesign it
    A river, let's redesign it
    A road, let's redesign it

    What do you lot do at university, you don't learn much about structural engineering, quality control, repeatability, mathematics, physics...

    Why does your industry not get together like the car industry has and agree on common standards and practices. Then you can get on with designing the knick-knacks :bigsmile::bigsmile:
  2.  
    Posted By: SteamyTea
    Posted By: fostertomwhereas every building is a first-prototype
    Lucky for your trade that.
    Oh a house is on stone, let's redesign it
    On mud, let's redesign it
    Near an old building, let's redesign it
    Or a new one, let's redesign it
    Half the town is new, let's redesign it
    The other half is old, let's redesign it
    Near the sea, let's redesign it
    A river, let's redesign it
    A road, let's redesign it

    What do you lot do at university, you don't learn much about structural engineering, quality control, repeatability, mathematics, physics...

    Why does your industry not get together like the car industry has and agree on common standards and practices. Then you can get on with designing the knick-knacks:bigsmile:" alt=":bigsmile:" src="http:///newforum/extensions/Vanillacons/smilies/standard/bigsmile.gif" >:bigsmile:" alt=":bigsmile:" src="http:///newforum/extensions/Vanillacons/smilies/standard/bigsmile.gif" >


    Ouch:shocked:
    • CommentAuthordb8000
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2014 edited
     
    Posted By: fostertomMakes no difference - it's still per car, just deferred. Community cost is rightly partly scaled (fuel duty) to a car's intensity of use; whereas community costs are v largely at or soon after the outset (infrastructure), barely related to a building's subsequent intensity of use.


    Posted By: Triassic
    Posted By: BluemoonWill there be any plots set aside for self-builders?


    When I buy a new car I don't then get a bill for my contribution to repairing local potholes or to pay for a local lollipop person.


    Isn't there still the showroom tax levied only in the first year of a new car and dependent on emissions?
    •  
      CommentAuthorjoe90
    • CommentTimeSep 29th 2014
     
    <blockquote><cite>Posted By: Ed Davies</cite><blockquote><cite>Posted By: Peter_in_Hungary</cite>I thought CIL or S106 was only charged against new build, not replacement build.</blockquote>Maybe, but very little building is actual one-for-one replacement. It does happen, of course, and maybe it should more often.</blockquote>

    I checked with devon council on this one because I want to build next year and they said they are considering charging for replacement builds in 2015!!!!!!!
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeSep 29th 2014 edited
     
    Posted By: SteamyTeaWhy does your industry not get together like the car industry has and agree on common standards and practices. Then you can get on with designing the knick-knacks
    You the customer can always buy a mobile home if a 'wide choice' of standard designs would satisfy you. Or any number of prefab kit houses available. There's no shortage of choice - but you know what the result looks and functions like, whether isolated or in the mass - in fact much like a typical US suburb.

    Actual customers, as distinct from polemic theorisers, are the ones who see multiple reasons why their particular building needs to be just so, relative to its site and relative to their functional (let alone aesthetic) desires. Particularly in UK, where a lot usually has to be fitted into a small site and the 'all around' buffer space required by standalone buildings isn't available.

    If cars were anchored to their site, like buildings, they too would be individually tailored to maximise the benefit and function that the individual, unique site can offer. Only 'trailer trash' would have to put up with standard cars.
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeSep 29th 2014
     
    Let us take phones to start with. You have a choice of 4 OS in them, but only 2 in reality, Android and Apple.
    Apple is the 'style choice' and a closed shop. You get very little choice and even less innovation. They cost £100s.
    Android just about covers the rest, lots of choice on the handsets, costs from a few quid (think mine was less than £100 and included 3000 minutes of call time and 60,000 text, plus 6 mb of data over the year).

    Now let us take cars. Many are built on a common platform. So my model can be a people carrier, a coupé (with or without a roof), a hatchback. Then there is a multitude of choice in the trim levels, engine size and performance, these are the knick-knacks.
    And they could make 2,500/day.
    I also think there are probably more designs and configuration of cars than there are houses in the UK. So no lack of choice there.

    I suspect that you are getting the roles of an Architect and a town planner mixed up here.
    It is very hard (though not impossible) to get 'different' design though the planning process. That is a fundamental problem with planning, not design. Planners will not say what is acceptable, but will refuse on what is not.
    Go to Toronto and see how many different styles of housing there are, was not until the 1980s that they started to put controls in place and things started to conform to a style.
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeSep 29th 2014 edited
     
    I was mainly leaving 'style' out of it
    Posted By: fostertomActual customers ... are the ones who see multiple reasons why their particular building needs to be just so, relative to its site and relative to their functional (let alone aesthetic) desires
    That goes a little deeper than choice between
    Posted By: SteamyTeapeople carrier, a coupé (with or without a roof), a hatchback
    You're promoting Mass Production for the building industry, or rather the current 'Mass Customisation' version of that, in which the Marketing Dept cleverly decides what profitable options you'll be allowed to choose.

    But all that's on the way out; 3D Print-Your-Own is the new flavour, in which 'everyone' is empowered, by techniques evolving or yet to be invented, to decide, without limit, how their 'product' will be, with no cost penalty - 'economies of scale' no longer applying.

    Pre Industrial Revolution, that's how everything was made, and that's what the building industry, and to a lesser extent the clothing industry, has never stopped doing. Manufacturing is at last catching up with the custom-design virtues of the building industry, aka architecture.
    • CommentAuthorbella
    • CommentTimeSep 29th 2014
     
    The London Review of Books (believe it or not) published a very good article of house building and house prices between 1945 and 2010. Worth a read

    I shall attempt to attach the graph - but bear with me if this is a failure.

    In essence, a substantial minority of the population have always depended on "subsidy" in one form or another for finding a home worthy of the name becaude the private sector, ie housebuilding for profit, has never and will never meet the needs of the less well off. As the income gap opens ever wider the group who can afford a home without a "subsidy" will grow smaller and smaller. Having flogged off the family silver for a song it behoves government to SUBSIDIZE house building from taxation
    • CommentAuthorbella
    • CommentTimeSep 29th 2014
     
    sorry jpeg image too big - will try again
    • CommentAuthorGarethC
    • CommentTimeSep 29th 2014
     
    Interesting one this. No time to engage properly now, but here's something of interest.

    In the early 21st century, house prices doubled or more in the US, Spain and the UK (they tripled here).

    In the US and Spain, house-building also roughly doubled, reflecting the great increase in profits to be had from house sales.

    In the UK, at its highest point house building rose by just 25% above it's pre-boom rate DESPITE hugely greater profitability (see results of housebuilders over the period). That pre-boom rate was low historically and well below the rate of household formation. It has fallen sharply, and remains way below the rate of household formation (i.e there is less supply relative to demand every year).

    While our lack of a housing boom meant we didn't suffer the housing glut of the US and Spain, and therefore the greater downswing in house prices, it also meant that the US and Spain now have lots of affordable housing, and we don't. And affordable housing is a good thing.

    Anyway, there's something very different about the supply side of the UK housing market which makes us bad at building enough homes even when market conditions are favourable.
  3.  
    Open BIM is the future and will go long way to advancing effective green building practices.

    we are getting there slowly but until we do, small scale construction will remain the same chaotic system it is.

    I use BIM, am a big fan of it and hope that it will be widely adopted across the industry.

    BIM will also tie in very nicely when 3D printing finally matures and changes our society.
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeSep 29th 2014
     
    What you mean by BIM - not just 3D modeling? And BIM has nothing in particular to say about green or not green, nor about 3D modeling ... has it?
    • CommentAuthorTriassic
    • CommentTimeSep 30th 2014
     
    So if I buy a green car the road tax is zero and I get 100mpg out of it. So I build a green house with low energy requirements I get no incentives for building it.

    So how do we get more homes built.... I know, let's throw away the rule book and build loads of s##t quality homes. Great..
  4.  
    "What you mean by BIM - not just 3D modeling? And BIM has nothing in particular to say about green or not green, nor about 3D modeling ... has it?"


    This article might answer your questions Tom, it gives a good overview of the practical applications of using the BIM appproach. I highly recommend it as a way of managing building projects.



    http://blog.graphisoftus.com/graphisoft/solera-studios-designs-passive-house-dwelling-with-archicad


    "Bitter says he used ArchiCAD to its fullest extent in creating the design for the home, managing the MEP systems and utilizing data from the model for use with PHPP (Passive House Planning Package). Jeff Dinkle, of Eco Custom Homes, was the Passive House Consultant for the project who made sure the design met the stringent performance criteria outlined in PHPP – which Bitter points out, is not a small task when you are dealing with a 30 tab excel spreadsheet of calculations, yet simplified through the use of ArchiCAD.
    “ArchiCAD was a big asset, the advantages of BIM in general is interrelated and reflected throughout the documents. The most obvious benefit was the time savings that all the coordination provided me, I’m able to be fully productive every time I access the model.â€Â
    “Given that it is a south-eastern US climate zone 3A, extremes of temperature and humidity have to be considered.â€Â
    According to Bitter, the project also utilized ArchiCAD to optimize the MEP systems used for the Passive House design. ArchiCAD was used to model the novel conditioned energy recovery ventilator (CERV), by Build Equinox, which enhanced comfort levels even further by providing controls for monitoring of VOC and CO2 levels directly interfaced with the conditioned ventilation air requirements.
    “I created a 3D of the mechanical distribution system to keep tabs on the supply and return of air. ArchiCAD allows me to turn layers on and off – so I was able to see all the duct work snaking through the webs of the trusses. It was a fantastic advantage for all the team members working on the project, in terms of coordination.â€Â
    Bitter says he made full use of BIMx to keep his client informed of changes and options as the design progressed forward. There were many instances during the design process where the BIMx file was exchanged between Bitter and Tucker – as they made decisions about the look of the interior, especially.
    “My client loved being able to walk through the BIMx files. I would send her updates in the way so she could visualize each change we had discussed and really get a feel for what living in the home would be like. Hands down, BIMx is the biggest plus in terms of working with the client.â€Â
    Tucker was able to show the home’s design in BIMx on her iPhone to friends and agrees wholeheartedly, “I cannot see designing a house without BIMx, from the customer’s perspective, and it really does give you the feel of what the house is going to be.â€Â
    Passive House ArchiCADThe client embraced BIMx so well, she was able to take it upon herself to share the model with the contractor she had brought in on the project. Tucker reports that the use of BIMx helped eliminate confusion from the contractors and sub-contractors. Access to BIMx made it possible for her to communicate to the construction team, in Bitter’s stead, the design intent of the project.
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeSep 30th 2014
     
    Did BIM used to be called Lotus Notes?

    'You are all managers now'
  5.  
    BIM is quite hard to explain but yes Its about the management of information.

    Imagine if today, you looked around you and most businesses and offices were not using spreadsheets, word processing software, email, the internet and all the other information processing technology that we take for granted.
    • CommentAuthorTriassic
    • CommentTimeSep 30th 2014
     
    Posted By: bot de pailleOpen BIM is the future and will go long way to advancing effective green building practices.
    So, how much does it cost to buy the package and how long is the training going to take.
    • CommentAuthorGarethC
    • CommentTimeSep 30th 2014
     
    Sorry, realise the threads going in a different direction, but I've a question.

    To what extent is house building (private and commercial) held back by the difficulty and time taken to comply with regulations?

    I'm thinking here of the -unnecessary- (if it is potentially unnecessary) time taken and back and forth to achieve planning permission, building warrants, completion certificates and other regulatory requirements (NOT the extra cost/complexity of building to current regulations).

    If it's significant, what should be done to reduce this burden? i.e. instead of lowering the building regs barrier, how can we accelerate and facilitate housebuilders building to current regs.

    One of the things I'm concerned about is that it's not clear that building control officers and planning departments have any incentive to hurry up. i.e. their number will be set by council budgets, and the number of applications they get through determined by the hours they work in the day, whether there is a huge stack of building applications or very few. i.e. they're a natural brake on building.

    Could you introduce 'payment by volume'? I.e. they are remunerated based on how many successful applications they achieve -compliantly- (big carrot), using sample checking by 'policing' staff to ensure they are not cheating by allowing builders to cut corners (big stick).

    Dunno, I'm rambling, and don't know much about this. The relevant authorities just don't seem very productive to me.
   
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