Supporting Environmental Buildings

As well as promoting a sustainable approach to our own activities, we are also aware of the importance of sustainability and environment amongst both contractors and self builders. Self Builders can count on the Tudor Griffiths Group to help them with their lifetime dream of constructing their new home whilst embracing environmental friendly values.

Making your self-build home environmentally friendly is about more than just protecting the planet – it is an approach that can help to prolong the life of your home and reduce the need for any major building works in the future.

With an increasing number of incentives to support sustainable building, there has never been a better time to go green.

Why should you want to become involved with becoming environmentally friendly in the first place?

• Energy prices appear to be rising every week
• Gas like coal is a finite resource and will eventually run out
• Legislation will make it hard for you to sell your home in future unless you have complied
• Make your home unique to increase its value in the future

The Tudor Griffiths Group wants to help self builders, and their builders, to comply with the Code for Sustainable Homes (CFSH), an important part of the Government’s response to the ever encroaching environmental threat. The CFSH lays down a national standard for sustainable design and construction of new homes.

How could this affect your home?

• Envelope of the building
• Orientation of the building
• Products which optimise performance:
  • In use
  • In controlling use

Use less energy in your home and reduce your bills – try lower energy lighting, turning electrical appliances off instead of leaving them on stand-by, use thermostatic controls on your heating systems and many more solutions.

Local renewables:

• Solar thermal
• Heat pumps
• Biomass
• CHP
• Green Tariffs
• District Heat & Power
• Large Scale

The choice of sustainable materials available is expansive from timber frames to lime renders, hemp walls to recycled glass floors. It is important to understand what characteristics make products sustainable, so you can be assured that your project is really making a difference.

• Low embodied energy
• High recycled content – the product you are using originally began life as something else – your aggregates used on your new driveway could have been reclaimed from a building site where they were once an old house which has now been demolished
• Durable in application
• Maximise use of local natural resources
• Easy to maintain