Hill End Ecohouse

Christmas Eve Eve

2009-12-23T12:38:00.008+11:00

Everything is looking sparkly and almost nearly finished. Timber floors are being polished today and the concrete floors were revealed from under their protective plastic sheeting - beautiful and cooling on a hot summer's morning.

The building team has been working flat out and will continue until the end of today when they collapse in a big heap.
Living RoomKitchen - not yet finished! Clear and stained hoop pine solid ply joinery with reconstituted stone benchtops.Sunny central courtyard. There will be grass between the pavers to filter rainwater into the tank below.All limewash rendering is now finished to the blockwork.
Blackbutt stairs on painted steel stringers are now almost complete - just waiting for the decorative screen and handrail.

At the 11th hour

2009-12-21T11:53:00.009+11:00

Although the whole house and landscaping won't be complete for Christmas as hoped, the inside should be sufficiently there to appreciate how the finished house will look. Here are photos from this morning - 2 days before the team has a rest after working 6 day weeks.
All concrete polishing is now complete. Entry pavers and slab show the difference between the internal concrete (and pavers, below architect's feet) and standard Portland cement with bluestone and hand-scattered coloured aggregate.
Stairs are going in today - no more ladders and steps made of salvaged ply and timber.
The floor and wall tiles (recycled content, glass and glazed porcelain) are complete.

Nearly there!

2009-12-17T16:40:00.007+11:00

Narrow chamferboards salvaged from the previous house have new life as fence palings.
Daniel, fitting the translucent roof over the Plant Room
The Entry has a outer, battened enclosure to allow for secure airflow through the house from or to the north.

Solar power and other trimmings

2009-12-07T16:39:00.006+11:00

The 3.2kW bank of photovoltaics is now on the roof and supplying power to the construction team during the day. This will provide all of the household energy needs and hopefully a surplus to sell back to the grid.Rainwater tanks have some water in them and a few of the stormwater gullies take the diverted, not-quite-warm-enough hot water back to the rainwater tanks for reuse (see the small black pipe behind the downpipe).
Ceiling fans are now installed and some of the compact fluorescent recessed downlights.Doors in solid hoop pine have been hung.

Grinding

2009-11-16T11:28:00.012+11:00

The first pass of concrete grinding is underway, with the floors and sitting ledges transformed with the white aggregate (chosen to improve light reflection) exposed. The stair screen in the Entry and Gallery is now being lined with the original house hoop pine flooring and small bands of hardwood.
Some splashes of colour...

Screens and joinery

2009-11-12T18:18:00.011+11:00

The locally produced planatation hoop pine doors and windows to the exterior have now been hung, giving a better sense of the spaces.
The Entry area is almost complete with recycled hoop pine flooring to the ceiling, sustainably source ironbark batten screen to the garage and soft finish of the natural limewash render to the blockwork.

2009-11-05T12:13:00.008+11:00

Limewash paint to blockwork is now finished.
Fences are almost complete, all constructed from parts of the original house. The rear, west boundary uses the hardwood t&g flooring from a more recent addition and the courtyard screen featuring the original verandah posts is now complete. The front feature fence will reuse the narrow chamferboard cladding.

Hardwood flooring before...
After...
Hardwood verandah posts before...After...
Chamferboards before...Stay tuned for next week's entry for "after"

A splash of colour

2009-11-02T12:59:00.009+11:00

Cheerful, singing Rudy and his team of painters is now adding colour to the interiors.

Blockwork internally will receive a final coat or three of natural limewash paint. The lower floor is now complete but the main floor is next.

The soffit lining to the entry is a combination of the original home's hoop pine flooring and black-stained hardwood.

Rains and tanks

2009-10-27T12:05:00.011+11:00

Photos above by Marcelo

A fantastic storm last night started to fill the two 23,000L rainwater tanks beneath the front yard.. and the surrounding soil.

The builder's concern with the tanks is their risk of "floating" when surrounding soil gets water-logged and the tank water volume is insufficient to counteract the pressure, pushing the tanks upward. The ideal topping currently nominated is a recycled plastic grid holding finely crushed recycled brick and concrete gravel, allowing water to permeate the soil around the tanks and into the water table. The current recommendation from the builder and tank installer is to weigh the tanks down with a concrete driveway.

Limewash painting is almost complete and the VOC-free Queensland-made paint is brightening up the interior.
The timber screen to the courtyard, which will give privacy on both sides of the fence, will be constructed of timber from the original house. Recycled timber decking palings will be fixed to the hardwood rails, on the taper-chamfered posts. The recycled laminated beam supports to the River Terrace roof have been stained, oiled and meticulously flashed to protect them from the elements.

Big hole

2009-10-13T16:18:00.005+11:00

The last two tanks (47,000L) will be lowered into place tomorrow in the front of the house. This will make the total rainwater storage capacity to around 60,000L - sufficient to run the house and garden.
The last wall to be rendered is now complete and the natural limewash finish is underway externally. This wall will receive a natural clay and plant fibre render finish.

Latest progress

2009-10-10T10:44:00.000+11:00

Wall linings are almost complete using the high-recycled content "plasterboard" and recycled vj linings from the old house. Balconies are being lined beneath to provide weather protection to the spaces below. The front trellis is underway to the balcony - constructed from reycled hardwood, with deciduous vines to be grown over to extend shade in summer time.

2009-09-21T14:55:00.009+10:00

Most of the external painting, with the exception of the blockwork is painted in VOC-free paint by the cheerful, singing painters. Lightweight cladding is in two tones of soft green, broken by bands of galvanised flashing.

One of the pavers cast with the flooring concrete has been polished to give an idea of the finish to internal floors. External surfaces will have less polish for safety reasons, particularly around the pool. Internal vj linings from the original house are now complete. These will be painted over for a more consistent look but it is hoped that a feature section in the Living Room will be retained with a clear seal as a historical reference to the old home.

Scaffolding down and student tour

2009-09-16T12:18:00.021+10:00

Scaffolding has come down on the outside of the building, revealing more of the building with its fresh coat of VOC-free paint, manufactured in southeast Queensland.

The large cantilevered pelmet for the sunshading venetian blind is constructed from the same laminated hardwood beams as the floor joists in the house. In their former life, they supported the weightlifting floor at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane in 1982.

Three groups of UQ students visited the site in the afternoon to learn about sustainable construction. This is a good warm up to many future tours of the building and gardens.

The days are nearing the Spring Equinox (22nd September this year), the date when roof and awning overhangs are designed to start cutting out the direct, warmer sun. With only a week to go, this is clearly evident in the photo below (taken at noon) on the northern balcony to the street. A dediduous, leafy trellis will extend shade out over the balcony for summer time living.

Glass and stainless balustrades have now gone in to the rear. A little prematurely but will provide better safety for workers on site.

Carpenter Damian Stapleton, very happy to be working on the job!
Formwork removed from cast concrete garden seat, render to block base and recycled timber post from original home.

More recycled trees

2009-09-01T15:37:00.007+10:00

Ceiling lining continues in the front bedrooms, using the vj boards from the old house and other salvaging sources.

Blockwork internally and externally will be rendered and finished in a natural lime paint.

Photos by Marcelo Garcia

August update

2009-08-31T11:53:00.016+10:00

I've returned from 3 months' leave visiting inspiring and thought-provoking building projects in Canada and the US, under pedal power (www.esdcycle.blogspot.com). Work on the Hill End Ecohouse has progressed dramatically under an increasing team of people, with spaces taking shape and all window joinery in (local plantation hoop pine and hardwood).
Cladding is almost complete - a combination of recycled hardwood weatherboards and FC custom weather boards. The fins to the rear balconies have been clad in the offcuts of the balcony decking hardwood and clear-finished.

The ventilated skin of cladding to the western wall is now complete. Cladding is packed out from the main studs and insulated sisalation, with bird mesh at the top and bottom. You can see the airspace beneath the mini orb soffit, below.

Cladding!

2009-07-08T16:45:00.001+10:00

Cladding is starting to go up around the house. Recycled weatherboards used for the majority of the lightweight cladding, with FC sheeting used in selected areas for visual contrast.

Awnings are going in also, a unique slimline detail carefully designed to maximise the winter sun & eliminate summer sun in all cases.

Mitred corners to the street facade have a more striking affect from the street and are worth the extra labour to construct them.

The cantilevered beam is in place for the retractable screen to the river terrace which, when in place, will add to the flexibility of the space, allowing direct solar gain deep into the building during winter and eliminating it in summer.

Roof!

2009-06-23T14:15:00.008+10:00

Finally another post, after an extended transition period between authors. My apologies. The roof is now on, spirits are high, and the spaces internally are really starting to take shape.

The gallery space, with roof sheeting on. Once lined, this space will connect the two halves of the house and draw ventilation through the house through the louvre windows on the right hand side.

View looking north at from the ensuite. The galvanised roof is a traditional sturdy option, with high reflectivity. And it simply looks great.

Traditional ceremony to celebrate the roof going on, a branch is placed at the highest point and a drop of beer is poured down it!

All rainwater products are of gal. The ends of the corrugated sheets are open at the top and the bottom, alowing the cavity between the rafters to ventilate and reduce heat gain internally.

Miniorb soffits look fantastic.

The zig-zagging roof profile from afar.

After the rain

2009-05-26T09:33:00.012+10:00

Brisbane received 1/3 of its annual rainfall last week, which clashed with the planned installation of the roof sheeting.

Plumbing and electrical have gone in, however, with copper piping for internal water supply. The alternative was recycled poly pipe but copper prices had dropped since the start of the project and is 60% recycled, with a long life-span.

Site foreman, Oliver, has been fabricating the sunshading awning frames on site. These awnings, to all windows without adequate roof protection or needing extra shading, will be topped with painted compressed fibre cement sheeting.
The base of the steel stand for the greywater treatment tanks was cut out of the centre of a diamond-tipped saw blade.

2009-05-14T11:16:00.009+10:00

Concrete, pre-mixed, comes in fairly large minimum quantities. As the pool edge coping only needs a little, all of the landscaping pavers will be created by the Builder. Also, by reworking ground levels around the Pool Terrace, we have been able to delete almost 7 metres of balustrades and a stair (lots of materials and embodied energy), replacing it with two insitu concrete steps to the side garden, using more of the concrete load.

Colours are being tested out with VOC-free paints and renders.

2009-05-05T11:16:00.020+10:00

Fin walls to the west will provide sheltered glimpses to the river, scoop in river-cooled breezes and provide spaces for sitting or displaying objects or artwork. Framed sturdily in pine from the old house and braced with masonite, the carpenters removed a significant amount of steel (and embodied energy) originally engineered for the walls.

Hardwood decks are now finished and sealed.

Scaffolding

2009-04-21T11:38:00.009+10:00

Scaffolding is going up to help
with the roof finishing and cladding. The pressure is on to finalise colours!

Ironbark decking is being laid to the rear, fixed with stainless steel nails (pre-drilled) which will fit neatly within the galvanised channel structural border. This new timber (and the roof batten material) comes from managed Australian forests who meet required standards of sustainable practice.

Ready for roofing

2009-04-09T15:42:00.009+10:00

All framing for roofs is up and fascias are going on. The builder's suggested a layering of treated pine fascias to protect the end grains of the very deep fascias will work well and create an interesting stepping edge detail, starting with the oversized galvanised steel gutters.

2009-03-31T18:09:00.012+11:00

Having the rafters in place gives a clearer idea of the expanse of rainwater collection area to fill the 70,000L of underground water storage.
Rafters were lifted into place by hand rather than with a crane truck, resulting in both financial and environmental savings and a great team-building exercise.

Masonite bracing was used in preference to plywood as it is thinner and is composed of sawmill waste material. Most bracing plys used in Australia are 4mm, made from Asian rainforest timbers. Australian-timber bracing ply is much thicker (starting at 7mm).

Bracing up and roof framing going on

2009-03-26T16:25:00.013+11:00

The great purchase of recycled laminated hardwood beams continues to supply materials. Lengths have been lifted into place on the front roof for rafters. Due to their random, rustic nature, the soffits and eaves will be lined to give a cleaner finish, in keeping with the design (and to simplify long-term maintenance).

Masonite bracing gives more of a sense of the volumes of the spaces and with the s00n-to-be-installed roof, will give a better impression of the overall form.

Bluestone walls to the boundaries and front garden bed are now complete.

2009-03-16T12:06:00.012+11:00

The tall gallery space, which will act as the lungs of the building, is taking shape.

Now that all the floor framing is in, the remaining recycled, laminated hardwood is being used as lintels to the wide door and window openings.