Skipton community gets ‘hands on’ with retrofit
The Skipton community in North Yorkshire enjoyed exploring a newly renovated and retrofitted home, delivered through a Retrofit Empty Homes Action Partnership (REHAP). This work was facilitated by Action on Empty Homes, as Brighid Carey reports.
This three-bed house on the Greatwood and Horseclose estate had been empty for many years and was in very poor condition. There were holes in the roof, collapsed ceilings, rotten floorboards, crumbling plaster and a garden that resembled a jungle. The property itself is a ‘system build’ (Laing Easiform Type II) with the walls made from two thin sheets of precast concrete with a small cavity. This in itself presented challenges we haven’t faced before. However, the idea of the AEH REHAP model is to explore and test ways in which empty homes – which come in all shapes and sizes – can be brought into use as sustainable low-carbon homes, that are affordable both to rent and to keep warm. So, in partnership with North Yorkshire Council, the local community college, Leeds Beckett university, and the construction team, things forged ahead.
The extent of renovation needed allowed the ground floor to be redesigned, improving the ‘flow’ of the house, increasing the size of the kitchen and enabling installation of patio doors into the cleared and landscaped garden. The concrete floor was surface-insulated with thermal boards.
External wall insulation, solar array and heat pump
Sheep’s wool ‘Thermafleece’ insulation was used in the roof space, and the exterior was insulated using a K-rend system. There had been significant thermal bridging above the two external doors at the front of the house. One door was sealed up and the concrete lintels replaced and insulated. All windows and doors were replaced with double glazed UPV units. To enhance air-flow, mechanical air ventilation has been improved.
A new system for energy generation was installed. An air source heat pump was installed at the rear and eight solar panels placed on the roof. Both now feed into battery storage located in a small ‘plant room’ next to the hot water storage tank. The ‘plant room’ is actually a small existing cupboard that would originally have been the coal store.
Sheep’s wool loft insulation