| 109 T T Russell Fredric The Passive approach The sweeping panorama was a key consideration in its design which includes full height windows in the northwest facing living area. David Pope Builder BUILDING Gore Builder David Pope is unashamedly traditional in his approach to his craft, but is enthusiastically embracing the rising tide of passive house construction principles. His business, David Pope Builder Ltd employs two builders and focuses on residential and light commercial work. The business is moving into 2024 on the back of a very busy 2023 with David enjoying the personal challenge of currently building his own certified passive house while prioritising work for his clients. David happily confesses to be an old-school builder who, along with his team, takes responsibility for every element of a build from the ground up, even constructing the timber framing and hanging doors from scratch rather than being prefabricated. “There’s a bit more quality control because we are doing it ourselves. Sometimes it does cost a little more, but the end product is way better and the apprentices learn more skills” During the past 10 years David has developed an interest in building energy efficient homes and has completed a passive house tradesman course in 2021 through the Passive House Academy New Zealand (PHANZ). The five principles of passive house design includes insulation, high quality windows and doors, eliminating thermal bridges, air tightness and heat recovery ventilation. It is also possible for renovated buildings to be built to a passive house retrofit standard. Passive house builds are increasingly coming to the forefront and the number being built is correspondingly increasing year on year, David says. There is a consensus in the industry that a passive house will cost an average of about 15% more to build, but the benefits are well worthwhile, he says. “Once people have lived in or visited a passive house they realise the difference. Obviously it will cost more, but they understand the benefit is having a comfortable home to live in.” Although the building code which was updated last year requires increased insulation for doors, windows and floors, David believes there is still room for improvement, especially in colder zones. “Probably for about 13 years now we’ve been building houses with 140mm exterior frames for extra insulation, way before the new building code came in.” “The houses that we have built are beautiful warm homes. It makes a huge difference.” David is building the walls of his house with 140mm structural framing plus a 90mm service cavity which will provide an insulation value of R6.9 while the ceiling will be R9.1 compared to the updated building code of R2.0 and R6.6 for walls. Because of this, he expects the house will retain a temperature of 20 to 24 degrees without any additional heating all year round. The Pope house has a footprint of 220 square metres and is perched on a 1.6 hectare site overlooking Gore, the Waimea and Mataura Valleys and the Hokonui Hills from an elevation of 180 metres above sea level. This sweeping panorama was a key consideration in its design which includes full height windows in the northwest facing living area. All the windows and doors are timber framed with Siberian larch and triple glazed. “The monopitch roof design creates raking ceilings in living/lounge and kitchen. All our windows on the view side are floor to ceiling 2.4 metres high.” The eaves on the northwest elevation are 900mm wide to provide shade from the summer sun but still lets in the winter sun, while cladding will be a complementary mix of low maintenance vertical powder coated aluminium and thermally modified timber. Trevor & Kara Shanks (03) 208 0353 • Trevor 027 511 2293 trevorshanks@hotmail.com EXCAVATING GORE 5 Tonne Digger • 10 Tonne Digger • General Cartage • Tile Cleaning • Locater Site Clearing • Building Sites • Calf Shed Cleaning • Auger • Positrack 62 Mersey St, PO Box 290, Gore 9740 Phone: (03) 208 0806 Email: info@bwelectrical.co.nz Web: www.bwelectrical.co.nz With professional tradespeople servicing Southland, Central and West Otago, we are your one point of call for residential, commercial or industrial projects. ConcreteMasonry | Tiling&Waterproofing Clay Brick Veneer | Architectural Plaster Systems
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