Home truths
I think I'll reprint this in full. It's one of the developers from last week's Property Ladder (the eco-special), Julie, who was moved to post a comment on here after my assessment of the programme, which I really appreciate, but this is the insight into the distorting process of editing a TV show she posted on the C4 Homes Forum after one or two people had mocked she and partner JP's efforts to develop a healthy, natural, eco-friendly house in Surbiton:

Hi,
As one of the eco-friendly couple, thought I'd just add in some extra info about the development ... it's nice, but nerve-wracking to see it being discussed! Obviously what we did, or our personalities, won't please everyone, but there were several errors/generalisations in the show which I'd like to settle because we genuinely want to promote a more eco AND health conscious approach to building.

We're not developers, and normally live very happily on a small houseboat, and consuming very little, but have seen so much waste and missed opportunity going on in renovations - such as entire kitchens ripped out and replaced to sell ... just to be redone by the next owners - so we wanted to help promote recycling, and also the importance of upgrading a property's energy efficiency ... CO2 levels simply won't be met without improving existing housing stock.

They did over 10 full days of filming, and obviously chopped out lots to fit the small slot - with that amount of footage, it's possible to present various takes on what we were doing. Our intention was to do both eco-friendly AND healthy interior ... as I recently discovered a big part of a decade's poor health is due to chemical sensitivity. God knows where they got the 'packing chips' line from on the programme - the living room lights were naturally-vacated silk cocoons!!!

We deliberately avoided introducing new synthetic materials - MDF/carpets/plastics - into the flat as many of these outgass a whole cocktail of volatile organic compounds. This was part of the rationale for using the old kitchen carcasses - saving waste/manufacturing and transport energies - plus they were old enough (but in excellent condition) to have long outgassed most of the formaldehyde. We redesigned the layout mostly using the old cupboards and fitted high-quality solid beech-frame doors. We chose natural stone (reclaimed/leftovers where possible) and wood (also reclaimed or local), and used non-toxic finishes throughout ... such as pure tung oil for the worktops. We spent months researching the least toxic and least eco-impact goods - but the programme seemed to choose to pitch ours as 'eco', and the other one as 'healthy' so they missed out all our explanations about indoor air quality ... maybe we were just too earnest about it, and they need to make an entertaining program, but if you've been made ill by modern chemicals, then you would be wary of them too. (The eco-aspirator did get constructed in the office, though the air quality is SO good here it's not really needed, and my health is finally improving now.)

We had three aims ...
1. to show 'eco' can be 'chic and desireable' ... ie. NOT just niche market
2. to show it can be done on a budget (by reclaiming materials we actually put about 23,000 pounds worth of long lasting, quality, healthy materials into the flat, including top of the range boiler and solar heating, on a budget far lower than the one quoted), and
3. to consider the health of the occupants by NOT introducing unecessary toxins.

Designing SPECIFICALLY for true chemical sensitivity is a whole different ballgame as different individuals are sensitive to different things ... even natural products such as pine could cause problems for some.

JP is a designer, with many years' experience of all things eco, design and architecture, and does know exactly what he's talking about (when allowed to!) so at least it was mostly me that Sarah had a go at on screen! I'm never going to live down the lilac curtains.

It was a shame, however, that the programme didn't have time to put more about the reasons why we'd done some things - they'd filmed lots of us insisting on upgrading efficiency and sourcing locally/re-using/limiting waste and recyling wherever possible - items left over WILL find good homes! (We had planned to make all the furniture but ran out of time so borrowed eco-designer items.) We totally blew the budget by replacing an old, horribly inefficient back boiler with a new condensing boiler. We topped up the insulation, even foil backed radiators, changed to a genuine eco electricity supplier, got thermostatic valves, DIDN'T fit a power shower, stuck an A-rated fridge-freezer on the coolest, north wall, went for solar hot water which is very efficient these days, and spent that bit extra to use eco-friendly non-toxic paints which generate less waste, and don't lay me out for days just from the fumes ...

And energy-efficient homes will increasingly attract a premium price, so although not the most profitable approach now, it will become so...there are talks of waiving stamp duty on eco homes for example - now that would make any property more interesting as well as cheaper to run.

Yes, the outside of the flat isn't terribly pretty, but it was all my borrowing capacity would stretch to, and we quite liked the challenge of giving an unremarkable interior character. Rumours of what we've done to the flat have boosted the value of unmodernised ones here. They are in a convenient (if not pretty) location, and 2 beds round here are expensive. Unfortunately the valuations were done when the flat was less than half finished - partly due to us running WAY over schedule due to illness and circumstances and partly due to Sarah going on maternity leave - this is why the second bedroom, rest of the full length shower, and half the kitchen were missing in the programme.

The day AFTER they were done, once it was at least dressed and tidy, it was revalued at up to 250k, which was amazing, since we were hoping initially for 225. We received an offer of close to £250 from someone who'd just come to get ideas, and have had others wanting to buy it. If we were after material gain, we could have got an easy 20k by painting the flat and fitting new carpets, which would have avoided months of bloody hard work (you would not believe how much time went into the bathroom and those elm worktops), not to mention the public scrutiny, but we wanted to create something original to show eco can be fashionable ... so were gutted the figures were not accurate. Using quality reclaimed materials and items - bath/towel rail/taps/sink/kitchen for example - can save thousands, not to mention decreasing the impact of a renovation on the environment.

The project will appear in the September issue of Property Ladder magazine, which will hopefully give a more detailed account, and if anyone wants further details of our approach please email ecoflat@hotmail.co.uk ... and we'll send out an information pack (may be slight delay). Hope that clears up some of the confusion!

Julie

The full discussion is here.