Replacing the housing stock

[ed_pete]

I think it's time for a radical overhaul of the crumbing Victorian housing stock to reduce the long term environmental footprint.

Gas boilers will be phased out sooner or later and retro-fitting air source heat pumps is going to be very difficult. We love the large rooms with their high ceilings and sash windows but the construction leaks heat even if you've done your upmost to prevent it. Climate change will bring more dry summers in the SE and so those that haven't already had movement or subsidence may see evidence of this.

Any ideas how this will go or will those living in London in 2100 still largely be occupying houses that we built 200+ years before by builders who probably never expected that they would last a quarter of that.

[womanofdulwich]

Due to the whole cladding issue I'm not sure how confident people are about new construction techniques right now.

[malumbu]

It's the fabric of the buildings. Brick. It's not very thermally efficient. I'm in a 1930s solid wall, rendered property. Roof, windows, floors aren't that great. But it is the walls that are the biggest issues. I don't want to retrofit external or external cladding. Don't want to do heat pumps or solar panels. Dunno what the answer is.

I posted elsewhere some work from the Climate Change Committee that it wasn't that apocalyptic retrofitting our older housing stock, not sure if this was the link: https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/sixth-carbon-budget/

Let's see what the PM comes up with on COP26.

Depressed that the heating is back on in May. Climate Change isn't just about the world warming up, it's about extreme weather events, April was one of the coldest and driest on record https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2021/lowest-average-minimum-temperatures-since-1922-as-part-of-dry-april, and May is just cold and wet. It was the other extreme a year ago, unseasonably warm and sunny.

Hopefully someone can post something positive to cheer me up.

[malumbu]

The cladding issue is a bit of a red herring - yes important to those with massive bills due to inappropriate and inflammable cladding, but not relevant to most of the housing stock. Good thread by the way, irrespective of my doom and gloom.

[womanofdulwich]

I dont know cladding is a red herring , I think its part of the loss of effective building control.

[Guest]

Which road do you suggest beginning to demolish?

[ed_pete]

Start with mine if you like. I think we need more communal living. Gardens where I live are small and shady. Scrap them for a single larger shared space like they have in some of the wealthier parts. Then some solar panels, ground source heat pumps grey water scheme in well insulated buildings designed for living the way people live now rather than 140 years ago.

[malumbu]

Cladding for high rises is not an issue for the older housing stock - obviously it is a wider issue https://www.gov.uk/guidance/building-safety-programme. Would expect local building control will vary from council to council and also will be informed by national guidelines and policies.

[alex_b]

Wouldn?t the carbon cost of demolition and new build outweigh any reduction in energy use?

[ed_pete]

The carbon cost is a fair question but I would hope that over the lifetime of the replacement stock build + emissions would be less than emissions from the current and secondly I would also hope that the scheme would insist that the contracts for rebuilds were as close to carbon neutral as possible.