Locally sourced materials

It is important to us to build with locally sourced materials. We have lots of clay, so are utilising that as much as possible. If this build were elsewhere in the country we would be choosing a different approach. We can’t just have a template for a ‘sustainable home’ that doesn’t factor in what local materials are available as transportation accounts for a huge amount of energy usage.

our straw crop is locally sourced — Our straw crop – a few days before it was baled (Photo Jake Chadwick)

Our locally sourced materials

Our straw comes from a farm less than 5 miles from the site. We were able to go to the farmer, check the size and density of the bales… and even request that they be made as tight as possible… which they did! (The even cranked it so hard the baler broke – once the part was replaced, fantastic dense bales were the result – The best I have ever used!).
Most of the timber is from a local saw mill, using locally sourced timber.
Our gravel and sand is from a local pit.
The sheep wool insulation is all from Welsh sheep.
We are making clay plasters from clay dug on site.
All of our lime comes from Ty Mawr Lime, 60 miles away.

These are our obvious success stories….

Not so local

We have not been able to source everything locally, our smartply for example, came from the Czech Republic. Not great!

Other considerations

There have been other more subtle design choices that have allowed us to use more local materials. An example of this is how we have sheeted the roof. The conventional way is to use 18mm ply sheets, usually shipped across the country, if not Europe. We have opted to use larch planks from our local saw mill – It takes longer to build, but the environmental impact is far better.