Is there room for discussion about eco interiors?

[Angie Kraft]

As an eco-interior designer it irks me a little when talking with my green architect friends that they all seem to stop at the shell of the building. If we are making homes with lower carbon emissions and better air tightness then surely the off-gassing of what we put inside grows in importance. Is there room on the AECB forum to discuss how we tackle the inside and the eco materials that are available or have been used by some of the members?

[Peter Wilkinson]

There most deffinately is room on the forum for discussion on interiors & off-gassing.

You are quite right to say that, as we seal up our buildings more & more to reduce energy/heat loss, we must ensure that there is good quality air within our buildings. This can be helped with technical solutions like Mechanical Ventilation & Heat Recovery systems (MVHR) but not placing harmful or toxic materials in our buildings in the first place would be great step forward. Having worked with a number of people over the years who have been susceptible to off-gassing, I know how debilitating & life changing it can be. We rarely know when our personal toxin levels in our bodies are about to reach the critical limit.

It would be interesting to hear of your experience/s & your solutions.

[Angie Kraft]

Hi Peter

I work with quite a few clients who have issues with chemicals in their homes and over time it its beocming clear that there are no pure solutions. We can now paint with natural paints and varnishes. Natural undyed wool carpets are coming on to the market slowly, but they are treated with pesticides and often stain repellents! We can make curtains and blinds out of 100% organic, untreated  fabrics but FR regulations force us to treat our organic upholstery fabrics with formaldehyde and bromide mixtures! I think we might get to a solution but it will take time and a lot of convincing!

[Peter Wilkinson]

I agree. I had a client who became seriously ill just by opening plastic shrink wrapped magazines & pine of all things. An item of furniture in its self may not be an issue in isolation but placed in a room with many other items that off-gas can lead to a cocktail of gasses being created. This can be a serious problem with people who have a low tolerance or a high level of toxins in their body.

I first got into this in the 1980's when considering first house purchase & forced by building society to have house treated for woodworm, just because Building Society surveyor could not guarantee there was not wood worm. Unbeknown to him I was aslo a surveyor for BSs & was keen not to recommend toxic treatments to anyone, always suggesting a number of solutions. Generally BSs & banks were not concerned with the dangerous chemicals pumped into homes, only that their assets were protected.

We had a joiner that worked for us that would come up in large angry skin blisters if in contact with the vapour off-gassing from a very well known exterior timber stain. Even walking past a recently treated fence in the street........scarey.

This lead me considering the many other chemicals incorporated within our internal environment; decorations, furniture & fittings. An excellent book of the late 1980s was Toxic Tretments by London Hazards Centre. It really made me think about the many materials we specify in our buildings.

I don't really believe that we have learnt the lessons of the past, like asbestos. I really think that governments would be scared sh.....s if they had to confront the issue of legislating against the huge array of chemicals we are all exposed to in our every day lifes. Until it becomes an epedemic it will be swept under the carpet once more. Occasionally certain products are removed but it's a rare occurance & often kept quite quiet for obvious reason.     

[Kate de S]

Do take a look at the thread called "MVHR on all the time" (in Building Design in the technical Forums) -- several of the tecchie types very clear about how heat recovery ventilation (with the associated filters and high air change rates) helps with air quality, and that air quality must come first.

In full sympathy with your points about unwanted and untested chemicals and chemical combinations. Particular bugbear of mine is the mania for drenching everything in rank perfumes. I read in New Scientist you can get scented tyres, of all things! Though I am more troubled day-to-day by scented teenagers.

Understand your frustration about the fire regs issue. As with so many things  regulations might well be drawn up made by "consulting with stakeholders", for which you can read "have at your meetings reps from big firms selling something they would like everyone to be forced/subsidised to use". (other "stakeholders" can't necessarily get onto the working parties, and if they could, how do they finance the person hours for all the legwork, studies proving the case, etc?)

Don't mean to depress you! At least the organic standards have some traction with the government/EU --  is that the way progress might be made, do you think? Be interested to hear about any progress made, so keep posting.

[Nick Grant]

In response to your original question about room on the forum, the materials and products board was set up with these issues in mind.

Interesting what you say about your architect friends as most of us seem to get into green building through the materials route, for me it was earth and straw.

Although to my shame we purchased a DFS sofa some years ago I'm generally quite careful about paints and materials. However 'natural' or 'organic' is no guarantee of healthy or allergen free as has been discussed before on this forum, ask any hay-fever sufferer.

Often there is a perceived split between the energy and health concerns but as has been pointed out, a lot of the requirements for the better energy standards are to address health. For example ensuring good ventilation and high surface temperatured (good continuous insulation) to eliminate mould growth.