Master Builder of the Year 2007

The Master Builder of the Year Awards 2007 national winner in the Energy Efficiency category was R. J. Gulley (Builders) of Totnes, Devon. Here Rob Gulley and his client, Jim Carfrae, of Carfrae Sustainable Design, explain how building a super insulated home with a traditionally jointed timber frame and straw bales has resulted in a healthy house with sustainable principles.

Rob Gulley entered the building trade at the age of nineteen, spending four or five years labouring for various contractors, developing his practical skills, as well as learning to read plans. After a while he was confident enough to take on his own contracts and eventually to employ other people to work for him. These days, he is able to supply work for six other people. Jim Carfrae became interested in working with sustainable materials back in the 1970’s with a colleague, Andy Langford, who recognised the need for a more sustainable lifestyle before the rest of us had really grasped the importance of it.

Sustainability and energy efficiency had a profound effect on Jim's thinking, and his desire to build with straw dates back some fifteen years when an Australian friend built a beautiful workshop using cob and straw – which was almost unheard of at the time! Jim said: “I have to keep telling people that I’d decided to build with straw long before it started appearing on programmes like ‘Grand Designs’!”

Part of the energy saving ethos for the ‘straw house’ build involved taking in to account the embodied energy of the materials, so sourcing locally was always important.

Jim says: “I think that too many so called ‘eco houses’ are built with concrete and urethane foam, with imported hardwood windows – hardly a sustainable approach.”

Jim and Rob Gulley grew up in the same area and even went to the same school. They first worked together ten years ago when Rob did the plastering on a self-build barn conversion that Jim and Kate were working on, so Jim had Rob in mind for the project from the word go.

“The best thing that Rob brought to the project was the way he adapted his undoubted traditional skills to a completely new way of thinking. We’d say what we wanted to do and he’d come up with a practical way to achieve it,” says Jim.

Rob says: “I really did laugh at the suggestion of building a straw bale house. I had seen some pictures of straw bale buildings so I knew that it could be done, but never envisaged ever having the opportunity to participate in building one. It was certainly a very challenging project!”

"After they are plastered with three coats of fat lime render they become even stronger, but are also very easy to shape and shorten to accommodate doorways and windows."

Rob suggested using a ladder between the straw bales, both to keep the walls straighter and to provide a fixing point for both the inner and outer walls. In doing so, Rob had adapted a traditional technique used by stone masons who used wood with stone to provide fixings.

As well as straw bales providing insulation to the walls, Rob found a local tannery to supply loose sheep wool to provide a thermally efficient and cost effective roof insulation material. Wallboards were made from recycled newspaper, and the floorboards were salvaged from an old nearby chapel.

Rob's company is currently busy working on a double barn conversion in Dartmouth, and Rob feels it really is in the industry’s best interest to become more involved with these energy efficient projects.

He believes it is important to learn everything you can get from each job, by researching new building techniques and having a bit of foresight.

Rob says: "When you see a field of oats or straw think of what you could build with it – it is really amazing! With a bit of thought, determination and enthusiasm you can achieve something wonderful.

"I would recommend to anyone thinking of building a straw bale house to do so, in fact I’d love to have to opportunity to build one for myself."

Everyone was surprised but delighted when the project won the regional award, and then went on to win the national award in the Energy Efficiency category.

Since the win, R. J. Gulley (Builders) has featured in the Devon Life magazine, local and regional papers, and also on the radio. They have been given the opportunity to submit more tenders and are currently overwhelmed with work.

The main sponsors of the Energy Saving category, the Energy Saving Trust and Homebuilding & Renovating magazine were impressed by the innovative and super insulated new home.

"To go zero-carbon would have cost us much more, but we’ve done as much as we can, we have used Low-E glass throughout the build, and installed a rainwater harvesting system in the garden." says Jim. "We’ve noticed a huge difference in warmth compared to conventional homes. There’s an even temperature throughout the house, due to a combination of the wood burner for the open plan living area, and conventional radiators in the bedrooms fed by a thermal store heated by a small condensing boiler. We have reduced the gas bill to just £80 per year – and that’s with no renewables!"