Hello,
This is my first post on the forum, so bare with me on mistakes or strange markup.
We bought an old house (<1900) in Belgium with the intention of renovating it to modern standards using as honest materials possible, without going crazy. Keeping in mind it has to stay sell-able within the current market.
So far we:
-stripped all the walls by hand to discover 20+ layers of stuff.
-replaced the entire floor between the first and the attic by new wood beams, strong enough to have a small party on the attic
-insulated our roof with sheeps-wool from Dosscha (dutch, great stuff)
-used Fermacell drywall-ish panels (very strong, but would not recommend. Hard to handle, uses a lot of glue I don't think is very nature friendly) don't know any alternative at the moment though.
-Finished the drywalls with Tierrafino loam/clay Finish (ecofriendly material, but hard to master. Gives a Crepi like finish and a lot of sand dust falls off of it. We didn't close the windows properly once and the rain damaged parts of it. So careful there near water sensitive areas)
-Had some OSB floor boards that came with the house, so used those on top of the new wood beams.
-Steico underfloor insulation against contact-noise. A woodfiber panel easily cut to size.
-semi wooden floors. 4mm Oak glued on top of cross laminated pine. Uses less scarse woods and has better shrink factor. Also easier to place, and cheaper! No need for glue or nails.
-hired a company to replace windows. Durable non treated Padouk from controlled foresting. Maybe oak is a more eco firiendly wood from nearby, but needs to be replaced twice as fast. Not sure what the best option was there.
-behind the house theres an extra building with a flat roof, we had to compromise on firestone epdm roofing for warranty reasons and simply not finding a decent alternative. Also outsourced and learned from them how to do it myself next time. Because the roof had to be walkable, we used conventional hardfoam insulation, sadly.
-Loam for the walls, finished with tierrafino loam/clay finish. (colour tip: dover white is way more sandy and dirty than ayers rock.)
It's a game of give and take, trying to make a change as much as comfortably possible, by using less powertools and finding the balance between eco building methods and conventional ones. The first time is always the hardest and longest time, I am sure this will get better in time.
I knew I wanted to rebuild a house, so took some lessons beforehand, which came in really handy, except for the fact you only learn how to use the most recent materials, more often not the healthiest materials.
I encourage other people to have similar adventures, it has helpen me develop in so many ways.
Good vibes to all the other adventurers out there!
