Energy efficient house renovation

Here comes the moment you should think about the Energy efficiency of your future house if building a new one or if your house needs to be renovated and namely how you can take an advantage on the energy that surrounds us coming from the sun, the wind, the air and the earth. The aim is to reduce the overall energy consumption in order to achieve a constant microclimate without any heating or cooling system. Observations indicate that the energy costs can be reduced up to 85% by using energy efficient technologies.

Here are some recommendations on energy efficient house designs from our practice in building:

When building a new house in Bulgaria

Solar design

If building a new house in Bulgaria – before you start a building project, the building site and its climate should be carefully evaluated to determine the optimum design and orientation for the house. Decisions regarding appropriate windows, doors, and heating, cooling and ventilating appliances a central to an efficient design. The typical house loses more than 25 percent of its heat through windows. Therefore your house should, in general have few windows on its northern, eastern and western sides.

Passive solar house design

The house has to be designed so that the south facing windows absorb energy from the sun thus the premises that are used more often, living- and dining-room for example will use the direct sunshine as a heating source during winter months. It is very important that your house is facing to the south so ask your designer when making the project.

In summer months it is recommended to place some sun-shades over the windows or to find any other way of sun protection because overheating causes discomfort in the house.

Insulation

Insulation reduces heat loss and it is an essential component towards achieving the best results for energy saving. A high standard of insulation materials built into the roof, external walls and ground floor is essential to achieve thermal comfort for the occupants. Insulation reduces unwanted heat loss or heat gain and will reduce the energy demands of heating systems. The level of insulation required will depend on the design calculations.

Heat Distribution

For full energy efficiency you may anticipate solar hot water heating, a whole house ventilation system with heat exchanger providing both heating and cooling of the air - fresh air may be brought into the house through underground ducts that exchange heat with the soil. This preheats fresh air to a temperature above 5°C (41°F), even on cold winter days. This is called passive preheating of fresh air.

Double and Triple Glazing

High performance windows are manufactured with exceptionally high thermal values. They normally combine double or triple-pane insulated glazing, low emissivity (low-E) coated glass, argon or krypton gas filled gaps, insulated glass spacers and specially developed thermally broken window frames. Expertly designed, assembled and installed those double or triple glazing windows will significantly reduce energy. The standard values of windows used in Bulgaria are about 1.8-2.2 W/m2K (U-value)

Blinds

Blinds are of great use curtains for insulation, mainyly in the winter time. They are best for blocking the heat of direct sunlight in summer. South facing windows are are a great asset in winter months but can be such a pain in the hot moths. The best shading is external - overhangs and external blinds. Otherwise, blackout blinds with guide rails are very effective and internal blinds are helping too. You can find discount window blinds that will help keep out harsh weather conditions to lower your energy bill.

Energy-efficient house sample

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Energy efficiency and Renoavtion

If repairing an old house - most of the foreign owners have bought old properties in Bulgaria in order to use them as summer houses. As the repair can be carried out without a project we would like to give you some practical advices how you can make your house more comfortable for living and how to avoid the summer heat without installing an air conditioner in the house.

Ceiling insulation

It is essential to properly insulate the ceiling. This is usually done by installing new ceilings of plasterboard and placing glass mineral wool above the plasterboards. Where possible the old ceiling can stay so the new ceiling is made under the existing ceiling that serves as a second insulation. A good ceiling insulation stops the heat transfer from the roof construction.

Inside insulation on external walls

Good wall insulation with glass mineral wool and plasterboard from the inside is more that required in order avoiding the heat penetration though the walls. Be aware that this could narrow the size of the room with 12-15cm in both directions so it is not always possible. The houses in the Bulgaria villages are usually having small sized room that is why we reccomend to glue the plasterboardswith the proper adhesive directly to the wall The air that stays between the two surfaces – the wall and the plasterboard - serves as an additional insulation (plasterboards are made of gypsum which is a insulating product itself) and for this reason the outside insulation on the external walls could be saved especially if the walls outside are plastered and are in good condition. PVC windows with double glazing are a must. Blinds or thick curtains are recommended to stop the direct sunshine coming through the windows

These are some of the major steps that are essential to follow if you wish to have a house providing a superior comfort even in the hottest summer days.

Dense evergreen planting next to the west wall will provide shade against the hot summer sun and a wind barrier against cold winter and will also make your property look more attractive.

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You can contact us if you are looking for a Builder in Bulgaria. We are general builders covering all aspects of construction including Property Renovation, Repairs and Property finishes in Bulgaria. Click here to >> Contact us <<

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Eco homes in Bulgaria?

Problems associated with the climatic changes and the environment that are much discussed in recent years led to necessity of developing such projects that require the usage of the great variety of strategies for energy saving. This - from one hand and  decreasing the influence of the existence of these buildings over the environment – from the other and last but not least – forming resources for recycling of the building materials happens to be quite a big problem especially when renewing the building fund.

In this connection, the term “stable development” appeared meaning work in two directions – satisfying people’s needs and simultaneously keeping the natural resources for future generations or simply said – sensible and purposefully usage of the natural resources. This is one of the basic principals in the ecological way of living.

Thus the so called “ecological building” was born – a structure that is designed to create and sustain mutually beneficial relationships with all of the elements of its local ecology.
Obviously, this new ecological direction in building provokes a huge interest among both designers and home owners all over the world.  Different certificates to prove the environmental credentials of the buildings have been worked out which certificates by the way are all quite similar in their parameters and the stage of their certification.

In order that these new standards are being used in practice it is not enough to talk about them but it is very important to provide the needed resources, time, ambition and many efforts to build a whole system for stable development based on specific purposes and results. There are several certificates in the world that cover the new ecological standards. 

The UK certificate for eco buildings

BREEAM (Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method) is the leading and most widely used environmental assessment method for buildings. Developed in the early 1990s, based on many years of construction and environmental research, it sets the standard for best practice in sustainable design and has become the de facto measure used to describe a building’s environmental performance.

The version of the BREAM certificate for houses is Ecohomes. It provides an authoritative rating for new, converted or renovated homes, and covers houses, flats and apartments. Ecohomes balances environmental performance with the need for a high quality of life and a safe and healthy internal environment. Many of the issues are optional, ensuring Ecohomes is flexible enough to be tailored to a particular development or market.
BREEAM is used by  Clients, planners’ development agencies, funders and developers to specify the sustainability performance of their buildings in a way that is quick, comprehensive, highly visible in the marketplace and provides a level playing field.  
Property agents use it to promote the environmental credentials and benefits of a building to potential purchasers and tenants.
Design teams use it as a tool to improve the performance of their buildings and their own experience and knowledge of environmental aspects of sustainability.
Managers use it to reduce running costs, measure and improve the performance of buildings, empower staff, develop action plans and monitor and report performance at both the single building and portfolio level.

We can say that BREEAM is the leading environmental assessment method for buildings, with over 110,000 buildings certified and over half a million registered for certification. BREEAM is used all around the world and can be used to assess a single development or a portfolio of developments both within and across national boundaries. BREEAM has a particular benefit in that it can be readily adapted to local regulation and conditions.

Specific versions of BREEAM are available for the UK, the Gulf and Europe. BREEAM schemes can also be tailored for use for any specific country or region, and will address the following:

• categories of environmental issues
• environmental weightings
• details of the construction methods, products and materials
• references to local codes, standards and good practice guides

The objective of BREEAM Europe is to drive the construction industry in each country over and above the local building regulations. Even if the set of issues being assessed under BREEAM Europe is the same across the whole region, each building assessed under BREEAM Europe is compared against a national baseline. An Excellent building in Sweden may therefore be different from an Excellent building in Bulgaria.

Another major objective of BREEAM Europe is also to recognize local context and issues, and to give the opportunity to design teams in each country to have their local best practice codes and standards recognized. Country specific reference sheets are available alongside the BREEAM Europe manual to indicate any information or standards specific to the country of assessment. A process has also been put in place to allow the BREEAM International assessor and the design team to determine whether other local best practice construction codes can be recognized in the assessment.

Different countries have different climates which may impact on:

• Weightings
• Cooling strategy & energy consumption
• Type of renewable technologies
• Different infrastructures which may impact on:
• Capacity to recycle waste
• Capacity to cycle to and form buildings

It is important to know that the assessment proving the environmental credentials of a building in accordance with BREEAM certificate is made by independent assessors only who have the required training. Assessments can be carried out at different stages: at design stage, within the construction process or at post construction stage but the best option is at design stage because assessments could be carried out from the very beginning through the whole planning process thus providing more possibilities. As previously mentioned the valuation is made by independent assessor but the certificate is issued from the UK Company BRE Global.

In Bulgaria, still there are no BREEAM certificate trained assessors but probably in the near future this will happen because the company has already opened an office in the country. A BREEAM certified building has many advantages such as quality of life, planning and safety of the costs, increased quality of the property itself, positive effect on the environment, high level of security and last but not least considerably decreased  energy consumption and all running costs.

Conclusion

If we summarize all the above said perhaps here comes the conclusion that this is the future as seen by the former futurologists and that this ecological building is not just a new trend but a necessity and a way out of threatening global glow and decreasing of the resources world wide. More over, the raise of the cost of such building is more than slightly compared to the advantages it offers to its occupants as well as to the environment itself.       

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You can contact us if you are looking for a Builder in Bulgaria. We are general builders covering all aspects of construction including Property Renovation, Repairs and Property finishes in Bulgaria. Click here to >> Contact us <<

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When to start building in Bulgaria

This article will be useful for all foreign property owners who are planning to renovate a property in Bulgaria or to build a new one too. We will straighten the range within the boundaries of the Black sea coast (Bourgas region) where our company Investconsult Ltd. operates. The observations we would like to share with you are mostly related to our previous experience with property owners from the UK. Many of you have bought a property that needs renovation or a plot of land for building a new house. We have noticed that you do not always set the terms for starting and finishing the building or renovation works correctly and do not pay enough attention to the weather condition in Bulgaria that are quite different from those in the UK.

Building in resorts and sea towns

The first thing the owner should be aware is that if you intend to carry out some building activity in resorts, towns and villages on the Black sea coast, in most of them building activities are forbidden from middle of May to the end of September by the local authorities. This prohibition is due to the summer tourist season and seeks to assure comfort and peace to the millions of tourists spending their holidays here.

Building in summer months

But if is to be built or repaired in other areas, in the countryside for example it is good to be aware that the hot summer months (especially July and August) are not that optimal for any building activities. Often the daily temperatures are above 35º C and this leads to unsatisfactory results when wet processes are used. Concrete and every building material containing cement, like tiles adhesives, dry out very quickly and their use in such hot weather becomes ineffective and there is a risk that the cement falls down by next winter and you will have to redo or repair the job next summer.

The summermonths are too hot for building in Bulgaria

Building in winter months

Building activities in winter, especially in January and in February when the temperatures may go down way below 0º C should be avoid due to the reasons mentioned above - it is risky, of poor-quality and it is not worth doing something you will be sorry for later on. There are some supplements that can be added to the concrete, cement grout and adhesives and this allows working up to – 10º C but we would not recommend this. Every cement additive weakens its strength and makes it more difficult for application. That is why when the outside temperature gets very cold (below -5º C) outside building works should not be carried out.

Building in spring and autumn

Spring and autumn are the most suitable seasons for any kind of outside construction works. There are some rainy days during these seasons which make outside building works impossible on that day. But these days are great for indoor building works. Temperatures are great for brickwork, plastering, tiling, painting etc.

So it comes out that the building process depends very much on the weather conditions. In this regards, we would like to give you some practical advices depending on your investment intentions:

If you are planning to build a new house in Bulgaria:

• Provide at least 6 months for preparation of the project and the relevant paperwork that is required for acquiring a building permission. Start this process in the beginning of the year and hopefully you would be ready to launch the project by September. Depending of the location of your future property, have in mind that within summer months (from May till September) building permission are not issued for properties on the Black sea coast. If this is the case you have to start preparing the project and the needed documentation a few months earlier in order that you receive your building permission by April.
• Use the period from September till December to perform the construction building works – building the house shell and putting up a roof, thus the house will be ready for the rainy days. This way it would be possible to continue working inside on the property even within winter season.
• The period from January till March can be used for some building works only indoors with their respective preparation and heating the premises.
• From March till June you may organize to complete some additional outside building works.
• If the summer months are too hot avoid any building works that are related with the use of cement; you may do some assembly works or just work on the garden instead.

In case the property is not large it has to be finished by the beginning of the summer season. If this is impossible you’d better leave the finishing building works for autumn.

If you are planning to renovate a property

• If your property does not require a serious reconstruction you can start at any time of the year but it is recommendable the outside repair works to be carried out in Spring and in Autumn while the inside works can be performed at any time in accordance with the respective technical requirements depending on the season.
• It is advisable that the renovation is performed by an experienced building company that has a good reputation along with good references. It should be a company with experience in renovations and employing the required skilled workers.
• An experienced builder will be able to give you a professional advice on taking the decision what exactly and how it can be done.

We have many years experience in building and renovations and we are able to advise and guide our clients through a renovation project. Probably most of you have never done a large renovation project sometimes even not a small one. You can rely on our help from the very beginning to the happy end. This will be a building project made easy for you.

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You can contact us if you are looking for a Builder in Bulgaria. We are general builders covering all aspects of construction including Property Renovation, Repairs and Property finishes in Bulgaria. Click here to >> Contact us <<

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Geographically our area of operation covers the south-east of Bulgaria. We are based in the city of Bourgas and would accept jobs in a 50 km radius with no problem but any project is unique and we may work on projects further that this depending on your case. Simply contact us and we will reply promptly on your request.

Map of the places where we operate

click to see larger map

Towns and villages in the area we cover:

Bourgas (city):

Banevo, Bratovo, Bryastovets, Bulgarovo, Vetren, Dimchevo, Draganovo, Izvorishte, Marinka, Mirolyubovo, Ravnets, Rudnik, Tvarditsa, Cherno more

Aytos (town), including the villages of:

Dryankovets, Zetyovo, Karageorgievo, Karanovo, Lyaskovo, Malka polyana, Maglen, Peshtersko, Pirne, Polyanovo, Raklinovo, Sudievo, Topolitsa, Cherna mogila, Chernograd, Chukarka

Kameno (town), including the villages of:

Vinarsko, Vratitsa, Jelyazovo, Konstantinovo, Krastina, Livada, Polski izvor, Rusokastro, Svoboda, Troyanovo, Trustikovo, Cherni vruh

Karnobat (town), including the villages of:

Asparuhovo, Venets, Glumche, Devetak, Devetintsi, Detelina, Dobrinovo, Dragantsi, Dragovo, Ekzarh Antimovo, Jeleznik, Jitosvyat, Zimen, Iskra, Klikach, Kozare, Krumovo gradishte, Krushovo, Madrino, Nevestino, Ognen, Raklitsa, San-Stefano, Sigmen, Smolnik, Sokolovo, Surnevo, Hadjiite, Tserkovski, Cherkovo

Malko Turnovo (town), including the villages of:

Bliznak, Brushlyan, Byala voda, Vizitsa, Gramatikovo, Evrenozovo, Zabernovo, Zvezdets, Kalovo, Mladejko, Slivarovo, Stoilovo

Nessebar (town), including the villages of:

Banya, Gyulyovtsa, Emona, Koznitsa, Kosharitsa, Town of Obzor, Orizare, Panitsovo, Priseltsi, Ravda, Rakovskovo, Town of Sveti Vlas, Tunkovo

Pomorie (town), including the villages of:

Aleksandrovo, Town of Aheloy, Bata, Belodol, Gaberovo, Goritsa, Gulubets, Dubnik, Town of Kableshkovo, Kamenar, Kozichino, Kosovets, Luka, Medovo, Poroy, Stratsin

Primorsko (town), including the villages of:

Veselie, Town of Kiten, Novo Panicharevo, Pismenovo, Yasna polyana

Ruen (town), including the villages of:

Bilka, Vishna, Vresovo, Dobra polyana, Dobromir, Dropla, Duskotna, Dyulya, Zaimchevo, Zaychar, Zvezda, Kamenyak, Karavelyovo, Kitka, Listets, Lyulyakovo, Mrejichko, Planinitsa, Podgorets, Preobrajentsi, Pripek, Prosenik, Razboyna, Rechitsa, Rojden, Rudina, Rupcha, Rajitsa, Sini rid, Skalak, Sneja, Snyagovo, Sokolets, Sredna mahala, Struya, Topchiysko, Trunak, Cheresha, Shivarovo, Yabulchevo, Yasenovo

Sozopol (town), including the villages of:

Atia, Vurshilo, Gabur, Zidarovo, Izvor, Indje voyvoda, Krushevets, Prisad, Ravadinovo, Ravna gora, Rosen, Chernomorets

Sredets (town), including the villages of:

Sredets, Belevren, Belila, Bistrets, Bogdanovo, Varovnik, Vulchanovo, Golyamo Bukovo, Gorno Yabulkovo, Granitets, Granichar, Debelt, Dolno Yabulkovo, Draka, Drachevo, Dyulevo, Zagortsi, Zornitsa, Kirovo, Kubadin, Malina, Momina tsarkva, Orlintsi, Prohod, Punchevo, Radoynovo, Rosenovo, Svetlina, Sinyo kamene, Slivovo, Suhodol, Trakiytsi, Fakia

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You can contact us if you are looking for a Builder in Bulgaria. We are general builders covering all aspects of construction including Property Renovation, Repairs and Property finishes in Bulgaria. Click here to >> Contact us <<

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Making the foundation and all preparations related to the construction of a swimming pool are not that simple and easy process as you may think. Here we will try to report about issues that can be experienced before, while and after the excavation works for your new swimming pool in Bulgaria. We hope this would help you to understand how to select the place, size and form of the swimming pool in your garden for the perfect swimming pool experience.

Selecting the place for pool and tracing the garden to know where to excavate

Being in this business for many years we consider that excavation works are one of the most important tasks that have to be executed professionally by a skilled builder. Our previous experience shows that each client we have been discussing the foundation works with appears unprepared to answer most of the following questions:

• Is there enough space for proving an access for the machinery that will make the excavating works in the yard where the swimming pool will be built?
• Is there a place for entering and loading the trucks that will take the soil away?
• Is there a place where some of the soil will be stored because it will be used for back hilling afterwards?
• How deep is the top soil layer? Where the rocky mass starts from? What is the lie of the rock and to which direction?
• What will be the level of the upper edge of the pool? Is it in conformity with the lanscaping of the yard?
• Is there a place for making an excavation in which the filter and the pump will be placed?
• Are there any electric and water supplies in the yard? Where exactly are they located in order that they are being preserved during the excavation works?

These are some of the questions that need answering before starting the excavation works. We don’t need to say that these questions are important to us for giving you an exact price quotation for a swimming pool.

How much to excavate

It is good to know that when possible the hole should be excavated 2-3 meters wider than the swimming pool itself in order that enough space is insured for building and supoporting the formwork later on. We can say in general that if the swimming pool’s size is to be 5/9 m., then the excavation has to be minimum 7/11 m., the best option is if its size is 8/12 m. On most occasions this depends on the depth of the whole.

The hole for the pool should be dug 2-3 meters wider than the pool (min. 1m on each side)

 

How deep to excavate

Once we have defined the sizes of the excavation and we put marks on the terrain it is required that we dig some small size holes in the four edges to find out what the condition of the soil’s strata in depth is. If the depth of the solid rock underneath the layer of soil is satisfying this is the best option. It is very possible that the rock is not running horizontally and this will help naturally for the slope of the swimming pool.

The rock below the black earth is easy to be recognized. In this case it was a bit soft and we were able to dig about 50cm durther down.

 

The depth of the pool

When calculating the effective depth of the swimming pool it is important to add and to dig some extra 30cm to the required pool’s depth – this is for applying of both the laid concrete underneath the pool’s bottom (usually around 5-7 cm) and the concrete pool bottom which is around 20 cm.

In case it becomes clear that the depth of the rock is not enough then we have to decide how we will proceed further. After the excavator has finished working (the machine can only excavate earth), there are two options to continue.


We can try to continue to drill in the rock e.g. with a Kangoo or something more powerful like a hydraulic compressor or we can just raise the level of the pool’s walls to achieve the same depth as with deeper digging. Drilling in rock in such scale will increase the cost of the building works and respectively the total price of the swimming pool to a level that is inacceptable for most people.

 

In-ground pool above ground?

It is much easier and cost effective to build the pool part-of-above ground, the final result is more than satisfying. Building the swimming pool above the terrain requires some additional building and landscaping works in order to get an aesthetical finishing point of the pool. This is done easier and the final look is impressive you could do a very good job with some imagination.

The concrete swimming pool cna be build part-of above ground

 

Sand pillow

In case the rock under the pool is reached at a level that is just too deep and not required for the pool – this would get too deep (nobody needs depth of 2.1 m for private pool), then it should be excavated until reaching the strong rock and the swimming pool has to be built on “sand pillow”. This method guarantees the solidity of the future equipment and its non-problem use. The sand pillow can be from only 10 to 20 cm up to 1m high. Anyway cases where sand pillow has to be underlain are rare but possible so we have to take them to consideration.

When these preparation jobs are completed we now can see what the real situation is and we can make the necessary analyses and conclusions related to the pool’s construction before staring the excavation works. Our analyses are then represented to the client offering him an optimal solution. The client has the opportunity to make his own choice and to approve the project offered. Then the excavation works can start.
In Bulgaria, when building a private swimming pool with a capacity of up to 100 cubic meters a building permission is not required.

You can see more sampels of swimming pools built by our company here

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You can contact us if you are looking for a Builder in Bulgaria. We are general builders covering all aspects of construction including Property Renovation, Repairs and Property finishes in Bulgaria. Click here to >> Contact us <<

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People reading this were also interested in:

• How to find a good builder in Bulgaria
• Renovating in Bulgaria
• Pool Maintenance Tips