Winner of the Southern Counties Sustainability award in the 2021 National Master Builder of the Year Awards.

We were approached by our client to provide a complete design and build service for her new dream eco home. An exacting and specific set of needs and wants from the client had to be incorporated into this project to satisfy her environmental and sustainability principals. The project was a pleasure to carry out and an opportunity to showcase some of the absolute best standards of workmanship combining high tech renewable energy systems and traditional joinery skills.

The design brief was for a high quality, modern, energy efficient and comfortable home constructed following the best sustainable building practices. Being located on a nature reserve it was important to the client to look settled in its environment like it has always been there.

A bespoke timber frame was constructed on site to accommodate extremely high levels of insulation and conceal the heating and ventilation equipment. Beautiful exposed structural cedar framing to outside terrace and balcony areas is complimented with interlocking cedar cladding to the whole exterior to provide longevity and weather resistance in this exposed coastal location.

Tasteful and simple specification of visible materials to the interior including stunning oak floors, doors and staircase conceal a high-tech energy efficient home utilising an air source heat pump for hot water and underfloor heating, a whole house heat recovery and ventilation system, rainwater harvesting system and photovoltaic solar array.

A lovely project to deliver to an incredibly happy client.

Reference from our client

The key reasons I chose Mitchells Construction to build my house were that they would incorporate project management and see the project through every stage of the process themselves. This was my first house build and I wanted sustainability to be at the heart of the process and reflected as much as possible in all the details and decisions. I had researched many of the aspects of environmental building and knew what was important to me. Living alone on site it was important that I had a well-kept site with builders who were respectful, communicated well and had a good attitude.

I am so pleased Ben and Joe did the work as I just love the house and garden I now have. Not only do I love the result but neighbours and passers-by tell me they appreciate this lovely home that blends into the environment overlooking a nature reserve. They paid great attention to every detail and met and overcame the many challenges that this project presented. Neighbours commented on how tidy and polite my builders were especially important as building on a one-way track with access issues. Importantly they both advised me on products and were guided by what I wanted and where necessary helped me choose, obtained quotes etc. I presented many new challenges with my eco build such as a rainwater harvester which needed to be converted to a grey water system when deciding this after installation. Moving the sewage treatment plant when the high-water levels were discovered; Laying brick paths instead of Indian sandstone to enable a smaller carbon footprint, working with Natural England guidelines on bats (which have returned), the list goes on.