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Grand Designs Australia S12E10

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00:00Captions by GetTranscribed.com
00:12Gone are the days of the couch potato.
00:15These days, it's all about exercise
00:17and how much we eat and drink and sleep.
00:21But there's one frontier that remains unexplored.
00:24Where and how we live.
00:27So, what if you wanted to build Australia's healthiest home
00:34right in the heart of the big smoke?
00:37What would that even entail?
00:57The feathers all in formation.
01:12So what are your thoughts on these ones here?
01:17It looks like they've just got a fancy headpiece on.
01:20They feel like they can't see very much.
01:25Pigeon shows are typically
01:27where you'd find builder Matt Carlin
01:29and marketing manager Nicole Pearce.
01:31Is that just their feathers or that's their body?
01:33I don't know, cos see how this one's like...
01:35Or maybe it's like a mating thing.
01:39Do we like pigeons?
01:41Do you like pigeons?
01:43Nah, I wouldn't say they're my favourite animal.
01:45Actually, I don't like them at all.
01:49Pigeons are weird.
01:51Put it this way.
01:52You don't go to the zoo to see a pigeon.
01:54No.
01:59But that didn't stop them spending $750,000 four years back
02:04buying a ramshackled old pigeon racing clubhouse
02:07in Yarraville in Melbourne's inner west.
02:10As you can see, it's definitely not up to liveable standards.
02:13Not enough windows or anything like that.
02:15The shed's cooked.
02:17It needs to go.
02:19It's a small block, but it's in a really great location.
02:22There's beautiful parks.
02:23It's close to the city and it's close to family
02:25where we've grown up in Williamstown.
02:29On a super-tight 191-square-metre block,
02:32the site was exactly what they'd been looking for,
02:35except for one giant drawback.
02:39Unfortunately, there's a lot of industry around.
02:41We've got the freeways, we've got the ports.
02:44There's also existing refineries.
02:46So it is one of the worst suburbs of air quality in Australia.
02:54It's been a lifelong problem for Matt,
02:56who suffers from chronic allergies and asthma.
02:59So whilst I had a pretty good childhood,
03:02like, I was a kid that did have asthma.
03:05I remember being young.
03:06I was on the nebuliser.
03:07There's times where I'd have a random asthma attack.
03:10Mum and Dad would take me to the children's hospital.
03:13As I've grown older,
03:14I've developed probably a lot more hay fever and allergies.
03:17I feel like I live off antihistamines.
03:24Happy day.
03:25But it's also been a huge motivator.
03:30When he's not building houses,
03:31he's a part-time podcaster,
03:33taking the building industry to task
03:35and exploring ways to build healthier homes.
03:38I'm going to say to you, I have a huge issue
03:41with some trades charge for what they're doing.
03:43We're working out what a trade should work.
03:47The issues with building in Australia
03:48is essentially we're building tents, glorified tents,
03:51that are cheap, poorly constructed.
03:54The goal is to be responsible.
03:56And I think he's building an energy efficient,
03:58a comfortable, healthy, resilient, durable building
04:02that is essentially going to be the healthiest home
04:04that we can possibly build.
04:06Arguably maybe the healthiest home in Australia.
04:10Did he say the healthiest home in Australia?
04:13That's a big call.
04:19Hello.
04:20Hey, Matt. How are you going?
04:21Hey.
04:22I was expecting to see a pigeon racing clubhouse right here.
04:25It's gone.
04:26You couldn't keep any of it?
04:28No, it's gone.
04:29It was unlivable.
04:31It was falling apart.
04:32Structurally not sound.
04:33But we managed to, when we demolished it,
04:35able to recycle most of the stuff through timber and stuff.
04:37So that will get repurposed elsewhere.
04:40In the local community, our friends and family,
04:42it's always going to be affectionately known as Pigeon House.
04:45Is that a good thing for you guys or...?
04:47We're happy with it.
04:48We've leant into it a little bit with the design as well.
04:51So double storey, big large circle windows, pitched roof.
04:55OK.
04:56So we're still paying some homage to the Pigeon Racing Club.
04:59Sounds good.
05:00Alright, so apart from being modelled somewhat on a pigeon house,
05:04what's going to make it special?
05:05It's that we're building a passive house.
05:07So we are going for the ultimate form of building
05:10what we call the gold sticker.
05:12But it is a very healthy house.
05:13We're not doing just the structure and things like that.
05:15We're going for inside materials.
05:17We're trying to be as healthy as we possibly can.
05:19OK, so passive house and all of those sustainability principles
05:22right down through every dimension.
05:24Yeah, we've looked at everything, I would say,
05:26from energy to water to the materials that are going to the building,
05:29everything.
05:30I do want to get Australia's most airtight house.
05:33Yeah.
05:34I know that sits at about 0.1 hour exchange.
05:36Some are officially on the books.
05:38I'd love to break that.
05:39Oh, I just heard a challenge being thrown down.
05:41There's a challenge.
05:43And it's going to be tough.
05:45And the results of the improvement on that doesn't really change much
05:48the building at such a small detail.
05:50But I would love to be like, hey, I got that to that.
05:52It sounds like that you're on a real crusade.
05:54There's a lot of negativity around building at the moment.
05:57Like, let's be positive.
05:59Like, every Australian wants to be in a healthy, comfortable house.
06:01But we want to prove that's possible.
06:03If we design our houses correctly and orientate our houses correctly
06:06to get that free sun, and we build airtight
06:09and we remove those air leakages,
06:11our heating and cooling bills go down, our comfort goes up.
06:13So it's just taking pride in what we build.
06:18Designed by Alterico Architects,
06:20this three-bedroom, two-storey home
06:22gives a nod to the old pigeon shed on the outside
06:25while packed with Scandinavian and Japanese design influences inside.
06:30Neutral tones and clean lines throughout
06:33with a bright white concrete slab on the ground floor.
06:37But the key driver of this design is not how it looks,
06:40but how it operates,
06:42invoking passive house design principles
06:44developed in Europe in the late 1980s
06:46for maximum energy efficiency.
06:50With features including solar panels,
06:52water recycling, air filtering, triple-glazed windows
06:56and sustainable timber throughout.
06:59The insulation will be amped up
07:01and the walls wrapped inside and out
07:03to create a continuous thermal envelope,
07:06which will keep the house at a year-round
07:0820 to 25 degrees Celsius
07:10without the need for heating or cooling.
07:13For a relatively simple design,
07:16it'll be an environmental powerhouse.
07:19Now, that all sounds great,
07:21but it also sounds like the main reason people don't do this
07:24is because that becomes very expensive.
07:27Building is expensive.
07:28Like, we're in a climate where building is...
07:29That's a yes.
07:30Yeah, of course it is.
07:31It's kind of like you're taking a pretty ordinary sedan
07:34and you're supercharging it.
07:35Yeah, well, if you're gonna do it, you do it properly.
07:37So, for me, like, it's protecting the structure from water.
07:40So, like, I'm all about wrapping the outside correctly
07:42and, like, I can't wrap a birthday present from Nicole
07:44but I can wrap a house.
07:45Like, it's those things that, like, I want to really get into.
07:48That's what I'm more excited about.
07:50So, what is all this going to cost you?
07:52We are looking at $950,000.
07:55If you'd said that just with an ordinary house
07:58on the scale of the site that I'm standing on,
08:00I'd say probably a good outcome for that.
08:01Yep.
08:02But with all the high spec you're going for,
08:05I'm already gonna...
08:06I'm starting to shake at the knees a little bit.
08:09And if you go over the budget?
08:10I can't go over budget, like...
08:12OK, it's a hard line.
08:13It's gonna look pretty bad as a builder
08:15going over budget for your own house.
08:16Like, that's what we've allocated.
08:17That's what we can afford or are willing to spend on it.
08:20I understand that things can go wrong
08:21so there is a contingency
08:22and, look, we'd love to do it for under a million.
08:25How long is this gonna take?
08:27To 12 months, we're hoping for.
08:29You actually stumbled when you said 12 months.
08:31Like, I don't actually believe that number myself.
08:34Yes, I'm going to be the one that's sitting there being like,
08:37OK, where are we up to?
08:38What's happening?
08:39What's happening next?
08:40We're a bit behind on this bit.
08:41Yeah.
08:42But it is going to be treated as if it's one of Matt's projects.
08:45OK, all right.
08:46So we think that we're gonna be able to stick to that timeline.
08:48You have an amazing project you've described here.
08:51Very ambitious in a very tight little parcel of land here.
08:55You've got a lot to squeeze in.
08:56Yeah.
08:57I can't wait to see how you've pulled this off.
08:59Same here.
09:00Yeah.
09:05Matt's setting the bar pretty high for himself.
09:08And with health and the environment as the key motivators,
09:11it's no wonder.
09:13But there's a reason why more of us don't build this way.
09:16It's a lot of money to put towards how the house functions
09:20rather than how it looks.
09:22Not to mention that we're a mostly temperate climate here in Australia
09:26and throwing the windows and doors open
09:28has become something of a national pastime.
09:31So while this may become Australia's healthiest house,
09:36will it be something that will inspire others to follow suit
09:39or just a curious experiment?
09:42Because I'm not sure Bird Box Living is for everyone.
09:46Before Matt and his team can start building up,
09:58they've got to go down.
10:00I don't know if that's where.
10:02I don't know if it's where.
10:04I think it's just the clay.
10:05Digging a hole for the 5,000 litre recycled rainwater tank
10:09for the loos, laundry and garden.
10:13And while the 195 square metre site might be cleared,
10:17below ground it's anything but.
10:20There's a rock there.
10:25That's a rock there too.
10:28There's one rock there and one there
10:30and I'm hoping they're two separate ones.
10:35Shit.
10:37It's got to be slow going, isn't it?
10:42I knew we should have brought the bigger machine.
10:46Due to the size,
10:47we just don't have the ability to get a big machine.
10:49We had a big machine that would just be able to scoop them all out.
10:51So size, size of site does make it a lot harder
10:54to get bigger rocks out like this.
11:04She actually really went in.
11:06That's not the big one either.
11:07No, I know.
11:09If the digger can't lift them out,
11:12here's a novel idea.
11:19Oh, there you go.
11:22And there's a lot more where that came from.
11:32Four slow going weeks on,
11:35with the small digger eventually clearing the rocks,
11:38the rainwater tanks in the ground
11:41and 42 cubic metres of concrete are going down for the slab.
11:46But this isn't any old concrete.
11:49As a globe, we use enough concrete per week
11:51to build a whole of Manhattan.
11:53There's a lot of concrete.
11:55And concrete is one of the biggest greenhouse gas emissions
11:58products in the world.
11:59Like, it counts about 8% of greenhouse gas emissions.
12:02I think only gas and coal are bigger.
12:04So the whole thing is we want to improve in that area.
12:08You can see they're like in the corner working out like their base.
12:12This, we're using an eco-pack concrete,
12:14which is reducing the amount of carbon in the concrete by 70%.
12:18It uses things like fly ash and slag and other coal byproducts.
12:21It's usually a little bit more expensive,
12:24but my thing in five to six years,
12:26this should be just standard concrete mix.
12:29We are happy days.
12:31Happy days.
12:40Two weeks later, with the eco slab set, the timber walls can go up.
12:46But first, they need to be wrapped in a waterproof membrane
12:50to protect the thermal insulation, help with air tightness
12:53and create a moisture barrier to stop wood decay.
12:57That is slippery.
12:59For a high-tech home, there's a lot of low-tech cutting and sticking.
13:05Well, there would be if it wasn't so wet.
13:10I think it actually has to be really dry.
13:15That's not... No, that's not gonna stick.
13:17So we were going to put down our external membrane on our ply,
13:20which is an adhered product.
13:21So it's essentially thinking of it like a little children's book
13:25where we contact paper the frame.
13:28So it needs to stick in here quite tight to it.
13:31When it's wet, it won't adhere.
13:33So that's more the frustrating part.
13:38What is the radar?
13:42So annoying.
13:44And it might be a little more rain, Dave.
13:49Just pull the pin.
13:50It's just not magically going to get better.
13:56Yeah, it sucks.
13:59If building Australia's most passive house in the rain in 12 months isn't daunting enough...
14:06Have you read the instruction booklet?
14:08Have you read the instruction booklet?
14:10No.
14:11There's another unexpected development.
14:12Yeah, we have had something pop up that's going to put some additional pressure on the timelines and getting the house finished.
14:26Matti and I are very fortunate that we are expecting a new addition to the family come June.
14:34The baby will arrive before the house is complete, but I'm always asking what timeline looks like if we can bring that forward any further.
14:42We just obviously like to get ourselves and the little one into our new house as soon as possible.
14:50It's just one more spinning plate Matt has to deal with.
14:56So running a business, moving house, building a house, trying to get this podcast up and going, have a chance.
15:02Make things harder.
15:04What's the saying?
15:06If you've got to run, run faster.
15:08I think Matt's going to be in for a little bit of a surprise.
15:13It's now six months into the 12 month Passive House Pigeon Club transformation.
15:33The walls are wrapped and upright.
15:35And today, Matt's imported triple glazed windows will hopefully seal the deal.
15:44Today we've got windows going up so they come about three weeks ago from overseas and we need to get them in as quick as we possibly can.
15:51We're just trying to push as much as we can in these drier months to essentially get to a point where once it gets to those cold or wetter days where everything's inside.
16:01Also, Nicole is 12 weeks pregnant, which is exciting, but it does give us a little bit more motivation to push a little bit faster.
16:11So I've got a lot to do.
16:14Three, two, one.
16:16These windows set the bar for insulation.
16:20The three layers of glass slow the heat transfer through the windows, but also prevent any air or water leaks.
16:27And fight the risk of condensation and mould, a nightmare for asthma sufferers like Matt.
16:34So don't drop it.
16:37Alex, do you want to set up a hose?
16:40I want to flood test this window to make sure it's watertight.
16:43I want to test our windows in the sense of like, we get one shot of putting them in, yeah?
16:47And if they leak, well, then that defeats a lot of the purpose of the building.
16:52But that is one thing I'm a bit nervous on.
16:54Go for it.
16:55I'm literally looking for like, a drop.
17:04It's never going to rain this much on a window.
17:09So we're simulating and seeing the amount of water.
17:12Like, if it works under this, we know it's going to survive.
17:17Yeah, hey!
17:18I've got it in this corner, somewhere.
17:22Where it's coming in, I don't know, but there's a fair bit in there.
17:26I've got a water drop at the top here too.
17:32And that's where the line is in the water drop.
17:35Somewhere up there.
17:36It could be something as simple as, like, the team have put in a screw and this is the membrane.
17:45And we're talking a hole that's like, maybe that big.
17:49It's so tiny, but that is enough to cause that leak.
17:53So catching that early is like a huge win for us.
17:59We will fix it, flood test the rest, come back next week once it's all dried out, flood test it again.
18:03And we keep doing that until they're alright.
18:08Matt's on a mission alright.
18:11And he's not alone in the fight for clean air in and around Yarraville.
18:18Residents in Melbourne's inner west are calling for filtration units before the opening of the Westgate tunnel later this year.
18:25Under the current design, the tunnel will have tall, unfiltered ventilation stacks.
18:29Locals are worried that won't do enough to reduce pollution.
18:34They're building all these new roads, which is great, but the problem is all the fumes from the cars have been congregated into one little spot.
18:43And they've decided not to filter any of the air that comes out of that.
18:48So it's now already a suburb with pretty poor air quality and it seems like it's just about to get worse.
18:55It's the reason why I decided to build the way we do it.
18:57It's all about taking back control and being able to have a say in the air quality of our home.
19:04So when was the last time you came here on site?
19:19Oh God, about a month ago I'd say.
19:22If there's one person who's not surprised by Matt's drive and determination, it's his dad, Ross.
19:27How many glazes?
19:29Triple glazes.
19:30Triple glazes.
19:31In the building trade for many years himself, today the old dog's learning some new tricks.
19:36Look at the ceiling with the wood inside.
19:38Nothing like that when I was a kid.
19:40As Matt begins the difficult task of adding a thermal layer to the inside of the house.
19:45You can hear, there's no, you can't hear the noise from outside.
19:48No.
19:49You can't even hear the radio downstairs, upstairs at the moment.
19:51Like once it's all shut up you will not hear a thing outside.
19:54Well.
19:55Which is another level of comfort.
19:56Everyone thinks thermally.
19:57But sound, air quality, like odours and smells, vibrations, like we're covering them all.
20:03Well they reckon that Melbourne's the highest asthma capital of the world now.
20:07Did you hear that today?
20:08Is it really?
20:09Yep.
20:10So a house like this will help that kind of thing.
20:12Been around a fair bit.
20:13It's totally different than when I was a kid.
20:15My dad was a carpenter and then his dad was a carpenter.
20:18And so like I say, you can see how things are changing and how things are improving.
20:22Bricklay is going to start in two weeks.
20:24Matthew was getting a thing called passive houses.
20:27I wouldn't have a clue what a passive house was.
20:28So he's probably teaching me more than what I'm teaching him these days.
20:32You don't need many staples to hold this up and if you do it correctly, we can just,
20:36we get staples in spots where the tape's going to hide it.
20:39So the whole idea is we don't want to have staples in the middle here,
20:42because if that blows off that can become an air leak in the future.
20:45But while Matt might be the passive house pro,
20:48it's not stopping the apprentice passing on some fatherly advice.
20:53I've got to kind of cut that.
20:55You're going to cut it?
20:56Yeah, I've got to cut it to fit it in.
20:58Wouldn't you do that over here first?
21:00No, no, no, no, no, no.
21:01Matthew, wouldn't you cut it over there?
21:03No, no, no, no.
21:04Because if I go here, then I can pull that across.
21:06You're going to have it too short then.
21:08I don't want to have to pull it down because you made a mistake.
21:11No.
21:12I'd be doing that corner first.
21:13Yeah, I'm trying to work it out.
21:14Seriously, I couldn't have picked a harder room to start this with.
21:19Fair dinkum.
21:21Don't cut your hands.
21:23Don't cut your hands.
21:24I'm not going to cut my hands.
21:26Jeez.
21:27Oh yeah, we have our arguments, don't worry about that.
21:30But it is his house and he's the builder which runs his projects and everything like that.
21:35So I've got to back off a little bit.
21:36How many houses have we built together?
21:38Like three?
21:41Did we fight?
21:42100% we fought.
21:43I don't mind a bit of questioning, a bit of to and fro just to make sure that you get
21:51the result.
21:52That's the only way you can improve.
21:57There's no doubt about it, building's a stressful game at the best of times.
22:02And Matt's still a long way from home base.
22:05This is your neighbourhood, right?
22:07Yeah.
22:08And this is your neighbourhood cat?
22:09Yes, this is the local.
22:10Something Nicole is very aware of.
22:15Matt is throwing so much at this.
22:17You know, I mean, he's deep, deep into this.
22:20Like, how's he going?
22:22I think he does sort of hide the stress when he does come home.
22:28Yeah.
22:29Being pregnant, I don't think he wants to put that stress on me.
22:32But he's really good at recognising that.
22:35You know, he's really good at sort of just saying, this is getting to me.
22:38I'm worried about X, Y and Z.
22:40He then also says, oh, I've got to get this done for the house.
22:43But then I've also got to talk at this conference, record this podcast.
22:47So it's all of those multitude of projects.
22:50He finds really exciting, but all of that on top of each other.
22:55And with a little one on the way.
22:57Yes.
22:58I mean, that is such great news, obviously.
23:00But of course, it's just another level of life event that is happening simultaneously here.
23:06I mean, are you able to sort of relax?
23:08Yeah, I think my nature is sort of the calming nature to Matt's storm and chaos.
23:13Every time we chat, there's maybe another week or two that's been added to the timeline.
23:20But I think at this stage, again, I've got another project to be focused on.
23:25Yeah.
23:26Look, a house is important, but I think you've got your eyes on the right priorities here.
23:29Yeah.
23:30So absolutely sounds like you've got it sorted.
23:31Yeah.
23:32Yeah.
23:33Yeah.
23:35As competing interests go, Baby definitely trumps build.
23:39Especially one that's taking longer and costing more than your average build.
23:45Take the $25,000 heat recovery system being installed on site to filter and purify the air.
23:53It's just a photo of a filter we changed out recently out of a HRV system that had been in for about six months.
24:03And the filter on the left is the new filter that we put in.
24:06So you can see the color difference.
24:07You actually see those different bugs and stuff in the filter as well, which has been brought in from outside.
24:12Originally, I was a bit of a cynic, but then when you experience it and build it from the ground up and you can feel it and you can see it.
24:18You soon get convinced that these things are good for homes and you start to do them on your own homes like I am.
24:26What I'm looking at here is the lungs to our house and that is going to provide us with fresh, clean air that's filtered.
24:32And what this is doing is practically filtering out all the particulates and pollutants in the air and allowing us to breathe in some nice, healthy, clean air.
24:40So for me, this is the ability to reduce those sort of things and just feel that the air that I'm breathing in my own house is quality.
24:53Does every house need this to this level and this expense?
24:58Probably not.
24:59But what price do you put on your health?
25:02What price, indeed.
25:11But in a temperate climate like Australia, will passive houses ever really take off?
25:17This is classic conservation heritage.
25:21Architect Karen Erdos, who designed a number of passive house projects, including this old beauty in Annandale, thinks yes, with a few provisors.
25:33So your classic Victorian terrace, yeah?
25:35Absolutely classic.
25:36It's in the middle of a conservation area.
25:38It fits right into its streetscape.
25:40You've got the French doors down here, the Rhode Island balustrade, even a beautiful parapet with a name on it, Warrain.
25:46So it's got all those classic Victorian details around it.
25:50Yep.
25:51But it doesn't look like a passive house.
25:52You would never know it's a passive house.
25:53And we had those constraints.
25:55Being in the conservation area, we had to keep it looking exactly as is.
26:00And there's nothing about it except the plaque on the wall that tells us that it's a passive house.
26:06So what's it feel like inside?
26:07Should we go have a look?
26:08I'd love to.
26:09Let's go.
26:16So, here we are.
26:20Here we are.
26:21Come on in.
26:22Oh, beautiful.
26:23You know, really contemporary sort of terrace feel.
26:26Nice and bright and light.
26:28I feel those things already.
26:29It's very open.
26:30Yeah.
26:31So it's not your classic terrace in that we've come in through the side.
26:33Yeah, yeah.
26:34So the whole front room stays intact.
26:36It's just such a beautiful flow from the big front room there right through to the backyard.
26:40You can see the green pulled in in both directions, which is just gorgeous.
26:44Yeah, and the big transformation was originally it was a lot of smaller, darker, not particularly friendly or healthy feeling spaces.
26:54Yeah.
26:55So the idea was to open it right up.
26:57Yep.
26:58And despite the orientation, get as much natural light in as possible.
27:01Yeah, mission accomplished.
27:02There you are.
27:03And?
27:04It's quiet.
27:05Yeah.
27:06It's very quiet.
27:07How nice is that?
27:08There is nothing happening from the street.
27:09Yeah.
27:10So this is excellent.
27:11Right in the backyard, calling us through to, I can see the addition.
27:13Yes.
27:14Yeah?
27:15Yes.
27:16Could we have a look at the kitchen?
27:17Yeah.
27:18Let's go have a look.
27:19Oh, I like this.
27:20That's very clever.
27:25With three bedrooms upstairs, what really stands out is the house has retained all its old heritage charm.
27:34Because while it's one thing to build a new passive house, it's another thing altogether to retrofit an old house.
27:42So what was so hard about making this home a passive house?
27:47And what was kind of like the financial addition you had to put on all of this to make it work?
27:53So this one was a particularly tricky challenge because of the heritage overlay.
27:58Best practice is to come from the outside and get your insulation and your membranes and so forth on the outside of the building.
28:06Because of the heritage overlay, we had to do things on the inside.
28:09So that was...
28:10Yeah.
28:11That was a particular challenge in this case.
28:13A lot of people would say, and of course it's a real thing, is the cost associated with it.
28:17Yes.
28:18And I mean, I hear numbers like 20, even 30%, you know, in addition to a standard build to get a passive house.
28:24So it's like, look, I'd love to, but I just can't.
28:27I mean, how do we get around that?
28:30Look, it's the conversation of the day.
28:32Yeah.
28:33I actually experienced this for myself.
28:35Oh, really?
28:36I just did a renovation and I wanted to walk the walk.
28:39I talk a lot about passive house.
28:41I do it for my clients and I really wanted to have a passive house.
28:44It came down to budget and there was just too many areas of the house that we would have had to completely strip back and redo that we were otherwise not going to touch.
28:56Right.
28:57So it was a devastating moment when I realised that we just couldn't do it.
29:00It wasn't attainable, but we did the best that we could within our constraints.
29:05And this is like the real story.
29:07Let's do the best that we can.
29:10Yeah.
29:11So let's use the high performance windows.
29:13Let's get the mechanical ventilation in there.
29:15Let's get all the insulation in there.
29:17Yeah.
29:18Let's design out those thermal bridges.
29:19We're going through all of the passive house principles here.
29:23And let's get the building working as best as we can.
29:27So what about the critique that passive house gives you a kind of a slightly dead feeling inside?
29:33Because it's all so controlled and it's, do you, I mean, how do you respond to that?
29:38I've heard, I've heard an argument a lot that I'd like to hear the birds outside.
29:41Yeah.
29:42I'd like to hear the noises outside.
29:43And that's really great if you have birds outside to listen to.
29:46But if you're under a flight path or next to a train line or a busy road and all the noise that is not necessarily desirable, it's really welcome to shut that right down and have this quiet oasis.
30:00So what I'm hearing is all the principles that passive house lays out are absolutely things we should continue to build on.
30:10Yes.
30:11But we shouldn't be put off by the zealous application of every single part of the passive house kind of regime.
30:19Yeah.
30:20Because, you know, getting close is the goal.
30:22Look, I would call passive house the gold standard.
30:24Yeah.
30:25If you can, great, let's do it.
30:27It's almost like an insurance policy.
30:29You pay insurance premiums for your house.
30:31Yeah.
30:32This is like an insurance policy that you'll have a robust, well-built, high-quality and healthy home.
30:38Yeah.
30:39That will last the test of time.
30:40So, I mean, it feels good.
30:42It feels really nice.
30:43It's really nice standing right here.
30:44Yeah.
30:45Yeah.
30:46Are you sure I can open those doors?
30:47That door's open.
30:49Absolutely.
30:50Back on site, it's now eight months into Matt and Nicole's 12-month project and just two months till baby makes three.
31:17Yeah, let's calm down, bring that down.
31:21Suffice to say, for a passive house, things are looking pretty active.
31:30No-one told me bricks were coming today.
31:32I was told bricks Monday.
31:34Yeah, now we've got 18 pallets of bricks coming.
31:38So they've got to have room to mix and move and probably got about 10 minutes to do a week's work.
31:44Yeah.
31:45Alex, bring your car here so I can get all the metal and put all the metal in the back as well.
31:49Yeah, just run these inside, yeah?
31:51All right, calm down.
31:55If you go straight, you'll be on it.
32:02The crew barely have time to catch their breath.
32:06Ooh.
32:08As the next challenge is laying a ground-breaking internal infill slab for the floor.
32:14We are using a white concrete, so that's super exciting.
32:18When you install concrete, we usually put a steel mesh in there, a reinforcement bar.
32:25We know steel is a massive contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
32:29Steel is heavy.
32:31So we've thawed a bit outside the square here and we have found this glass fibre reinforcement bar.
32:37And really what they're going to do here is they're going to pretty much cut this up themselves
32:41and make their own mesh inside.
32:44It will be three times as strong as a standard steel mesh.
32:49Way easy for these guys to install.
32:52You can see how light this is, like a tenth of the weight.
32:55It is also cheaper.
32:56That's the crazy part.
32:57It's a game-changing product.
33:02Molten glass fibres are wound into spools,
33:07pulled through a resin bath and then cured
33:12to give the bars their strength and durability.
33:22You can pick up 80 rods on your shoulder versus 10.
33:26It's lovely because you just walk it, walk it all in.
33:31I mean I think it will end up being, very much being the future just for the ease of, ease of use.
33:41My way I could carry this many.
33:43I wouldn't even attempt to carry this many if it was steel.
33:47Hi.
33:48Might have to go to the gym today.
33:50No!
33:51Unfortunately, not everyone on site is impressed.
33:57Hey Finn, Finn, Finn, no peeing inside.
34:00Every dog's...
34:02Everyone just peeing all over your house?
34:04Yeah.
34:05Finn, what are you doing you rascal?
34:08Cheeky boy.
34:09It brings out the white in the concrete, don't worry about it.
34:12Let's hope so.
34:23Because while Nicole's had her mind on bigger things,
34:29the one thing she's adamant about is white concrete.
34:33You can see it.
34:34Coming up.
34:35And not just any white concrete.
34:37It has to be the right white.
34:41There's been a lot of discussions, Pinterest boarding, inspiration to show exactly what's in my mind of what I'm wanting for this.
34:50The flooring will have a huge impact on the overall look of the house, but I do understand that concrete you can't 100% control and say this is exactly what I want.
35:01Concrete's hard because, like, you're so dependent on the weather, the drying temperature, the humidity in the air, how much you work it, how much water's in the mix.
35:13There's so many factors.
35:15You can over vibrate it as well.
35:17Like, we don't want to see stone, so you can go for it too.
35:21We know that we've given it its best chance.
35:23We've got 10% white oxide through it to whiten it up.
35:26We're gonna sort of roll with it and see what happens.
35:28As the concrete sets, the colour lightens over time.
35:33How much white a wolf drag?
35:35What?
35:36How much white a wolf drag?
35:3730, 40%.
35:40I don't want it to go too white.
35:44Now you're already being too white.
35:47I can't win.
35:50Now she's wondering how white it's gonna go.
35:52It could be too white.
35:53At the end of the day, Nicole's back for a site inspection.
36:10And that's what the finish will be like inside?
36:17Yeah, that's what we're trying to get it like, yeah.
36:27And the verdict?
36:30Happy days.
36:31Happy days.
36:32Still married.
36:36The interior cladding also needs to meet Nicole's approval.
36:45They want to use a revolutionary variety of sustainable timber,
36:49but have not seen it firsthand.
36:51So Matt's making an early morning dash to the factory in Adelaide
36:55before locking it in.
36:56But with Nicole almost at full term, this is the worst possible timing.
37:06Nicole at any point now could give me a call and be like,
37:11it's time.
37:12Baby's on its way.
37:14So that's super exciting.
37:18But I don't like uncertainty.
37:22I have no control over that, which is something that's like,
37:26gets to me a little bit because I like control.
37:31In Australia, 49% of log trees are deemed unfit for building.
37:37But here, low grade pulpwood veneers usually used for paper
37:41are being transformed into premium hardwood.
37:44What would normally be waste,
37:47we're going to convert this into solid timber.
37:50We do that via rotary peeling.
37:52So if you're coring an apple, essentially, peeling it,
37:55you're going to use a lot more of the product.
37:58You don't create any sawdust and you recover 65%
38:02from the log rather than the traditional sawmilling of 33%.
38:05Wow, such a huge increase.
38:09All the timber used here is from sustainably managed forests,
38:13which is right up Matt's alley.
38:19This is the start of the process here.
38:21So we've taken the veneers.
38:24We've cut them in a guillotine into strips.
38:28Yeah.
38:29So they're all thrown in a bit wide.
38:31From there, it's getting applied with glue via that roller.
38:34The glue we use is water-based and toxin-free.
38:37Yeah.
38:38Then it's heading into the ovens where it's making the glue really tacky
38:42so that we bond it together and all adheres.
38:44So this becomes like a big log, essentially.
38:47Yep, big solid timber.
38:48Wow.
38:51Once this process starts to the end,
38:53you're producing 300 kilos of timber within 20 minutes.
38:5720 minutes.
38:5820 minutes?
38:59Yeah.
39:00So we'll go from these strips into a block in about 20 minutes?
39:02Absolutely.
39:03Yep.
39:04Wow.
39:05As long as we get this timber looking like the timber outside
39:08and we can match it as best as possible,
39:10I think Nicole's going to be hopefully quite happy
39:12because you know what it is.
39:14It's a happy wife, happy life.
39:16Yeah, absolutely.
39:17Is it still going to look like timber?
39:18Like, is it still going to have the characteristics
39:20where the grain comes through?
39:22And because we've used real timber in other places in the building,
39:25will it match?
39:26I've prepared this for you, Matt,
39:28just to have a look at what a finished product could look like.
39:30That's not stained.
39:31Yeah, okay, cool.
39:32And that's stained.
39:33Jeez.
39:35It feels like timber too.
39:36Like, even the weight.
39:38Like, you wouldn't know that this has just come straight out of a machine.
39:42I feel pressure because I want Nicole
39:44to be really, really happy with the end result.
39:46It feels, it looks.
39:47Like, everything that we wanted, the characteristics are there.
39:50If she's happy with what we have here,
39:51we'll be pressing prints and putting this awesome material in our house.
39:55And really, the best bit out of it, like,
39:57she hasn't called me saying there's no baby issues
39:59or nothing's happened,
40:00so I guess that's the big winner of Outer today.
40:12This transformation will only be a win for Matt
40:15if he fulfills his quest to build the most airtight house in Australia.
40:21As the project enters its final phase,
40:23he's on the hunt for any little air holes that would create a draught.
40:27We're just doing a little bit of leak detection today,
40:30so we've actually got, like, a DJ smoke machine,
40:33and we're going to just smoke out as much of the house.
40:38And the whole idea is just to see if you can see any movement in any section.
40:42Make sure everything is as tight as we can be.
40:44Go for it.
40:50This is one of the areas I'm really concerned about.
40:55See, it just goes.
40:56See, over here, you see how it just disappears?
40:58There's actually a fair bit happening up here,
40:59but I knew this would be a tricky spot.
41:01I can see insulations are here, so there's a massive gap.
41:06Like fixing a puncture, Matt needs to tape over each and every hole.
41:13But the more tests they do, the more leaks they find.
41:16I know this is one here.
41:21See?
41:22And through here.
41:24Oh, there's heaps through here.
41:25Look at that.
41:26It's not even taped.
41:28Ah, is this another tricky junction then?
41:30We might as well try all these tricky ones through here.
41:33Oh, I can hear that.
41:36Yeah, you can hear it.
41:39When I said that, I had no idea on how complex this project was.
41:44Oh, that's smashing in here too.
41:48This is going to be the hardest one.
41:51But I did set out with an expectation
41:52of trying to build Australia's most airtight house.
41:55So, it's going to be pretty hard.
42:00What started as a crusade has turned into an obsession.
42:13To say that Matt's taken the battle for Yarraville's air quality
42:27right to his front door is an understatement.
42:30It's now over a year since he started building his
42:34and Nicole's giant air filtering machine of a house.
42:38And I'm fascinated to see how it's all worked out.
42:44Matt has thrown everything at this.
42:46He's researched it to within an inch of his life.
42:48And what I'm worried about is this whole thing
42:51is going to look like a Meccano set of technical solutions
42:55but not actually be a family home.
42:57Now it's finished.
42:58It's all done.
42:59It's all buttoned up.
43:01Let's see if they got there.
43:07Look at this. This is picture perfect.
43:15And there they are.
43:16Look how comfy the dog is.
43:17I know. I know.
43:19It's her house really.
43:21Can I come in?
43:22Of course.
43:28Congratulations both of you.
43:31This was such an epic project for you both wasn't it?
43:33Yeah.
43:34You put so much into this.
43:35I know you just obsessed over every single nail
43:37that went into this place.
43:38Just a little bit.
43:39This is an act of love, I think.
43:41There was passion everywhere.
43:43Yeah, there's a lot of passion.
43:44A lot of passion.
43:45But yeah, I'd say we're pretty proud, yeah.
43:47I mean, from the street, it looks very calm.
43:51I mean, that was a goal from my perspective, aesthetically.
43:55From Matt, he had, you know, the healthy home part
43:58behind everything, every decision.
44:00So is it working?
44:01Yeah.
44:02As good as it's looking?
44:03Yeah.
44:04Well, I think it proves you can mix sexy with healthy.
44:06Oh, sexy.
44:07We went somewhere else.
44:08Yeah, yeah, yeah.
44:10Well, the whole place just looks so well put together.
44:14And it's cutting such a beautiful picture.
44:18Paying homage to the old pigeon racing clubhouse,
44:21the double bird box facade is a nod to the past,
44:25while creating a contemporary and unique design.
44:29What's it like in there?
44:30You wanna go have a look?
44:31Of course I do.
44:32But inside is what it's all about.
44:35Anthony, this is our dining and kitchen space.
44:38Oh, this looks incredible.
44:39Like, well done.
44:40There's such a sense of tranquility in here.
44:43I mean, this is exactly what you wanted, right?
44:45Yeah, I think the thing with healthy homes is it's not just about energy efficiency
44:50and air quality, it's also about sound.
44:52Yeah?
44:53It's really comfortable inside.
44:54I can feel myself just kind of like relaxing in here.
44:57Maybe it's the colour palette, it's quite stripped back.
44:59Yeah.
45:00I know you had that very much in mind from the very beginning, right?
45:02Yeah.
45:03I know some people find it a little bit boring, a little bit beige,
45:06but that's what I wanted.
45:07This, to me, is relaxing.
45:09Like, I'm not too overstimulated, it's not too overwhelming.
45:13I feel nice and relaxed in there.
45:14I entirely get there.
45:15I think it's a big part of a healthy home is that sense of
45:17you need to actually sort of calm down and it needs to calm you down.
45:20Yeah.
45:21Yeah, I need to be calmed down too.
45:22When you get home from work, I can imagine.
45:25Same.
45:26The other part of that, of course, is the concrete on the floor.
45:28Yeah.
45:29Is it white enough?
45:30Yes.
45:31Are you sure?
45:32I think it ties in with the rest of the house.
45:34The tone of the house, the texture of the floor ties into the walls as well.
45:38That's what we were aiming for the whole time.
45:41I mean, another thing in here that I really, really like is that you've got
45:45the dining table connected to the kitchen, but the living room is over there.
45:49Yeah.
45:50Out of the way.
45:51It's not some big open plan thing where it's all happening all the time all at once.
45:54Like it feels like there's a great sort of modest scale that sets up for little moments
45:59of interactions, which is perfect.
46:01Yeah?
46:02Yeah.
46:03So Noah's in your life now.
46:04Yeah.
46:05So we've got a little one that's going to grow up in here.
46:07Yeah.
46:08Are you worried about it marking?
46:09Like, whilst it looks beautiful now, it's got to be lived in.
46:12Yeah.
46:13So if we make some marks along the way, who cares?
46:15Yeah.
46:16Every house takes on its own story, doesn't it?
46:17Yeah, exactly.
46:18In a house that was more about function than form, there are a few design surprises.
46:25This is the first thing I unpacked when we moved in.
46:27Of all the stuff we had to unpack, this is the whisky collection.
46:31Now I see the colour.
46:32Yeah.
46:33Yeah.
46:34So much colour.
46:35There's a place for everything and everything in its place.
46:38Yeah.
46:39Yeah.
46:40While the sneaky whisky cupboard might not fit with the Scandi wellness retreat vibes,
46:45the main bedroom suite, also on the ground floor, oozes serenity and calm.
46:51The perfect spot to sleep it off.
46:55And this is Noah's future playroom and we've got two bedrooms.
47:00Upstairs, the only exception to Nicole's muted palette, the main bathroom.
47:06I had free reign of that room.
47:09With pops of bubblegum pink and warm terracotta, while down the hall, baby Noah's domain.
47:17All soft and floaty and a little bit ethereal.
47:21It's pretty spectacular, isn't it?
47:22Yeah.
47:23It's pretty damn cool.
47:24What a great effect that is.
47:26The round window, the curtains, a really soft light coming through.
47:29It's almost, it's almost church-like.
47:31That is really unexpected and pretty powerful, actually.
47:34I love it.
47:35Yeah.
47:36You see it from the front, but then you come inside, it's a whole different feel to it.
47:38Yeah.
47:40The eco-friendly, manufactured pulpwood floors look great.
47:44Especially something that's man-made.
47:46Yeah.
47:47It's pretty cool.
47:48Yeah.
47:49That's the textured, non-toxic lime paint.
47:52Every surface has something a bit tactile about it.
47:55If the walls could talk, they'd tell of the struggles to get here, belying how comfortable
48:01it all looks.
48:04But just as important to Matt is how it operates.
48:07Now we've got to prove that it can perform as advertised.
48:10Yeah.
48:11Yeah.
48:12And certifier Drew Croker is ready to put it through its paces with an air pressure test
48:19which measures air tightness.
48:21Matt, you must be feeling a bit nervous right now because you have been going to so much trouble
48:26to get this to work.
48:27So this is a big moment.
48:29Pressure test coming up.
48:30What are we actually shooting for here?
48:32I'm aiming for Australia's most airtight house.
48:35Drew, in your experience, what's the best reading you're aware of in Australia?
48:40Alright, 0.1.
48:41Oh, alright.
48:42It was 11 years ago.
48:4311 years ago.
48:44Okay, no pressure, right?
48:46No pressure at all.
48:47And just remind me, what's Passive House certification standards?
48:500.6.
48:51So way below Passive House.
48:53Alright.
48:54Are we all ready for this?
48:55Yeah, we're ready, yeah.
48:56You're nervous for me.
48:57Alright, let's do this.
48:58Alright.
48:59Let's do it.
49:10Under 0.1 is the magic number.
49:20I think it's coming to a rest.
49:21I don't think we're going to make it.
49:26It's not getting lower.
49:27Not quite.
49:28And it looks like we are around 0.2, yeah, 0.26.
49:410.26.
49:42Yeah.
49:43I don't think we're going to make it.
49:44All right.
49:45So we didn't make it.
49:46Yeah, we didn't make it, yes.
49:48So you've definitely passed Passive House certification.
49:50Yeah.
49:51We have panels of fence past that.
49:53Way past that.
49:54So this is like gold, gold, gold standard and we're just a little bit away from the best
49:59in Australia.
50:00It's like aiming for like a record.
50:02Sometimes you miss them and that's okay.
50:03Yeah.
50:04Absolutely right.
50:05While it might not be the claim Matt was hoping for, it's pretty damn close and certainly
50:12nothing to sneeze at.
50:14Well, I just want to say congratulations and it's beautiful to see Noah sitting here
50:18with both of you.
50:19Yeah.
50:20It's a family picture.
50:21This is what it's all about, isn't it?
50:22Yeah.
50:23Like it's absolutely spectacularly gorgeous.
50:24Yeah, it is.
50:25The Passive House is one thing, but you had bigger ambitions than that.
50:29It's a healthy home.
50:30And I'm just excited that that's where this little one's going to grow up.
50:33Yeah.
50:34A big part of the house too was the quality of the air.
50:36Yeah.
50:37Parts per million of all sorts of bad things that are around us in big cities.
50:41How's that working out specifically?
50:43There was times last week that it was above 15.
50:46And we look at the data over there and we're sitting at around 2.
50:49Right.
50:50So the difference inside, outside is you can't even compare them.
50:53Oh, it's like orders of magnitude.
50:54Yeah.
50:55So it actually scares the pants off me thinking about the air quality that's just outside that door.
50:59So then let's just go to budget then.
51:01You had a budget of about $950,000 in mind when we first met.
51:05Mm-hmm.
51:06I think I said I'd be happy if we did it for under a million.
51:08And did you?
51:09Yeah, we were under budget.
51:11Slightly.
51:12About 20 grand.
51:13But that's at my cost as a builder.
51:15Right.
51:16Just shy of a million bucks for this.
51:18That's a pretty good price for such a quality build here.
51:22But what kind of premium in that amount did you pay for the Passive House?
51:27Around, I would say, $40,000 to $55,000.
51:30So that 5% value on that.
51:32Mm-hmm.
51:33So it's a very small amount of money to get a huge amount of gain.
51:36Yeah.
51:37I mean, the benefits in the long-term running of the home I get.
51:39Yeah.
51:40Any other benefits that come from the Passive House decision?
51:42Yeah.
51:43We have the ability to access a green loan.
51:45So we will be able to get about 40 basis points lower on our interest rate for the first five years,
51:50which on this project, on the million dollars equates to about $25,000.
51:53That's not a small amount of money.
51:54Yeah.
51:55And if they decide to extend that for the duration of a 30-year loan, there's $100,000 in savings.
51:59Mm.
52:00That's...
52:01And no-one's talking about that.
52:02So that's a pretty healthy recognition of the benefits of going for Passive House, but from a financial perspective as well.
52:08Yeah, the financial perspective is well documented.
52:11Time-wise, you said you'd be in in 12 months.
52:14Yeah.
52:15And you had a baby along the way.
52:1714 months.
52:18Yeah.
52:19You did have a beautiful baby along the way.
52:20So, all right, I'm going to forgive you those two months.
52:23I think that's very fair.
52:24Just when you think ahead to the years you're going to spend here in this home,
52:27what's the thing that makes you feel like this was all worth it in the end?
52:31I'd say that all the hard work we've done to get here is something that makes it worthwhile.
52:36Usually our build house is for other people, but this one's for us.
52:39Yeah.
52:40And that's pretty cool.
52:41That is very cool.
52:43Oh!
52:44Yeah.
52:45Yeah.
52:50At last, the work and the wait are over.
52:54Matt and Nicole can take a deep breath to stop and celebrate the moment in their own private sanctuary.
53:03I like the contrast of the colours.
53:05Nicole gave me a bit of free range on this one.
53:07Yeah.
53:08How cool is that?
53:10This beautiful family home is a gift.
53:13For now and for the future.
53:22I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone for all your support.
53:25We're so excited to finally be in our house and to have you all here.
53:30So, here's to the house.
53:31Cheers!
53:32Cheers!
53:33Cheers!
53:34Cheers!
53:35Cheers!
53:36Cheers!
53:37Cheers!
53:38Cheers!
53:39I'm already imagining Christmas Day at that table over there, don't you reckon?
53:42Oh!
53:43Fantastic Christmas, but even greater times moving forward.
53:44Excellent.
53:45Cheers to that.
53:46Cheers.
53:47It's all about fantasy.
53:48You know, in the end I'm not sure it really matters whether or not this is Australia's
54:04healthiest home because it's experimental, ambitious and highly instructive.
54:10Matt and Nicole have tried and tested new materials and technologies and shown not only that they
54:17work but that they look great too.
54:19Best of all, in the end they've built a safe, sustainable and healthy home that is a great
54:25conversation starter.
54:27Here's hoping more and more people are up for the chat.
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