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00:00God are the days of the couch potato these days it's all about exercise and
00:12how much we eat and drink and sleep but there's one frontier that remains
00:18unexplored where and how we live so what if you wanted to build Australia's
00:27healthiest home right in the heart of the big smoke what would that even entail
00:57the feathers all in formation
01:07so what are your thoughts on these ones here
01:12it looks like they've just got a fancy like headpiece on
01:15they feel like they can't see very much
01:17pigeon shows are typically where you'd find builder Matt Cullen and marketing manager
01:25Nicole Pierce is that just their feathers or that's their body maybe it's like a
01:30mating thing do we like pigeons do you like pigeons
01:38no I wouldn't say they're my favorite animal actually I don't like them at all
01:44pigeons are weird put it this way you don't go to the zoo to see a pigeon no
01:53but that didn't stop them spending seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars four
01:58years back buying a ramshackled old pigeon racing clubhouse in Yarraville in Melbourne's
02:04inner west as you can see it's definitely not up to the livable standards not enough
02:09windows or anything like that the sheds cooked it needs to go it's a small block
02:14but it's in a really great location there's beautiful parks it's close to the city and
02:19it's close to family where we've grown up in Williamstown on a super tight 191 square
02:26meter block the site was exactly what they've been looking for except for one
02:31giant drawback unfortunately there's a lot of industry around we've got the
02:37freeways we've got the ports there's also existing refineries so it is one of the
02:42worst summer to air quality in Australia it's been a lifelong problem from that
02:51who suffers from chronic allergies and asthma so whilst I had a pretty good
02:57childhood like I was a kid that did have asthma I remember being I was on the
03:02nebulizer this time as we have a random asthma attack mum and dad would take me
03:07to the children's hospital as I've grown older I've developed probably a lot more
03:11hay fever and allergies I feel like I live off antihistamines
03:20but it's also been a huge motivator when he's not building houses he's a part-time
03:27podcaster taking the building industry to task and exploring ways to build
03:32healthier homes I'm gonna say see I'm gonna have a huge issue what some trades
03:36charge what they're doing we're working out what a trade should work the issues
03:42with building in Australia is essentially we're building tents glorified tents
03:46that are cheap poorly constructed the goal is to be responsible I think he's
03:52building an energy-efficient a comfortable healthy resilient durable building
03:57that is essentially going to be the healthiest home that we can possibly build
04:01arguably maybe that healthiest home in Australia did he say the healthiest
04:07home in Australia that's a big call
04:13hello hey Matt hey I was expecting to see a pigeon racing clubhouse right here
04:20it's gone you couldn't keep any of it no no it's gone it was unlivable it was
04:26falling apart structurally not sound but we'll manage to when we demolished it able to
04:31recycle most of stuff through timber and stuff so that will get repurposed
04:33elsewhere in the local community our friends and
04:36family it's always going to be affectionately known as pigeon house is
04:40that a good thing for you guys or we went into it a little bit with the design as
04:45well so double storey big large circle windows pitched roof okay so we're still
04:51playing some homage to the pigeon racing club it's all right so apart from being
04:55modeled somewhat on a pigeon house what's gonna make it special it's that we're
05:01building a passive house so we are going for the ultimate form of building what we
05:05could the gold sticker but it is a very healthy house we're not doing just the
05:10structure and things like that we're going for inside materials we're trying to be as
05:13healthy as we possibly can okay so passive house and all of those
05:16sustainability principles right down through every dimension yeah we've looked at
05:20everything I would say from energy to water to the materials that are going to the building
05:24everything I do want to get the strays at most airtight house yeah I know that
05:29sits about point one air exchange summer officially on the books I'd love to break
05:33that oh I just heard a challenge being thrown down there's a challenge and it's
05:39going to be tough and yeah the results of the improvement on that doesn't really
05:42change much the building at such a small detail but I would love to be like hey I
05:46got that to that it sounds like that you're on a real crusade there's a lot of
05:50negativity around building at the moment like let's be positive like every strain wants to
05:55be in a healthy comfortable house we want to prove that's possible if we design our houses
05:59correctly and orientate our houses correctly to get that free Sun and we we build airtight and
06:04we remove we remove those air leakages our heating cooling bills go down our comfort
06:08goes up so it's just taking pride in what we build designed by Alterico architects this
06:15three-bedroom two-story home gives a nod to the old pigeon shed on the outside while packed with
06:21Scandinavian and Japanese design influences inside neutral tones and clean lines throughout with a
06:28bright white concrete slab on the ground floor but the key driver of this design is not how it looks
06:35but how it operates invoking passive house design principles developed in Europe in the late 1980s for
06:42maximum energy efficiency with features including solar panels water recycling air filtering triple
06:50glazed windows and sustainable timber throughout the insulation will be amped up and the walls wrapped
06:57inside and out to create a continuous thermal envelope which will keep the house at a year-round
07:0320 to 25 degrees Celsius without the need for heating or cooling for a relatively simple design it'll be
07:12an environmental powerhouse now that all sounds great but it also sounds like the
07:17main reason people don't do this is because that becomes very expensive building is expensive like you're in a climate where
07:24building that's a yes yeah of course it is it's kind of like you're taking a pretty
07:28ordinary sedan and you're super charging it yeah well if you're gonna do it you do it
07:31properly so for me like it's protecting the structure from water so like I'm all
07:35about wrapping the outside correctly and like I can't wrap a birthday present from the coal but I can wrap a house
07:40like it's those things that like I want to really get into that's what I'm more excited about so
07:45what is all this going to cost you we are looking at nine hundred fifty thousand dollars if you said
07:51that just with an ordinary house on the scale of the site that I'm standing on I'd say probably a
07:55good outcome for that yeah but with all the high spec you're going for I'm worried and I'm starting to shake it
08:02a little bit and if you go over the budget I can't go over budget like okay it's a hard line
08:08it's going to be look pretty bad as a builder going over budget for your own house like that's what we've
08:12allocated it's what we can afford or willing to spend on it I understand that things can go wrong
08:16so there is a contingency and look we'd love to do it for under a million how long is this going to
08:21take 12 months yeah we're hoping for you actually stumbled when you said 12 months like I don't
08:26actually believe that number myself I guess I'm going to be the the one that's sitting there being
08:31like okay what where are we up to what's what's happening what's happening next we're a bit behind
08:35on on this bit yeah but it is going to be treated as if it's one of Matt's projects so we think that
08:41we're going to be able to stick to that timeline you have an amazing project you've described here
08:45very ambitious in a very tight little parcel of land here you know a lot to squeeze in yeah I can't
08:52wait to see how you pull this off same yeah Matt's setting the bar pretty high for himself and with
09:03health and the environment as the key motivators it's no wonder but there's a reason why more of
09:10us don't build this way it's a lot of money to put towards how the house functions rather than how
09:16it looks not to mention that we're a mostly temperate climate here in Australia and throwing the windows
09:22and doors open has become something of a national pastime so while this may become Australia's healthiest
09:30house will it be something that will inspire others to follow suit or just a curious experiment because
09:37I'm not sure bird box living is for everyone before Matt and his team can start building up they've got
09:54to go down I don't know if that's where I don't know if it's where I think it's just the clay digging a
10:01hole for the 5,000 litre recycled rainwater tank for the loo's laundry and garden and while the 195
10:10square meter site might be cleared below ground it's anything but it's a rock there that's a rock there
10:22too there's one rock there and one there and I'm hoping they're two separate ones
10:27shit gonna be slow going isn't it
10:33I knew we should have brought the bigger machine
10:39due to the size we just don't have the ability to get a big machine we had a big machine now just
10:45be able to scoop them all out so size size of site does make it a lot harder to get bigger rocks out
10:50like this
10:59no he went in that's not the big one either no I know if the digger can't lift them out here's a novel idea
11:08oh there you go and there's a lot more where that came from
11:19for slow going weeks on with the small digger eventually clearing the rocks the rainwater tanks
11:33in the ground and 42 cubic meters of concrete are going down for the slab but this isn't any old
11:42concrete as a globe use enough concrete per week to build a whole of Manhattan there's a lot of
11:48concrete and concrete is one of the biggest greenhouse gas emissions products in the world like it counts
11:54about 8% of greenhouse gas emissions I think only gas and coal are bigger so the whole thing is we
12:01want to improve in that area you can see they're like in the corner working out like their base this
12:07we're using an eco pack concrete which is reducing the the amount of carbon in the concrete by 70% it
12:13uses things like fly ash and slag and other coal by products it's usually a little bit more expensive
12:19but my thing in five to six years this should be just standard concrete mix we are happy days
12:31two weeks later with the eco slab set the timber walls can go up but first they need to be wrapped
12:42in a waterproof membrane to protect the thermal insulation help with air tightness and create a
12:48moisture barrier to stop wood decay that is slippery for a high-tech home there's a lot of low-tech cutting
12:57and sticking well there would be if it wasn't so wet I think it actually has to be really dry
13:06that's not nice so we were going to put down our external membrane on our ply which is an adhered
13:16product so it's essentially thinking of it like a little children's book where we contact paper the
13:22frame so it needs to stick into here quite tight to it when it's where it pointed here so that's
13:28more the frustrating part what is the radar so annoying just pull the pin it's just not magically
13:46going to get better it sucks if building Australia's most passive house in the rain in 12 months isn't
13:59daunting enough have you read the instruction the instruction book exactly and I did and I made eggs
14:06on it and nothing stuck there's another unexpected development yeah we have had something pop up
14:15that's going to put some additional pressure on the timelines and getting the house finished Maddie
14:23and I are very fortunate that we are expecting a new addition to the family come June the baby will
14:30arrive before the house is complete but I'm always asking what timeline looks like if we can bring that
14:36forward any further we just obviously like to get ourselves and the little one into our new house as
14:43soon as possible it's just one more spinning plate Matt has to deal with so running a business moving
14:52house building about her own house trying this podcast up and going have a child make things harder
14:59and what's the saying if you gotta run run faster so I think Matt's gonna be in for a little bit of a surprise
15:08it's now six months into the 12-month passive house pigeon club transformation the walls are wrapped and
15:29upright and today Matt's imported triple glazed windows will hopefully seal the deal today we've got
15:41windows going up so they come about three weeks ago from overseas and we need to get them in as quick as
15:45we possibly can we're just trying to push as much as we can in these drier months to essentially get to a
15:53point where once it gets to those colder wetter days where everything's inside also Nicole is 12 weeks
16:00pregnant which is exciting but it does give us a little bit more motivation to push a little bit
16:05faster so I've got a lot to do these windows set the bar for insulation the three layers of glass slow the
16:17heat transfer through the windows but also prevent any air or water leaks and fight the risk of
16:24condensation and mold a nightmare for asthma sufferers like Matt so don't drop it Alex do you want to set
16:33up a hose I want to flood test this window to make sure it's watertight I want to test our windows in the
16:39sense of like we get one shot of putting them in yeah and if they leak well then that defeats a lot of
16:46the purpose of the building but that is one thing I'm a bit nervous on go for it I'm literally looking
16:57for like a draw it's never gonna rain this much on a window so it's simulating and you see an amount
17:05of water like if it works under this we we know it's gonna survive yeah I've got it in this corner
17:15somewhere where it's coming in I don't know but there's a fair bit in there I've got a water drop at
17:25the top here too if that's where the line is in the water drop somewhere up there it could be something
17:36as simple as like the team are putting a screw and this is the membrane and we're talking a hole it's
17:43like maybe that big it's so tiny but that is enough to cause that like so catching that early is like
17:50a huge win for us we will fix it and flood test the rest come back next week once it's all dried out
17:57flood test it again and we keep doing that until they're all right Matt's on a mission all right
18:05and he's not alone in the fight for clean air in and around Yarraville residents in Melbourne's inner
18:14west are calling for filtration units before the opening of the Westgate tunnel later this year
18:19under the current design the tunnel will have tall unfiltered ventilation stacks locals are worried
18:25that won't do enough to reduce pollution they're building all these new these new roads which is great
18:33but the problem is all the fumes from the cars have been congregated into one little spot and they've
18:39decided not to filter any of the air that comes out of that so it's now already a suburb with pretty
18:46poor air quality and it seems like it's just about to get worse it's the reason why I decided to build
18:52the way we do it's all about taking back control and being able to have a say in the air quality of our home
19:03so when was the last time you came here on tight oh god about a month ago I'd say if there's one person
19:18who's not surprised by Matt's drive and determination it's his dad Ross how many guys in the building
19:26trade for many years himself today the old dogs learning some new tricks look at the ceiling with
19:32the wood inside nothing like that when I was a kid as Matt begins the difficult task of adding a
19:37thermal layer to the inside of the house you can hear there's no you can't hear the noise from
19:43outside you can't even hear the radio downstairs upstairs at the moment like once it's all shut up
19:47you will not hear a thing outside well which is another level of comfort everyone thinks thermally
19:51but sound air quality like odors and smells vibrations like we're covering them all well I reckon
19:59that Melbourne's the highest asthma capital of the world now to do that today is it really yep so set
20:05a house like this will help that kind of thing been around a fair bit it's totally different when I
20:09was a kid my dad was a carpenter and then his dad was a carpenter and so like I say you can see how
20:15things are changing and how things are improving bricklay is gonna start in two weeks Matthew was
20:20getting a thing called passive houses I wouldn't have a clue what a passive house was so he's probably
20:25teaching me more than what I'm teaching him these days you don't need many staples to hold this up
20:29and if you do it correctly we can just you get staples in spots where the tape's gonna hide it so
20:34the whole idea is we don't want to have staples in the middle here because that if that blows off that
20:39can become an air leak in the future what we're but while Matt might be the passive house pro it's not
20:44stopping the apprentice passing on some fatherly advice I've got to kind of cut that you're gonna
20:51cut it yeah I'm gonna cut it to fill in wouldn't you do that over here first Matthew wouldn't you cut it over there
20:58no no no no no yeah then I could pull that across are you you're gonna have it too short then I don't
21:04want to have to pull it down because you made a mistake no I'd be doing that corner first yeah I'm
21:09trying to work it out seriously could have picked it couldn't have picked a harder room to start this
21:14list fair dinkum don't cut your hands I'm not gonna cut my hands oh yeah we have our arguments don't
21:24worry about that but it is his house and he's the builder which runs his projects and everything like
21:29that so I've got to back off a little bit how many houses have we built together like three did we fight
21:37100% before I don't mind a bit of questioning a bit of to and fro just to make sure you get the
21:46result that's right anyway you can improve there's no doubt about it buildings a stressful game at the
21:56best of times and Matt's still a long way from home base this is your neighborhood yeah right yeah
22:02and this is your neighborhood cat yes this is the local all right something Nicole is very aware of
22:07Matt is throwing so much at this you know I mean he's deep deep into this like how's he going I think
22:18he does sort of hide the stress when he does come home yeah being pregnant I don't think he wants to put
22:26that stress on me but he's he's really good at recognizing that you know he's really good at
22:31sort of just saying this is getting to me I'm I'm worried about X Y and Z he then also says oh I've
22:37got to get this done for the house but then I've also got to talk at this conference record this
22:41podcast so it's all of those multitude of projects he finds really exciting but all of that on top of
22:49each other yeah and with a little one on the way yes I mean that is such great news obviously but of
22:55course it's just another level of like life event yes that is happening simultaneously here I mean
23:01are you able to sort of relax yeah I think my nature is sort of the the calming nature to Matt's storm
23:07and chaos every time we chat there's maybe another week or two that's been added to the timeline but I
23:16think at this stage again I've got another project to be focused on yeah look a house is important
23:22but I think you've got your eyes on the right priorities here so absolutely sounds like you've
23:25got it sorted yeah as competing interests go baby definitely trumps build especially one that's taking
23:35longer and costing more than your average build take the $25,000 heat recovery system being installed on
23:45site to filter and purify the air it's just a photo of a filter we changed out recently out of a HIV system
23:54that had been in for about six months and the filter on the left is the new filter that we put in so
24:00you can see the color difference you actually see those different bugs and stuff in the filter as
24:05well which has been brought in from outside originally I was a bit of a cynic but then when you experience it
24:09and build it from the ground up and you can feel it and you can see it yeah yeah you soon get convinced
24:14that these things are good for homes and you start to do them on your own homes like I am what I'm
24:21looking at here is the lungs to our house and that is going to provide us with fresh clean air that's
24:25filtered and what this is doing is practically filtering out all the particulates and pollutants
24:31in the air and allowing us to breathe in some nice healthy clean air so for me this is the ability to
24:39reduce those sort of things and just feel that the air that I'm breathing in my own house is quality
24:47does every house need this to this level and this expense probably not but what price do you put on
24:56your health what price indeed but in a temperate climate like Australia will passive houses ever
25:11really take off classic conservation heritage but I guess that my architect Karen erdos who designed a
25:20number of passive house projects including this old beauty in Annandale thinks yes with a few
25:26provisors so you classic Victorian terrace yeah absolutely classic it's in the middle of a conservation
25:32area it fits right into its streetscape you've got the French doors down here the Rhode Island
25:38balustrade even a beautiful parapet with a name on it warrain so it's got all those classic on a
25:43Victorian details around it yep but it doesn't look like a passive house you would never know it's a
25:48passive house and and we had those constraints being in the conservation area yeah we had to keep
25:52it looking exactly as as is and there's nothing about it except the plaque on the wall that tells
25:58us yeah that it's a passive house so what's it feel like inside should we go have a look let's go
26:04so here we are here we are oh beautiful you know really contemporary sort of terrace feel nice and
26:21bright and light I feel those things already it's very open yeah so it's not your classic terrace in
26:26that we've come in through the side yes the whole front room stays intact it's just such a beautiful flow
26:32from the big front room there right through to the backyard you can see the green pulled in in both
26:37directions which is just gorgeous yeah and the big transformation was originally it was a lot of
26:42smaller darker not particularly friendly or healthy feeling spaces yeah so the idea was to open it right
26:51up and despite the orientation get as much natural light yeah mission as possible and it's quiet quiet
26:59yeah it's very quiet how nice is nothing happening from the street yeah so this is excellent so and
27:05then the the light in the backyard calling us through to I can see the addition yes yeah yeah
27:09yeah let's go have a look oh I like this that's very clever
27:15with three bedrooms upstairs what really stands out is the house has retained all its old heritage charm
27:27because while it's one thing to build a new passive house it's another thing altogether to retrofit an old
27:35house so what was so hard about making this home a passive house and what was the kind of like the
27:43financial addition you had to put on all of this to make it work so this one was a particularly tricky
27:51challenge because of the heritage overlay best practice is to come from the outside and get your
27:57insulation and your membranes and so forth on the outside of the of the building because of the
28:01heritage overlay we had to do things on the inside so that was yeah that was a particular challenge in in
28:07this case a lot of people would say and of course it's a real thing is the cost associated with it and I
28:13mean I hear numbers like 20 even 30 percent you know in addition to a standard build to get a
28:19passive house so it's like look I'd love to but I just can't I mean how do we get around that look
28:25it's the conversation of the day I actually experienced this for myself oh really I just did a renovation and
28:32I wanted to walk the walk I've talked a lot about passive house I do it for my clients and I really wanted to have a passive house
28:39it came down to budget and there was just too many areas of the house that we would have had to
28:46completely strip back and redo that we were otherwise not going to touch right so it was a devastating
28:52moment when I realized that we just couldn't do it it wasn't attainable but we did the best that we
28:58could within our constraints and this is this is like the real story let's do the best that we can
29:04so let's use the high-performance windows let's get the mechanical ventilation in there let's get
29:10all the insulation in there yeah let's design out those thermal bridges we're going through the all
29:15of the the passive house principles here and let's get the building working as best as we can so what
29:23about the critique that passive house gives you a kind of a slightly dead feeling inside because
29:28it's all so controlled and it's do you I mean how do you respond to that I've heard I've heard an
29:34argument a lot that I'd like to hear the birds outside yeah I'd like to hear the noises outside
29:38and that's really great if you have birds outside to listen to but if you're under a flight path or
29:43next to a train line or a busy road and all the noise that is not necessarily desirable it's really
29:51welcome to shut that right down and have this quiet oasis so what I'm hearing is all the principles that
30:01passive house lays out are absolutely things we should continue to build on yes but we shouldn't
30:07be put off by the zealous application of every single part of the passive house kind of regime because
30:15you know getting close is the goal look I would call passive house the gold standard yeah if you can
30:20great let's do it it's almost like an insurance policy you pay insurance premiums for your house this
30:26is like an insurance policy that you'll have a robust well-built high-quality and healthy home that will
30:33last the test of time so I mean it feels good it feels really nice standing right here yeah you sure
30:40I can open those doors that door's open absolutely
30:45back on site it's now eight months into Matt and Nicole's twelve-month project and just two
31:11months till baby makes three yeah let's calm down bring that down suffice to say for a passive house
31:19things are looking pretty active no one told me bricks were coming today I was told bricks Monday
31:29yeah now we got 18 pallets of bricks coming so they've got to have room to mix and move and
31:36probably got about 10 minutes to do a week's work yeah Alex bring your car here so I get on the
31:42metal and put all the metal in the back as well yeah just run these inside yeah all right calm down
31:49you go straight you'll be on it
31:54the crew barely have time to catch their breath
32:00as the next challenge is laying a groundbreaking internal infill slab for the floor we are using
32:10a white concrete so that's super exciting when you install concrete we usually put a steel mesh in
32:17there reinforcement bar we know steel is a massive contributed greenhouse gas emissions steel is heavy
32:25so we've thought a bit outside the square here and we have found this glass fiber reinforcement bar
32:32and really what they're going to do here is they're going to pretty much cut this up themselves and make
32:36their own mesh inside it will be three times as strong as a standard steel mesh way easy for these guys to
32:46install you see how light this is like a tenth of the weight it is also cheaper that's the crazy part
32:52it's a game-changing product molten glass fibers are wound into spools
33:00pulled through a resin bath and then cured
33:05to give the bars their strength and durability
33:09you can pick up 80 rods on your shoulder verse 10 it's lovely because you just walk it walk it all in
33:24I mean I think it'll end up being very much being the future just for the ease of ease of use
33:32no way I could carry this many I wouldn't even attempt to carry this many if it was steel
33:41unfortunately not everyone on site is impressed
33:51hey Finn Finn Finn no peeing inside
33:54every dog's everyone just peeing all over yes Finn what are you doing you rascal
34:01cheeky boy it brings out the white in the concrete don't worry about it
34:06let's hope so because while Nicole's had her mind on bigger things
34:21the one thing she's adamant about is white concrete you can see it coming up and not
34:30just any white concrete it has to be the right white there's been a lot of
34:36discussions Pinterest boarding inspiration to show exactly what's in my mind of what
34:43I'm wanting for this the flooring will have a huge impact on the overall look of
34:48the house but I do understand that concrete you can't 100% control and say this is exactly what
34:55I want concrete hard because like you're so dependent on the weather the drying temperature
35:04the humidity in the air but how much you work it how much water is in the mix so there's so
35:09many factors you can over vibrate it as well like we don't want to see stone so you can go for it
35:14too we know that we've given it its best chance we've got 10% white oxide through it to whiten it
35:20up we're gonna sort of roll with it and see what happens as the concrete sets the color lightens over
35:27the time how much wider will crack what how much wider will crack 30 40 percent I want to get you like now you already being too white can't I can't win now she's wondering how wide it's gonna go could be too wide
35:47at the end of the day Nicole's back for a site inspection
36:04and that's what the finish will be like inside yeah that's what we're trying to get it like yeah
36:14and the verdict
36:23happy days happy days
36:27still married
36:31the interior cladding also needs to meet Nicole's approval
36:38they want to use a revolutionary variety of sustainable timber
36:44but have not seen it firsthand so Matt's making an early morning dash to the factory in Adelaide
36:50before locking it in but with Nicole almost at full term this is the worst possible timing
36:58Nicole any point now could give me a call and be like it's time baby's on its way so that's super exciting
37:13but I don't like uncertainty I have no control over that which is something that's like gets to me a
37:23little mix I like control in Australia 49 percent of log trees are deemed unfit for building but here
37:33low-grade pulpwood veneers usually used for paper are being transformed into premium hardwood what would
37:41normally be waste we're going to convert this in a solid timber we do that fire rotary peeling
37:47so if you're coring an apple essentially peeling it you're going to use a lot more of the product you
37:53don't get any sawdust and you recover 65 percent from the log rather than the
37:58traditional saw milling of 33 percent wow such a huge increase all the timber used here is from
38:06sustainably managed forests which is right up Matt's alley this is the start of the process here so
38:16we've taken the veneers we've cut them in a guillotine into strips yeah so they're all straight
38:24and wide from there it's getting applied with glue via that roller the glue we use is water-based and
38:31toxin free yeah then it's heading into the ovens where it's making the glue really tacky so we bond
38:37it together and all it is so this becomes like a big log essentially yep big solid timber wow
38:46once this process starts to the end you're producing 300 kilos of timber within 20 minutes 20 minutes yeah
38:54so we'll go from these strips into a block in about 20 minutes absolutely yeah wow as long as we get this
39:00timber looking like the timber outside and we can match as best as possible I think Nicole is going
39:06to be hopefully quite happy because you know what it is it's a happy wife happy life yeah absolutely is
39:12it still going to look like timber is it still going to have the characteristics where the grain comes
39:16through and because we've used real timber in other places in the building will it match I've prepared
39:22this for you Matt just have a look at what a finished product could look like that's not stained yeah
39:26geez it feels like timber too like it even the weight like you wouldn't you wouldn't know that
39:34this has just come straight out of a machine I feel pressure because I want Nicole to be really really
39:39happy with the end result it feels it looks like everything that we wanted the characteristics are
39:44there if she's happy with what we have here we'll be pressing prints and putting this awesome material in
39:49our house and really the best bit out of it like she hasn't called me saying there's no baby issues or
39:54nothing's happened so I guess that's the big winner of out of today
40:06this transformation will only be a win for Matt if he fulfills his quest to build the most airtight
40:12house in Australia as the project enters its final phase he's on the hunt for any little air holes
40:21that would create a draft we're just doing a little bit of leak detection today so it's actually got
40:26it like a DJ smoke machine and they're going to just smoke out as much of the house and the whole
40:34idea is to see if you can see any movement in any section make sure everything is as tight as we can
40:39be go for it this is one of the areas I'm really concerned about
40:47it just goes to see over here just here it just disappears it's actually a fair bit happening up
40:54here but I knew this would be a tricky spot I can see installations are here so there's a massive gap
40:59like fixing a puncture Matt needs to tape over each and every hole but the more tests they do the
41:10more leaks they find I know this is one here see and through here oh there's heaps through here
41:19for that it's not even tape ah is this another tricky junction then we might as well try that it's
41:26all these tricky ones through here oh I can hear that yeah you can hear it when I said that I had no
41:35idea on how complex this project was oh that's smashing in here too this is gonna be the hardest
41:44one but I did set out with an expectation of trying to build Australia's most airtight house so it's
41:51gonna be pretty hard what started as a crusade has turned into an obsession
42:14to say that Matt's taken the battle for Yarraville's air quality right to his front door is an
42:23understatement it's now over a year since he started building his and Nicole's giant air filtering
42:30machine of a house and I'm fascinated to see how it's all worked out Matt has thrown everything at
42:40this he's researched it to within an inch of his life and what I'm worried about is this whole thing
42:45is going to look like a Meccano set of technical solutions but not actually be a family home now
42:52it's finished it's all done it's all buttoned up let's see if they got there
42:56look at this this is picture perfect and there they are look how comfy the dog is I know I know
43:13it's her it's her house really can I come in
43:16congratulations both of you this was such an epic project for you both wasn't it yeah you put so
43:29much into this I know you just obsessed over every single nail that went into this just a little bit
43:33this is an act of love I think there was passion everywhere there's a lot of passion a lot of passion
43:39but yeah well I'd say we're pretty proud yeah I mean from the street it looks very calm I mean that
43:46was the that was a goal from my perspective aesthetically from Matt he had you know the
43:51healthy home part yeah behind everything every decision so is it working yeah as good as it's
43:57looking yeah well I think it proves you can mix sexy with healthy okay oh sexy we went we went
44:03somewhere else well the whole place just looks so well put together and it's it's cutting such a
44:10beautiful picture paying homage to the old pigeon racing clubhouse the double bird box facade is a nod
44:18to the past while creating a contemporary and unique design what's it like in there you want to go have a
44:26look of course I do but inside is what it's all about Anthony this is our dining and kitchen space oh this
44:33looks incredible like well done there's such a sense of tranquility in here I mean this is exactly what
44:39you wanted right yeah I think the thing with healthy homes is it's not just about energy efficiency and
44:45air quality it's also about sound yeah it's really comfortable inside I can feel myself just kind of like
44:50relaxing in here maybe it's the color palette it's quite stripped back yeah I know you had that very much in my
44:56mind from the very beginning right yeah I know some people find it a little bit boring a little
45:00bit beige but that's what I wanted this to me is relaxing like I I'm not too overstimulated it's not
45:06too overwhelming I feel nice and relaxed I entirely get that I think it's a big part of a healthy home is
45:11that sense of you need to actually sort of calm down and it needs to calm you down yeah yeah I need to be
45:16calm down too when you get home from work I can imagine the other part of that of course is the
45:21concrete on the floor is it white enough yes I think it ties in with the rest of the house the
45:29tone of the house the texture of the floor ties into the walls as well that's what we were aiming
45:34for the whole time I mean another thing in here that I really really like is that you've got the
45:40dining table connected to the kitchen but the living room is over there yeah out of the way it's
45:45not some big open plan thing where it's all happening all the time all at once like it feels like there's a
45:50great sort of modest scale that sets up for little moments of interactions which is perfect yeah yeah
45:57so Noah's in your life yeah so we've got a little one that's going to grow up in here yeah are you
46:02worried about it marking like whilst it looks beautiful now it's got to be lived in yeah so
46:07if we make some marks along the way who cares yeah every house takes on its own story doesn't exactly in a
46:14house that was more about function than form there are a few design surprises this is the first thing
46:21I unpacked when we moved in of all the stuff we had to unpack this is the whiskey collection now I see
46:27the color yeah yeah so much color there's a place for everything and everything in its place yeah yeah
46:33yeah while the sneaky whiskey cupboard might not fit with the scanty wellness retreat vibes the main
46:40bedroom suite also on the ground floor oozes serenity and calm the perfect spot to sleep it off
46:47and this is Noah's future playroom and we've got two bedrooms upstairs the only exception to Nicole's
46:57muted palette the main bathroom I had free reign of that room with pops of bubblegum pink and warm
47:06terracotta while down the hall baby Noah's domain all soft and floaty and a little bit ethereal it's
47:16pretty spectacular isn't it yeah it's pretty damn cool what a great effect that is the round window
47:21the curtains are really soft light coming through it's almost it's almost church-like that is really
47:26unexpected and pretty powerful actually I love it yeah you see it from the front yeah coming sides a
47:31whole different feel to it yeah the eco-friendly manufactured pulpwood floors look great especially
47:39something that's man-made yeah it's pretty cool yeah and this is as does the textured non-toxic lime
47:45paint every surface has something a bit tactile about it if the walls could talk they tell of the
47:53it's struggles to get here belying how comfortable it all looks but just as important to Matt is how it
48:01operates now we've got to prove that it can perform as advertised yeah and certifier Drew Croker is ready
48:10to put it through its paces with an air pressure test which measures air tightness Matt you must be
48:17feeling a bit nervous right now because you have been going to so much trouble to get this to work
48:22so this is a big moment pressure test coming up what are we actually shooting for here aiming for
48:28Australia's most airtight house through in your experience what's the best reading you're aware
48:34of in Australia all right 0.1 all right so 11 years ago 11 years ago okay no pressure right no pressure
48:41at all and just remind me what's passive house certification standards point six so way below passive house
48:47all right are we all ready for this yeah we're ready yeah I'm nervous for you I'm nervous for me all
48:51right let's do this all right let's do it under 0.1 is the magic number I think it's coming to a
49:16rest I don't think we're gonna make it it's not getting lower not quite and looks like we are around
49:31point two yeah point two six point two six yeah all right so we didn't we didn't make it yeah we
49:42didn't make it yes so you've definitely passed passive house certification we're panels offense
49:47past that way past so this is like gold gold gold standard and we're just a little bit away from the
49:54best in Australia it's like adding for like a record sometimes you miss them and that's okay
49:57yeah absolutely right while it might not be the claim Matt was hoping for it's pretty damn close
50:04and certainly nothing to sneeze at well I just want to say congratulations and it's beautiful to see
50:12Noah sitting here with both of you this is what the family picture this is what it's all about isn't it
50:17like it's absolutely spectacularly gorgeous yeah it is the passive house is one thing but you had
50:22bigger ambitions than that it's a healthy home and I'm just excited that that's where this little
50:27one's gonna grow up yeah a big part of the house too was the quality of the air yeah parts per million
50:32of all sorts of bad things that are around us in big cities how's that working out specifically those
50:38times last week that it was above 15 and we look at the data over there and we're sitting it around
50:43too right so the difference inside outside is you can't even compare them oh it's like orders of
50:48magnitude yeah so it actually scares the pants off me thinking about the air quality that's just
50:53outside that door so then let's just go to budget then you had a budget of about nine hundred and
50:57fifty thousand in mind when we first met mm-hmm I think I said I'd be happy if we did it for under a
51:02million and did you yeah we under budget slightly about 20 grand but that's at my cost as a builder
51:09right just shy of a million bucks for this that's a it's a pretty good price for such a quality build
51:16here but what kind of premium in that amount did you pay for the passive house around I would say
51:23forty to fifty five thousand dollars so that that five percent value on that so it's just very small
51:29amount of money to get a huge amount of game yeah I mean the benefits in the long-term running of the
51:33home I get any other benefits that come from the passive house decision yeah we have the ability to
51:39access a green loan so we will be able to get about 40 basis points lower on our interest rate for the
51:44first five years which on this project and the million dollars equates about $25,000 that's not
51:48a small amount of money yeah and if they decide to extend that for the duration of a 30-year loan
51:52there's a hundred thousand dollars in savings hmm that's that's and no one's talking about that so
51:57that's a pretty healthy recognition of of the benefits of going through passive house but from
52:02a financial yeah the financial perspective is well documented time-wise you said you'd be in in 12
52:09months yeah and it has taken along the way 14 months yeah you did have a beautiful baby along
52:14the way so all right I want to forgive you those those two months I think that's very fair just when
52:19you think ahead to the years you're going to spend here in this home what's the thing that makes you
52:23feel like this was all worth it in the end I'd say that all the hard work we've done to get here
52:28is something that makes it worthwhile that usually I build houses for other people but this one's for
52:34us yeah and that's pretty cool that that is very cool yeah yeah at last the work and the weight are
52:48over Matt and Nicole can take a deep breath to stop and celebrate the moment in their own private
52:55sanctuary this beautiful family home is a gift for now and for the future I just want to say a huge
53:18thank you to everyone for all your support we're so excited to finally be you know a house and to
53:23have you all here so here's to the house I'm already imagining Christmas day to that table over there
53:36don't you reckon fantastic Christmas but even a greater time is moving forward excellent cheers to that
53:40cheers it's all about family you know in the end I'm not sure it really matters whether or not this
53:58is Australia's healthiest home because it's experimental ambitious and highly instructive Matt and Nicole have
54:06tried and tested new materials and technologies and shown not only that they work but that they look
54:12great too best of all in the end they've built a safe sustainable and healthy home it is a great
54:19conversation start-up he's hoping more and more people are up for the chat
54:34Stream more of Grand Designs Australia on ABC iview for free or how can design lead to a better future tune in to Radio National or ABC listen for the homefront with Anthony Burke
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