	63% buy the item featured on this page: Eco-renovation: Ecological Home Improvement Guide 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
	14% buy Green Building Bible - Fourth Edition, Volume 1.: Essential Information to Help You Make Your Home and Buildings Less Harmful to the Environment, the Community and Your Family 4.7 out of 5 stars (3) �9.95
	11% buy Eco-Refurbishment: A Practical Guide to Creating an Energy Efficient Home 5.0 out of 5 stars (1) �13.99
	7% buy Sustainable Construction 5.0 out of 5 stars (3) �26.99

Explore similar items

Customer Reviews

1 Review

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Home renovation is here linked to global ecological concerns, 2 Jul 2001

By	brian.whalley@britishlibrary.net (Aberystwyth, Wales) - See all my reviews

There are many books on the renovation, extension or adaptation of residential buildings, but no other that I have found with such a broad coverage of the ecological aspects of home improvement. The flavour of this book is gained immediately from the foreword written by the chairman of the Ecology Building Society, Gus Smith, and from the author's own Introduction. Throughout the book there is an emphasis on the importance of living a healthier life, of saving energy as a contribution to conserving the earth's resources, and of using "environmentally friendly materials" for the sake of ourselves and for the sake of the globe on which we live.

Having acquired a partly-modernised former shepherd's cottage a thousand feet up a Welsh hillside, I needed practical advice, and I bought Eco-Renovation after borrowing an earlier version from my local library, for despite its inherent idealism this is in fact a very practical book. I had already spent several months considering a range of renovation problems and possible solutions, but Edward Harland's book prompted me to consider problems that I'd missed and to modify my views on appropriate ways of solving the problems I had identified. Divided into five sections, the book covers Space, Energy, Health and Materials, with a final part, Further Information, containing not only an excellent guide to all aspects of surveying one's home (or prospective home) but also useful references to other sources of advice. It is a pity, though, that the author fails to give the Website addresses of the numerous organisations listed.

A major fault to my mind is the absence of a full analysis of the problems of water penetration, except in the "Assessing your home" section at the end where the reader is alerted to a number of potential problems but with no recommendation for action. The index carries no entries for terms such as rising damp, damp proof course, leaks, flashing, gutters. Nor is there anything on drainage, despite the fact that many people buying rural properties for conversion or improvement will need to consider the installation of a septic tank or the possible alternative of reed beds (the only index entry for reeds relates to thatch and matting).

However, the book scores heavily for the refreshing way in which the author links to the practical elements of home improvement such realities of modern life as the finite life of fossil fuels, our tendency to "fill our homes with clutter," the benefits of growing our own food, the importance of recycling in its many forms, the value of natural light, the hazards of toxic materials, and the ways in which we can live more healthily in our homes by using plants to absorb pollutants and by eating organic produce.

This is an ecological guide in very many different ways, and well worth its modest price.

[ 474 words ]

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all customer reviews...

.jsOffDisplayBlock { display: block; } .jsOffDisplayInline { display: inline; } .jsOffVisibility { visibility: visible; } .jsOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jsOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jsOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; } .jsOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jsOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jqOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jqOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jqOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jqOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jqOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; }