DIY house for £50K, life after EU exit, and the latest Buildingtalk Newsletter

29 Oct 2014

Round-up of latest from the building industry

Howard Chapman, Editor of Buildingtalk

The weekly Buildingtalk Newsletter was emailed to industry subscribers yesterday – take a look at the full version and subscribe for free here. Or you can follow us via Twitter.

Harmer Drainage catalogue launch at the Ice Bar in London

The latest Buildingtalk Newsletter included details of a cool evening spent in the sub-zero Ice Bar in central London at the launch of the latest floor drain catalogue from Harmer. Amazing ice sculptures, cocktails and lovely new drains.

Last week we had the latest EU deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions looked good. But the devil is in the detail and Knauf Insulation argue in our Hot Topics that watered down energy efficiency targets for 2030 have, at a stroke, lost 16 years worth of action and perhaps signal the end of our sustainability ambitions. What do you think?

New products this week on Buildingtalk included lifesaving CO gas detectors; a biomass boiler with 20 year guarantees to match RHI investments; a versatile petrol driven disc cutter; and wireless security that can be installed in under two minutes.

Wikihouse built for the London Design Festival

Do take a look at an amazing time-lapse video of the 3D printed Wikihouse being built for the London Design Festival – the worlds first DIY low energy house built for under £50K. I want one and have a little bit of land in France where it would be perfect.

And finally, is the news that China plans to invest over £100billion in UK infrastructure just a glimpse of the scale of opportunities in world markets post-EU exit?

Next week we begin the big Saint-Gobain online debate on MegaMergers which I have been invited to have my say on. Get involved and have your say too.