Eco-Friendly Extensions

At Simply Extend, we pride ourselves on delivering bespoke kitchen extensions that meet our client’s needs and wants with a high level of customer service. However, construction has been under the limelight recently in terms of the eco-footprint the construction industry leaves behind. There are several ways that Simply Extend can create an eco-friendly extension for you, from the design of your extension, to the carbon footprint of our company.

When you decide to have a home extension there are many decisions you need to make, and you may not even think about how eco-friendly your project is going to be. There are a couple of ways to make your extension better for the environment, primarily with the materials you choose to use in the construction. When you begin planning and designing your home extension, it is always best to speak to your surveyor about the eco-options available to you.

One of the primary ways to increase how environmentally friendly your extension is, is to have a green roof. A green roof comprises of a roof with a waterproof membrane, which has a layer of vegetation on top that allows plants to grow. It can help to attract natural wildlife which helps the local ecology, especially in cities like London. It can also look incredible, with brightly coloured plants and foliage making your extension roof seem like an extension of your home and your garden!

Another important aspect of your extension will be the materials you choose to clad your home, with some cladding options being more eco-friendly than the others. Timber cladding is a popular favourite amongst eco-warriors, as it is a fully renewable and sustainable material as long as replanting initiatives are in place. Timber is known to be better at insulating than other materials such as aluminium and concrete too, so you will find you will have smaller energy bills to pay too – another eco-win!

If you speak to your project manager, you may be able to get access to reclaimed bricks that can be used to build your extension. Reclaimed bricks are old bricks that have been saved from demolition, cleaned and reused for new building projects. It is a form of unprocessed recycling, reducing the number of new materials needing to be made and used to create new building materials. Using reclaimed bricks can be costly however, so you will need to discuss whether using reclaimed bricks will work within your extension budget.

Finally, Simply Extend is an eco-positive workforce, meaning we offset all of our employee’s carbon emissions with Ecologi, a carbon offsetting eco-positive organisation. Each month we donate to Ecologi, to support their tree replanting projects and carbon offsetting projects across the world. You can find the projects we are supporting on our Ecologi profile, which you are more than welcome to talk to us about and discuss with a member of the team.

If you are interested in having an eco-extension, speak to a member of the team on 0800 917 7571 to arrange your free site survey with one of our experienced surveying team.