During winter, the thought of conserving water tends to be less of a priority given how much falls from the sky, but it is a great time to think of how we can use our rainwater tanks to mitigate the impact of sudden downpours on the public stormwater system.While it is more common now for [...]
Looking back, a few key events helped to shape my opinion around the usefulness of wearing safety footwear. Many years ago, on a Saturday afternoon, while working casually in my shed wearing completely unsuitable footwear, I almost took a decent chunk out of my toe with a circular saw I was using. Thereafter I [...]
Every effort we make, no matter how small, to move to a more sustainable future is worthwhile, in my opinion. While we often think about water tanks as being great big 25 or 30,000L tanks sitting in a paddock, the reality is that more and more tanks are being used in urban environments, and I [...]
I first encountered uPVC joinery in New Zealand over 25 years ago. We were doing an alteration to a rural property where the North American owners had committed themselves to using the best joinery they could find, which meant importing the joinery. Fast forward a quarter of a century and I'm delighted to see [...]
Some years ago, I was working with a client who wanted to add some sustainability focused features to their new build, something that was not common at the time. We added rainwater storage tanks to the new build for rainwater harvesting and re-use, however the compliance pathway was complex and there were many regulatory barriers [...]
I was looking through some plans the other day of a house that I built around 1991. It is a straight forward single storey, 3-bedroom house on a concrete slab with weatherboard cladding, long run roofing, standard aluminium joinery and single glazing. While the house is simple and robust and still stands today, when [...]
I had the opportunity the other day to be involved with the installation of a Bailey Bazooka culvert. It's actually the first time I've ever installed a culvert and it was great to work alongside experienced contractors, familiar with civil drainage work, who were able to offer up some advice to ensure that it installed [...]
I have been spending a bit of time in the garden recently as it bursts back into life. While listening to the spring rain falling on the roof, there was also a quiet satisfaction knowing that I was collecting that rainwater and directing it into the Bailey SlimJim tank, which I had installed behind the [...]
Who would have thought that the large plastic water tanks that you see dotting the New Zealand rural landscape can be given a new life? Well, they can. In fact, Bailey’s Tanks commitment to sustainability is at the heart of everything they do. You could say it all starts in the factory and ends on [...]
You may have heard me recently discuss some products from Simple Green. I like to know about the products I use, so here is what I found out. The challenge Simple Green was founded in 1975 by a Californian father and son trying to create a food-safe cleaner for removing tannic acid from coffee vending [...]
