The renovation market is a growing source of work for many residential builders with Victorians spending $2 billion per year renovating their homes.

As the housing market fluctuates, more people are upgrading their current abode in favour of building or moving home, with about 330,000 Victorian renovations occurring each year inside the building envelope and a further 40,000 which require permits.

Among those renovators are many families keen to get the most out of their upgrade in terms of energy efficiency and comfort for the renovation and existing home as a whole. But where do you and your clients access this information?

Sustainability Victoria’s Project Lead Renovations, Sarah Feiss, will discuss the recently launched Smarter Renovations at the upcoming Master Builders Green Living Conference, a program which targets renovators looking for a ‘one-stop-shop’ for energy efficient renovation information.

“We could see there was a bit of a gap in the renovation market. People were looking for energy efficiency information but couldn’t find it in the one spot or tailored to their specific needs,” Sarah explains.

“We thought that we could fill that gap by providing independent, unbiased recommendations with the Smarter Renovations program.”

Among the features of the Smarter Renovations website are Smarter Renovation Planner designed to provide a customised checklist of energy efficient measures for renovators and builders. There is also the Your guide to a Smarter Renovation handbook.

 “Our target market is those doing renovations inside the existing building envelope to help them ensure they are getting the most out of their renovation in terms of overall thermal efficiency for the home,” Sarah said.

Sustainability Victoria research for the Smarter Renovations project revealed that the top five renovation regrets were:

 

  • Inadequate insulation.
  • Air leakage.
  • Poor lighting.
  • Not selecting double-glazed windows.
  • Poor design.

 

“If people consider these five things, then they are going to be able to achieve a good thermal performance for their existing structure and renovation.”

To hear more about the Smarter Renovations program and other energy efficient innovations, book now for the Green Living Conference.

Date: Friday, 22 August.

Time: 8.30am to 4.30pm.

Venue: BLSC, South Melbourne.

Cost: $70 for members. $100 for non-members.

Book now.