Retrofit Stories: Paul's House

In this new series where we uncover the journey our clients have taken with their retrofit, I speak to Paul, a householder in Liverpool with an activist mindset doing his bit to tackle climate change via a deep retrofit.

Paul lives in Liverpool with his wife and young daughter in a 1980s terraced house. ‘We bought it about 11 years ago,’ he recalls. ‘From the start, we knew we wanted to make some improvements, but we didn’t have a clue where to begin - or if we’d even be in the house long-term.’

Over the years, Paul had made a few updates, but nothing major. ‘It was minimal stuff - a new kitchen, new bathroom, that sort of thing,’ he says. Like many of People Powered Retrofit’s clients, the idea of retrofitting his home crept up slowly, driven by a blend of family needs and personal values.

‘It started with my daughter. We had black mould in the house. It was a wake-up call; we knew we needed to do something for her health and future.’

But it wasn’t just about family, ‘I’ve struggled with climate anxiety and, at times, felt climate depressed,’ he admits. ‘I’d been trying to cut my emissions by not flying, changing my diet, and getting involved with Just Stop Oil. Retrofitting the house wasn’t prioritised until I’d tackled everything else.’

That’s when he turned to People Powered Retrofit. Although Paul had already invested in the organisation during our share offer in 2021 - believing in our mission to promote sustainable home improvements - he hadn’t initially considered it for himself. But after a morning spent with Phil Jennings, one of our Retrofit Surveyors, everything changed. Phil conducted a thorough assessment of Paul’s home, discussing his goals and answering questions, and a few weeks later the Home Retrofit Scenarios Report landed in his inbox.

‘I found the report so useful,’ Paul says. ‘It was packed with information, and I learned a lot from it.’

So, how did he decide what to tackle first? Paul explains that his involvement with Just Stop Oil was a turning point. ‘After being arrested for protesting against fossil fuels, it felt hypocritical to keep using gas at home. The retrofit report showed us exactly how we could come off gas completely. It felt like an identity shift - it was important to do this for our family and the climate.’

The detailed thermal models and scenarios provided by People Powered Retrofit allowed Paul to see the bigger picture and helped him to make informed decisions about what mattered most for his home and family.

‘We went back and forth with Phil,’ Paul notes, ‘looking at what was best in the model to achieve the reduction of emissions and address the black mould problem. In the end it showed that External Wall Insulation (EWI) wasn’t the most effective thing for us when you considered cost and disruption to the house.’

I asked Paul what other decisions he and his wife came to following the report. ‘We knew we didn’t want to do anything too disruptive because we couldn’t afford to move out. We wanted to upgrade the fabric enough so that when we put in a heat pump we were retrofitting to 2050 standard, so that nothing would need to be retrofitted again. ’

In the end, Paul made changes to the loft insulation, put in a heat pump, upgraded his windows, and installed a Decentralised Mechanical Extract Ventilation (dMEV) system with a more consistent and clearer ventilation strategy to address the black mould.

Our conversation quickly turned to finance. In the UK there is limited grant funding available, and much is made of ‘the able to pay’ - those who are more financially secure needing to foot the bill for extensive retrofit measures.

‘When we began this journey, I had no idea how much it was going to cost,’ Paul admits. He had a call with Harriet, one of our retrofit advisors, who asked for a rough estimate of what he was willing to spend. ‘I just said £10,000. I had no idea if that was realistic, but it felt like an amount we could justify to ourselves.’

In the end, Paul’s retrofit came to about £35,000. ‘Now we understand the scale of the project and the benefits we’re getting, we’re happy with that,’ he says when asked how they settled on the final budget. ‘We started with the high performance windows, which cost £17,000 alone, so we knew we were going to have to spend more. Once we had the assessment from People Powered Retrofit, we could see what we wanted to achieve and priced up the measures that met the scenario we were after’.

The family also considered whether retrofitting would add value to their home. While evidence is mixed on whether retrofit measures directly increase property value, there are signs that warm, energy-efficient homes are becoming more desirable to buyers.

When it came to funding, Paul and his family considered their options. ‘Extending our mortgage made the most sense for us. Even with the volatile interest rates of last year, borrowing was the best option as the house had increased in value.’

For Paul, having a detailed and focused plan in place made all the difference. Access to finance remains a significant hurdle for many retrofit projects, and People Powered Retrofit are exploring solutions, including piloting a loan scheme with local credit unions.

Paul notes that the windows were challenging, however, which surprised him. Aren’t windows, windows? ‘I spoke to lots of fitters and they didn’t seem to understand or didn’t think we could get to the U-values I was after. I realised after a while that I was in a slightly different world. I ended up speaking to Retrofit Windows in Shrewsbury who were recommended to me. They called me right up after quoting and explained why the install fee was so high - they wanted to use specific airtightness tape and foams that meant I could achieve the u-values I was after.’

And what about finding the right contractor for the heat pump? ‘I interviewed three companies. I wanted a Vaillant heat pump because they are British made and they’re a good family run company, but because they use propane as the refrigerant, they need a bit more regulation. So I wanted to be certain that they really knew what they were doing.’ The benefit of this approach meant that Paul found an installer who got his vision and had a clear understanding of what he was expecting. ‘I found very quickly that if you are clear about what you want, you can instantly say whether the installer is going to be the right fit.’

So what now? ‘We’re pretty much done. We promised ourselves it would be done by Christmas - redecorated and all disruption done. The heat pump went in at the beginning of July, and it looks great and everything works well.’

I asked how the retrofit had changed his relationship with his home, and whether the black mould had gone - which it had, thankfully. The biggest impact for Paul was the windows. ‘They have just made such a huge difference. They open right out so we can bring the outdoors in, and we don’t get any more draughts’. I ask if he was happy with his decisions, and looking back whether he would change anything. ‘I have no regrets,’ Paul says, ‘I am so proud of this house and what we have done. Regardless of whether we choose to stay here long term, we’ve done the right thing.’

Finally, with Paul’s retrofit almost all done and dusted (he says he just has a bit more to do with his cavity wall insulation), I ask what advice he would give to others considering going through a similar journey:

He pauses for a moment before answering. ‘I’d say I’d encourage them to think about the house as a whole system’ he says slowly, ‘don’t do things piecemeal because you’re likely to have to unpick them later.’ I agree wholeheartedly to this - something that our householder service strives to support with.

Anything else?

‘Look past payback periods and see your home as your home - where you live and raise your family. Retrofit is an investment in your quality of life and it should be seen like that.’

Paul is a software developer and activist. As a People Powered Retrofit investor, he joined the board in 2023, following the completion of his survey. If you'd like to read more about Paul's progress, please follow him on his blog.