Q. I am in the process of restoring an old barn and want to use only environmentally friendly, locally available or recycled materials. However, the clipboard Nazis at the local council have told me I must coat my exposed beams with fire-retardant paint. I am very anxious to avoid the chemicals contained in these paints. Have you any suggestions, Mary?
P.J.K., Cirencester
A. Why not take a tip from Lady Bamford’s eco-spa at Daylesford just down the road from you? The spa, housed in an old farm building behind the fashionable shop, was transformed by architect Spencer Fung to a strict ecological brief. He too was instructed by fire officers to coat the beams of the old building, a former hay barn, with fire- retardant paint, but instead he managed to find an environmentally friendly fire protection coating from Envirograf which has a range of products for various woods in different coating finishes for the fire rating required.
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