Selfbuild Autumn 2022

Rory Best – Flogas Brand Ambassador

Now that building regulations are requiring that we build, and renovate, our homes to be energy efficient (see p9 for changes just enacted in NI), how we do it becomes all the more pressing.

After all, buildings are carbon intensive. Because of the energy they consume, but also because of how we make them. And how quick we are to demolish them (for sobering statistics, see p13). Then there’s the issue of affordability (for the latest on material prices, see p88).

Astrid Madsen - Editor

astrid.madsen@selfbuild.ie

And how much we can actually build ourselves – a new book (see p19) argues the answer is: quite a lot. And so the Selfbuild Guide this edition shines a light on good design and making sure you are really building what you need, with an eco mindset.

Building a house so that it can be easily converted is part of the solution, but there’s much more. Find out more starting p99. Whether you’re building new or renovating, it’s all in your hands.

Stay safe and happy building!

MARKETING

Calum Lennon calum.lennon@selfbuild.ie

Victoria Hunter victoria.hunter@selfbuild.ie

SUBSCRIPTIONS & EVENTS

Becca.Wilgar becca.wilgar@selfbuild.ie

ADVERTISING SALES

Maria Varela maria.varela@selfbuild.ie

Nicola Delacour-Dunne nicola.delacour@selfbuild.ie

ACCOUNTS

Karen McLeigh karen.mcleigh@selfbuild.ie

SALES DIRECTOR Mark Duffin mark.duffin@selfbuild.ie

EDITOR

Astrid Madsen astrid.madsen@selfbuild.ie

DESIGN

Myles McCann myles.mccann@selfbuild.ie

Shannon Quinn shannon.quinn@selfbuild.ie

Joanna McConvey joanna.mcconvey@ selfbuild.ie

Lisa Killen lisa.killen@selfbuild.ie

Maria Toland maria.toland@selfbuild.ie

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Brian Corry brian.corry@selfbuild.ie CHAIRMAN Clive Corry clive.corry@selfbuild.ie

Advice

87 Artificial grass: yea or nay?

We take a look at the debate on Twitter.

88 Building materials price tracker

An update on material price increases and where they might be heading into 2022.

90 The show must go on

A review of how Selfbuild Live Dublin went down this past March in Citywest.

Projects

Learn from other self-builders all over the island of Ireland who have built new or renovated their home.

22 Glamorously thrifty

David and Christine Adams always knew they would build their family home in Co Tyrone, with David taking charge of the project by direct labour. The result? It came in £20k underbudget.

34 21st Century bungalow

This modernist take on the traditional Irish bungalow showcases a bespoke interior, and an exterior with a subtle contemporary edge.

46 The cantilever house

Inhering the Co Antrim house he’d holidayed in every summer as a child, Mark Hutchings knew he was in for a labour of love. With the help of his wife Gemma, he managed to sympathetically renovate this architectural gem from the 1950s.

94 Lock it up

Your building site is valuable. Find out how to secure It.

96 Back to basics

Why a fire pit is a great addition to the garden and how to add one to yours.

58 Melting pot

Sinead Campbell didn’t expect to fall in love with renovating the Co Donegal cottage her grandfather had built, but that’s exactly what she did.

70 The fairytale house

The story of Tiffany and Matthew Rea’s contemporary house in Co Down, from a creative start to a fairytale finish on Christmas eve.

76 Wild and beautiful

Denise and Mick O’Donnell took on the responsibility of managing their house building project in Co Donegal. Thanks to the help of Denise’s brother, who’s an architect, the gamble paid off.

84 When the dust settles

Garden designer Anne Byrne travels to Co Galway to transform three quarters of an acre of land into a family garden.

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Radon hot spots

350 new lung cancer cases are linked to exposure to the radioactive gas in ROI each year, with Munster and Connaught the regions most affected.

ROI’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently updated its radon map, which shows 170,000 homes are now predicted to be at risk from radon (red being the most affected). That’s 36 per cent more than the previous estimate in 2002. The most recent map for NI is from 2015 and can be accessed on ukradon.org.

In ROI, the building regulations require that all new homes in high radon areas are installed with a radon membrane and/or other preventative measures. An area is high risk if more than 10 per cent of dwellings are likely to have radon concentrations above the national reference level.

In NI new buildings, extensions, conversions and refurbishments must be fitted with basic radon preventive measures in parts of NI with a one per cent or greater probability of exceeding the “action level” (all shaded areas on the map).

Regardless of your perceived risk, it’s best practice to install a radon barrier regardless of where you are building. To know if you’re in a high radon area, you can search the EPA map through their website by using your eircode or your postal address, or go to the NI radon map on gov.uk.

Even if you have already built your home, it’s a good idea to test for radon – especially if you’re in a high risk area. Radon has no smell, colour or taste and can only be

Mica spreading to more counties

The General Scheme of the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Bill 2022 is in the process of going through the Dáil. Enacting the legislation will release the €2.7 billion necessary to allow homeowners that have been affected by deleterious materials such as mica and pyrite to rebuild their homes.

Under its current form, the grant amount per home will be capped at €420k and only apply to homeowners in counties Donegal, Mayo, Clare and Limerick.

However Dr Martina Cleary, founder of Clare Pyrite Action group told the Oireachtas Committee for Housing that defective concrete blocks are suspected in 12 counties along the western and eastern seaboard. “It’s very likely in all of them, every single county,” she said.

Aidan O’Connell of Engineers Ireland said he had seen damage in 13 counties. He also highlighted that that some “quarry owners recognise they have a problem, and they are suppressing some of the information” and “doing side deals with homeowners”. He also said there were “only a few bad apples” left in the industry.

detected using special detectors. In NI you can book radon home test kits from ukradon.org, in ROI from epa.ie.

If high levels are found, remediation services are available from EPA registered contractors (ROI). The ukradon.org site shows that the most expensive remediation measures would set you back £2k at the most.

According to the Mica Action Group there have been 7,000 homes identified with defective blocks. It can take between three and 20 years for signs of damage to become apparent.

Source: epa.ie and gov.uk

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NI energy regs finalised

Draft Technical Booklet F1 was published at the beginning of this year (see page 88 of the Summer 2022 issue of Selfbuild magazine) and is now published in its final form, coming into effect in July.

These changes will inevitably increase the cost of commissioning and constructing buildings; see the article in the Summer 2022 issue for more about cost increases.

Carbon target

This is where the screws are really tightened – the dwelling carbon dioxide emission rate (DER) will need to be at least 40 per cent less than the target value (TER), whereas previously the requirement was for DER to not exceed TER.

Substantially bettering your building’s carbon emissions will not be met by building fabric measures (low U-values) and services (heating, hot water and ventilation) alone.

The technical booklet expects a greater use of renewable generation technologies and recommends engagement at an early stage with Northern Ireland Electricity Networks (NIE) to confirm that an export connection can be provided.

Even though renewables are still not going to be mandatory, some degree of renewable or low energy technologies is going to be a de facto requirement because of these demanding carbon and energy targets.

U-values

Homes will now have to be built to achieve lower U-values. The U-value of a building element measures how good it is at preventing heat from escaping. Therefore the new standards will require that you invest in more insulation for your new build (see table below).

Note that self-builders can (and should) move well ahead of the minimum legal requirements, certainly where energy and carbon are concerned. A little extra spent on the build will help to future proof your house against energy consumption and costs in the coming years and the uncertainties and worries that entails.

There is no change to the current methodology for windows – the difference now is that you will need to buy better performing windows to achieve the lower U-values.

If adopting the limiting U-values you will continue to have to limit the amount of external doors and glazed openings to no more than 25 per cent of the floor area of the dwelling. This still allows a higher glazing ratio than found in most houses, and you can go even higher if you use the calculated trade-off approach, which in practice means that if you want more glazing, you’ll need a better performing building fabric (more insulation).

What does it mean for heating systems?

The Technical Booklet F1 continues to allow for fossil fuels, but you will almost certainly need to complement them with low carbon technologies such as photovoltaic (PV) panels in order to achieve the overall carbon target. Electric air source (or ground or water source) heat pumps will put you at an advantage in terms of achieving the target.

Find out more information about the changes on selfbuild.ie

Free energy advice in Cork

Limiting U-values (W/sqmK) from newly-published TBF1 (previous values shown in brackets)

* where the source of space heating is underfloor heating the maximum floor U-value should be 0.15 W/sqmK

Cork City Council has recently opened a Home Energy Upgrade Office kiosk on Grand Parade in Cork to provide expert information about community energy upgrades.

The initiative is part of UP-STAIRS, a pan-European project that aims to give people the practical tools, business models and concepts to upgrade their homes to be more energy efficient or install community owned renewable generation.

Cork is one of five European cities to be chosen for this pilot programme of one stop shops. Led in Ireland by the International Energy Research Centre (IERC) part of Tyndall National Institute, with the support of Cork City Council, the programme will also run in Germany, Austria, Spain and Bulgaria.

The Home Energy Upgrade Office is open Monday to Friday until January 2024. It is hoped that if it is successful, the service will be offered permanently. Visit h2020-upstairs.eu or irec.ie

The new building regulations came into force on June 30, 2022. Patrick Waterfield shares what you need to know.

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Financial supports for self-builders

Self-builders in England are doing pretty well. The government has always supported self-building in one way or another, with a new scheme recently launched. Sadly, very few of these incentives have so far extended to NI apart from the renewables grant (also notoriously referred to as the ash for cash scheme).

And while there are plenty of supports available to first time buyers in both NI and ROI, especially in the form of shared equity schemes with both jurisdictions recently launching new arrangements, there is only one that extends to self-builders.

And it is in ROI – the Help to Buy scheme. It’s a tax rebate that helps you put down a deposit to build your home (or buy a new one) and it is due to expire at the end of 2022. Although the upcoming budget may extend its lifeline.

According to an analysis from the Irish Mirror, based on statistics from myhome.ie, in ROI it looks like you would need a €50k salary to buy or build a €200k house with a €20k deposit. Silver lining: the Help to Buy scheme will help towards the deposit. However, according to the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland the median total household income for first time buyers jumped to €77,000 in 2021. Self-builders in NI, meanwhile, are eligible for the 95 per cent

mortgage.

Beyond new builds, those who are tackling a major renovation project will get some supports. In ROI there are retrofit grants for energy upgrades (mostly for insulation, ventilation, heat pumps, up to half the costs are covered) made available through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). NI’s energy grants, meanwhile, are mostly targeted at fuel poor households.

So what’s in the pipeline? We look at what elected politicians have to say although only time will tell if the government budgets will take on some of these suggestions.

says they would amount to €50k in today’s money.

The grants, he said, should be introduced with a minimum of red tape – taking a stab at the complicated process of applying for an SEAI retrofit grant.

O’Brien suggested the grants could have a cap on house size and require that the home be built to certain environmental standards.

utility connection fees.

Tax relief

Canney also suggests a VAT Refund Scheme of 13.5 per cent. He said that would save first time buyers €36k on a €300k house.

Meanwhile, Independent TD Richard O’Donoghue called for a 9 per cent VAT rate on building materials to soften the blow of building material price increases.

RTÉ’s Prime Time in fact recently reported on the issue of tax and the cost of building. A couple based in Cork told the investigative team that they had costed their 2,300 sqft, four bedroom, two storey house at €270k for a builder’s finish in 2021.

Reduce levies

Sean Canney, Independent TD, told thatsfarming.com that the ROI government should abolish the development levies paid to the local authorities for roads and other infrastructure. He wants to see local authorities funded directly from central government.

Grants

South Mayo Councillor

Patsy O’Brien told Midwest Radio he wanted to see the reintroduction of a grant scheme for people building their own home. He referred to the grants from the 1980s which were part mortgage subsidy, part cash grant. He

He also thinks Irish Water connection fees for wastewater and drinking water should be capped to a maximum of €1,500 for each connection type.

Canney reckons anyone building their own home faces costs in excess of €20k before they put a spade in the ground, citing tax, legal costs, development levies, and

They ended up going to tender in March 2022 and got a quote from the same builder of €363k, €43k of which was VAT – nearly €10k more in VAT than what was quoted in the original estimate.

There aren’t many supports available for those building their new home – here’s what’s in the pipeline or at proposal stage.

South Mayo Councillor Patsy O’Brien

Sean Canney, Independent TD

Independent TD Richard O’Donoghue

New ROI planning exemptions

If you’re house hunting and come across a pub for sale, don’t be put off. New planning laws mean you can convert it into a family home without having to apply for permission.

Typically, any change of use would require planning permission. There are of course some strings attached, including the need for the pub’s licence to have lapsed.

If you already own a home, know that the government is also working on extending the exemptions for rooftop solar panels and for wall mounted and free standing installations.

At the moment, roof mounted photovoltaic (PV) panels are planning exempt if they are up to 12 sqm or half of the total roof area, whichever is the lesser.

If the changes come into effect, solar installations will be able to cover the entire roof of a house, subject to setback

distances from the edge of the roof. The current exemption limit for wall and free standing installation is 25sqm and this would be increased to 60sqm. These draft regulations aim to bring ROI in line with the EU’s Solar Rooftops Initiative which supports a target of generating up to 380MW (approximately one million solar panels) of microgeneration. The ROI government’s Climate Action Plan aims to generate 2.5GW solar electricity by 2030.

New guidelines

Helping homeowners and installers to design and install solar PV systems is the National Standards Authority of Ireland, see nsai.ie, as it recently published a Standard Recommendation on the topic. SR55 provides guidelines for the design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of single phase

Dirty laundry

Houses in Ireland today pollute as much as agriculture, if both operational carbon (the energy used to run the home) and embodied carbon (the energy it takes to build, repair and demolish) are taken into account.

That’s a figure the Irish Green Building Council gave the Oireachtas Committee on the Environment and Climate Action, stating that construction emissions actually amounted to 37 per

cent of all emissions in Ireland.

Head of the IGBC Pat Barry told the Committee one solution is to invest in products with low embodied carbon: “Biobased materials require lower CO2 emissions to produce and sequester carbon. Only 24 per cent of newly constructed homes in Ireland are timber frame versus 75 per cent in Scotland.”

At the same hearing Dr Oliver Kinnane, lead researcher for a climate emergency project

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at UCD’s school of architecture, said that some energy retrofits were underperforming. According to the research, some buildings fell short of their stated A2 building energy rating (BER). They performed far worse in practice, at a C level on the BER scale.

While Kinnane said these represented a minority, it highlighted the need for more installer training for both insulation and making the structure airtight, and

for sizing and installing heat pumps.

Demolition is another issue when it comes to embodied carbon, Kinnane added.

“Young buildings, built only 30-40 years ago, are being demolished all over the city and country to be replaced by buildings of much greater floor area and materials of high embodied carbon,” he said.

“The service life of buildings is constantly decreasing. This is unsustainable.”

Pub conversions are now exempt, while all rooftop solar panels are slated to become planning exempt.

Photo by Kindel Media

The way we build homes is unsustainable, say climate experts.

Renovation inspiration

Ahandful of family homes were bestowed accolades this year.

The headliner for the AAI Awards was Ballyblake House by Steve Larkin Architects, a 200 year old farmhouse extension and refurbishment scheme (stevelarkinarchitects.ie/ballyblake). It’s a good reference for anyone embarking on a rural renovation project as it fuses two centuries of history with contemporary architecture.

Middleton Park Gate Lodge

TAKA Architects, meanwhile, managed to win an award from both institutes for this stunning listed building renovation and extension project in Co Westmeath. One was an RIAI Living Award, the other an AAI Award.

Middleton Park Estate historically consisted of family grounds, including a 19th Century manor house, gatekeeper’s lodge and kennels for hunting dogs. Now one family owns the lodge and kennels on a segment of the original site.

“The extensions to Middleton Park gate lodge and kennels are sunk into the contours of the site,” the RIAI jury noted. “Subtle and understated to the exterior, the additions

reference agricultural structures in their form and materials, whilst successfully adding floor area to the existing buildings, to ensure their viability into the future.”

“The structure of the new extensions is expressed honestly. The wildflower meadow viewed from the main living space is playfully framed by a coloured steel beam and heated concrete bench. The great success of this project is the deep connection set up between building users and the landscape.”

Some stunning home improvement projects bagged awards at both the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) and Architectural Association of Ireland (AAI) 2022 ceremonies.

Photos by Alice Clancy

The Willows

Peter Nickels Architects won one of two awards in the RIAI Sustainability category for this 1970s renovation project. And for good reason – it shows how a family home can be successfully turned into a low energy and low embodied carbon dwelling. The jury views it as a “blueprint for similar projects”.

“The jury were impressed by not only the obvious commitment to sustainability principles at the heart of this project but also the quality and beauty of the spaces created,” noted the jury. “The use of embodied carbon calculation and post occupancy evaluation is to be commended.”

Photos by Andrew Campion

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For the love of building

Two self-built family homes won the 2022 Royal Society of Ulster Architects (RSUA) Awards.

Self-builders who embark on a rural new build project will be conscious of the need to minimise their impact on the environment. These two new build projects show how to do just that.

Clachan

House in the Glebe by Marshall McCann Architects is a contemporary take on one off housing in the countryside, creating a piece of architecture sympathetic to its surroundings.

It’s cleverly hidden from the road by an old stone barn and a dilapidated vernacular

cottage with a rusty red corrugated roof. The clachan like gathering of buildings on the site, which have been renovated over time, allows the new build to find a natural home.

The four bedroom, 230sqm family home was cost effective to build. And the choice of timber frame as the build method was chosen to reduce the building’s embodied carbon emissions.

The house consumes very little energy thanks to a fabric first approach (insulated and airtight envelope).

With the photovoltaic panels (PV), the energy consumption is expected to be 28kWh/year.

Nestled

The second domestic project to win was House at Lough Beg by McGonigle McGrath Architects which is nestled within 100 acres of listed parkland. The process took 10 years in total, including five years to cost effectively build the 560sqm house through direct labour.

Designed to be deferential to the big house of the demesne, and to its natural

surroundings, it takes the form of the agricultural outbuildings. Handmade bricks in hues of grey alongside the zinc roof help the dwelling blend in.

From the outside, thanks to the absence of formal manicured gardens, the house embraces the parkland. And inside, there is a sense of connection to the outdoors with windows acting as picture frames.

Images by Aidan McGrath

Images by Keri-Leigh Kearney

BOOK REVIEW

Build Your Own

This hefty tome seems to have a double aim. One is to share knowledge and advice. The other is to get us to reach for the tools, conscious of our environmental impact as we do.

To get us to follow on this path, the cookbook style hardback is full of building recipes gleaned from Gardner’s experience as an ecobuilder. He’s got a list of essential tools and explains basic building physics and engineering concepts.

He then goes on to analyse the main fabric elements and provides an outline of the steps involved in getting stuck into an actual project. All interspersed with graphs and plenty of colour photographs.

In fact the book’s greatest strength is that it’s written in an accessible and engaging manner, making the process of building a lot less daunting than it can at first seem. How that translates into practice will be revealed in a series due to air on RTÉ in September where Gardner will be helping people build their own homes. In the meantime, this reference guide is well worth adding to your collection.

Build Your Own: Use what you have to create what you need by Harrison Gardner, Gill Books, gill.ie, hardback, colour photographs, 278 pages, ISBN 9780717192649, €22.99

Passive House Certified

Many self-builders today choose to have their homes designed to the German Passive House standard, a tried and tested method of building energy efficient homes. Passive homes use materials and systems that optimise thermal performance, have exceptional airtightness and require very little energy to run. They also offer higher levels of comfort and air quality.

Enter Senator Windows, a leading Irish manufacturer that has just launched a new range of uPVC Passive and High Performance Windows crafted using the EnergyPlus90 window system, one of only a handful of window products able to comply with exacting Passive House standards and certified by Germany’s Passive House Institute as suitable for the Irish climate.

The windows tackle not only thermal efficiency but also noise reduction and security. The 90mm, nine chamber profile system looks great too thanks to its slim sightlines.

The EnergyPlus90 system achieves U-values as low as 0.71 W/sqmK for triple glazing and 0.53 W/sqmK for quadruple glazing. The range of contemporary colours includes cream, several shades of grey, black or any colour from the Senator uPVC range.

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Harrison Gardner’s book is a celebration of DIY, eco conscious self-building.

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Glamorously thrifty

Overview

House size: 2,500 sqft

Plot size: 0.65 acres

Bedrooms: 4

Project cost including furnishings, white goods: under £100/sqft

Construction: blockwork (cavity walls)

Heating and hot water: oil boiler

Ventilation: centralised mechanical with heat recovery

EPC (SAP): B (84)

David and Christine Adams managed to get their new build to come in £20k under budget. This is how they did it.

Landscaping As there was no paving around the house, it was getting dirty. So during the first lockdown David finished a small area of the garden, doing the work himself. The remaining landscaping is still in progress with planting to follow.

The corrugated metal adds an aesthetic quality without breaking the budget. “The wall cladding actually worked out cheaper per square metre than the render,” says David.

The boiler is in the garage, 4m from the house, and the hot water tank is in the storage room upstairs and looks like a filing cabinet. The pipes are heavily insulated to get to the house from the garage.

CO TYRONE

Igrew up on the farm, and my plan was always to move back home,” says David. “A few years after Christine and I got married, the dream to selfbuild started to become more real. We had a few sites to pick from on the farm, and narrowed our choice down to two.”

“Both plots created a visual link with other buildings on the farm, and had views facing southeast. We applied under PPS21, specifically CTY10, which meant we were building a home on the farm that had to be visually clustered with the farm buildings.”

“But as it turned out, the planners had other ideas and suggested two other sites,” says Christine. “They wanted us to come forward, closer to the road. We had wanted the house to be hidden behind a hill but the planners had issues with the laneway scarring the landscape, and the roof breaking the skyline.”

“The benefit of building closer to the road, (which is not a main road but quite heavily trafficked), was that it would be a lot cheaper for the electricity and water connections, and for the laneway. Now our main view is north, overlooking the Sperrin Mountains.”

“We’re 1.5 miles from my parents but only one field away from the farm buildings,” says David. “I work part time on the farm so it’s very convenient to be close.”

In fact, being so close to the farm inspired the design from the get go. “Our first idea was to go with a barn design with a tin cladding and round roof,” says David. “For inspiration we had social media accounts, online mood boards. Christine guided the vision for the interiors.”

“We knew Trevor, our architectural designer, and his style of architecture fitted in with what we wanted. He was fantastic. Really accommodating. He had loads of good ideas and dared to do something that bit different.”

Upside down design

“We wanted the house to be as efficient as possible, and the simple design shape we chose helped,” says David. “We have a split level house with a shuttered concrete wall that acts as a thermal store for the downstairs where the bedrooms are, keeping the heat in winter and in summer. It keeps the sun out and the bedrooms cool.”

“Trevor came up with an upside down design because of the way the site slopes,” says David. “You come into the building at the upper level and that’s where the living areas are, plus a playroom / spare bedroom.”

“Downstairs we have three bedrooms, one which is ensuite and the other two share a bathroom. It’s a fabulous design and the upside down living arrangement

“The benefit of building closer to the road was that it would be a lot cheaper for the electricity and water connections...”

allows for beautiful views from the living room.”

“A really practical design feature of Trevor’s was to put the utility near the bedrooms,” says Christine. “It is no more than a few steps away from any one of them. It was a genius idea of his as all laundry stays on the one floor. We went with a 2.3 x 2.5m footprint for it, to give us ample space.”

“We have no need for ironing, and hanging all the clothes means we never need to use the tumble drier. The mechanical ventilation with heat recovery circulates the air and keeps everything fresh.”

“For heating and hot water we chose to go with an oil fired burner, with underfloor heating throughout and towel radiators in the ensuite and bathrooms. We had talked about an air source heat pump but the payback and outlay at the time meant we just couldn’t justify it.”

“I’m kicking myself now with oil prices having gone up so much recently, but then so has electricity costs to run an air source pump,” says David. “You have to balance everything up and in reality, our consumption is low. The boiler heats up water every day, and the oil is off for

heating from mid to late March until late October.”

“We also have two wood burning stoves which are lit in winter so that reduces oil usage quite drastically too. For example, the living spaces have underfloor heating but when the stove is lit the rooms don’t need to draw additional heat using oil.”

Secret to success

“When we applied for finance, the mortgage advisor said they’d never had

a self-build that came in underbudget,” says David. “They said there was no way we could do it. I wouldn’t say I took that as a challenge but ours did come in £20k under budget.”

“A big part of it is that I project managed the build myself – I work for a civil engineering and building contractor and therefore have quite a bit of construction experience.”

“It’s not for everyone project managing the build, but you can surprise yourself

Q&A with David & Christine

What are your favourite features?

David: I love the split level design, it really maximises the views. I love how contemporary designs incorporate plenty of glazing, much more than traditional builds.

Christine: The high ceilings and the utility being so close to the bedrooms.

What was the biggest splurge?

David: We went over on windows, double the budget in fact. It was worth spending money on though, as they are an important part of the building and design. We chose good quality triple glazed units. We tried a few local suppliers but they weren’t able to accommodate the size of our openings; their biggest being 2.6m high and 3.6m wide with a single pane being 2.6x2m.

Christine: The wood effect tiles throughout the kitchen, snug, dining and hall. The tiles were within our budget but because of the size and intricacy of laying a herringbone pattern it was very time consuming and therefore cost more. Worth every penny as I think they look great and are easy to maintain.

What would you change?

Christine: When we were building, I was adamant I didn’t want the dining table to be in the kitchen. But now living in the house, I wish we had gone for kitchen, living and dining as open plan. On the upside, it means you can’t see the dirty dishes in the kitchen from the dining table when you have guests over.

David: I do miss having a separate study. When we had to work from home during Covid, it would have been nice to have a study to separate myself from the hubbub of everyday activity. I have set up an office in the corner of the dining room which has been grand.

Christmas tree planning.

“Because our corner window is floor to ceiling, there is a double floor socket controlled with a switch by the door. It’s handy in December as you don’t have to crawl behind the Christmas tree to turn the lights on and off.”

David & Christine’s tips

Decide your style. Pin styles from online mood boards. Then try to see a common thread. Is it the colour, textures, layout, general feel, that you like? Try to be specific.

Decide what you don’t like. Our focus was more on what we wanted but it can really help with the decision making to have some options ruled out early on.

Measure up. If you have an idea of what you want to go into the rooms at design stage, it will help determine the shape and size of the rooms. Trevor designed the rooms and flow around our needs, sun path and furniture, then draped the building envelope around the spaces.

Shop local. We used our local builder’s merchant; it meant it was quick and easy to drive in a collect a few items, preventing trades from waiting on us.

Keep on top of the schedule. On a daily basis, this is one of the biggest challenges of going direct labour. As soon as one trade is finished, the next trade needs to be ready to step in. So that means allowing for an overlap.

Spend time with your electrician. When we showed him where we wanted our lighting and power points, our electrician made some really good suggestions we brought on board.

Be patient. There will always be hold ups and delays, and you will have to work through them. Keeping a calm head will help you navigate.

Shop the sales. We bought our furniture in sales – the sofas were bought before we even had walls built. We were fortunate we had space to store them in the house we lived in while building.

how much you can do. Doing as much work as you can yourself will help cut costs considerably, and for a lot of people it’s worth it,” he says.

“David’s skillset lies in construction. If you’re unsure, it’s always best to get the input of someone who knows,” adds Christine.

So how did he do it? “I work part time on the farm, so during the build I was able to delegate some farm duties and dedicate that time to the house,” says David. “And we were lucky to have Christine’s dad on board. He’d worked in construction years ago and had just retired as we were about to start the build. Perfect timing!”

“A big job was to get all the costings done, I did this myself – that was as much work as all the labour I put in,” adds David. “At this early stage, we decided to eliminate some of the zinc cladding from the design, including a zinc clad dormer window, because of the cost.”

COMING HOME TO CEDRAL

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Timeline

Mar 2015

Planning applied

Sep 2015

Planning granted

Feb 2016

Reserved matters

Apr 2016

Planning approved

Nov 2016

Building control approved

Mar 2017

Site work start

June 2017

Build start

June 2019

Move in

Feb 2020

Building control sign off

May 2020

Landscaping start

June 2022

Lawns sown, driveway surfacing

“We also bought a digger at the start and stripped the site, did the reduced dig and dug the foundations. We tied all the reinforced steel ourselves for the

retaining wall foundation and poured the concrete for foundations. Building Control inspected and signed off the main phases.”

“After that I hired the individual trades. They are all local and live within about a 10 mile radius of our house. I already knew a lot of them, so it was easy for me to find good trades. I brought in the block layer after the foundations, and so on.”

“Plus, our builder’s merchant was one mile away for materials so we were able to get deliveries as and when we needed them. And in reality, we were very fortunate not to come up against major issues.”

“Even though we made small changes during the build, like taking out the door

U shape kitchen. “We had our hearts set on a textured finish, rough sawn oak style doors and these ended up being sourced from Italy in the end. The space is so bright and warm thanks to the finishes and the rooflights,” says Christine. “The game changer was to have a pantry, to have all foodstuffs accessible at the one time.”

at the dining room and moving the ensuite door, there were no big design decisions made on site.”

Corrugated

David and Christine’s house has three different roof types – one is a standard pitched slate roof, which is at the back, with a standard roof build up. Another is the flat roof linking it and the main barrel roof.

“Our feature corrugated round roof was by far the most complex,” says David. “Because the corrugated metal needs to be ventilated to prevent condensation, it requires quite a bit of engineering. We had to get a condensation analysis done and we explored three scenarios – one failed, two worked.”

“We chose which worked best for cost and performance, this was a mix of timber beams with a dense wool insulation, a ply deck was then battened and counter battened, to allow for air flow, the underside of the beams had battens and then plasterboard around the curve. As we have no attic area the battened space was handy for service ducts as it meant we didn’t break the insulation.”

“Trevor worked with a company that supplies cladding and insulation that

Project Supplier

The kitchen, dining and hall tiles not only look great but are easy to maintain. “We have lived in the house for over two years whilst finishing the outside work and they don’t show up dirt,” says David. “We have a dog who is in and out all the time with muddy feet – they are fantastic.”

NEW BUILD

meets building regulations for this type of roof, so we had that sorted. But we couldn’t source the initially specified rafters in the UK and they would have had to be brought in from Germany, at an extra cost.”

“At that stage we redid the roof design calculations for different centres and timber profiles with the engineer, which probably saved us £3-4k.”

“Inside, we wanted to keep the curved form as a feature. I tried sourcing a proprietary alternative to standard 12.5mm plasterboard but couldn’t so I let the plasterboard acclimatise in the room, leaving it out for a while before starting on the job. And then the joiner started fixing it, slowly working around the curve. The plasterboard took the curved shape surprisingly well.”

Apart from the roof, the biggest challenge when it came to the build was getting the exterior cosmetic details right. “We had a corner window post that had to be sealed and insulated. We had the flashings around it but there were issues

getting the detail of how to do that well,” says David.

“I spotted a mistake after it was done – the window supplier came back and resolved it no problem but it goes to show you have to keep an eye on things. Getting the flashing details around the windows and into the corrugated cladding wasn’t straightforward either.”

“Communication between the window and cladding companies to get the design finalised was crucial, and I was the go between,” says David. “Once the details were worked out, I installed the cladding and flashing with Christine’s dad and my dad’s help over a few weeks.”

“We eventually moved in June 2019 with no kitchen – it was glamorous camping,” says Chrstine. “One toilet. No sink. We started to get everything put in quick succession after that and had it signed off by building control in February 2020 and got our VAT back after that.”

“We had previously been living in granny’s house and it couldn’t have been more different,” says Christine. “Between the style and glazing. We just couldn’t believe how warm a house could be even though it was an empty shell. That really spurred us on to get finished. We worked away at it after the kids had been put to bed.”

After all the effort and late nights, there was a nice reward at the end. “We bought our materials on a credit card,” says David. “I paid it off every other day using the mortgage. This gave us air miles and we’re off on holidays on the back of it!”

Blackout blinds were an afterthought for the children’s bedrooms; these are clipped directly to the window frame for a sleek finish. The bracket slides in against the glazing strip.

Project info

Find out more about David & Christine’s project in Co Tyrone...

Suppliers

Architect

Trevor Hutton of T4 Architects, t4architects.co.uk

Builder Noel Ferry

Joinery

G Wilkinson Joinery and Tiling

Render David Parke

Electrics Anthony McNally

Plumbing Booth Plumbing Ltd

Building materials

Sinclaire Hardware

Windows Feneco, fenecosystems.com

Tiles

Tile Shed, tileshed.ie

Bathrooms

Bathe NI, batheni.com

Gates

Dallat Group, dallatgroup.co.uk

Landscaping

Michael Costelloe Landscaping, michaelcostelloelandscaping.com

Surfacing MP Coleman, mpcoleman.co.uk

Photography

Paul Lindsay, paullindsayphoto.co.uk

Spec

Walls: 150mm full fill cavity pumped with graphite EPS beads, U-value 0.2W/sqmK.

Floor: 140mm PIR insulation, U-value 0.12W/sqmk.

Roofs: pitched roof with natural slates 200mm PIR insulation, U-value 0.14 W/sqmk; flat roof with EPDM rubber 150mm PIR insulation, U-value 0.14W/sqmK; barrel roof with corrugated metal 220mm rock mineral wool insulation, U-value 0.18W/sqmK.

Windows and doors: triple glazed low-e, U-value 0.5W/sqmK.

Photography: Paul Lindsay

21st

A deceptively modest exterior conceals John Fingleton’s exquisitely crafted finishes and stunning landscaping.

Centurybungalow

Words: Astrid Madsen

Overview

Plot size: 0.35 acres

House size: 170 sqm

Bedrooms: 3

Construction: blockwork (cavity walls) and steel frame

Heating and hot water: air

source heat pump

Ventilation: mechanical with heat recovery

I’m a builder by trade so it was natural for me to choose to self-build,” says John. “I came across a site that already had planning permission for a house designed by renowned local architect, Tarla MacGabhann.”

“The design concept was excellent, and I did like the drawings. However, the layout was tailored to the previous owner and so naturally it needed some amendments. The catch was, planning permission was about to lapse. So whilst I bought the site in 2018 we had to get it to roof level by 2019. With this deadline, there wasn’t much time to redesign.”

Redesign

“I didn’t want to go back to seek planning permission, so I tweaked the plans with the help of my friend Philip and his father Ken,” says John. “Together they have a local architecture practice, whose work I liked and

was familiar with.”

“We introduced a lot more glass along the rear façade and reorganised some of the floor plan. Originally the kitchen was selfcontained, now it’s much more open plan and I have a storeroom.”

“Philip was keen to create a space that felt immersed in the garden, something he knew I would enjoy. We made the decision to decrease the downstairs bedroom at the gable end and introduce a reading nook with a corner window that feels sunken into the garden.”

“Philip has a strong philosophy regarding natural light and I think this has had a great impact on the quality of the spaces.”

“For the build, I began with some of my own team but wanted a local builder who’d be able to act as foreman for the project. A good friend recommended Eamonn and when it came to the details, Philip and Eamonn devised very practical solutions to achieve the look we were aiming for.”

“I recall a subcontractor coming on site to experience one of our regular brainstorming sessions. He couldn’t help but highlight the significant level of difficulty in what we were attempting to do. Eamonn simply replied, ‘we’re into that kind of thing!’ This became a bit of a motto and characterised our enthusiasm for quality craftsmanship.”

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This extended to their choice of materials. Therefore plastic windows, fascia and gutters were on the no-no list. “So many houses are well designed, only to be let down by uPVC finishes,” says John.

“In our case, the roof design was complex. It warranted a different approach and quality finish. We have two steep inclines, junctions over the glass, steel frame and blockwork, as

well as right angles where they all converge. Philip suggested an alternative Norwegian guttering detail incorporating aluminium, and it has made such a difference.”

The roof covering, meanwhile, had originally been specified to be Bangor Blue slates. “Even though I did want that appearance, I had to find a more cost effective solution,” says John.

Following aesthetic direction from Philip and grading ease assessment (how easy it would be to sort the slate thicknesses to fit on the roof) from Eamonn, they chose a Sierra natural slate from northwest Spain.

Vision and ambition

“There is a symbiotic relationship between nature and architecture that is usually overlooked,” says John. “We were all keen to create something that would reflect this.”

“I am always surprised to see how much attention people give to the inside of their house yet so little to the outside. Especially when that is precisely what you are looking at most of the time. A nice garden is what entices you to go out. It’s good to spend time outdoors, even in Ireland.”

“We only had a plain patch of grass to work with at the back so we asked Seamus, a local garden designer with a wealth of experience, to take charge of the design. Philip had wanted to collaborate with him for a while and this provided the perfect opportunity.”

“I visited Seamus’ seaside nursery and with no hesitation gave him carte blanche with all landscaping,” adds John. “The garden is very sheltered by Donegal standards, so we were able to include a variety of plants.”

“It did take quite a bit of groundwork to shape the garden, which meant investing

Q&A with John

Would you do it again?

I loved the challenge of fully engaging with the creative process; it would be great to take on another project.

Biggest splurge?

The shadow gaps and clean lined detailing. The individual items don’t cost much; it’s carrying them throughout the entire house and the work behind each junction. Simple details on the outside are often the most complex behind. Consistency and taking the time to get the finishes right is what costs the most – we invested time in skilled labour and money in the raw materials. However, it was still more cost effective than buying high end products.

What’s your favourite feature?

The stairway and landing area in the house have a lot going on spatially. There’s a T junction in the plan, so when you move up the stairs to interact with the pitch, the skylights are at different levels and this creates different angles to see the garden. Then the balustrades wrap back down into the floor and it feels like a perpetual loop. There is a small ramp that takes you onto the mezzanine area where you can look down in three different directions to the entrance, bedrooms and main living area. It was important to have something permeable to look through. Glazing and handrails would have been expensive and quite busy. Philip wanted something that would tie everything together. The steel balustrade is powder coated to match the windows, vanity frames, kitchen legs, shelf brackets and main structure. We used the Greek golden ratio to calculate the spacing for the railings.

“I am always surprised to see how much attention people give to the inside of their house yet so little to the outside...”

Kitchen sink The sink was mounted from below and the worktop overlaps its edges. With a bit of sanding, it made it look like the sink was moulded in.

NEW BUILD

in a lot of cut and fill at the start of the job. Luckily, the ground conditions were good and easy enough to work with.”

John had a clear vision for the internal features too. “I’ve been to Stockholm and Norway a few times and I quite liked that simplistic Scandinavian styling,” he says. “Philip has a strong Scandinavian influence in his own projects and so when we discussed design, it was a natural direction for us to take.”

“Some say it can yield a cold finish but lighting and furnishings add warmth. The natural wood stove and selection of indoor plants all contribute to this homely feel.”

Part of the strategy was to stick to the one floor covering downstairs, leading all the way out to the patio. “Easier said than done, but Philip and Ken were familiar with a finish that would hit the right note,” says John.

“It was a natural sandstone, which they’d used in some other projects, and I really liked the hidden drain details. I sourced out similar stone from a salvage yard. It helped

us bring the outside in and have continuity between the two spaces.”

“Donegal is quite wild and stone felt like a good match – it complements the natural feeling of the place, bringing some of the landscape in. This was also our idea when choosing reclaimed French oak for the upstairs.”

John brought the outside in by other means too. “I wanted the planting to feel internal, so we included a lot of house plants to provide that link,” he says. “The colour scheme inside also has a subtle green accent thanks to verdigris tiles in the kitchen and bathroom, shelving brackets in the bedrooms and a few of the lampshades throughout the house.”

Bespoke

“Every ceiling in the house is vaulted,” says John. “There are 60deg pitches which gives it a lot of height. For the ventilation routes, normally you would need to use rigid ducting so that presented a few challenges for the installers.”

Lighting was also an issue. “I bought coloured concrete pendants for the living room, but due to the pitch and their immense weight, we had to design support structures for the lights to hang on. Whilst these details may seem simple, they all require time and patience.”

“You need to take care in order to achieve the finishes we wanted, which means investing in the real time that it takes. This was especially true for the shadow gap details – there are no skirting boards or architraves.”

“When it came to bathroom, we used stone flooring for the wet tray in the downstairs shower room. Eamonn individually cut the tiles with mitred joints for the window reveals. It was all done with a wet saw, and now it looks like cladding.”

A band of mosaic tiles links the window sill, shower bench, toilet and vanity unit

“Philip has a strong philosophy regarding natural light and I think this has had a great impact on the quality of the spaces.”

together. “The individual height of all these items was very carefully considered. We even used a laser to hang the pendants at the same heights.”

The same attention to detail went into finding the perfect vanity units for the bathrooms. “The team could not source any to match the house style so Philip said we could design our own,” says John. “Philip designed the vanity in the upstairs master bedroom 10cm higher than the downstairs unit as I’m tall.”

“For the bathroom cabinets, the kitchen supplier did the carcasing then we ordered the basins and taps ourselves and assembled

it. The process took a lot of effort but, again, good design needs that time and patience.”

“When it came to the shower screen, we couldn’t find anything off the shelf that was good enough quality – we considered a steel frame window but the supply and fit price for a small project in north Donegal was colossal. Again, we had to get them cut and made to measure to our own design.”

“In the upstairs bathroom the shower screen ties together the geometry of the eave, skylight and door head. I believe this has inspired a number of orders for similar shower screens, which isn’t surprising,” adds John.

Logistics

“I had Eamonn project manage the whole build for me to completion,” says John. “Him and Philip coordinated inspections for the project and I was on site at least twice a week.”

“We followed clear construction drawings but the build moved organically as well. For example, we have two corner windows and whilst most of these are built with a bar in the corner, I didn’t want that, so we had reinforced concrete poured to support the weight above.”

“It was actually a very last minute decision. Philip rang me from the site when the superstructure blocks were coming up. We took the decision then and there.”

John knew from the start he would do a traditional build with a blockwork construction. “Then for the technical specifications I relied on Philip and our energy assessor who decided to go with an air source heat pump and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery.”

“The underfloor was not extended to the upper floors as there is no need for it. It’s continuously warm. My only utility bill is for electricity and it’s roughly €2,000 a year with the house at 20 degC year round.”

John relished building his own home and looks back fondly on the experience. “I found it very enjoyable, all the way through,” he says. “The time and dedication the team put into the design, then into the build, really paid off.”

Timeline

John’s tips

Don’t be in a rush to get started. Have the design done before you start, to save headaches down the line. If you can, know what finishes and what furniture you intend to use. That way you can amend the design before you get a shovel in the ground – that’s what design is about, forward planning. At the beginning, I felt a sense of urgency to get started. It can feel overwhelming, but you have to remember that when you are in the process, it all moves very quickly, and you have to make decisions all the time. The project will be racing ahead, and you may not be able to afford to give yourself the time it takes to make the right decision. Getting an architect one who was invested from the start to turnkey, has proved to be one of the keys to the success of this project.

Get a quantity surveyor. I’m a builder and always use one on my builds. First you need a design then you need to get it costed – that will give you the flexibility to adjust the drawings and make changes that work for the budget and the aesthetics. The two go hand in hand.

Put together a team with passion and experience you can trust. There were many late night meals, emails and texts sharing furniture, fittings and design details. Granted, not everyone has this luxury but when you work closely with a team as I have, you appreciate the wealth of options that are exhausted before the final decisions are presented. Most people are only aware of a tiny percentage of the ideas in circulation.

Spec

Walls: block cavity walls, 100mm PIR full fill insulation, U-value approx. 0.2 W/sqmK.

Floor: 150mm insulation, below slab construction, U-value approx. 0.16 W/sqmK.

Pitched roof: slates over battens and counter battens, vapour permeable membrane, 100mm over rafter PIR insulation, 200mm fibre wool insulation, airtight membrane, 50mm service batten, bonded and skimmed plasterboard, U-value approx. 0.1 W/sqmK.

Windows: triple glazed timber alu-clad, overall U-value approx. 0.89 W/sqmK.

Project info

Find out more about John’s project in Co Donegal...

Suppliers

Architect for concept design and planning

Tarla MacGabhann, macgabhannarchitects.ie

Architects for construction details, execution and supervision

Philip & Ken Bond, Bond Architects, bondarchitects.com

Builder and foreman Eamonn Rogers, mobile 0861028288

Garden design and build Seamus O’Donnell of Cluain na dTor, Seaside Nurseries & Gardens, Co Donegal, seasideplants.eu

Windows

Rationel from Lynch Windows, lynchwindows.ie

Steelwork

Internal steelwork, e.g. stair balustrades, shelf frames in kitchen, sinks, by PJ Designs, pjdesigns.ie

Bespoke shower glass panels and mirror

Designed by Bond Architects, made by Letterkenny Glass, lkg.ie

Kitchen

Design by Bond Architects, made by Martin Barrett, barrettkitchens.com

Kitchen worktop Fabtops, fabtopssolidsurfaces.com

Reclaimed flooring Wilsons Salvage Yard, wilsonsyard.com

Kitchen and bathroom tiles Mandarin Stone, mandarinstone.com

Sanitary ware and black taps

Mondella, Vellamo, Abode from Tap Warehouse, tapwarehouse.com

Shower mixer BTW, btw.ie

Internal Lights

Muuto, Normann Copenhagen, Decode, davidvillagelighting.co.uk

Furniture finnishdesignshop.com, made.com, westelm.co.uk

Rooflights

Velux from Murdock Builder’s Merchants, Derry, murdockbuildersmerchants.com

Photography

Paul Lindsay, paullindsayphoto.co.uk

NI calling ROI mobile prefix with 00353 and drop the first 0

More photographs available at selfbuild.ie

Words: Astrid

cantilever house The

House size before: 200 sqm

House size after: 245 sqm

Plot size: 1 acre

Bedrooms: 5

Project cost: £400k

Construction: Steel and block

Heating and hot water: LPG boiler

Ventilation: mechanical

When Mark Hutchings inherited an heirloom piece of architecture, he couldn’t let go of it. There was only one thing to do: renovate it with the care and attention it deserved.

My mum is from Armagh, but I grew up in England,” says Mark. “We holidayed every summer in Co Antrim, by the sea, at my family’s place. I have very fond childhood memories there.”

“Years later, still living in England, I inherited the house. It meant a lot to me but, considering I was abroad, I thought I might not want to undertake a long distance project and reasoned it might make sense to sell, despite my strong attachment to it.”

“I booked a trip over to go see it with my fiancée Catherine, who is now my wife. We went there to think about whether we wanted to take on a project or whether it would be too much to do from far away. But, as soon as we arrived we knew we wanted to keep it.”

“It was a lovely sunny day and the views upstairs were amazing and we felt we were never going to find anything like this again. We kept coming back both on our own and with my parents and we were hooked. With

every visit we fell more and more in love with the place and could envisage it as a family home. We now split our time between London and the house.”

Historic

“The house was built in 1958 and all of the living and bedroom accommodation is on the first floor to make the most of the views. Style wise, nothing had been changed in 60 years,” says Mark. “The same furniture was there. It was a total time warp – the kitchen was purple, the carpets bright orange and the living room furniture a vibrant turquoise. In its own way, though, it really worked.”

“We were keen to keep the cutting edge 1960s vibe including some of the stylish furniture, while modernising it. So we kept some original pieces, repaired others, and the rest is new.”

“We felt the house was something to build back to; we didn’t want a pastiche or a copy. It was a balance between modernising the house to our needs, and reflecting what had been done before.”

“We briefly considered managing the project ourselves, but it was too big to take on from abroad. So, when we started, we knew we would need to get an architect to both design and manage the project. We met three and we were really impressed by all of them.”

Marine grade finishes. External marine grade triples the price of everything or restricts your options, says Mark. Whether it’s the steel work or timber cladding. You even need to get marine grade screws.

“We hired Ben as his passion for the project shone through the most. He’d come with his research, having found out about the original owner. He also said straight away that if we intended to knock down the house and rebuild it, then he wasn’t the architect

for the job.”

“He wanted to conserve it as much as we did, so we hit it off. The house, surprisingly, wasn’t listed but it was well known in town, having been designed by renowned local architect Noel Campbell. There was no way

we wanted to dramatically change it but we wanted to enhance and improve what was there.”

“Ben’s idea was to make sure the house would look the same from the road and extend out in the obvious place for it, unseen. The extension mostly added a bedroom plus bathroom and a study. And somehow, his design doesn’t look like an addition.”

“We made very few alterations inside – we reduced the size of the hot press, and got rid of the wc in the hallway to add into a larger bathroom. We also rejigged the kitchen and brought it into where the cold storage used to be.”

“Downstairs we converted the garage into a bedroom the same size. The toilet and underground darkroom were converted into a bathroom and utility. We now use the shower room to remove sand from the beach and for our dog.”

“We originally thought we might rent the house out, so we put in five bathrooms. My parents helped a lot with the design of those; they figured out all the bathrooms in a day. A month later we flew over, loved most of what they had chosen and only changed one,” says Mark.

“We especially loved the tiles the supplier had identified for the main ensuite bathroom – unique to fit the circular shaped shower.”

Dining room pendant. “This was a design that Jude put together,” says Mark. “Originally, we were going to put the original pendant back but it ended up looking too old fashioned. So we came up with this which is a modern take on what was there before.”

LED lights. “We didn’t think we wanted LEDs. In my mind, they would yield a harsh white light but with the diffuser it’s soft lighting,” says Mark. “We’re big fans of LEDs now.”

Q&A with Mark

What would you change?

I would take more time choosing what heating system to go for. Our engineer said that for heating and hot water two combi boilers weren’t enough, so we have a large LPG boiler with hot water tank. The person who serviced it recently said it was over engineered. So, if I were to do it again, we would reexamine that aspect.

We would also reconsider how many radiators to use, or even look at underfloor heating. We have so many windows that we used up the rest of our wall space for rads. The insulation is so good, we actually have too many radiators and have to turn most of them off and they take up valuable wall space.

Biggest splurge?

We went for mid to high end windows, so that was expensive. A lot of windows we saw were nice but couldn’t give a 10 year guarantee because we’re so close to the sea. So, we didn’t have much choice.

Then the little things added up. For instance in London we only spent £2,000 renovating our bathroom, whereas here we spent £2,000 on the bath alone to get the perfect piece. Looking back, that was quite a big splurge!

What surprised you?

We were aware a lot of what was happening was outside of our control, and we were as relaxed as possible about it. But I was surprised at how we would end up stressing about the small things. I realised it was because I felt I could control those aspects. It was frustrating being so far away, but we couldn’t have asked for a better team.

Favourites?

The cantilever remains a key feature, you can see the sea and the beach from there. We also can’t wait for our outdoor mosaic to be installed – its quite an eye catching design.

Would you do it again?

Absolutely, especially if we could guarantee having Ben on our team!

“The house was built in 1958 and all of the living and bedroom accommodation is on the first floor to make the most of the views...”

EXTENSION & RENOVATION

“The company we went with cut the tiles for us; they do conservation work with mosaics. Even though they were cut and mounted to mats, the tiler found they took a long time to fit. But the end result was worth it.”

Structural changes

“The roof had structural issues and the cost of repairing it would have been pretty much the same as getting a new roof, so it would have been silly not to replace it to ensure it had longevity,” says Mark.

“The house originally had a portion of it jutting out in a cantilever, and Ben was most worried we wouldn’t retain this feature. It rested on concrete and steel arms, but the steel had rusted away and the concrete had not been properly tied into the rest of the building.”

“When the engineer came to evaluate if we should repair or replace the concrete arms supporting the cantilever, he pushed one of them and it fell over. They were freestanding, with a wooden frame resting on top of them. We had no choice but to replace them.”

“We played it safe with reinforced concrete, and a metal frame for the structure above, all tied into the house. The cantilever has five sides exposed to the Atlantic, and considering the space hadn’t been insulated, it used to be a very cold bedroom. But now it’s toasty.”

“We used insulated plasterboard, or drylined the internal walls downstairs. At first floor level, the external walls had to be rebuilt – the bricks were in a bad state – and existing cavities were filled with insulation. Around the kitchen was easier to rebuild.”

“The extension, for its part, is not visible from the road and the house is not a protected structure. But, better safe than sorry, we went ahead and applied for planning permission. It was a pretty straightforward process. We got support from the neighbours and positive comments from the planners.”

“Any major work requires building control approval anyway, even if we hadn’t applied for planning. And they were particularly helpful, giving us advice on things like what to do for ventilation as we were making sure the envelope would be airtight. We ended up going with a centralised mechanical system.”

The team

“We hired a builder and an interior designer, with Ben overseeing the build. They all worked closely together because it was part build, part architectural design,” says Mark. “Ben had recommended a few builders and we got back two tenders from that list. The interior designer had been recommended and happened to live on the same road. We got a nice feeling from meeting Jude and we saw eye to eye.”

“We had never worked with an interior designer before, but not only was Jude invaluable in helping us decorate and furnish every room, hiring her actually saved us money – she has trade discounts, access to ranges of products we really liked, and had painters and decorators to call on. So the cost of hiring her was offset by the savings made elsewhere and we really could not have done it without her.”

“Jude found the best stuff, and it didn’t necessarily mean high end suppliers. It was always about unearthing the perfect solution. She posted out samples for us to choose from so we could progress things even when we were in England. She got a feel for what we wanted and the more we engaged in the

“We felt the house was something to build back to; we didn’t want a pastiche or a copy...”

EXTENSION & RENOVATION

process the easier it got – at the start she would give us 20 options, at the end just three as she knew what we liked and didn’t like.”

“Catherine chose colours and Jude took them to match in our dining area. The great thing was, we weren’t tied to any one manufacturer. For the electrics we saw hundreds of options. We had our shortlist, negotiated with them. It was all designed to fit in.”

“The kitchen designer, Johanna, came up with an excellent solution for the kitchen. She managed to include a touch of colour from the dining furniture whilst also bringing something different to the tall larder cabinets which were all finished off with a beautiful polished worktop.”

“She also designed the utility downstairs which is functional, but still really attractive, exactly fulfilling our needs for each of the spaces. Johanna also designed the bespoke wardrobes in the two small double rooms within the existing alcoves. She also designed the big matte white bathroom cabinet, which we love.”

“Our team was excellent,” says Mark. “And we put our trust in them. Our builder did the internal woodwork, and hired the trades then himself for the rest. It was all joined up and the subcontracting was seamless.”

“We had organised stage payments and the builder issued his invoice as work was completed. The builder had his own quantity surveyor and whenever we needed to, we went through the finer details and asked questions – we were never far apart on costings. Ben managed that aspect for us.”

“There were lots of phone calls, video calls on site to show us things. We planned an in person meeting every four to six

weeks, which was slightly disrupted by the pandemic,” says Mark. “It was an intense process, but it has paid off.”

“The only real delay on the build was due to the windows, which took a long time, apparently because of Brexit. And it was our biggest interruption on the build because so much of the progress was dependent on the installation of the windows. We had them priced up so at least we weren’t stung on the exchange rate!”

“Now that we’re all moved in, we are working on the outside,” says Mark. “So far, we have put in patios and some decking and have done a bit of landscaping. The next stage is to reinstate the mosaic to the wall adjacent to the decking and to install a glass balustrade to keep our dog and daughter away from the road.”

Marks’s Tips

Get others to help… To keep on top of the budget and get a good price out of it, get a project manager across the build. The cost is negligeable compared to the benefit of running the project with someone who knows what they are doing.

…but be there as often as possible. If we had been there when they redid the roof, we would probably have the fire in a different place. Every decision has a knock on effect and if you’re not there, it’s not that easy to foresee how one design decision might impact on another.

Consider two kitchens in an upside down living situation. We have a utility downstairs that is like an extra kitchen and it’s a perfect combo having the two, especially in a large house. It’s the best design change we made.

Take everything you’re told with a pinch of salt. The schedule of works was delayed by Covid, but even knowing that it took a lot longer than expected. There was nothing we could do because of the delay with the windows which had a knock on effect on the subbies. You’re reliant on people down the chain to do the jobs. If it takes two weeks to get materials, the trades can’t hang around waiting for them to arrive.

EXTENSION & RENOVATION

More photographs available at selfbuild.ie

Project info

Find out more about Mark and Catherine’s project in Co Antrim...

Suppliers

Architect and project manager

Ben Wilson of Wilson McMullen Architects, wilsonmcmullen.com

Tiles

Armatile, armatile.com

Sanitaryware

Sonas, sonasbathrooms.com

Builder LJ Millar & Sons, ljmillarandsons.com

Interior designer Jude Burrows, judeburrows.co.uk

Standalone porcelain bath for master bathroom

J&R Keys, jandrkeystiles.co.uk

Kitchen and utility

Johanna Montgomery Designs, ravelglen.co.uk

Marine grade windows

Internorm from Feneco, fenecosystems.com

Aluminium trims and guttering

North West Aluminium Group, nwa.ie

Insulation

Platinum Ecobead, insulated plasterboard K118, both from Kingspan Insulation. Proprietary finish Weber SR317 through colour render system (white). Rook Alkor system with Kingspan TR26 insulation.

Photography

Paul Lindsay, paullindsayphoto.co.uk

Timeline

2017

Deliberations as to what to do

2018

Started the project, hired architect

2019

Work started in May after going to tender Sep 2020 Work complete

Note: The house included a small utility space, at 10sqm, that was demolished. The extension is a modest 55sqm addition.

Spec

Walls:Existing cavity walls 80mm wide cavity pumped with graphite coated EPS beads and insulated plasterboard (50mm phenolic board + 12.5mm plasterboard) internally finished with proprietary system. New build walls cavity construction, 140mm inner, 150mm cavity wall with full fill graphite coated EPS beads. U-value for both 0.18W/sqmK

Roof: new timber roof construction with proprietary insulated roofing system and 150mm PIR board, U-value 0.16W/sqmK

Windows: triple glazed aluclad for both lift and slide door and tilt and turn windows

Supplier of Windows

Project Supplier

Words: Astrid Madsen

pot Melting

Photography: Paul Lindsay

Sinead Campbell sympathetically renovated her grandparents’ cottage, turning it into a modern multicultural home that retains the building’s original character.

Overview

House size: approx. 100sqm

Bedrooms: 2

Heating and hot water: oil

combi boiler

Ventilation: natural

When you’re building or renovating, there are so many decisions to make that pangs of doubt are inevitable.

Sinead was no stranger to that sinking feeling. “My grandad built this house using stone, in situ, in the 1950s,” she says. “We gutted it, ripped up the floors and at this point realised it had been built around rock. He had used good quality materials, as it does get very windy up here, but the stone presented its own set of challenges.”

“For one, grandad had taken a somewhat sculptural approach to first fix, plumbing around and below the rock. The uneven concrete floors had also been hand poured. The bathroom, part of the 1970s extension, had literally been built into rock.”

“The day we brought the digger in to break rock, to redo the floor levels and replumb, I thought ‘What have I done?’ We tore down internal walls, we excavated. There was no going back from this.”

“Seeing the mayhem I panicked a bit, wondering if I had gone too far. But I kept the vision I had in my mind for the renovation, and I had support around me. That kept me going. I think with those two things, you’ll always be fine.”

Character

“The cottage had been derelict for two years and consisted of a traditional layout including small family sitting room with open fire,” says Sinead. “I wanted to keep that country cottage feel and to do that I took a lot of inspiration from online mood boards,

travel, social media and anywhere I could find tips on how to get the look.”

“I did a lot of research online in general, for both inspiration and to get information about specific aspects. My fiancé is Indian and we also wanted to weave in some of that Indian style and influence into the mix. That’s where the artisan materials, and the curtains and blinds, all come from.”

“My fiancé and I took on the renovation as a project. Our aim was to renovate, but not take away from what it was. It’s a lot harder than it sounds,” she adds.

“A big part of it was getting the windows right. I felt it was key to retaining the cottage feel. The windows had actually originally been sash, so it was important to us to go

Q&A with Sinead

Favourite features?

The windows and looking out at the view through them. We made them bigger than they originally had been for extra light.

Would you do it again?

I’m a glutton for punishment, so yes, I would do with again. It was so much fun.

What was the biggest splurge? Plumbing and heating. But we had decided to invest in that from the beginning.

What would you change?

Because of the water pressure, we went with an electric shower but would have liked a waterfall shower instead.

Top tips

Be prepared. Keep a journal, folders, a schedule of when materials are coming. Get professionals to help where needed – for example if measurements are off, delay labour. Being prepared got me through it. And having a fiancé who’s very organised, and a father who was there every day keeping an eye on things.

DIY. Yes, you can do it. I’m a nurse with no DIY experience, and the reality is, you can do a lot. It’s a great feeling to look back on what you’ve accomplished.

Communicate clearly with trades. We had a deadline to work to and that was our goal. We had clear tasks to get there, and that made it easier to get

back to the original design.”

“After careful consideration, we went with a sash effect triple glazed uPVC model. Timber windows would have required too much upkeep and would have been tricky with triple glazing. The uPVC version really looks the part – finding the right colour was the next challenge and we chose a cream finish. We’re chuffed with it. We got a local company here to do them for us.”

“In my head, I knew what rooms I had to work with and drew up a plan for each of them. A big commitment was the decision to keep the original shiplap wooden ceilings.”

“They were painstakingly taken down and put back. That effort paid off, giving an authentic feel to the place. We kept some furnishings from my grandparents’ house and added our own unique pieces. Other vintage items we collected from the places we lived in and from our travels.”

“We also had to do things like waterproof the bathrooms and fit them out. In addition to replacing all of the windows we added patio doors to make the most of the space outside. We also put in new floors throughout and insulated from the inside by drylining the walls.”

“It was the floors that needed upgrading, not the roof, so that was a bonus. The flat roof on the extension had recently been mended and the main roof had been replaced not

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long ago.”

“Thankfully, the septic tank had been upgraded five years previous. We also have a private well so no issues with connecting to the mains,” adds Sinead. But the fascia and soffit needed replacing, which Sinead did with uPVC black guttering.

“After all of that construction work, to keep the budget on track we got a second hand kitchen – apart from the appliances which are new. We got the units on a buy and sell website, 26 of them out of a house. They were painted and new handles applied, with the electrician adding lights to the cabinets. We’re delighted with it.”

Lockdown build

“I pulled the first sheet of wallpaper off the walls in January 2020 and by March Covid had hit. Our local suppliers started having issues with stock; we were also confronted with the logistics of building during lockdown,” says Sinead.

To add to the pressure, Sinead started working in a Covid ward. “My dad helped project manage and he was there on a daily basis, to help out where he could and I was mostly there to guide the project,” she says.

“Because of the temporary Covid restrictions on the construction sector, we only had one person on site at any one time. We got local trades and family in which meant we could manage the staggered hours. My dad managed the day to day, including stock deliveries.”

“It was still tough getting people to come at times so my dad helped us out a lot. When things started looking up, we hired a local builder who was there every day from May until the day we moved in November. He did both the renovation and new build work alongside my partner. He added RSJ steel supports, knocked walls, all of the big build elements,” she says.

“Between Brexit and the pandemic, getting things into the country was difficult.

RENOVATION

So in May we steered to the option of buying everything locally. It limits choice but there was a good feeling from it too.”

“We had to preorder quite a bit. We would plan each week as we could afford it. We would get the bigger ticket items, as it tied in with our budget. We needed quite a bit of storage space to accommodate this, and were lucky to get access to a shed.”

“Cash flow was the hardest part of managing the project, with trades to pay. You have to be very organised,” says Sinead. “By far the best part of renovating the house was that it was a very effective distraction from work. I threw myself in the project and it really was all consuming.”

“I would chase up suppliers to check stock, make orders. I was relentless – I would stay on the phone for as long as it took. I was very lucky my dad was only five minutes away, and that he could be there to facilitate the trades and help out if anything was missing. Being surrounded by a good team really helped.”

There was also a total replumb for heating

“Seeing the mayhem I panicked a bit, wondering if I had gone too far. But I kept the vision I had in my mind for the renovation...”

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Suppliers

Windows

G Kilpatrick Windows & Conservatories, gkilpatrick.ie

Stove Donegal Plumbing and Heating, irishstoves.ie

Bathrooms Tiles

Kstyle Donegal, k-style-ltd.business.site

Hardware

Irwin Hardware, georgeirwin.ie

Furniture

Patterson Furnishings, pattersonskitchens.ie

Kitchen

DoneDeal, donedeal.ie

Photography

Paul Linsday Photography, paullindsayphoto.co.uk

Timeline

and hot water. “The boiler was inside the house, and we brought it outside into a shed we built. The hot press was in one of the bedrooms – we took that out and the new hot water tank is next to the boiler,” says Sinead.

“We needed extra storage, as the house isn’t that big, so that shed serves a dual purpose. It’s just behind the utility room opposite the patio at the back.”

“Along with the original open fireplace, we put in a stove and chose oil central heating for the boiler. We weren’t eligible for a heat pump grant as the house wasn’t brought up to high enough an insulation standard. Oil is quite inefficient, on the lower end of the scale, and that’s why we have a combi boiler to bring the efficiency up.”

Looking back, Sinead couldn’t be happier with the project. “At the very start, before

Rolltop bath. “It’s a must on those long cold winter evenings,” says Sinead. Shower. “I didn’t want it to be too intrusive so we went with an open glass panel; the builder included the nooks in the wall for both bath and shower which ties it all together,” says Sinead.

Covid, we thought we would renovate to a simple basic standard but our love for the cottage brought us to finish it with our hearts,” she says. “Long term or short term, we weren’t sure. But the cottage really grew on us and it’s our home now.”

“It’s funny because I always thought I’d build my own home, but this was actually the project that was meant to be. We are loving every minute here, and actually plan to extend.”

Follow Sinead’s project on Instagram @littlehouseonthepriarie

“...I would chase up suppliers to check stock, make orders. I was relentless – I would stay on the phone for as long as it took...”

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The house fairytale

Plot size: 0.1 acre

House size: 2,300 sqft

Bedrooms: 3

Heating and hot water: gas

boiler

Ventilation: centralised mechanical with heat recovery

Build method: cavity wall (blockwork)

EPC (SAP): B (85)

Matthew and Tiffany Rea built their on trend house, finished with charred timber, in just four and a half months. They moved in on Christmas Eve as newlyweds. Here, Tiffany shares their story.

How did the project get started?

Matthew and I bought this plot together and got engaged just before we got planning permission. We got married as we were about to break ground, so 2021 was a year of wedding planning on top of managing the build. It was a manic but

amazing year!

The location of the house itself was the number one draw. I grew up in this area and the plot is very close to my parent’s house which was also a bonus. It’s so close to the sea and we can walk into Holywood at the weekends for breakfast. It is just such a quiet and peaceful place to live.

Initially we bought the house on this plot to refurbish and we had put an application in with the planners to do this and add another storey to get another two bedrooms in. Then after a few months of talking, our plans got bigger and bigger and eventually the refurbishment plans soon changed to replacement dwelling plans.

We didn’t make the new house any larger than the footprint that was already there as we felt any larger would take over the plot because it isn’t huge and we still wanted a good garden and driveway. We were able to get a second storey in and also raised the ceiling heights. We didn’t change the look when you see the before and after but just made it a bit funkier. We do feel the houses built in the 60s and 70s really do lend themselves to this kind of overhaul even if you were refurbing.

What was the inspiration for the project?

We wanted to build something that was really different. It did take a bit of bravery as sometimes it is easy to just do what you know. Like everyone, we follow loads of house build pages on social media and use online mood boards for inspiration, and we really took a fancy to the Japandi style, the mix of Japanese and Scandinavian. But basically we knew we wanted to have a black house. With shou sugi ban or

charred timber cladding on the outside, and inside black metal framed glazed doors. How it was all placed we weren’t sure but we knew we wanted to see all these things in the house somehow so went with it.

There were times when we thought is this actually going to work or is it going to look really naff! But we stuck to our guns and we are thrilled with the final outcome.

We couldn’t have done it without the advice and guidance of our architect Des and of our builder, mind you, as they totally got the vision and we all worked together. I got the same team as the one I had used for my previous home. It was a townhouse renovation and I knew from day one that I would use the same team. Every detail was thought out, down to having two reception rooms.

How did the planning process go?

Luckily we didn’t face many challenges with the planners, we had no protected trees on our site. That’s a big thing around where we are as it is so mature and rightly so the planners want to make sure the area remains as leafy and beautiful as possible.

What building method did you choose?

When choosing the materials to build our house we were very much led by Des and our builder. We knew what look we wanted to achieve which I suppose led us to choices such as the aluminium framed windows, the scorched wood timber cladding, the render colour, etc.

How about heating and hot water?

In terms of the systems in the house we were always quite set on what we were going to do. We chose a gas boiler with underfloor heating on the ground and first floors.

Solid floors on the first floor we find are always quite a nice thing to have, it feels more solid, it is better for noise, you don’t have to worry about radiators dictating furniture and everywhere is a lovely temperature.

Our builder delivered an incredibly good house which is very efficient and warm. What we have found since living in the house for six months is that it is very temperate throughout. We have got out first utility bills in, which is always exciting time, and they are impressively low.

What did you do for ventilation?

We chose a mechanical heat recovery system, which is a total must if building or renovating. We learnt a lot about it when we went to install it but basically now new houses are so well insulated and airtight you need a system installed to move air around the house, bring fresh air in and stale air out.

This stops a build-up of condensation which can cause damp and mould. It is also is great for people with allergies as the air is constantly refreshed in the house.

What was the build process like?

Very shortly after we got approval we had the guys lined up to demolish the house so we were ready to go (also didn’t have to pay rates any longer!). After that, we were so lucky that we sailed through and everything went to plan.

I know most builds face challenges somewhere along the line. The reason ours went so smoothly is genuinely down to the team we had around us. We knew what we were building, we had amazing drawings from Des that we stuck to. Given our builders were so unbelievably organised and efficient they ended up building the

“It was amazing the difference in prices between suppliers and we feel doing this homework most definitely saved us money...”

house from start to finish in four and a half months, which is nothing short of incredible.

What is your favourite feature?

Definitely the lighting system. Initially we felt this was maybe an unnecessary spend but now we can say it is the best money we spent.

We have lots of different types of lighting in the house – LED strip, wall lights, recessed lighting, pendant lights which are all dimmable, so imagine turning each one of them on at the right level for a different vibe.

Well fret no more, we have four settings and can do this from our phone. It is a superb system and definitely recommend looking at if building a new house.

Overall, the house has been a dream. Everything works seamlessly… We wouldn’t change a thing.

What is your main piece

Timeline

Aug 2020

Bought house

Oct 2020

Applied for planning

Mar 2021

Planning approved

Apr 2021

Demolition

Aug 2021 Build start

Dec 2021 Move in

Project Suppliers

of advice for novice selfbuilders?

One piece of advice we would give to people is shop about. We spent every weekend in the run up to starting throughout the project going around different suppliers to see what they had to offer and what their prices were.

It was amazing the difference in prices between suppliers and we feel doing this homework most definitely saved us money as we made some smart decisions. We cut costs in some areas we didn’t feel it was necessary to splurge then did splurge in areas we felt would make the house.

What was your biggest splurge?

Definitely some of the finishes internally such as the kitchen and tiling. These are like the cherry on top of the cake and is a wow thing when someone comes into the house so we feel doing this right is important. It makes the house.

We spent where we wanted to. I suppose as an estate agent it is so hard to value my own home because I know the numbers that went into it. So let’s just say it will be worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it when we go to sell.

How did you tackle the garden?

The landscaping was a do it as you go along job. We left our builders to their own devices here as they definitely knew best. We had a budget for shrubs and trees, and genuinely we came home from work one day and down to the site, and all of a sudden there was grass, shrubs, hedges and trees. We went for a structured feel with the planting which meant it was quite striking against the black.

Landscaping is an expensive part of any project but if we didn’t just do it then it would have been one of those things which never gets done and it really finishes off a house.

The site is 0.1 acre - definitely as much as we would afford where we are, but we are more than happy with the size. I don’t think we are ready for any more garden. We potted some plants on the patio and are just about keeping them alive. We will get there.

Follow Tiffany and Matthew’s project on Instagram @thereaproject and on thereaproject.co.uk

SUPPLIERS

Architect

Des Ewing, desewing.com

Builder Alskea, alskea.com

MVHR

BEAM, beamcentralsystems.com

Cladding

Toasted Wood, toastedwood.co.uk

Windows

Glassmarque, glassmarque.com

Lighting system

Lutron smart lighting system from AJ hurst, ajhurst.com, other lighting from Light Source, thelightsource.co.uk

Kitchen

Terry Design Make Fit, weareterry.com

Tiles

David Scott, davidscotttiles.com

We are delighted to have carried out such a fantastic project and wish Tiffany & Matty good luck in their new home

ROI calling NI prefix with 048, mobile prefix with 0044 and drop the first 0

beautiful&Wild

It’s

How did the project get started?

I had always wanted to build a home beside the ocean, to have my children grow up in the same setting I did. Mick and I were very lucky to be gifted a site from my dad on the family land, on the Wild Atlantic Way.

My brother Patrick lived in London at the time, and the practice he worked for there was renowned for designing one off houses. It was a natural fit and he was keen to help us on our journey. We were on the same page, which made it so easy to work together.

How did the design come about?

We gave Patrick our design brief, including the style we liked and what we needed from the house. From there, the design evolved quite naturally – a simple, functional shape. A contemporary house that would respond to its coastal conditions set within a rugged terrain.

The site consisted of an elevated piece of land, densely planted with indigenous bushes set within the Wild Atlantic Way, overlooking Lough Swilly.

Retaining the landscape helped conceal the base of the house while framing views

daunting to take on the responsibility of building your own home. But it’s a gamble that paid off for Denise O’Donnell and her husband Mick.

Overview

Site size: 1.50 acres/0.61 hectares

House size: 290 sqm

Bedrooms: 4

Construction: blockwork (cavity walls)

Heating and hot water: vertical geothermal heat pump

Ventilation: mechanical with heat recovery

BER: A3

Cost: €280k

of the sea that also sheltered the house from the exposed elements. When viewed from the public road, the house appears to emerge from the landscape with the monopitch roofs resting on the landscape.

The primary focus was on the views and how to frame them. As soon as you open the front door, you are hit by the sea. The double height makes an impact and so does the open plan design.

But the views are north facing so we had to consider that it wouldn’t get direct sunlight. To avoid losing too much heat from that elevation, we opted for high performing triple glazed windows with large spanning panes early on at the

design stage.

We knew we would need the best specification possible to make the house energy efficient. Because we had chosen our supplier, we had the dimensions of the living areas match the window manufacturer’s largest opening for a sliding window. Six meters wide and full height.

We also spent time early on designing the garden, to make sure we would get the house to nestle into the landscape. Our hope is to get started on those plans this summer to take advantage of the evening sun.

What are the main design elements?

Patrick came up with a single room depth, two block design. One incorporating the living areas, the other the sleeping quarters. The two are linked by a corridor with windows on each end.

The corridor really enhances the feeling of space and light as well capturing views of the landscape. In a way it’s a deceivingly modest building design. It looks simple on the outside and internally it’s made up of free flowing spaces.

The open plan works especially well combining the living, dining and kitchen areas – it’s a house that has grown with our family. We also have a second living room for quieter time and to enjoy the sunsets.

Storage was a big consideration and we also gave a lot of thought to our lighting arrangements, where our pieces of

equipment would go – from the tv to the fridge. So we have both our stove and tv encased in a black wall, integrated in the overall design.

The cantilevering concrete bench then provides seating with the bonus of adding to the aesthetic quality of the space. By using exposed concrete internally onto a cantilevering bench further visibly connects the internal space with the rugged terrain in which the house is nestled.

How else did the coastal location impact on the design?

The selection of external materials

was a direct response to our coastal conditions and to ensure a robust and low maintenance house. We chose a sand and cement render, hard wearing roofing slates, highly efficient and airtight windows and doors.

And as the house is perched on rock and close to the sea, a vertical borehole (geothermal heat pump) was selected as a natural renewable heat source.

Tell us about the lighting design

Patrick did the lighting design. I would recommend spending time on this aspect; it’s hard to understand the impact artificial lighting can have on your mood

and feel of the house until you’re living with it. Living in the house now, I have a much greater appreciation for light. Patrick has quite a few concealed light sources, with plenty of ambient light. The overall feeling is one of calmness – soft and relaxing.

Were there issues with planning permission?

Considering the location, we were very fortunate to have had no issues but we did do our homework. Early on in the design stage we engaged with the planners. They were happy to see we had given consideration to the County Development Plan.

Timeline

Mar 2014

Concept design

May 2014

Planning submitted

Jul 2014

Planning approved

Oct 2014

Detailed design

Jan 2015

Tendering individual trades

Mar 2015

Start on site, clearance and substructure

Sep 2015

Blockwork

Nov 2015

Roof

Jul 2016

Windows installation

Aug 2016

Mechanical and electrical first fix

Feb 2017

Cantilevering concrete bench

design and installation

Jun 2018

Second fix mechanical and electrical

Aug 2018

Decorating

Aug 2018

Tiling/flooring/Joinery

Nov 2018

Moved in

Top tips

Clear communication with the trades is key. The way to do that is to have the one vision, being prepared and planning ahead. Trust your team.

Start sourcing furniture early. Put your deposit down on items you know you want – money runs out at the end. Plus, knowing what furniture you will have will help with room dimensions at an early stage in the design.

Keep on top of the budget. We had a logbook where we kept track of all expenses; some things we had to spend more on but they were a necessity, like the windows. These were planned for in advance.

It also helped that we had a stunning architectural design that was tailored to the site and its surroundings. The planners had no problems with our contemporary design – in fact they encouraged it.

How did you tackle the project management?

Coming from a nursing background, taking on a project of this size was daunting. It was a real headache not having Patrick here at all times. We still managed to get through it, despite the stress of having no building experience. The build itself actually went really smoothly, because it was so well organised. We had the kitchen, bathrooms and so forth decided upon before we started the build, which meant we knew what materials we would be working with. When Patrick visited home, we had a big

site meeting with the relevant trades and specialists. Patrick had such a vision for this project, we had a clear plan to work to. It was a vision we wanted to stick to for ourselves and to stay true to the design Patrick had so lovingly put together for us.

At these site meetings, Patrick orchestrated what everyone had to do. He supplied construction drawings and made sure we were all on the same page. Lots of questions were answered at these meetings and any queries were explored there and then.

After that, myself and Mick were the contact points. We were on site if not daily, every second day. And we could answer most questions but we did make quite a few calls to Patrick to double check or get his lead on things.

This project being a self-build, we expected more bumps along the way. We were very fortunate to have good local

trades, who were happy to work on this project. They realised they were doing something different and embraced it.

What are your favourite features?

The windows, which are also our biggest splurge. We are so glad we made the decision to invest in this aspect of the build, otherwise we would have always regretted not doing it.

I also love the way the kitchen feeds into the discreetly hidden pantry and preparation area. And having a separate utility is fabulous. It means laundry is away from the main living space.

What about the systems?

It’s a low energy home, and to achieve that we chose to have a highly insulated house, airtight build with triple glazed windows and renewable energy. Previously we had oil and it’s no comparison; we’ve made a huge saving on our energy bills.

What would you change?

The only thing I would change is the bar on the front door – it’s a feature but it’s not practical for a family to use.

“The planners had no problems with our contemporary design – in fact they encouraged it...”

Project info

Find out more about Denise and Mick’s project in Co Donegal...

Project Suppliers

Suppliers

Architect Studio Gallagher, studiogallagher.ie

Structural engineer (Cantilevering concrete bench design) Trevor Scott Consulting, England

Building supplies

Divers Hardware in Milford tel. 074 9153474, Charles Kelly ckl.ie, and Chadwicks chadwicks.ie

Roofing slates

Thrutone Endurance slates by Cedral, cedral.world

Flat roof covering Henry McGinley, henrymcginley.ie

Insulation

Gallen Insulation galleninsulation.ie, and McTaggart Insulation mctaggartinsulation.ie. Spray foam Icynene, icynene.ie

Windows

PassiV tripled glazed uPVC windows from Munster Joinery, munsterjoinery.ie, and Internorm uPVC lift and slide triple glazed KS430 system and UPVC aluminium triple glazed window KF410 from Feneco Systems, fenecosystems.com

Electrical installation

Martin Mc Hugh Electrical Services, Milford Co Donegal, tel. 074 915 3378

Heating and plumbing installation

Eco Energy Systems, ecoenergysystems.ie

Mechanical heat recovery ventilation

Pro Air Systems, proair.ie

Concrete specialist

Cantilevered concrete bench by Michael Conlon, mobile 089 442 2164

Kitchen Cherrymore, cherrymore.ie

Electrical appliances

Irwins Electrical Expert, ewl.ie

Sanitaryware

Global Tiles globaltiles.ie, and Lusso Stone lussostone.com

Lighting Lighting Concepts, Letterkenny, tel. 074 912 6238

Photography

Sarah Fyffe Photography, sarahfyffe.com, and Studio Gallagher

NI calling ROI prefix with 00353 and drop the first 0

Spec

Walls: 200mm wide cavity wall construction fully filled with graphite EPS beads, externally finished with sand and cement render, U-value 0.15 W/sqmK

Roofs: mono pitch made of timber cut roof with 175mm spray foam insulation with trays suspended metal frame plasterboard ceiling, U-value 0.18 W/sqmK; flat roof warm roof construction made of single ply membrane, 160mm PIR insulation, timber cut roof, suspended metal frame plasterboard ceiling, U-value 0.12 W/sqmK

Floor: 150mm PIR insulation with 85mm sand cement screed with timber floor finish, U-value 0.11W/sqmK

Windows: uPVC triple glazed, overall U-value around 0.7W/sqmK

Supplier & Installers of High Quality, Energy Efficient Window & Door Systems

When the dust settles

Landscape designer Anne Byrne shares her vision for a family home on three quarters of an acre of land, in a rural location.

This project is one many self-builders will relate to.

A young couple just built a beautiful home in a gorgeous location that ticks all the boxes – family space, room to work, and just as importantly, room to play.

Three quarters of an acre of garden sits outside. Lots of lawn, a paved patio and a driveway, but that’s about it. The demands of the house build, work and young family combined have taken up all their available headspace for the last few years.

There are lovely views of the surrounding countryside, and in the distance, a pretty country town, but somehow they just never feel invited to spend time outside using all this space.

Something’s missing but they weren’t quite sure what it was. And so they called in the garden designer to draw up a plan.

The wish list

When I met this couple they clearly loved

their new home and were very happy with its location, appreciating the stunning rural setting, the benefits of having family nearby, and the land’s links with previous generations of the family.

The task for me as garden designer was to figure out how best to use the generous outdoor space to create an inviting garden which could become a link between the home itself and its location.

The house was contemporary and striking, so the landscaping needed to reflect this aspect of the owners’ style.

At the same time, they wanted to introduce a slightly wild, relaxed style in parts of the garden while keeping the planting closer to the house looking smart all year round.

Some trees were badly needed to bring height and interest to the space, with native Irish trees being preferred, and the main entrance needed to be enhanced with an interesting feature added to elevate this area.

Anne Byrne annebyrnegardendesign.com

The solution

The key to approaching a garden like this is to consider the proportions – an imposing house on a generous scale needs its outside space to reflect the scope of the owners’ and architect’s vision for the home.

So areas of hard and soft landscaping need to be generously proportioned and balanced with each other to produce a pleasing whole. Hard landscaping generally refers to paved areas, which could include paths, patios and driveways, while soft landscaping would include planted areas including lawns.

“ “... the homeowners wanted to introduce a slightly wild, relaxed style in parts of the garden while keeping the planting closer to the house looking smart all year round...”

Geranium and Crocosmia

Top tip

A contemporary pergola can be left bare for a striking statement, or have climbing plants trained to grow on the uprights for a softer look.

For this garden design, the existing patio is made more inviting by a raised bed with colourful planting, which wraps around two sides, giving a sense of enclosure.

Rendered and painted to complement the house façade, the bed’s inner edge is capped with a strip of stone paving wide enough to act as extra seating. Beyond this, planting at ground level brings a second tier of interest.

Block planting is included, where each square features one species, including evergreens and grasses that will look good all year round with almost no maintenance.

The block planting contrasts with mixed species, which will include evergreens and grasses too, but also perennials which appear anew each spring and flower during summer before fading away again until the following year.

Alterations

Paving at the front door area was widened to make this area more inviting, with room for an eye catching sculpture surrounded by waving evergreen grasses.

A contemporary pergola flanked by mixed planting leads from the patio to the garden beyond, while a curve of stepping stones brings you on a journey around the space to a vantage point from where a

swing seat looks out over the best part of the view.

Beyond the informal path, an area of wildflower meadow slopes down to a hawthorn hedge of our native Crataegus monogyna.

This super native plant is not only lovely to look at and brilliant for wildlife, but thrives on windy slopes and anchors the garden in its County Galway setting.

Again with proportions in mind, groups of trees are introduced to fit the scale of the garden – a trio of native silver birch, a

row of dainty rowans along the driveway, and as the showstopper, a majestic native oak in splendid isolation, to balance the composition.

The layout plan for the garden is a carefully balanced blend of paved and built elements, softened and brought to life with colourful planting suitable for the local conditions.

As the trees grow and mature along with the owners’ young children, the family will enjoytheir as-yet-built garden for many years to come, as the setting that their lovely home deserves.

Hawthorn hedge: Our native hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) is a useful source of food for wildlife including birds and our native red squirrel.

Native silver birch

viewpoint from which to enjoy the garden.

Row of rowans

Wrap around raised bed: Evergreen plants including grasses, small shrubs and perennials planted close to the house ensure that the entrance always looks smart, even in winter. Deck

House

Oak tree

Row of liquidambars for autumnal colour

Pergola

Some of Anne’s ideas to landscape the garden

The self-built house in need of landscaping

Image by Mika Sy

We are suppliers of Quality Stone & Brick Cladding (for both natural & manufactured). With an extensive range to choose from you will be sure to find the look to compliment your home.

To view our range and request a free quotation please go to our website www.fernhillstone.com

the

lowdown

THE BIG DEBATE

Artificial grass

Lawns don’t need much watering in Ireland but, setting that aside, is artificial grass a good or a bad idea? We take a look at a debate on Twitter.

It’s made of plastic and kills biodiversity

The debate started with @rossmmccarthy. He wrote a letter to the Irish Times stating: “One can hope that the Citizens’ Assembly [see citizensassembly.ie] on biodiversity loss recommends an end to fake grass and that the government implements that recommendation.”

“Often it is parents of young families who install fake grass in their gardens. This disconnects their children from nature and doesn’t allow them the fantastic fun of making daisy chains, playing in mud, discovering all sorts of insects and the chance to spot birds, foxes or hedgehogs that may have visited.”

“In a biodiversity emergency one of the best things we can do is give nature a chance in our gardens,” @rossmmccarthy then said on Twitter. “Fake grass turns soil below ground to dust, provides no home to insects and reduces our birds & mammals. We need to take this seriously & ban it.”

“Do you think that artificial turf stays intact forever? No. It leaches more micro plastics into the environment. More than we already are. Which is very bad,” added @dallydoodles.

But it’s got benefits

“What about people who have disabilities and cannot maintain

normal grass, grass full of moss and weed is expensive to keep buying products to keep it looking good,” retorted @p_peterd.

“I gave in after years of trying to get the grass to grow beyond a damp muddy mess,” @LangtounL shared. “Practical and many small insects appear to overwinter underneath it. Bigger issue to tackle is the legal use of bee killing pesticides by farmers.”

“I have a garden on several levels with shady area we put a lawn on for the kids to play,” said @analyticalhelen.

“Years we struggled with it being too wet in winter, too hard in summer and more moss than anything else. Wrestled with it for decade before going plastic.”

“Fake grass does not require any further energy to cut it, it does harbour insects and has little to no impact on bird life, in general it covers a small patch in a garden where it is used and very few homes have it. Block paving and slabs are far more destructive,” opined @WullieHalliday.

OPINION

Image by Alexas_Fotos

Building materials price tracker

Padraic Rogers mybuildingsupplies.ie

Online builder’s merchant mybuildingsupplies.ie has started a building materials price tracker for the most common building materials used in Ireland today.

They have used figures on a per square meter or meter cubed basis and taken an average to show general trends. Data collecting started in March 2022 and are for ROI only. Here are the highlights from June.

Looking at the current cost of materials, it seems prices are finally stabilising. However, high energy costs are expected to continue to fuel inflation.

Photo by Callum Hill

Insulation

May has seen another small rise in insulation prices across the board but they now seem to have stabilised. Manufacturers saw their costs increase due to raw ingredient shortages and rising energy costs. End consumers are also paying for increased global transport costs.

The expectation among industry experts is of ongoing fluctuation in pricing for the short to medium term, but with prices eventually stabilising.

Sheet materials

Price increases seen in early 2022 have plateaued. However, recent stock shortages are likely to push up demand with an inevitable rise in costs following. Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF) will be affected in particular by the war in Ukraine due to key ingredients being sourced from there.

We are expecting a price increase in the short term due to supply shortages and increasing manufacturing and transport costs. The medium to long term outlook is more positive with a stabilisation of energy and transport costs.

There was an overall increase in the price of timber in 2021 and this has continued to rise slightly in early 2022.

If energy and transport costs do not increase significantly for the rest of 2022 then there is hope that the costs will stabilise and level out.

Plasterboard

Plasterboard benefited from fairly consistent pricing throughout 2021 and 2022. However, the fuel and energy situation has exasperated rising costs due to raw ingredient shortages along with global transport bills rising.

A price increase is still a possibility but the overall pricing has levelled out. There is cautious optimism that this level will be maintained unless energy costs increase throughout 2022.

Cement

May 2022 was an expensive one for cement. Fuel and energy made the raw ingredient shortages and global transport situation worse. If energy costs stabilise throughout 2022 then there is optimism that the overall pricing will level out and possibly even reduce.

Blocks

The cost of concrete blocks overall increased in 2021 and this has continued to rise slightly in early 2022. The fuel and energy situation has exasperated rising costs.

Cautious optimism that pricing can be maintained but rising energy costs may prevent that.

The show

must go on

Selfbuild Live’s return to Citywest was a much awaited one. We have the exclusive on how it went down.

Citywest looked much the same after a two year break from all events.

The car park didn’t look any different, neither did the glass entrance doors nor the triple height ceiling. Keen observers will, however, have noticed a brand new antibacterial floor courtesy of the Health Service Executive.

Buzzing

On the days of build up, the 127 exhibitors setting up had a pep in their step. And for good reason – 13,728 visitors were about to descend upon the venue over the weekend.

As the first major event to go ahead after the lifting of restrictions in ROI, there was an overall feeling of relief and perhaps even a bit of joy. There was a definite buzz about the place.

According to our show survey, the vast majority of those who visited were building (42 per cent), renovating or extending (46 per cent). A quarter

were at the show to gather ideas and inspiration while 31 per cent were in the planning process and 25 per cent were in the midst of tackling their project.

The main attraction? The high quality exhibitors specialising in all aspects of building and home improving, on hand to showcase their products and services and answer any and all questions relating to their area of expertise. No distractions.

Other show highlights included a Modern Building Methods display –showing how, among other methods, Insulating Concrete Formwork (ICF) and Structural Insulating Panels (SIPs) are built up layer by layer.

The ever popular Selfbuild Bootcamp was also back with resident

Selfbuild Bootcamp with John Corless

construction expert John Corless, while the Daikin Theatre was packed with talks about everything from heat pumps to how to bring your home up to a B energy rating or better. Mica affected homeowners also had a stand to get the word out about defective concrete blocks.

How to catch up

Meanwhile Selfbuild+ members were treated to a live chat about onsite wastewater systems and why self-builders need to tackle the issue at the start of their project. Go to the Facebook Selfbuild+ Members Only group to lift the lid on the topic.

And if you’ve missed the live event, check out some of the suppliers who were there in the product profiles starting on this page.

There’s no doubt that overall, the show marked a much welcomed return to normal – for those building and home improving but also for anyone relieved to see the back of pandemic restrictions.

Keeping the momentum going is Selfbuild Live Belfast, snapping at the Dublin show’s heels. It’ll be on at the Titanic Exhibition Centre from the 7th-9th October 2022; more information and tickets available from live.selfbuild.ie

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Benefits

� Fully pre-plumbed and pre-wired

� Mains pressure hot water for fast filling baths and powerful showers

� High flow rate controls: ideal for multiple bathrooms

� Easy access for installation and servicing

� Premium quality white case finish

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Renewable Heating Solutions by

Choosing the heating system for your home can seem quite daunting if, like most people, you do not have an in-depth knowledge of modern heating solutions.

At Pipelife ECO we speak plain English and give you the comfort of knowing that we will take full responsibility for providing you with a design that fully meets your requirements and expectations.

Heating your home represents the largest annual running cost you will have in ensuring your family’s comfort over many years. The heating system you choose, and the supplier you choose to provide it, are decisions that will have an impact for decades to come.

Benefits

� Deal directly with a reputable Irish manufacturer

� Top quality design, service and security

� Comprehensive before and after sales support

� 50 year guarantee on the lifetime of the pipework

� Full design indemnity and product liability insurance

� 50 years of proud Irish manufacturing

Roofline, Window and Cladding Systems by

Cork Plastics PVC-UE Cladding Systems are suitable for external use on buildings as a decorative and protective facing, fixed vertically, horizontally or diagonally over brick, block, masonry or timber framed walling.

When installed correctly this reduces thermal loss by providing an additional external barrier. You can get the maximum of three points for the Code for Sustainable Homes when using PVC cladding on an external wall system.

Available in two designs (Shiplap and Open Vee) resembling existing timber profiles, with weathertight joints. A range of trims suit all applications.

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Benefits

� Tough finish: will not rot, warp, crack or erode

� Weather resistance and good insulating properties

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� 20 year product guarantee

Grant Aerona³ ASHP & Grant Integrated Unit by

Benefits

Riverstone Phyllite slate by

The Grant Aerona3 air to water, air source heat pump and Grant integrated unit are key products featured in Grant’s integrated heating packages for new builds. These highly efficient technologies work seamlessly together and offer a perfect solution that can be relied on for many years to come.

Avail of Grant’s free home heating design service by sending house plans and preference of heat emitters to heatpump@ grantengineering.ie / heatpump@grantni.com

� Aerona³ heat pump has an ErP rating of A+++ and is available in four outputs with the 13kW and 17kW models have been recognised by Quiet Mark for their quiet operation.

� Integrated unit is pre-wired and pre-plumbed which saves time on installation.

� Easily maintained and serviced.

� Can help achieve compliance as required under building regulations in the Republic of Ireland.

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Benefits

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Lock it

Building

tempting targets

up

thieves

It’s an uncomfortable fact that theft from building sites is common. All self-builders who’ve run their own site will have lost power tools and small pieces of plant. And some far more than this.

Early on in your build you’ll be using materials that are heavy and of relatively low unit value but as the build progresses, items generally get smaller (more easily stolen) and much more expensive.

Construction sites are especially hard to keep secure compared with, say, an office block, because they change a lot over time as it is developed and built and because numerous people, many of whom you won’t know, need to come and go.

Another factor is that much of what’s used has high value. Even items such as fuel are worth stealing. Theft, vandalism and fire cost the construction industry hundreds of millions a year.

There are three main threats you’ll need to plan for:

Threats to property. This includes theft of plant, machinery, tools, fuel and materials. Even your workers’ personal possessions might get stolen. Many such thefts are carried out by opportunistic villains who know that whatever they acquire can be quickly and easily sold with no questions asked. Stolen fuel, for example, is easily resold and can’t be traced. But even such a seemingly mundane crime can set your schedule back a day or more as you can’t then work machinery. Delays like this can become very costly.

If heavy, powerful vehicles were to be stolen from your site to be used in

other crimes (for example to gain high up access), you’ll find yourself wasting time you should be spending on your build working with the police, hire companies and insurance assessors. Threats to operations. Thefts and other criminal damage can, at worst, cause a whole site to shut down. But lesser problems can result in an inability to continue the work as programmed and, sometimes, even serious delays to a whole schedule. Construction is a planned business that relies on clever sequencing of tasks. If one of these sequences is broken, the results can be vastly more

serious than non-builders might imagine.

For example, if vandals enter your site and break or steal several of your, as yet, uninstalled windows and the supplier needs three months to make more, your building won’t be watertight as you’d planned, with considerable knock on effects.

The resulting insurance claim process will also consume valuable time and energy you should be spending building your home.

Threats to life. Damage to vehicles and plant will not only cost money to repair but may also result in knock on

sites are

for

who seek out their high value materials, plant and equipment. A few simple steps could stop you becoming their next victim.

Andrew Stanway Author of Managing Your Build

Photo by Scott Webb

CHECKLIST

Practical tips to deter theft

The security motto is Deterrence, Detection, Delay and Response. Even many professional thieves will be deterred by obvious security arrangements – there’ll be easier pickings elsewhere. If you have CCTV cameras for detection, criminals will assume they’ll be recording. Anything you can do to delay their access to your site will help you or others to see them. Here’s how to do it.

� Fence the perimeter. It’s essential, and not only keeps actual criminals out but also deters trespassers and nosy individuals! Hoardings (tall sheets) are much better than fences but cost more. They are more difficult to climb and prevent people from seeing what you have on site that’s worth stealing.

� Padlock your main gate and install it so it can’t be lifted off its hinges.

� Good lighting for gates and other access points, facing inwards so intruders can be seen.

Activated by sensors so it’s not on all night to annoy the neighbours. Ensure your lighting is done in a way that means it’s hard, or impossible, to disable it.

� CCTV camera that you can monitor remotely on your phone. Consider using a professional security company to install their professional versions; these cost surprisingly little and can be rented. The company then monitors their cameras the whole time (which is hard for you to do on your phone) and responds accordingly. If your site is especially vulnerable, get a quote from a security company for a night time patrol to check on it in person.

� Good, effective, signage telling people the site is secured helps deter opportunistic thieves. If you employ a security company, they’ll supply them.

� If possible, build your garage first, then use it as a secure lockup.

Make simple but strong temporary garage doors and install your smart ones later. Get the house glazed and secured with lockable doors as soon as you can.

� Reduce the amount of valuables on your site. Bring in expensive or high value ones as close as possible to their actual installation. Hire or buy strong, lockable steel cabins/lockers/ vaults for valuables. Ideally, these should have shielded padlocks.

� Don’t leave metals around the site. Even small amounts of copper are attractive to thieves. In practice this will mean storing wiring and cables along with copper piping in your secure storage unit.

� Take power tools home with you at the end of the working day, along with other small, valuable items. Consider security marking your tools and valuables so if they are stolen and later found, they can be identified.

� Hide mixers and small plant out of sight round the back so they aren’t too obvious a temptation. If you have a fuel store on site, secure it effectively or the contents could be stolen or even used in an arson attack.

� Use large plant to secure smaller things. Ideally, all expensive, large plant should have an immobiliser, a tracking device and an alarm. It’s not uncommon for valuable equipment like this to be stolen to order and exported all over the world.

� Remove all ladders at the end of the working day or render them unclimable in some way. Dismantle access towers and put them away overnight. Keep upstairs windows shut overnight. Alarm your scaffolding.

effects that aren’t obvious at the time. Spilled fuel, for example, can cause a fire or slip hazard.

Stolen (stripped out) wiring and electrical fixtures can leave a live, dangerous situation that becomes a threat to life and arson is, of course, even more serious.

If someone trespasses on your site then creates a hazard that subsequently affects your workforce or visitors you could find yourself in trouble.

Prevention

As you start planning your build, think through all the security hazards on your specific plot, then create a Risk Analysis like the large construction companies do.

The threats and risks are exactly the same. Because yours are on a smaller scale doesn’t mean they won’t affect you just as seriously as they would a big construction company. This Analysis will inform your security actions but don’t imagine the job’s then done. Building sites change a lot over the months or years and you’ll need to update your Risk Analysis as time passes and new risks appear. By now you might be thinking, “What’s all this got to do with me? All I’m doing is building a single house.”

Building sites are dangerous places and people can easily get injured, maimed, or even die if they have access to your deep excavations, dangerous machinery, high scaffolding, etc. And, however small your build, you’ll have responsibilities under Health and Safety Regulations to take all reasonable steps to ensure the health and safety not just of those you employ but also of others involved who aren’t your employees.

Sometimes even the planners and your insurers will demand a say in how you propose to secure your site.

This means keeping those who visit as well as the general public, safe from your construction activities. Vandalism and malicious damage isn’t uncommon on sites where the development is unpopular.

Although you may think it crazy, someone who breaks into your site, then hurts themselves, can take legal action against you for not having it properly secured. Taken to its extremes, even subcontractors can refuse to work on a site they consider to be unsafe.

All of this becomes more important if your site has a right of way through it, other sites or work areas adjacent to it, occupied homes next to it, children and other vulnerable people nearby.

Back to

basics

Fiann Ó Nualláin theholisticgardener.com twitter @HolisticG

What we get out of gardening seems to change every couple of years. From something to do (to potter about or grow your own), to something to have (boosting kerb appeal or perfecting exterior design) and now, something that nurtures wellbeing.

Yes, the garden has become a place to connect with nature in a more mindful and deliberate way, to get your hit of vitamin D and a lungful of fresh air, to move and be active in, to contribute to climate action and the self-empowerment of that, but it has also become the focus and safe space for gatherings with friends and family. For the easy communication that flows when in a relaxing and comforting space.

Focal point

So as we use the garden to come together for the joys of life, where is the hearth?

Sure, a blanket on the lawn with friends and wine is instantly cordial. A huddle around a barbeque provides the spark for craic and banter, and any style of garden benches, seats and tables make a hub for family interaction and socialising.

But, there is value in having a true hearth. A spot that is the heart of the action. A spot that is the beacon to good times and letting go of all the stresses of the world. A fire pit.

Given that the campfire is the symbol and support of communal gathering since the dawn of humanity, there is a beautiful continuity in sharing that experience with those we love and care for.

The flicker of the flames and warmth, encouraging the very primal connection and endorphin boost of

being in company, of gathering to eat, laugh and share stories and memories, of creating new bonds and new memories.

Yeah, I am a fan of the fire pit as the modern campfire. But where you place it is key.

You want it where it is good to gather. But not too close to trees and buildings, somewhere if sparks arise there is no concern, nor too close to shrubs and plants that could be scorched by the heat. Let it have its own space: 2.5 to 3 meters away from flammable or damageable items is the rough guideline.

You also want space to sit around, so often professional garden designers will mount a pit on a wide patio or paved circle, or place it as a standalone feature within an existing lawn area

A fire pit creates a primal connection to the garden. One that’s layered with social and communal meaning. Here’s how to add one to your patch of green.

Photo by Travel4FoodFun

Photo by Erik Mclean

on a non-flammable base surface, or sunken into a gravel expanse. All setting up the sculptural aspect and the significance of the feature.

Types

You can build one by digging a dish like hole, surrounding it with stones or slate to clearly define the spot as a fire pit. Or you can avail of many off the shelf and bespoke outdoor fire pits available in local DIY stores and garden centres.

The manufactured fire pits are designed to not only look fabulous but to be efficiently functional – simple to position the fuel, easy to clean the ashes, easy to maintain the parts and relatively easy to assemble.

There are fire pit kits and preassembled sets that come on tripods or legs – making them suitable for decked areas. As well as barrel types and even caged or mesh topped varieties for patio and paved areas. All with safety as well as aesthetic appeal in mind.

Some may be gas/propane fuelled and some may require professional installation and ongoing cost and maintenance consideration. Most are wood burning. Many are simple bowl or dish designs that are low maintenance. There is the perfect choice waiting for your space and needs/demands. Your local supplier will have plenty of advice and considerations.

Some fire pits are designed to

be permanent structural, and even sculptural, additions to the garden. Others are portable or quick assemble/ disassemble pieces, to store away until needed.

Each type comes in a variety of budget and aesthetic ranges –incorporating different metals and materials to blend in with the existing garden style and even matchable to garden furniture and accessories.

Fuel for thought

Of course, you will need to adhere to some fire pit safety rules when in use. Use the right fuel and be eco-conscious with that – nothing overly smoky and definitely nothing with pollutants or toxic gasses to emit.

The aim is to burn enough fuel to keep a good glow and sufficient warmth. It’s a campfire, not a bonfire. Some pits are suitable for cooking, others are not. Check manufacturer guidelines.

Depending on your fuel, most embers will take a good few hours to fully extinguish and some can still be glowing 24 hours or more, later. Always check them thoroughly. After the fire has done its job, leave the ashes until completely cool before safely disposing of them or using them as a compost agent if suitable.

A fire pit may seem like a convenient way to get rid of garden leaves and debris. Don’t. Keep the fire as a sacred fire – one to cherish with family and friends around.

With that reverence, never leave your fire pit unattended, take care with pets and children attending. Be fully aware of the dangers and precautions with fire. It is best to keep a large bucket of water or hose close by, just in case of an emergency or accidents.

So that’s it, a fire pit makes a wonderful addition to a garden. It will provide hours of joy and comfort, light and warmth. A primal, empowering and health enhancing feature that’s a wonderful focal point to experience with close ones.

Photo by TJ Breshears

Photo by Ron Lach

Photo by The Blowup

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HOUSE DESIGN GUIDE / OVERVIEW

Practical house design

Tackling your own house design doesn’t mean you have to get a degree in architecture. All it means is familiarising yourself with the process, then hiring a design professional to guide you through the finer details and to keep you on track for compliance. Here’s how to do it.

Key in an internet search for a phrase such as “guide for good house design” and you will be offered about 1.76 billion results. Narrow this down to a search on a UK ecommerce site for “how to design a house” and you will find over 10,000 books claiming to give you the answers.

It is a bit of an understatement, then, to say that much has been written on the subject.

Consequently, this guide will not attempt to regurgitate what everyone else has to say on the matter. Neither will it quote from textbooks. Instead, this guide relies on common sense knowledge gleaned from many years of designing buildings across NI, ROI and further afield. Its aim is to look at how the house will function for you on a practical level.

So what constitutes good house design in Ireland today? There’s a lot of lip service given to adaptability and future proofing. Yet very little is done. The way we build our homes is permanent and costly to convert or adapt. Waste and use of resources are also hot topics, yet how much do our buildings really support a healthy living environment and the adequate use of land? What about energy conservation, reducing waste, using renewable, recycled and recyclable materials?

As with any project you embark on, you will need to consider what your end goal clearly is and what

your priorities are.

Thankfully, a house that meets the actual needs of a modern family can be designed more economically than many people think possible. The money saved can then be put to better use in building a house with character and beauty which is energy efficient and uses less raw materials in its construction.

At the end of the day, remember that this is your house. You need to prioritise what’s important to you and find

a designer who can meet your wants and needs. Remember too that unusual building requirements or planning constraints are opportunities

for lateral thinking and the application of non mainstream ideas.

So embrace the process and enjoy!

About the Selfbuild Design Guide’s Author

Les O’Donnell is a Chartered Architectural Technologist and structural engineer with over 30 years’ experience designing and supervising the construction of new builds. His practice, Landmark Designs, is based in Co Tyrone. All of the information contained in the guide is for information purposes only; professional guidance must be sought for your own specific project.

Good design will produce a house of high aesthetic value that is functional, affordable and sustainable, says Les O’Donnell.

Les O’Donnell landmarkdesigns.org.uk

Photo by Ryan Ancill

HOUSE DESIGN GUIDE / BASIC CONFIGURATION

The bare bones

get

The starting point of all house design is the site. It is vital to make best use of the orientation of the dwelling, taking into account things such as where you would like to have sunlight coming in at different times of the day or where you want to make use of (or avoid) different views. This will feed into the design process every step of the way.

The brief

Before getting to the stage of talking to a designer, every house design project should begin with design brief notes. These should allow your designer to give you accurate fee estimates.

Don’t get too worried about the format or whether some elements contradict each other. The brief will evolve over the life of the project and should be

How to

started on deciding what shape and size your home should be.

kept updated as you build up your concept of what the end result is going to be.

I often see good first instincts being discarded, only to be revisited later, so it is useful to keep track of your thought processes by ensuring that the notes retain a record of all of your ideas as time goes on.

Keep the brief, as its name suggests, brief. Designers do

not want to read your answer to War and Peace. A clear, simple and honest brief will usually lead to the most coherent design so take your designer into your confidence.

You should start the brief by asking questions of yourself and importantly, of anyone else, who will be living in the house. And then listing the reasons for wanting to build it.

Will it be to make a profit from building and selling it on, or will it be intended as a long term family home? Who is it for? How might it cope with changing user needs over the forthcoming years? A garage can consume a significant chunk of the budget. So will you leave that out to save costs for now, and build it later when you can perhaps afford it better? How much landscaping will you want (or need) done at the completion stage?

Setting a pragmatic build cost budget at the beginning is essential for the success of the project so get some early preliminary financial advice on the amount of mortgage you can reasonably afford.

Although it should not be the sole determining factor, the budget will help to guide the design process for optimising the size and specifications of the house.

Do not ignore the fact that capital building costs represent only a fraction of the cost of running a house over the long term and if you build a much larger house than the one you live in now, operating and maintenance costs will increase accordingly, so factor that into the budget too. If you’re into spreadsheets, start one as soon as possible.

Finally, nearly everyone likes to take their sketches to their designer. This can be a good

start in that it shows that you are actively thinking about what you want. Potential self-builders who simply want a new house but have no idea of what they want beyond that, can kick off a very lengthy design process.

Be warned though, the last thing a designer wants to see is a set of images or sketches which would create a totally inappropriate design. After having spent months of head scratching over many versions or combinations of ideas, the last thing you’ll want to hear is that the planners will most probably recommend refusal if the design is submitted or that the design will result in an energy hungry home.

In short, keep sketches as simple as possible. Do not try to work everything out to the last millimetre and above all, keep an open mind to the possibilities which a good designer will explore for you.

House shapes

The shape of the house can be influenced by thoughts such as “we want the living room to benefit from the evening sun because that is the only time of day when we usually get to sit down”. Or “we want the back door facing north because we get less rain from that direction”. Or a very common one: “we want to see the road from the kitchen or living room window”.

I could go on, but you get the picture. Other shape factors might include wanting to keep a sensible ridge height to make best use of shelter on a windy site, to align the dwelling with a road or lane, to orientate the house to optimise solar gain or to avoid traffic noise.

A good plan shape is vital for environmental reasons too.

A layout that is essentially

What the planners want

Given the plethora of images and ideas on houses and their shapes that can be found online and in books, it is all too easy to try to pack too many ideas into one house. So remember that a degree of restraint may be required.

Start by doing a little prep on your local planning guidelines to see what criteria they recommend as constituting good design for a dwelling, whether it is in a rural setting or in an urban area.

Every planning authority has a catalogue of online design guides for their particular areas, so if time allows, try to get familiar with the material to get at least a basic knowledge of what will be acceptable. Bear in mind that even across any one planning area, design guides may differ according to the locality, so make sure that you know which guidance applies to your site.

Most planning authorities will consider contemporary designs, even in traditional rural areas, so decide early on if that is the type of thing that might interest you.

HOUSE DESIGN GUIDE / BASIC CONFIGURATION

square on plan will generally be more energy efficient than one which is overly long or which has a number of projections. The idea, for example, of enclosing a courtyard flanked by wings on three sides creates a higher proportion of external envelope to floor area so will lose more heat, unless the courtyard is brought inside the thermal envelope.

In other words, to achieve optimum energy efficiency in terms of minimising heat loss, you should aim for the least amount of external surface areas which contains your required spaces.

Of course, if you want to emulate a rural cottage or farmhouse, the plan would usually tend to be based on a rectangular form. But carefully positioning a couple of rectangles together could achieve a more square layout, as long as the roof design was given proper thought.

Ratio of roof areas to walls

External shape is also dictated by the roof pitch or angle and whether it is a gabled roof or a hip roof or asymmetrical. Generally, but not always, narrow roofs work better with steeper pitches, so your designer will experiment with angles and gable wall lengths to get the most pleasing effect.

Trying to squeeze three rooms along the depth of a gable wall can result in a wide gable and a big roof, none of which are entirely attractive, although you could divide or set back parts of the walls and roofs to give the appearance of shorter spans.

Most of our homes have roof angles that range somewhere between 250 to 450. An angle

of 300 is common, but 350 or thereabouts can often strike the correct aesthetic balance. A slightly steeper pitch may be needed to contain first floor rooms when the ridge height is restricted, for example, by planning conditions.

Barrel roofs, monopitch (or lean-to) roofs and even flat roofs can also work in the right situation. A green roof usually won’t cope very well with steep slopes. Dormer windows in most rural areas are generally frowned upon by planners and designers. That said, if they are carried up in line with the face of the external wall below, they can work.

Although the floor plan is where almost everyone starts, don’t get totally fixated on the layout at the expense of the external appearance. Roof lines, window and door sizes and positions all have an effect on symmetry.

Getting the correct proportion of wall openings to solid wall and ratios of heights to widths is critical. It can be easy to end up with a jumble of window widths and heights if certain rooms are adjacent to each other. For instance, windows to bathrooms, kitchens and suchlike might, for practical reasons, need to have sill heights which do not equate to those of the lounge or living room.

Overly long lengths of wall with multiple windows can lead to a train effect and should be avoided. All of these factors have an effect on the final shape.

Upsize or downsize

One size definitely does not fit all in house design; and there are a few different approaches amongst self-builders when tackling the question of what size of house to build. These

could be summarised as follows:

1. We want to build as big a house as possible for what we can afford (upsizing).

2. We want to build as small a house as possible to suit our needs and no more (downsizing).

3. We want to build a house that is as environmentally friendly as possible.

Obviously, a smaller house that requires less resources to build, run and maintain, is going to beat the larger option in terms of environmental credentials, so 2 and 3 quite often go hand in hand.

An under occupied home is defined as one which is too large for the needs of the household living in it. In ROI in 2020, nearly two thirds (63.3 per cent to be precise) of the total population

lived in an under occupied home whereas the figure for the whole of the EU was just under one third (32.5 per cent).

We know that household sizes are diminishing (2.6 persons per household for ROI in 2020), yet house sizes, especially rural detached houses, are growing. Even in the grimmest year of the last big recession (2010), the average one-off size of a new house jumped to 250 sqm (2,691 sqft), which was a rise of 34 per cent on the average 2001 dimensions.

Size is closely related to cost, so having established a budget figure that you can realistically afford, (that is, if you belong to the upsizing school of thought) apply a simple estimated cost per square metre of floor area to

“Although the floor plan is where almost everyone starts, don’t get totally fixated on the layout at the expense of the external appearance. Roof lines, window and door sizes and positions all have an effect on symmetry...”

arrive at a maximum affordable floor area.

For downsizers, first of all, accurately evaluate your household needs so as to arrive at a minimum floor area. For the green or eco home builders, the finished size might fall partly between the two extremes.

Build costs

Estimated building costs issued by NI Building Control and based on Building Cost Information Service (BCIS) indices (last updated July 2021) suggest £1,279/sqm for a detached single dwelling and £481/sqm for a domestic garage. If you think in terms of square feet, those costs are equivalent to £118.82/sqft and £44.69/sqft respectively.

In ROI for the first quarter

of 2022, prices received from contractors by Dooley Cummins Architects & Engineers indicate that building a one-off detached house in a rural area is costlier than in NI and likely to be in the region of €2,250/sqm (€209/ sqft).

Be aware that these estimates are subject to individual circumstances and that a less complex design will undoubtedly be cheaper to build than a structure of a similar size but which has multiple roofs and elevational projections.

Features on a difficult site such as excessive underbuilding, retaining walls and tricky drainage will also prove to be expensive and will result in a diminished budget for the house itself.

Where you build will also affect

What’s the storey?

Looking at the house vertically, you may always have dreamed of a two storey dwelling. And there is a case for claiming reduced cost when compared to a single storey structure of the same total floor area. The general idea is that less foundation works, underbuilding and roof is required. You should, however, bear in mind that a fair amount of floor area in a two storey dwelling is taken up by stairs, stairwells and landings, so in effect, they reduce the amount of habitable room space which could be achievable in a single storey with the same total floor area.

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costs, with areas around Dublin easily the most expensive area to build. A dwelling built using Passivhaus principles will sometimes (not always) cost more to get the external fabric right, but this is easily offset by the much reduced requirement for technologies and decreased running costs due to very low energy demands. Remember that energy is money.

Statutory fees

Statutory fees can present a hidden cost; submitting a planning application is reasonably priced in both NI and ROI but the other fees could cause a nasty shock.

Owing to a rather quirky rule in the NI Building Regulations, the scale of application fees undergoes a significant increase when floor area exceeds a somewhat arbitrary 250sqm (2,691 sqft in old money).

Take the example of a dwelling falling just under the 250sqm limit and the total Building Control fees will be £352.50, but a dwelling of, let’s say, 251 sqm will have the fees applied on the basis of estimated build costs (i.e. 251 x £1,279) so the fees jump to £2,050.

If your house design is looking like it will end up at just over 250sqm, a good designer will warn you of this and potentially save you almost £1,700. Of course, for this size of dwelling, the saving will only be around 0.5 per cent of the building costs and therefore, perhaps, should not be allowed to unduly influence the design.

In ROI, development levy charges depend on floor area and what council area you

build in. For example, the levies published by Monaghan County Council for 2022 set rates (for the “Provision of Community, Recreation and Amenity Infrastructure”) of €1,080 per unit up to 200sqm, €1,080 per unit plus €15/sqm between 200sqm and 300sqm and €3,500 per unit plus €19/ sqm greater than 300sqm.

In County Donegal under the Development Contribution Scheme, a floor area of up to 199sqm attracts a charge of €1,500 whilst 200sqm and above is €2,500. Call it a holiday home and the charge is a staggering €13,691.28.

Measurements

When speaking of floor areas, the figures which we have so far looked at are all related to internal floor areas. These are defined as everything on every storey contained within the internal faces of the external walls.

That means that internal wall thicknesses are part of the internal floor area. Allow 100mm thick for ordinary partition walls and 215mm thick for walls where reinforced concrete floor slabs meet above. An acoustic wall can be built at 100mm thick to meet the regulatory requirements which only require a drop in decibels, but if better acoustic separation is required, allow at least 200mm thick walls.

A cavity wall might also be required internally, where the wall becomes an external wall above. A basic block built external cavity wall requires a minimum 150mm cavity to just about meet current U-value requirements, but this is being superseded by wider cavities, so perhaps start

with a 400mm thick external wall when working out overall dimensions. Where an external wall is overly long or high without additional lateral support, the inner leaf might be 140 or 215mm, giving total wall thicknesses of 440 or 515mm respectively. There are many variations of materials and methods for wall construction that can be used, so get your designer to go over the options with you.

Ceiling heights

Part D: 4C.10 of the NI building regulations sets out maximum storey heights permitted under the regulations and these are generally 2.7m for floor to floor and ceiling to ceiling heights but can differ slightly depending on certain criteria.

Part A: 1.1.3.11 of the ROI building regulations stipulate that the floor to floor and ceiling to ceiling heights should not exceed 2.7m.

Using the 2.7m figure, if the designed floor construction is 300mm, then floor-to-ceiling height would be 2.4m. These are maximum heights, but I would not recommend ceiling heights of less than 2.134m (7’ 0”) and even then, only in less used areas and where space is too tight for anything higher.

However, the regulations are not saying that you cannot build high walls, but simply that if your walls fall outside the limiting geometry covered by the regulations, then a structural engineer’s calculations will be required to show what wall structure is required.

Moving with the times

An adaptable house is one which can be readily changed to suit the users’ needs over time. It can be achieved by creating a flexible open space through minimising internal structural components and setting out a simple structural grid, with demountable internal partition walls.

Separate the structure from the external cladding, minimise complex site applied finishes or irreversible processes (i.e. welding, adhesives and plasters) and try to incorporate components that can be easily removed, repurposed or recycled when they become obsolete.

Some of this may sound a little radical, but house construction in the 21st Century needs to move up to the next level as soon as possible. We have the skills and technology, so why not? Adaptable design has the potential to save costs over time and significantly extend the life of the building.

HOUSE DESIGN GUIDE / MOST USED ROOMS

Jigsaw puzzle

Unless you have some experience in building design, I would advise that you keep your floor plan sketches as simple as possible. After all, it’s your designer’s job to get your requirements worked into the floor plans.

A simple list of rooms, their sizes, functions and preferred relationships to each other is usually sufficient to provide the freedom that a designer really needs to create spaces which work and to tie together a usable

and efficient layout along with the external appearance of the dwelling.

Room uses and sizes

Do not be too worried about naming rooms at the start, it can lead to dangerous assumptions and misconceptions about what is really meant by the name. Instead, start with a brief list of uses for rooms and see where that leads.

You could find that a number of rooms share a common use

Sizing and positioning the most used rooms of the house is a tricky business. That’s why you need to trust your designer to make the rooms fit. Here are some pointers.

that could be better provided by a separate room, or conversely, that one room’s principal use could be shared between others, so that the room could be removed from the design.

Homeworkers might not need a whole room as an office. For instance, if an office is used only during the day and another room (living room or bedroom, etc.) only in the evening and night time, perhaps a closable home office cabinet at one end of one of those rooms will be all that is required.

Keeping your self-imposed total floor area in mind, you can start to make up a list of rooms with your preferred sizes for each one, not forgetting to add areas required for storage spaces, corridors and stairs, etc., but more on that later.

Perhaps the easiest way to arrive at preferred room sizes is to look at the dimensions of the rooms where you currently live and decide whether to go larger or smaller in each case.

A bit of research on furniture sizes would be useful too. For example, the seats in a day room can be noticeably smaller overall than a suite of furniture for the lounge, maybe by as much as 30 per cent less.

And a reasonably sized six person dining room table with access space around it will get by with about 7.5sqm of floor space whereas an eight person one will occupy about 33 per cent more of a footprint. Remember what all those little bits of extra floorspace will cost you to build.

Internal room sizes must also coordinate with external wall dimensions. If the external walls are finished with components conforming to standard sizes (e.g. brick or composite wall panels, etc.) then to reduce wastage of materials, due consideration must be given to

wall heights, opening sizes and the distances between openings. For instance, brickwork wall dimensions should usually be in multiples of 225mm horizontally and 75mm vertically. In blockwork walls, I would also try to aim for dimensions that avoid excess cutting of blocks, so the dimensions should ideally be in multiples of 225 or 450mm horizontally and 225mm vertically. These dimensions allow for typical 10mm mortar joints, so when using lightweight or insulating blocks which require a thin-joint building method (for optimal thermal efficiency), the difference needs to be allowed for.

Living room

Little things can be very important for comfort and usability. For example, positioning the TV correctly in a living room so that people are still seated facing the wood burning stove, whilst the sunlight is not creating blinding effects through glass or off other reflective surfaces onto the screen.

I think that it is much too gloomy when curtains are closed on sunny days just to allow the occupants to watch TV.

On the subject of TVs, they are also related to room size. The optimum viewing distance is related to the screen size and resolution. Sony for example,

recommends a minimum viewing distance of six times the vertical screen size for standard resolutions, three times the vertical screen size for high definition (HD) TVs and 1.5 times the vertical screen size for 4K or 8K TVs.

These are minimum recommended distances, relating to the distance at which the human eye can differentiate individual pixels. Whichever room the TV goes into, the maximum viewing distance may be more relevant and would depend on

HOUSE DESIGN GUIDE / MOST USED ROOMS

how many people would be likely to be watching at the same time so that the seating layout would work.

Kitchen

The kitchen is the focal point within the house and the heart of the home because of its social functions, so always receives keen attention during the design process. We spoke of the problems of naming rooms earlier and this is true especially of kitchens.

Your understanding might be that a kitchen is a place for storing utensils and cooking food with some living space attached. Someone else might take it to be primarily a living room with a food preparation section attached.

I believe that whatever the layout, the kitchen should be connected to the garden when possible, both for picking fresh herbs, fruit and vegetables just when you need them, and for

linking to an outdoor eating area.

Kitchen floor size is always important; too big and it becomes tiring with excessive moving around, too small and people get in the way of each other. For more on this, see the triangle rule page 115.

The length of wall that is to be fitted with kitchen units will usually be designed in multiples of 600mm because that is the length of most units, except for appliances such as large refrigerators and storage cupboards or larders.

To calculate the depth of a simple kitchen, allow 600mm for worktop depth out from the wall, then a suitable width of floor, perhaps 1800mm, then another worktop width on the opposite wall to give a total of 3m.

That might seem small for a modern kitchen but it is sufficient when space is limited. You might well ask why many modern kitchens are so much larger. It’s partly to do with the trend of the kitchen island, which will be somewhere around 0.9m wide x 2.1m long and will require a clear working minimum space of 900mm on each side of it, so that the kitchen width becomes 600 + 900 + 900 + 900 + 600 = 3.9m.

For more comfortable proportions and to reduce potential trip hazards such as an

open dishwasher door, the widths might be 1200mm each side of a 1200mm island, which, added to the two worktops each side, gives a total kitchen width of 4.8m.

As soon as, or even before, the required floor and wall space is known, it can be useful to go along to a specialist kitchen manufacturer who can give you good ideas for a fitted kitchen. If that is what you want.

If you intend to include nonstandard sized appliances and storage units, i.e. larger or smaller than 600 x 600mm, do your homework and find out what dimensions they require. Don’t forget to allow for internal wall finish thicknesses when doing the sums.

When space is at an absolute premium, consider space saving

appliances. It is actually possible to have a complete working kitchen that is contained within a 900mm wide cupboard. Although these products are primarily aimed at the bedsit or office market, it does show how much function can be fitted into a small space.

The new kitchen is a multifunctional place and most will include space for a sofa or two in addition to the dinner table and a TV. That is fine and works well when cooking and chatting to visitors or keeping an eye on children, all at the same time.

But do consider that cooking smells and noise from the dishwasher or kettle are just a few things which may intrude on the ability to relax on the sofa.

A walk in pantry or larder is often requested. Ideally this needs to be cool with no windows and plenty of shelving space. A width of 1.8m will comfortably allow shelves beside each side of the door. If the door opens into it, the depth needs to be similar to the width; if not then 1.2m would suffice.

If we take a kitchen that incorporates a family dinner table and some living space then perhaps start with an overall floor area of 4 metres by 8 or 9 metres. Get your designer to show what different layouts of furniture and fittings look like when properly drawn to scale.

The total length of a combined kitchen, family room and dining area could feasibly work out at anywhere between 8m and 12m or more. It doesn’t have to be rectangular, so think about L and T shaped open plan layouts. For a kitchen on its own, 4m by 4m would be a good starting point.

The ceiling height of the kitchen all depends on the features that you want. If a cathedral ceiling is desired,

perhaps with skylights or clerestory windows, then thought is required on how (or whether) to incorporate high level storage units.

The main issues are of aesthetics and practicality. If the cupboards are taken up into the ceiling, they can be too high to be of any use, whilst if they are stopped with flat tops below the ceiling, they can look odd. One answer is to keep the wall height low so that high level cupboard fronts can blend into the sloping ceiling.

Voids concealed behind the tops of the cupboard fronts can come in useful for routing ducts and services. Another solution may be to fit shelves, plate racks or hanging racks for pots, pans and other utensils. Instead of high level cupboards.

The presence of window sills set above a kitchen worktop might not contribute to the vertical emphasis that is desired on a specific elevation. For these reasons, you might wish to opt for room layouts so that window heights are not compromised by internal fixtures and fittings.

It has also been common to have a conservatory or sun lounge directly linked to the kitchen.

Conservatories

The newly published (June 2022) version of Part F1 of the NI building regulations dealing with conservation of heat and power in dwellings, which should create a step change in how houses should be heated and cooled.

One casualty of the new regulations may prove to be sun lounges or conservatories. Let’s face it, with our climate and the

Guide

cost of energy, do we really need to be trying to heat rooms which have large expanses of glazed walls?

I would suggest that yes, conservatories can be delightful rooms. But they should perhaps be returned to the type of usage for which they were originally intended, i.e. as a garden room for sitting out in cool or damp days and for sheltering tender plants during winter, but keep them outside of the thermal envelope of the dwelling. They can certainly be made a lot less expensive to build if you do so. Any inner door linking

the conservatory to the dwelling should perform as an external door in terms of U-value and airtightness, etc. You could also use these highly glazed areas to trap solar heat and transfer it to cooler parts of the dwelling, using smart controls.

Utility room

As unlikely as it may seem, the utility room can often be the most difficult room to design in a house. It is frequently perceived as a smaller

HOUSE DESIGN GUIDE / MOST USED ROOMS

room and can become almost an afterthought in the design brief. Yet it can have more functions than any other room and may contain a number of doors (which all eat up valuable wall and floor space) leading into connected spaces.

We know that utility rooms that doubled up as a rear or side entrance hallway are now almost a thing of the past and they now tend to be kept separate.

This allows them to function as places where noisy appliances such as washing machines and driers don’t intrude upon the rest of the house. They can also be used to house a freezer, especially useful if the kitchen refrigerator is tall with no freezer space.

Spaces or rooms which I have been asked to include, within or linked to the utility room, include:

� laundry room

� drying room

� boots / mud room

� dog washing room

� plant room,

� wc

� shower/wetroom

One way of economising on costs and resources is to try to keep all the wet rooms together as much as possible so that plumbing and drainage does not get spread about too much. This also works on different storeys, for example positioning bathrooms above utility rooms.

By all means combine the utility room with adequate laundry space so that the processing of clothes (washing, drying, ironing and storage) can take place in one self contained area, but make it user friendly.

A person doing the ironing might like to watch an old film, listen to a podcast, catch up with friends on social media or simply look out the window. This space could also contain a drying room

for hanging up wetsuits or to drip dry textiles if you need it. Clothes storage is obviously needed for both clean and dirty clothes.

The wetroom (or boots room / mud room / dog washing room) that is quite often requested these days could all be incorporated together with, but perhaps not within, a wc / shower room.

Do you access this area from the utility room? It’s up to you, but I would suggest not, or at least think about potential user preferences. Toilets and washing facilities grouped in one room may work well for a young family, until those more chaotic times when you have a few teenagers all trying to get ready for school together.

With the above suggestions, we are trying to group so called wet

spaces together, separate from dry spaces. They don’t have to be interconnected or accessible from one another. Storage can also be attached to, or within, the utility room.

The old style of utility room could exist in a space as small as 1.5m x 2.4m. Nowadays, yes, if all you need is a sink, washing machine and drier, it still could be kept to these dimensions, but add in a few extra things and it grows rapidly.

Let’s take a suggested utility room layout to contain a sink and worktop, washing machine, drier, chest freezer, ironing space, broom cupboard and laundry storage space. That lot would require a floor area of at least 3m x 3.6m.

Bathrooms

Of the many people that I know, few can seem to recall exactly when they last had a bath. This is not a reflection on their personal hygiene, you understand, but is simply because their busy lifestyle only allows time for showers.

So, not many (busy) people use baths regularly, yet everyone wants one in their home. I can understand this when there is a young family, children frequently do need a deep de-grunge, but whilst there are still a few adult bathing addicts, there doesn’t really seem to be a huge demand.

Additionally, as we age further, getting in and out of a standard bath can become difficult,

“A simple list of rooms, their sizes, functions and preferred relationships to each other is usually sufficient to provide the freedom that a designer really needs to create spaces which work...”

although there are solutions available. Anyhow, take it as read that the bathroom will almost certainly contain a bath, so the next thought is to determine the type.

There are thousands of versions out there so I won’t labour the point, but the main considerations will be position and size. All baths will obviously need access space on at least one side. A full size stand alone traditional shaped bath will need up to 1900 x 900mm of floor space.

A large whirlpool bath may require 1900 x 1500mm and Japanese soaking tubs will typically range upwards from 1050 x 750mm. To save space, a bath can be fitted with a shower and screen, but there is a growing trend for walk in wet rooms or open ended showers.

Whatever you like to call them, the design usually incorporates an open shower floor space of around two to three metres long against one wall, with a safety glass screen or tiled partition parallel to that about one metre out on the opposite side, with one or both ends open and with no doors, for easy access.

A large rain showerhead (you can have more than one) is usually centred right above the shower space to provide you with an invigorating drench.

The other usual sanitaryware, i.e. washbasins, bidet and wc might also be included in the bathroom, but some prefer a wc with a small washbasin to be in a separate space with its own access. The walk-in wet room can also be kept within a separate space.

There’s no real right or wrong

Guide

here; as long as the regulatory requirements for an accessible wc are satisfied, it’s all down to the individual.

For a bathroom with all of the above in it and including a whirlpool bath, you could probably allow a floor area of 4.5 metres by 3.5 metres to begin with. A bath on a plinth with stepped access would need at least 600mm extra depth for each step out from the bath.

Space savings can be made

by blending or sharing space between the shower area, bath, and washbasin; so that less overall floor area is needed.

Wall hung floating vanity units and wcs can give a cleaner less cluttered impression, with the feeling of more floorspace. If wall space is to be uted as much as possible, dispense with the conventional window and fit a skylight above the shower area. That’s if the location of the bathroom allows.

HOUSE DESIGN GUIDE / CIRCULATION

Walks of life

Before getting into too much detail, it helps to have at least a basic understanding of the building regulations which influence layout, such as fire safety and access.

But be adventurous with pedestrian flow solutions, even have a look at floor plans used in other countries. I would suggest Australia. And never fear, if you go over the top or contravene building regulations, your designer will keep you right.

You might also be influenced by Feng Shui principles of positioning rooms, windows and doors, which is said to aid flow and circulation of Chi (energy) that can occur in the home.

Flow

Look at making the layout flow so that rooms with similar uses are grouped together. Also look at how the rooms are accessed, when and by whom.

For instance, decide on when a corridor is really needed or when an open plan layout would be better. And think about how each occupant and their visitors might use the house.

On a floor plan, trace imaginary journeys that occupants might take most frequently. Try one between back door, toilet, kitchen and living room. Then another between utility room, hot press or linen cupboard, to all the bedrooms and back again to the utility room.

Then one from the bedroom which is the furthermost away from the bathroom, to the bathroom and back again; or one from the living room to the toilet and back again. Could you make those journeys easier? Do doors open in the wrong direction, i.e. against the flow?

If either of those answers is yes, then the traffic flow can be improved. Would shortcuts through rooms be likely to occur? If so, get rid of interlinking doorways.

One handy low tech way to experiment with planning the circulation and flow between rooms is to cut out the different room sizes (to scale) from graph paper or card, name each one and sort them into different layouts to explore which works best, allowing spaces between them for storage and circulation.

You can do the same for flow within rooms, by placing scaled items of furniture onto the room space. There are simple software

It’s important to get the flow of your home just right, including access and circulation spaces. Here’s how.

apps available that can help to do much the same thing, if you prefer that. Use whichever works for you, or easier still, get your designer to do it all for you.

The triangle

The old kitchen triangle rule (there is more than one variation) was intended to ensure that steps taken between cooker, fridge and sink would be neither too many nor too few.

It said that no leg of the triangle should be less than 1.2m or more than 2.75m, the sum of the three triangle sides should not exceed 7.9m and that no major traffic patterns should flow through the triangle.

It is still being debated as to whether the triangle is dead, but I would propose that it made good sense back in the day and still remains relevant. The hard working chef will not be crazy about having people meandering through every now and then to view the fridge contents or otherwise getting in the way, so free flowing pedestrian traffic routes in the right direction are very important to get right.

Think about keeping the hob, oven and sink, the traditional hub of the kitchen where most of the work happens, away from traffic routes to doors.

The traditional range cooker in the kitchen always tended to attract visitors who migrated there on cold days to park themselves on, so if you still have one, make it difficult for visitors to get to if you don’t like your cooking operations to be interrupted.

Try to identify bottlenecks such as having a fridge beside the kitchen door or a lobby with too

many doors or a bathroom at the end of a corridor. And think about alternatives which let people pass each other to get to where they want to go with the easiest possible travel distances.

Remember that a slightly longer distance all on one floor is preferable to a shorter one which involves climbing up stairs and down again. Visitors should have easy access between the front door (or principal entrance) to the main reception room, cloaks and the accessible toilet.

Access

Access to, into and through the dwelling is thoroughly covered in the building regulations.

Regulations in both NI and ROI stipulate that at least one accessible entrance be provided to a dwelling, with the objective that it is accessible to all.

They both require a minimum clear door opening width (775mm in NI, 800mm in ROI) and a level access landing at the door, with a minimum area of 900 x 900mm in NI and 1200 x 1200mm in ROI. By the way, the effective clear opening width of a door is taken as the distance between the doorstop on the open side, to the surface of any projections on the door (i.e. handles, latches, etc.) when it is fully open.

Wherever possible I would try to access the entrance doors by gradual grading of the paths, street or yard, in order to avoid steps, ramps and guarding. A ramp is a sloped access surface with a gradient of between 1:12 and 1:20.

Back doors or side doors should obviously be located where their position most benefits access, flow and circulation

‘‘...a slightly longer distance all on the one floor is preferable to a shorter one which involves climbing up stairs...”

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within the dwelling and they should offer easy access to amenity areas such as the clothes line, bins and garage.

Within the dwelling, the minimum clear width of a corridor is 900mm, however the widths of both circulation routes and doorways are interrelated and depend on the direction of approach of a wheelchair, so the 900mm minimum will not always suffice. As with all building regulations, the standards are the minimum which are acceptable; and in modern homes, most corridors are around 1100 or 1200mm wide.

A 1250mm wide corridor will offer the least tile-cutting wastage when laying 200, 300, 400 or 600mm wide tiles between skirting boards on each side. Note that a tile with a nominal size of 600 x 600mm will typically have a production size of 597 x 597mm to allow a 3mm joint width.

Access to the bins

Wheelie bins, according to Part J of the NI Building Regulations, should be located so as not to compromise any means of escape nor to adversely affect health. They should be reasonably accessible to and from the dwelling (maximum 30 metres distance) and the waste collection point and provide adequate storage capacity.

The bins should be where they can be removed without being taken through the dwelling or any other building, (other than a garage, carport or other open covered space); and have a washable hard standing base of

sufficient area to accommodate the waste containers and provide reasonable access. For example 1.8m x 1.2m for three wheelie bin type containers.

Stairs and lifts

Stairs represent an entire design challenge on their own. The footprint of a standard straight flight of stairs will be usually around 1m wide by 3m long (depending on height and number of risers).

At the other end of the scale, a set of stairs set in the middle of a hall, with perhaps a landing at mid-flight and the uppers flights heading in opposite directions will require a footprint of perhaps 4m wide by 3m long, although this will vary depending on the particular configuration.

When we factor in landings, which should be of a minimum depth equivalent to at least the clear width of the stair and then add the spaces to access rooms on the sides, we get a hall size of around 6.5m wide by 5m long. So stairs and landings can sometimes take up a surprisingly large chunk of the total floor area.

If a lift is installed, the stairs can wrap around it on three sides so that so that circulation spaces between hall, stairs, lift and landings are centralised and minimised.

Guide

Nature abhors a vacuum STORAGE

A word of caution. The universal law of cause and effect when applied to storage, means that the more space there is, the more stuff will be put into it.

As with all things, there is a happy medium. But as a minimum you should consider spaces for coats, boots and shoes, the vacuum cleaner, brooms and the mop bucket. A linen cupboard or hot press is usually provided, although hot presses tend not to be as hot nowadays due to the requirement for cylinder and pipework insulation.

If storage cupboards doors open out, then a depth of about 600mm front to back is usually sufficient for most cupboards. I would allow at least 900mm and preferably 1200mm for the hot water cylinder but if space is tight, slimline cylinders can

reduce this requirement.

Of course, if a combination boiler is installed, there will be no hot water cylinder. If storage cupboard doors open inward, then you should allow for the width of the door plus shelving, so 800 + 400 = 1200mm would be a typical minimum depth. Pocket doors, or folding and sliding doors, will ease the pressure on floorspace.

The attic is often used to store things that are not brought out too often. An acquaintance just puts his Christmas tree, lights, decorations and all, up through the trapdoor every January. A good built in loft ladder should be specified and bear in mind that attic decking must be carried on risers (e.g. so-called Loft Legs) to avoid compressing the insulation quilt.

Photo by Max Vakhtbovych

HOUSE DESIGN GUIDE / SERVICE AREAS

Plant rooms

Homes nowadays not only have to provide shelter for us humans and pets, but for all sorts of machines and tanks.

When considering what services, plant and utilities to incorporate in your new home, you need to take a long, dispassionate look at whether or not you are getting sucked in to the green energy marketing trap of substituting building technology for building science.

Energy saving technology, including renewable energy generation and mechanical ventilation systems, can be expensive to install, often come with a high level of embodied energy and ultimately might not be used at maximum efficiency by the occupants.

The first rule of an energy strategy for any modern dwelling should be to remove the need for energy consumption as much as possible. To do that, the building should be properly insulated, airtight and with controlled

ventilation. In other words, take the fabric first route and look at what Passivhaus or other low energy standards can achieve.

What’s in the plant room

Having investigated all of the possibilities and now convinced that you need at least some of the technology, a plant room is a good solution. This is where you will house all the electrical and plumbing equipment, including renewable or low carbon energy systems such as a heat pump, a photovoltaic (PV) inverter and their controls.

It should also contain a separate tank for domestic hot water (DHW), a buffer tank if required, water pumps, underfloor heating manifolds, the central ventilation module, a central vacuum system

if desired, the smart home computer or building automation and control system (BACS) and the main electrical board.

A battery system for storing excess electricity generated from a PV panel array might prove to be more cost efficient than feeding the excess back to the grid for a fraction of the price that you would pay for it. But do the sums first and check things like how payback time compares with battery life expectancy.

Don’t forget that a battery powered electric vehicle (BEV) is essentially a big battery on wheels, which can also be used for storage of excess PV generated energy if it is at home during daylight hours.

How much of battery power is really green is the subject of another discussion. If building in a city or a heavily built up area, the urban heat island effect may well create a need for cooling the dwelling in summer and some air source heat pumps can do this, in addition to providing heat.

Note that electric or gas meters should ideally be located on the external face of an external wall where it doesn’t conflict visually with the exterior design and allows the meter to be read without the need to enter the dwelling.

M&E engineer

Carefully designed, one plant room could do it all but you do need to be fairly certain relatively early on about which systems are likely to be installed. For that reason, getting a qualified mechanical and electrical (M&E) engineer involved at an early stage will help enormously to avoid potential clashes between all of the trades that will be involved in the plant room construction and its successful completion. The efficiencies

which result from a good M&E design usually outweigh the consultancy costs.

By pinning down the systems that you will require, not only do you provide adequate space for them, but your designer will also be able to route all of the services and ductwork out of sight and avoid potential clashes with structural elements.

The M&E engineer will also design the plant room layout for safety, i.e. keeping potentially wet components, ventilation and electrics separate as much as possible. This includes how to

“The first rule of an energy strategy for any modern dwelling should be to remove the need for energy consumption as much as possible...”

HOUSE DESIGN GUIDE / SERVICE AREAS

The primary role of the heat pump is to provide space heating via underfloor heating, so the heating manifolds should be placed central to the heating zones for the most efficient performance. This minimises the length of pipe runs and helps to ensure that water temperature remains consistent. It also means that ideally, the plant room should be positioned centrally in the building.

Plant room size

would maybe increase the floor area of the plant room to 4m x 3m.

ventilate it if necessary whilst adhering to the fire safety regulations.

You will also need to acoustically insulate the plant room from the remainder of the house.

Heat pump

An air-to-water heat pump system can be a monobloc system totally outside the building or split, i.e. partly outside and partly inside. If external, its position should be as close to the plant room as possible. We will assume for now that the slightly more efficient split system is to be installed.

Given the above, a useful plant room size would be about 3m x 2m or 2.5m x 2.5m. This would contain an indoor heat pump unit (1.3m wide x 1m), a separate tank for DHW (750mm square and 2.3m high), a wall mounted mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) system (about 1m width, depth and height) and a central vacuum system above the wall mounted underfloor heating manifolds and water pumps. The PV inverter could fit above the heat pump.

If opting for battery storage, they are much more compact than even a few years ago, but you will still need to check what capacity you are going to need and the space required to hold that number of batteries, so this

“...ideally, the plant room should be positioned centrally in the building...”

Fresh air Guide

If you went for outline planning permission, you may already be aware of some of the conditions that will be imposed in your planning application. These often have to do with house mass, height and possibly position. Also sight lines (ensuring your entrance is in the right place and of the correct dimensions, in order for you to see the traffic coming from both directions, so you can enter and exit safely), hedges, and driveways.

Therefore all of these will have an influence on factors such as site levels, tree protection, building orientation, overall building dimensions, usage and access routes.

So make sure that your design takes care of them all right from the beginning. Also familiarise yourself with the building regulations. For instance, they require that a properly constructed bin storage area be provided.

An essential part of house design is planning for everything that’s going outside, from wastewater and fuel to patios and garden design.

HOUSE DESIGN GUIDE / OUTDOOR DESIGN

so use that rule. Any soakaway system should also be below the level of foundations to prevent potential contamination of the dwelling’s substructure.

In ROI, approvals go through the planning system only. The minimum separation distance from any element of a domestic wastewater treatment system (DWWTS) which incorporates an infiltration / treatment area to a down-gradient domestic well is as much as 60m and as little as 30m, depending on invert levels, water table, bedrock, soil and subsoil characteristics.

Where it is alongside a domestic well, the minimum distance is 25m and where it is down gradient from the well, it is 15m.

Note that DWWTS are not permitted to be constructed on natural site slope angles in

Onsite wastewater treatment

If you can’t connect to the sewage mains, onsite wastewater treatment is an important factor. You will need separate approvals. In NI, you are likely to need the consent to discharge effluent from the NI Environment Agency (NIEA). The NIEA also has to approve the specific type of sewer system.

If the effluent is to be discharged to a subsurface irrigation (soakaway) system, no part of the system can be within 7m of a dwelling, 10m from a waterway and 50m from a drinking water (well) supply.

Note that building control in NI will look for the distance from a dwelling to be at least 15m

excess of 1:8. The minimum distances to any on-site dwelling are 7m from the tank / plant, 10m from a free water surface constructed wetland and 10m from an infiltration / treatment area.

Distances to a dwelling on a neighbouring site from the same features as above are 7m, 25m and 10m respectively. Comprehensive guidance on the subject is to be found in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Code of Practice for DWWTS.

Hard and soft landscaping

Driveways and kerbing tend to cost a lot, especially if you are not near the road. These

“Driveways and kerbing tend to cost a lot, especially if you are not near the road. These can be added (and paid for) after you’ve moved in but you will need some form of access to the house...”

can be added (and paid for) after you’ve moved in but you will need some form of access to the house. Provisions for substructures should be made while the digger is on site.

Indeed, make sure that your intended outdoor areas will fit where you want them and at the levels required.

I would argue that, before a final landscaping plan is fully completed it is better to live in a house for a year and to observe the changing patterns of the seasonal sunshine, shade and shelter. Self-builders will often build a patio area during the construction phase to find themselves wishing it were in another position, due to a lack of forward planning. The optimal position for a patio can and should be assessed at the design stage.

To save on costs and headaches down the line, get the major outdoor construction works elements shown in sufficient detail and accurately specified on the construction phase drawings along with the house itself.

Elements such as the drainage and sewage systems, driveway, public road entrance, paths, boundary fences or walls (especially retaining walls), garage, patio or decking and/ or terrace. In fact anything that needs to be built, should all be designed for you.

The soft landscaping will have a tremendous impact on the overall appearance of the house. So think about where to put the dog kennel, chicken run, beehives, clothes lines, greenhouse, woodshed, potting shed, compost heap, vegetable patch, herb garden and vehicle washing areas, etc.

Wildlife conservation measures might involve a butterfly garden, space for a pond, wetland,

Guide

bog garden or water feature and safe routes and habitats for hedgehogs and other local wildlife. There might even be a well. A bigger site could include a walled garden, orchard, barn or stables. Finally, don’t forget space for a trampoline, swings or a climbing frame if they are needed.

Rainwater management

Car parking can sometimes be successfully concealed from the public view and hard landscaping might include a sustainable drainage system (SUDs) or grassed paving.

On the subject of stormwater disposal, it is easier and more environmentally responsible to direct it to water butts and soakaways than it is to dump it down a waterway via pipes, gullies, channels and manholes.

A smart water use system should reduce our incredibly wasteful habits of washing the car and flushing the toilets with good drinking water. It would perhaps harvest rainwater for general washing purposes and for watering the garden. And would also reuse grey water from baths, showers, washing machines and wash basins to be used to flush the toilets.

Such a system would require storage space and filtration and this is usually taken care of in underground tanks.

Fuel tanks

The building regulations require that any fuel tanks are correctly positioned in relation to other buildings and the site boundaries.

I have recently seen two separate local cases where oil tanks have split and the oil has seeped in underneath the dwellings, resulting in very costly specialist environmental remedial works to put right.

If either of those leaks had reached any waterway, the effects would have been even more severe. My advice is twofold. Only use a bunded tank, manufactured and sited in accordance with the building regulations. And set it at a level and position where it can do least harm if it does leak (but do not bury it).

The general stipulation for the position of an oil storage tank is that it must be a minimum of 1.8m from any building and any oil burning appliance and 750mm from any boundary. These distances can be reduced by using fire resistant protective

measures.

A liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tank generally must be of the correct capacity and be installed in the open air and not within an open pit.

To reduce fire risk, the tank needs to be placed so that the minimum separation distances given in the regulations are complied with. Drains, gullies and cellar hatches within these areas must be protected from gas entry.

Its position must also comply with rules for gas delivery. Any combustible materials, including weeds, long grass, deciduous shrubs and trees, shall be removed from an area around the tank for a distance equal to that given in the regulations.

For tanks of not more than 0.25 tonne capacity, the minimum separation distance from buildings, boundaries or fixed sources of ignition to a tank with no fire wall or to a tank around a fire wall is 2.5m. To a tank of between 0.25 and 1 tonne, the distance is 3m.

HOUSE DESIGN GUIDE / PORCHES AND GARAGES

In proportion

Porches

Designing a porch is easy if you know exactly what you want it to do. On the other hand, if sized incorrectly, it can be all too easy to get badly out of proportion.

Will it be a simple roofed shelter or portico, a bold central architectural feature to show off an impressive entrance, an extension of the living or storage space, single storey or higher, with a traditional pitched roof or with a flat roof that serves as a balcony for the upper floor?

Whatever the purpose, they should be kept in proportion to the dwelling and finished in keeping with the overall design character.

Porches can be open or enclosed or partly both; fully or partially glazed, or with solid walls and windows. If fully enclosed as a storm porch with an inner door, they serve to reduce thermal loss from the dwelling by providing an airlock system whereby occupants, perchance fond of chatting to visitors on the doorstep, will be unlikely to have both the inner and outer doors open at once.

An open porch is usually intended to simply provide shelter when entering or exiting the door and can have ledges to set bags or parcels on top of whilst getting the key into the lock. Either type can have seating space and if you want, room for an architectural sculpture or feature container plants.

A useful floor size for a simple storm porch would be 2m x 2m. One with seating and maybe storage for coats, wellies and umbrellas would be perhaps 2.7m wide x 2m deep. If double doors open into the floorspace, allow for both to be open together, so either the width could increase to 3.5m or both width and depth could be increased.

A ceiling height which matches the internal hallway is generally acceptable, but a ceiling which follows the line of the rafters might be more desirable. The overall ridge height of a single storey porch should not conflict with the line of the first floor window sills and this

A porch or garage can alter the look of your house. For good or for bad.

Image by Francesca Tosolini

factor, combined with a suitable roof pitch, can often decide what the external width of the porch should be.

As a guide, a single storey, dual-pitch roofed porch with the ridge 100mm below an upper floor window which has a sill height of 900mm (above first floor level), will end up with a workable ridge height of 3.45m above ground floor level.

Given a 350 roof pitch, this

would equate to an external porch width of about 2.75m. There are ways of increasing this available width, such as avoiding having a first floor window above the porch roof, or if one is needed, raise its sill height, although that can look odd. Alternatively you could drop the porch wall heights a little.

Garages

The garage, like the utility room, can have many functions, some

of which may change as time progresses. Where it is desirable to keep the dwelling floor area to a minimum, the garage can even carry out most of the usual utility room functions and need not be insulated in order to do so.

A major element of the final cost of a garage is whether some or all of it is to be heated and whether it contains additional recreational or storage space. A good quality insulated sectional garage door will maybe achieve a U-value of 1.4 W/sqmK, which is not bad, but it occupies a large area of the wall, which is not so good, as it will lose heat much

faster than an insulated wall (which has a maximum permitted U-value of 0.28 W/sqmK).

I would suggest therefore that the garage part of a garage remain unheated, but if it is really necessary, a heated attic space could be insulated separately and maybe have its own smaller heating system, separate from the dwelling.

Of course, we all know that a garage eventually becomes a repository for all things on their way between the house and the council recycling centre, so the car gets relegated to sitting on the driveway.

Nevertheless, the design should start with a look at the number and types of vehicles that might occupy the floorspace.

“Porches can be open or enclosed or partly both; fully or partially glazed, or with solid walls and windows...”

HOUSE DESIGN GUIDE / PORCHES AND GARAGES

Over the past 20 years and partly due to the continuing rise of the Chelsea tractor, the modern average family saloon car has grown fatter by as much as 20 per cent while the overall dimensions of the Mini Cooper have increased by about 61 per cent over the original.

As a guide to a useful size of garage, allow at least 2.7m of width for each car, but preferably 3m. And a minimum length of at least 5.5m but preferably 6m.

If you want to add in a motorcycle, a ride on mower, wheelbarrow and a couple of bicycles, make the garage another 1.5m wider or longer. Given the above scenario, a double garage with space for extra equipment would be around 6m x 7.5m.

To add to the complexity, consider a first floor open plan attic for something like a games

room or gymnasium, which because it is likely to be in frequent use, will require proper stairs.

We have already looked at stair footprints, so add that in to the ground floor space, ensuring that sufficient headroom is provided along the length and width of the stairs and landings. And that the foot of the stairs ends at the correct distance from a ground floor fire exit door.

One alternative is to have external barn steps instead of internal stairs and although other fire safety regulations come into play if you do so, it is achievable and can result in a pleasing appearance.

Modular or prefabricated garages are available in a wide range of sizes and can work fine, offering a cost effective solution to your external storage needs, provided that they comply

with planning and building regulations.

One drawback can be that planning conditions demand that the external finishes of a domestic garage should match the dwelling. The shape and form should also be domestic in nature, so this would usually rule out larger agricultural spec sheds on domestic sites. Although I have managed to obtain approval for larger sheds in situations where the applicants could provide evidence of being an avid tractor collector or needed additional height for unusual vehicles.

Incidentally, claiming that you need a large shed to house your articulated lorry would be most probably regarded as a commercial activity and unless your site is within a suitable development zone, it would be unlikely to gain approval.

Exemptions

Certain porches are exempt from planning approval and/ or building regulations. In NI, planning permission is not required for a porch provided that: the ground area is not more than 3 square metres (measured externally), any part of the porch does not exceed (a) 3m above ground if the roof is flat or mono pitched or (b) 3.5m above ground if the roof is dual pitched.

In addition, any part of the porch must not be closer than 2m to any boundary with a road or footpath and the materials used should be of similar appearance to those of the existing house.

A porch is exempt from building regulations requirements provided that thermal separation is retained between the porch and the rest of the dwelling, it is built at ground level and provides protection to an access door to a building and has an external door or an opening to the external air.

The building’s heating or cooling system must not be extended into it and a fixed combustion appliance or cooling appliance not installed. In addition, the porch must have a floor area of less than 5sqm and any glazing must comply with Part V (Glazing). So, build a porch that fails to adhere to any one of those criteria and it will not be exempt.

In ROI, you can build a porch without planning permission, as long as it does not exceed 2sqm in area and is more than 2m from any public road or footpath. Where the porch has a tiled or slated pitched roof, it must not exceed 4m in height, or 3m for any other roof type.

A front porch within these limits is the only type of development allowed to extend

beyond the front wall of the building (the building line) and still remain exempted. For the building regulations, if you are having construction work carried out, it must comply with the regulations.

As for garages, our suggested double garage would certainly not be exempt from planning or building regulations.

In NI, small detached buildings, including detached garages not structurally connected to another building on the same site, are exempt from building control applications if they are single storey, the floor area does not exceed 30sqm, they contain no sleeping accommodation and are substantially constructed of non-combustible material such as masonry walls and concrete roof tiles or similar.

When the detached building is constructed of combustible materials such as timber walls and felt roof, it must not be less than 1m from the nearest point of a dwelling, the nearest part of a

Guide

garage/car port and any other buildings within the boundary of the property, excluding the original house, is not more than half the total area of the property and that no part of the garage is in front of the principal or side elevation of the original house that faces onto a road.

Building or is within a World Heritage Site, area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) or National Park.

In ROI, if you are having construction work carried out, it must comply with the building regulations. Exemption rules under ROI planning policy allow you to build a garage as long as it does not extend out in front of the building line of the house and does not exceed 4m in height, (if it has a tiled or slated pitched roof), or 3m (if it has any other roof type).

road and the nearest point of the boundary of the land on which it is erected.

Exemption from planning policy requires that they must be used for domestic purposes only, the ground area covered by the

The maximum height of the garage/car port is no more than 4m, the maximum eaves height of the garage/car port is 2.5m if it is within 2m of the property boundary and no part of the garage is within 3.5m of the boundary with a road to the rear of the house.

Additional rules apply if you live in a house that is a Listed

It must not have a floor area of more than 25sqm and may not be lived in, used for commercial purposes or for keeping pigs, poultry, pigeons, ponies or horses.

Garages to the side of the house must match the finish of the house and you cannot reduce the open private space, reserved exclusively for the use of the occupants of the house at the side or rear of the house, to below 25sqm.

HOUSE DESIGN GUIDE / BUILDING THE DREAM

Playing Tetris

Even though we were theoretically starting off with a blank slate, we had plenty of restrictions to contend with when designing our home, writes self-builder Brian Corry who’s on a mission to build himself an eco house in Co Down.

When people think about selfbuilders designing their own home, I think there’s a myth that they start with a blank sheet onto which they pour their design ideas. The reality is usually somewhat different, as my wife Karen and I quickly realised.

Shape and size

We had a number of restrictive planning conditions to contend with, along with the location and topography of the site. Before we even began sketching out any ideas, we had to consider all these factors and the effect they would have on any plans.

On our site the main issues we had to address were the relatively small footprint in which we could build and a ridge height limit of six metres which immediately ruled out a traditional two storey. It even made a storey and a half challenging.

The first thing that Karen and I did was sit down and work out what type of rooms we wanted and, also, what size we needed them to be to accommodate the type of furniture and function they would fulfil.

For example, if it was a bedroom we wanted to make sure there was enough space for a double bed, wardrobe and desk. We tried to be really strict on this as ultimately it would have an impact on the total size, i.e. cost, and we had a budget to keep within.

Location

The house position on the site pretty much decided itself as we wanted the rear elevation facing the garden to have a southerly

orientation and the front elevation facing the driveway to the north.

This also suited the topography as the curved roof would blend in with the hills behind the house and it minimised the amount of excavation needed to create a level area to dig the foundations.

The door positionings were straightforward too, with the front door on the front facing northerly. Now this might seem obvious but one of my bugbears is houses with front doors that appear to be for decoration only.

We have all seen them. Doors that serve no purpose whatsoever. Any visitors arriving at the house have to pass the back door in order to get to the front door, which invariably is positioned miles away from any living area – therefore making it impractical to use in almost every scenario.

We wanted a front door that would, in practice, fulfil its intended role.

Tetris

Once we had worked out the number of rooms and sizes, we then embarked upon a game of

Guide

and very inefficient design with lots of wasteful corridors.

The site also had a significant fall in height over the permitted build area which would make a long footprint more expensive to build. After much thought, the key to unlocking the final design appeared in the form of a

shallow curved roof which would allow us to have rooms upstairs. For our main living/kitchen we virtually copied a room our friends had in a house in Bangor a few years ago. It was a space that worked brilliantly size wise and was very social, at the heart of the home. Our open plan will

house Tetris where we tried to fit it all together.

Initially, given the ridge height restriction, we tried to fit everything in on the ground floor, using different shaped footprints like an L shape but whatever we tried we were left with a large

HOUSE DESIGN GUIDE / BUILDING THE DREAM

the utility room to the outside space where we can dry washing and provide easy access to where the cars will be parked and the shed which we will use for storage due to not having a roof space.

Speaking of the shed (pictured below), we built it prior to building the main house. Some people described it as my man cave but really its purpose was to serve as a base for the main build.

This turned out to be more important than I could have imagined for it was fully secure for the storage of tools and materials and provided a haven when the weather turned foul.

be the place where we spend 90 per cent of our time during the day.

Finally, everything began to slot into place and we ended up with a rectangular footprint, and no space wasted in corridors.

Now, some might argue with this last assertion when you see the double height area in the kitchen/living area. However, it was always our intention to have a high ceiling here to give it a real sense of space and openness.

When doing the layout there were some rooms like the sitting room/snug and study/office that we wanted to be immediately accessible off the main room, and there were others like the guest bedroom which we wanted to be more remote to give privacy and separation.

Links to the garden

We also designed in some lovely big sliding patio doors to connect the kitchen/living area with the patio and garden at the back.

This was a compromise as the window manufacturer could not provide a passive rated sliding patio door, so we just had to go with their standard triple

glazed unit in the knowledge that the airtightness won’t be quite as good as the rest of the fenestration. But it was still good enough as our recent airtightness test gave us a value of 0.56 m3/ (h.sqm2) at 50Pa which is below the 0.6 German Passive House requirement.

Finally, the back door also found its natural place, positioned on the west elevation to connect

Did I mention that it was, also, fully insulated and plumbed with kitchen sink, wc facilities and the all important kettle, microwave and fridge. It could very well turn out to be a man cave after all.

Hidden M&E

The ventilation system and plumbing, integral parts of the Mechanical & Electrical (M&E) components of your home, are bits that will never be seen.

But they are what will provide a healthy environment inside the house. It was absolutely critical that this was all designed prior to finalising the house plans because it turned out that the room I had on the plans was not going to be wide enough to accommodate the ventilation unit.

So we had to steal 200mm from the upstairs bathroom. Easily done at the design stage but would have been a disaster had we left it later. The plant room is centrally located to provide short runs to all the bathrooms which will hopefully mean that hot water can be delivered quickly, efficiently (less heat loss), when required and minimise water wastage.

The central location of the plant room also makes it a perfect place to distribute and connect up all the cables for TV and internet. This is never a pretty sight so we thought it best to keep these out of any rooms that we will be using regularly.