Selfbuild Winter 2022

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Rory Best – Flogas Brand Ambassador

Building and home improving can feel like a financial gamble. It can feel emotionally draining and time consuming.

But it’s also exhilarating. For many it’s positively life changing.

Once you’ve decided to selfbuild, the question of course is how to do it. Some are of the opinion DIY is the way to go (see p85), others think it’s high time we embraced modern building methods like ICF (see p99).

You could also argue we’ve had enough of polluting industries and plastic based products, and that natural building methods make the most sense at a time when we’re all talking about the

Astrid Madsen - Editor astrid.madsen@selfbuild.ie

circular economy (see p15).

In reality, your budget will dictate a lot of these decisions. And everyone has a budget, even if it’s a comfortable one –costs can and will spiral out of control if you don’t plan every detail.

Nowadays, cost certainty is in fact starting to hold up projects (see p86). But putting life on hold is not that appealing, especially when the alternative is renting, or paying unnecessarily high energy bills. Health and wellbeing is linked to the places we inhabit too.

Taking charge of your project will reap dividends on many different levels, and there’s no time like the present. With that in mind, happy building!

build or

project.

EDITOR

Astrid Madsen astrid.madsen@selfbuild.ie

DESIGN

Myles McCann myles.mccann@selfbuild.ie

Shannon Quinn shannon.quinn@selfbuild.ie

MARKETING

Calum Lennon calum.lennon@selfbuild.ie

Victoria Hunter victoria.hunter@selfbuild.ie

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Becca Haslett becca.haslett@selfbuild.ie

ADVERTISING SALES

Joanna McConvey joanna.mcconvey@ selfbuild.ie

Lisa Killen lisa.killen@selfbuild.ie

Maria Toland maria.toland@selfbuild.ie

Nicola Delacour-Dunne nicola.delacour @selfbuild.ie

ACCOUNTS Karen McLeigh karen.mcleigh@selfbuild.ie

Leanne Rogers leanne.rogers@selfbuild.ie

SALES DIRECTOR

Mark Duffin mark.duffin@selfbuild.ie

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Brian Corry brian.corry@selfbuild.ie

CHAIRMAN Clive Corry clive.corry@selfbuild.ie

COVER

Dermot

Advice

85 The self-build DIY revival

A new path to homeownership.

86 Where to next?

Evaluating your self-build options in turbulent times.

88 Air to water heat pumps

Everything you need to know about the heating system.

Inspiration and ideas to design your island.

95 Keeping sweet with the neighbours How to build your new house, or extend your existing one, without annoying the people living next door.

96 Winter sparkle Plants that will pack a punch in your garden when the days get shorter.

Projects

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

22 Reimagining the homestead

Chris and Louisa Russell’s DIY, budget friendly selfbuild in Co Down delivered a modern home with space, style, and substance. And even a bit of smart home technology.

34 Winning the space race

Priced out of the Dublin housing market were Ronan and Laura Campbell, who built their new home in Ronan’s parents’ laneway.

46 A visionary transformation

Finding a site was difficult for Alanna and James Connolly of Co Fermanagh. So they bought an overlooked problem site and put their own stamp on it to cerate the dream family home.

58 The smuggler’s watchtower

Enjoyed as a holiday home, this historical lookout for sea faring smugglers in Co Donegal has been in John Arthur’s family for almost a century. He recently added an extension offering better views of the coast.

70 At the mercy of everything

Self-builder Brian Corry of Co Down completed his selfbuild amidst the pandemic and a materials shortage – he explains how he made the most of the situation he was in.

76 Building old oak house

Niall and Gillian Brophy are building their family home in Co Wexford – they give us a bird’s eye view of the progress to date.

82 Coastal garden

Landscape designer Anne Byrne shares how she designed a garden for a selfbuild overlooking Galway Bay.

SELFBUILD: THE ALL-IRELAND

All articles equally cover the 32 counties; when we refer to the Republic of Ireland the abbreviation is ROI. For Northern Ireland it’s NI.

WITH

BEST THERMAL BLOCK

THERMAL

SIMS BY MANNOK

the

update

NEWS . ANALYSIS . PRODUCTS . REVIEWS

Be part of the action

Selfbuild Live Belfast was back this October at the Titanic

Centre, with over 18,000 visitors and more than

exhibitors taking part.

The TEC was a hive of activity during the first week of October 2022. Exhibitors, the team organising the event and the venue itself, were busy preparing for the doors opening on the Friday at 10am. And as always, it didn’t disappoint.

Visitors were greeted with the usual high quality and interactive stands showcasing products and services exclusively specialised in home building and home improving.

This year, the three Selfbuild theatres were packed with talks about every aspect of self-building with over 20 speakers there to shed light on design, but also on installation as well as maintenance.

Theatre 1, sponsored by Xtratherm, delved into the world of interior design, building methods, renewable heating, bathrooms, and of course, insulation. Theatre 2, sponsored by Selfbuild+, dealt with the practicalities of building.

Specifically, speakers covered the principles of render application over masonry substrates, design considerations for resin cladding and decking, plus how to tackle your garden project with practical tips and advice, among many other talks.

The Bootcamp Theatre, meanwhile, looked at the basic design and main components of your building project from financing the dream to the importance of ventilation.

Last but not least, for advice about your specific project, 1-2-1 clinics offered selfbuilders the chance to go over the finer details of all aspects of the job at hand, covering everything from windows and doors to kitchens.

For the upcoming Selfbuild Live events taking place in 2023, go to live.selfbuild.ie

Green light for PV

The rooftop solar planning exemptions reported in the previous edition of Selfbuild have come into force. You can now install as many solar panels as you want on your roof (unless you’re near an area where aircraft is landing) without seeking the consent of your local authority, subject to setback distances from the edge of the roof.

The previous exemption limit for wall and free standing installations was 25sqm, and this is now increased to 60sqm.

€50k grant extended to cities

ROI Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien said he would extend the Croí Cónaithe (Towns) Fund Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant to cities in October.

The scheme was originally announced in July and aims to tackle dereliction and encourage people to move back to rural towns and villages. The ROI government grant offers renovators up to €30k for the refurbishment of a vacant property, or up to €50k if the property is derelict. Both amounts are inclusive of VAT.

The fund currently only extends to rural towns and cities as defined by the Central Statistics Office Census mapping. Balbriggan is currently eligible, for example, but not towns within city boundaries. The move will allow towns within the city and suburb boundaries of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford, as defined by the CSO Census mapping, to avail of the scheme.

Budget highlights

Under Budget 2023, the Help to Buy scheme is extended to the 31st of December 2024 in its current form. The scheme helps first time buyers with their mortgage on a new build purchase or a self-build project. Revenue processes all applications; in the case of a self-build you will need a solicitor to submit some of the paperwork.

Despite the scheme having been extended over the years, it is expected to come to an end at the end of 2024.

According to review published on the back of Budget 2023, just 25 per cent of approved Help to Buy applications related to self-builds, the rest were for first time buyers buying a newly built house. Just over 8,000 self-builders benefited from the scheme since its announcement in 2016.

The Help to Buy review by Mazars consultants states that “over half of applicants who were self-builders that received HtB did not actually need the assistance to proceed” with their new home building project. The consultants recommended that self-builders should be excluded from the scheme, but the 2023 Budget has extended the supports in its current form.

According to the review of successful Help to Buy applications, the median house price for self-builds was €305,000 compared to a median of €330,000 for purchased new houses. The average price of self-builds, meanwhile, was €312,114 or 6 per cent less than purchased houses at €332,320.

Defective concrete products levy

A new tax on concrete products will hit hollowcore concrete slabs, blocks, aggregates and poured concrete, to name a few.

The levy comes into effect on the 3rd of April 2023, will be self-assessed and amount to 10 per cent of the cost of the concrete product excluding VAT.

The Construction Industry Federation (CIF) says this new concrete tax could add €1,100 to the cost of building a typical three bedroom private house plus another

€1k+ for additional costs on enabling infrastructure. For 50sqm extensions, a survey by onlinetradesmen.ie estimated the cost to be €500.

In total the measure could add €2,000 to €2,500 to build a typical house, said the CIF. The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, meanwhile, stated it could add up to €4,000 to the overall delivery costs of an average 3 bed-semi, the most common house type in Ireland. News reports quoted TD Thomas Byrne as saying the levy would add between 0.4 and 0.9 per cent to house prices.

At the time of going to print it looked likely that the levy would be scrapped, and a mechanism to charge companies directly would be put in place instead.

The tax was introduced to partly offset the cost of the Defective Concrete Blocks (Mica) Redress Scheme. It applies to concrete products that are mostly used in the construction of buildings, of a structural nature, and products composed primarily of concrete.

There are 18 taxable products in total, all of which have a harmonised European standard they need to conform to. The full list of products subject to the new tax is available in Annex C of the Budget 2023 tax policy changes document.

Stamp duty exemption

The ROI Stamp Duty Residential Development Refund Scheme allows for a refund on a portion of the stamp duty you paid for non-residential land, if you then develop the land for residential use. The Scheme was due to end on 31 December 2022 but has been extended to the end of 2025 in the budget.

The refund you can claim depends on what rate of stamp duty you paid. To get the refund you must:

� Start the building work by 31 December 2025 and within 30 months of when the land was transferred to you.

� Complete the building work within 2 years.

� Develop the required percentage of your land for residential purposes if you are building a multi-unit development.

Stamp duty cut for NI, Executive calls for own budget

The UK mini-budget increased the threshold at which you start paying stamp duty land tax (SDLT) on residential properties, from £125k to £250k. First time buyers only have to pay stamp duty on properties valued £425k upwards (previous threshold was £300k).

The mini-budget proved controversial in the UK and has led NI Finance Minister Conor Murphy to say the UK Chancellor had to take “a completely different approach”. “The mini-budget is already set to increase mortgage costs for thousands of homeowners,” Minister Murphy said.

Separately, the minister launched a public consultation calling for the devolution of fiscal powers to the NI Executive. The proposal is looking to align the NI model to the one in operation in Scotland and Wales.

“The Executive is responsible for less than £1 in every £20 of tax revenue raised locally,” he said. “As a result the Executive is hugely dependent on a block grant which is being squeezed by Westminster, threatening the sustainability of our public services.” The proposal is out for public consultation until November 29.

The 2023 Budget in ROI will see the cost of concrete products rise by 10 per cent due to a new tax, while a review of Help to Buy scheme shows it’s still cheaper to self-build than buy new.

image: Freepik.com

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Self-builds cost £150k in NI

ROI house completions still bullish

You can build a 150sqm house for £150k in the UK, The Sun newspaper states, if you go two storey with a simple design, block construction, an attached garage and simple heating system.

The analysis breaks down the different elements, from professional and planning fees to build costs. It says you should put aside an extra 15 per cent of the build cost to pay for your advisors (architect, engineer and other professionals), and set aside an additional 10 per cent contingency.

Also not included are planning, legal, insurance and any demolition fees. They say planning applications can run in the thousands if the application isn’t straightforward, while they estimate site surveys and reports from structural engineers cost £500 each.

Self-build insurance is pegged at about 1 per cent of the build cost. Site clearance including demolition can run into the thousands, the paper says. Stamp duty (see p9) is payable, and if you’re not a first time buyer you’ll have to add 3 per cent to it.

As for the build costs, they break it down between the structural elements which take up 30 per cent, unless you go timber frame

which they say can take 50 per cent, and foundations and flooring making up the remaining 70 per cent.

The roof and kitchen are lumped together and costed at between £5k and £6k each.

An ensuite has a price tag of £1.5k to £6k.

Electrics they peg at between £3k to £5k, adding that a DIY approach can save up to 40 per cent of the build costs.

Claiming back VAT on your new build will save you money and the fact that stamp duty is paid on the value of the land and not on the house also saves. They argue mortgage costs tend to be higher for self-builds with some two year fixed and variable rate deals now soaring at 5 per cent.

Housing starts have decelerated, warns the Q3 2022 Property Report from myhome.ie in partnership with Davy. “Although completions have beaten expectations and look set to rise well above 25,000 this year, it now looks far less likely they will expand above 30,000 in 2023,” wrote Davy Research’s Conall MacCoille.

It looks like “supply chain issues and input price inflation are now beginning to weigh on development” while ROI house prices are likely to grow 6 per cent in 2022 and by 3 per cent in 2023, the report states.

House built without planning saved from bulldozers

In a long running saga, a couple who built their 588sqm home without planning permission over 15 years ago in Co Meath secured a last minute reprieve saving their house from being demolished.

The High Court judge was satisfied from the evidence presented by the defendants’ lawyer that they had raised a fair issue that needed to be considered by the court. Following lengthy legal battles, the house was slated to be demolished by September 24 of this year.

NI construction activity steady for now

Planning approvals increased from April to June 2022 as compared to January to March of this year, reports the NI Department of Infrastructure.

From April to June a total of 760 new build one-off houses, and 913 domestic alterations and extensions, got the green light from the planners. This represented a decrease when compared to the previous year (April to June 2021).

The Northern Ireland

Construction Bulletin, meanwhile, shows construction activity is keeping steady. New construction work (volume of output) for private housing –covering both one-off houses and developer built – rose 5 per cent from the Jan-Mar to Apr-Jun 2022 period, but decreased 4 per cent when compared to Apr-Jun 2021.

The repair and maintenance side also increased, as

compared to the Jan- Mar 2022 period (increase of 1 per cent) and as compared to Apr-Jun 2021 (increase of 4 per cent).

The Federation of Master Builders has called on the UK government to tackle reduced consumer spending as a result of the higher cost of living, stating the repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI) side of the industry is bread and butter

work for many small builders.

“A win-win would be a nationwide energy efficiency plan to make our homes more energy efficient, which boosts jobs and lowers bills,” Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the Federation of Master Builders said. “A more immediate shot in the arm would be a reduction in VAT on RMI work, helping builders pass on savings to customers.”

UK build costs range £1,800 to £3,000 per square meter, according to an analysis by The Sun newspaper.

Planning approvals and construction activity are slowing down, as builders call for reduction in VAT rate for home improvements.

More land could be zoned for self-building

ROI Minister for Housing is due to update the National Planning Framework to take into account the new Census figures.

ROI Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien said the government is reviewing the National Planning Framework to assess how much residential land to zone across Ireland.

“I believe that we need more land zoned,” he said. “I’ve told all of our local authorities through the development plans that no zoned service land should be de-zoned.”

The news comes on the back of a report by estate agent

Savills Ireland, which said there wasn’t enough capacity for new homes in the Dublin area, referring to counties Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow.

Allowing more residential units to be built in these areas would presumably be for high density accommodation. But it could also lead to more selfbuild sites becoming available in sought after counties like Wicklow, where planning permission is particularly hard to get due to zoning.

Savills says areas near

the capital have the capacity to accommodate over 100,000 housing units, or the equivalent of 10 years’ supply.

A policy aim of the NPF is to divert growth away from Dublin, but Savills warns demand for housing is likely to remain near the capital. “Incoming foreign direct investment will not consult the goals of the NPF when deciding if and where to locate in Ireland. The

Image by kjpargeter on Freepik

majority will continue to go to Dublin where the talent pool is deepest,” reads the report entitled The Residential Land Supply Study: How the cutting of land is impacting the housing market.

Planning regulator faces off with councillors

Mayo County Council’s County Development Plan (CDP) 2022-2028 introduced zoning laws that would allow more people to build in the countryside, along rural roads. CDPs set out the planning guidelines for the county including the zoning restrictions by locality.

All CDPs have to be vetted by the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR), and Mayo County Council’s didn’t get the rubber stamping for their rural housing policy. This has led to the Minister of State for Local Government and Planning to instruct the councillors to rezone areas and delete sections of the plan.

The OPR instead upholds Tipperary County Council’s

CDP as exemplary. Its rural housing policy mostly allows for houses to be built within town centres. “We were particularly impressed by the inclusion in the plan of specific town profiles. This innovation sets out a baseline for each town with key data such as jobs ratio, transport methods and housing stock,” the OPR stated in a press release.

Better chance of appeals for selfbuilders

In another development, allegations of conflicts of interest at the board of An Bord Pleanála (ABP) has led the government to ask the OPR to evaluate how the

appeals board actually goes about making its decisions on planning appeals.

Self-builders go through ABP when they want to overturn their county council’s decision to deny their planning application to build. The process is for an inspector to review the application (which often requires a site visit) and issue a report, then the board assesses the case and makes the final decision.

However, it seems the ABP’s board doesn’t necessarily acknowledge their own inspectors’ reports. Cases have even been brought to the High Court (see Selfbuild Winter 2021 edition).

The OPR’s review of ABP states that the board is “of course, the decision-

maker and may come to different conclusions from an inspector” but it pointed out that “in the event that the board’s decision departs from the recommendation in an inspector’s report to grant or to refuse permission or approval, a statement in the board’s decision is required to indicate the main reasons for not accepting the inspector’s recommendation.”

This recommendation, among many others, has been taken on board by the ROI government as part of its Action Plan for An Bord Pleanála published in October. That could mean a more favourable outcome for self-builders – appeals don’t usually go their way, even if the inspector’s report does.

The ROI planning regulator instructed Mayo County Council to scrap rules that would allow people to build in the countryside.

Self-builders eligible for interest free loans

Minister O’Brien told the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis in September that he would extend the First Home Scheme (FHS), the government’s shared equity scheme, to self-builders by the end of 2022. The scheme can fund up to 30 per cent of the value of a home bought through a mortgage, or 20 per cent of the value if you use the Help to Buy Scheme (see p9).

You must have at least a 10 per cent deposit and show that your lender will not extend credit for the full amount that you need. You must go through a participating lender (AIB, Bank of Ireland, Haven, permanent tsb, EBS). There is a cap on how much the total value of the house can be, depending on the county: from €250k in more rural locations to €450k in urban areas.

The FHS takes an equity share in the home, meaning the FHS will own that portion of your home until you pay it back.

There will be no service

charge (no interest) for the first five years and you can pay back the share (principal) in increments, without penalty. You can make two such payments in a calendar year and need an FHS approved valuer to give an up to date valuation of the property (which you will have to pay for), and declare where the funds are coming from to make the repayment. Any legal fees will be borne by you.

When you pay back a portion or all of the share owned by the FHS, you will pay it back against the property valuation. So if the house value has gone up, the euro amount to pay back will go up. But if the value fell, the euro amount to pay back decreases.

From year six, a service charge applies meaning you need to pay interest on the amount you owe the FHS.

There’s a scale of interest rates depending on how long you take to pay back the equity share: 1.75 per cent from year six to year 15, up to a maximum of 2.85 per cent

after 30 years.

You are eligible as a first time buyer, or as a fresh starter meaning if you have previously purchased or built a property in ROI with a spouse, civil partner, or partner, and that relationship has ended, as long as you don’t retain a beneficial interest in the previous property. If your first property was part of the arrangements during bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings, you can also apply for the FHS.

The minimum equity share the FHS will take is 2.5 per cent of the property purchase price, or €10,000, whichever is higher. You must pay back the equity share in full if you sell the house, switch to a non participating lender, the house is no longer your principal private residence or if the last applicant dies.

“I believe in owning your own home. And I believe that it is good for individuals. It’s good for families, it’s good for our communities, and it’s good for our country,” said Minister O’Brien at the Fianna

Fáil Ard Fheis.

“My wife and I were lucky enough to buy a home and start a family. And it is a basic opportunity that I want for my daughter when she was she’s growing up. A person earning a decent wage should be able to own their own small corner of this world.”

However, when it was first mooted, the scheme came under criticism from the Central Bank and others, stating it was likely to fuel price inflation.

There is a co-ownership system in place in NI too, to help people buy a new build property, but it is not open to self-builders. Co-Ownership, the Northern Ireland’s Executive’s charitable delivery partner, can now share ownership on homes valued up to £190k (previous threshold was £175k). For more on the scheme see co-ownership.org.

20pc inflation affects insurance costs

Rebuild costs increased by 21 per cent over the past year, says the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI), which revised its rebuild cost calculator for house insurance purposes in September. The lobby group for chartered surveyors estimates a four bedroom 199sqm detached house in an estate (no figures available for one-off houses) would cost from €2,152/sqm to

rebuild in the Northwest up to €2,842/sqm in Dublin including VAT, plus the cost of the garage: €19,500 single attached garage to €35,200 for a double attached garage.

“Although pricing pressures on certain materials such as timber, plasterboard and insulation have eased slightly, rising fuel and energy costs are continuing to affect the supply chain,” said

Kevin Brady, SCSI Chair of the Quantity Surveyors Professional Group. “This is a direct result of the war in Ukraine and is leading to a sustained increase in the price of energy intensive materials such as concrete, aggregates (infill material), steel and paint. Coupled with these material price increases, ongoing labour shortages show no sign of abating and are also pushing

up rebuild costs.”

Insurance premiums are linked to how much it would cost to rebuild, meaning an increase in building costs leads to higher insurance costs. If your home gets damaged and you need to call on the insurance, and you’ve underinsured your property, you would have to foot the bill for the shortfall.

Full ROI homeowner’s guide and FAQs are available on firsthomescheme.ie

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien announced first time self-builders, and new start applicants, will be able to apply for the ROI First Home Scheme “by the end of the year”.

New homes still guzzle energy

Figures from the Central Statistics Office show that, of the detached houses in ROI that got their Building Energy Rating (BER) done in 2021, A and B rated detached homes were 230sqm while F and G rated detached homes 89sqm.

Meanwhile, the mean electricity consumption in 2021 for an A or B rated home was 42kWh/sqm and 67kWh/sqm for an F and G rated home.

This means that per square meter, F and G rated homes consumed 60 per cent more electricity than A and B rated homes in 2021. But the reverse is true of the total energy bill. When you multiply the mean area of detached houses, A and B rated homes consumed 60 per cent more than F and G rated homes.

“CSO figures currently show little correlation between a Building Energy

Rating (BER) and gas/ electricity usage which is more influenced by home size and type,” reads the Irish Green Building Council’s Building a Zero Carbon Ireland roadmap published in October.

CSO statistician Dympna Corry said: “Looking at the data, A and B rated dwellings consumed more electricity than F and G rated dwellings.”

“F and G energy-rated dwellings had the lowest mean electricity consumption figure in 2021 indicating that factors other than energy ratings - such as disposable income, whether the house was adequately heated, and use of secondary heating fuels - may have had an impact.”

Least energy efficient of all were the detached homes, which used 8,039 kWh of electricity in 2021 or 70 per cent more than the corresponding mean electricity consumption for a mid-terrace house.

Two year waiting list for grants

How to build with natural materials

Co Down architect, builder and educator Dr Tom Woolley’s latest book has everything you would expect from an advocate of hempcrete (lime hemp mix) who’s on numerous boards and committees that aim to enhance environmental standards in construction.

Natural Building Techniques is all about showing that natural building methods are not only a possible way to construct our homes, but the right way to tackle a selfbuild project.

He goes through the various methods and tackles how to certify them – a major stumbling block self-builders face when they want to build with materials like cob or DIY stick timber frame filled with sustainable insulation like straw.

Drawing on three decades of experience, the book is full of examples of how it’s done and how you too can do it.

Natural Building Techniques: A Guide to Ecological Methods and Materials by Tom Woolley, Crowood Press, ISBN 0719840473, crowood.com, 160 pages, £20

The ROI government’s plan to upgrade 500,000 homes by 2030 is being hindered by supply constraints, inflation and availability of tradesmen, the government body in charge of delivering the retrofit grants told the Oireachtas Climate Committee.

Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) director of research Margie McCarthy said there was demand from homeowners but that there were constraints on delivery. “While anecdotal information suggests that the material supply chain constraints experienced immediately post Covid-19 have eased in recent months, many suppliers are reporting difficulties in securing appropriate labour supply,” she said. Inflation and supply chain constraints in terms of labour and materials were other culprits.

People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith said the figures to date showed the national plan was “falling way, way short” of its retrofit

targets, with up to 70,000 per year needed to hit the target of 500,000 retrofits to a B2 energy rating equivalent by 2030.

The SEAI received 36k applications across all home energy grant schemes, with around 28,800 homes being retrofitted. However the Warmer Homes Scheme, which is the free energy upgrade targeting elderly people and the fuel poor, has a two year waiting list. Over 3,200 homes have been delivered under that scheme to date in 2022.

The other two schemes are the individual measures grants which fund insulation, heat pump and solar panels, and the onestop shop grant, which offers more grant money to upgrade the entire home to a B2 energy rating including funding for window upgrades.

Homeowners are given eight months to complete works once approved, but delivery constraints make that timeframe challenging.

Large energy efficient homes consume less per sqm but their overall energy use is higher than smaller, older and less energy efficient homes, reports the CSO.

Plan to upgrade 30 per cent of ROI housing stock falling “way, way short” of yearly targets, heard the Oireachtas Climate Committee.

a

Builder’s register comes into force in 2025 Home improvement checklist

The six page consumer guide sets out your statutory obligations and presents what you should expect from your builder in a checklist format. There is also a section about hiring a building surveyor and other professionals the SCSI represents.

Aimed at renovations and extensions, the one page list of questions to ask your builder is especially helpful, and the document includes advice to avoid the most common pitfalls.

At the launch, chartered building surveyor and SCSI Vice President Kevin Hollingsworth said:

“Renovation work and extensions don’t come cheap – especially with the significant increases we’ve seen over the last 18 months in construction costs. So given the sums involved we are always surprised at the number of people who don’t check the references of their contractors and

physically review previous jobs they have done. Other big misses would include not having a contract or even a written quotation in place – this is an important document should anything to wrong. Another common error we see is people paying too much in advance.”

Chartered quantity surveyor Claire Irwin said: “Homeowners often agree works with a builder only to be presented with unforeseen costs later on in a project. Or else they just include the building works. They don’t factor in furniture, fitouts, professional fees, accommodation costs or contingencies. All these add up and can lead to significant upward cost revisions. Delays in drawing down finance if depending on bank loans or failures to apply in good time for grants are other issues which can lead to cashflow problems, delays and inevitably stress for everyone involved.”

The Construction Industry Register Ireland (CIRI) was put on a statutory footing this July, with builders and tradesmen expected to be invited to register from 2024. The Department of Housing says the register is likely to be statutory from early 2025 for house builders and non-residential builders. Registration for various trades will happen after that.

Anyone who is prepared to provide works will have to register, apart from electricians and gas installers who are subject to their own regulatory obligations. Sole traders have to register but an employee of a company does not – the company must instead register.

Registered companies and tradespeople must abide to CIRI’s code of conduct, pay a fee to register, and fulfil competence criteria, among other obligations. There is a provision for inspectors to ensure enforcement, alongside periodic reviews and audits of the registration body. See oireachtas.ie for the full Regulation of Providers of Building Works and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022.

SCSI top 10 tips when engaging a building contractor

Planning: Does your extension / project qualify as an exempt development or do you need planning. Check with local authority to establish if you require permission.

Grants: If you are undertaking an energy upgrade or restoring a property, there may be grants available. Check with the relevant bodies in advance, see seai.ie.

References: Ask the contractor for references, review recent work they have done and visit them at their offices.

Quotes, Insurance & Contract: Get three detailed quotes and once you’ve selected the contractor, ask for a copy of their insurance before drawing up and signing a contract. Also notify your insurance provider before works commence.

Budget & Payments: Draw up detailed plans and ensure you budget for things like furniture, fittings, professional fees as well as contingencies. Agree a payment plan with the contractor at the outset.

Registration: Ensure your builder is registered with Construction Industry Register of Ireland (CIRI) and the Companies Registration Office and that all tradespeople are similarly registered with relevant trade and or professional bodies.

Timelines: Agree timeline for start, benchmarks such as installation of key elements and of course a finish date. Find out if you will be able to stay or have to move out.

Sustainability: Maximise energy efficiency with regard to glazing, lighting, heating and insulation. As well as being good for the environment, you are future proofing your new build.

Regulations: In order to avoid defects, ensure works are inspected at the appropriate time and in compliance with building regulations and building controls.

Safety: Is the contractor complying fully with health and safety guidelines. Check the Health Safety Authority website, hsa.ie.

The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) issued new guidance for those who plan to hire a builder to extend or renovate their house.

Next generation

The AGA Shop Stove & Fire Centre has been busy in the past couple of months. At its flagship showroom in Belfast it’s extended its range of products to include Rangemaster, in addition to existing displays of AGA, La Cornue, Mercury and Falcon ranges.

What’s more, it’s also been busy opening a brand new showroom at Greenway, Conlig, Co Down.

Both showrooms offer an extensive selection, suited to all budgets, of electric and gas fires, wood burners, and multifuel stoves too. On show are models from market leading manufacturers including AKOS, Dru, HETA, Ilektro, Oak, Pevex and Solutions.

Hot this year is the next generation of AGA cookers, as Conlig showroom manager

Noel Eager explains: “AGA’s all electric eR Series is proving especially popular with self-builders. Whereas many cast iron range cookers were previously designed for continuous operation, an AGA eR range cooker is cleverly engineered to be ‘on when you want it and off when you don’t’.”

All the while, they retain the timeless appearance for which AGA is renowned – making them perfect for contemporary and traditional kitchens alike.

Both showrooms are open from 9am to 5pm weekdays and 10am to 2pm Saturdays, with free car parking. agabelfast.com, tel. 9045 0103 (Belfast) or 9122 5432 (Conlig), ROI prefix with 048.

Defy gravity

If you are looking for a stylish fireside experience, with or without the heat, check out the new Onyx Orbit electric fire. Its floating presence and contemporary styling are ideally suited to open living spaces and rooms with vaulted ceilings.

Once installed, the Orbit can rotate up to 340deg, allowing you and your guests to enjoy its mesmerising flame picture from almost anywhere in a room. The dramatic suspended centrepiece also boasts a host of impressive Chromalight visual effects, including three flame colours and a range of fuel bed lighting options to suit your ambience.

The realistic oak log effect is bathed in complementary downlighting, whilst mood lighting that skirts around the interior of the fire tailors your experience further,

onyxfires.com

Transparent

Nowadays, we tend to compare products on the basis of how energy efficient they are. But there’s more to performance than that. The Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) Ireland programme, developed by the Irish Green Building Council, aims to fill that gap.

An EPD is a document that lays out the environmental performance of a construction product though its lifecycle, from what it takes to make the product, including responsible procurement, to the point of disposing of it.

ProAir is the first company in Ireland to have gone through the rigorous process for its ventilation systems. You can find the EPD for the PROAIR 600LI, ProAir 600PLI and the ProAir FRPRO ventilation units on igbc.ie/epd-search.

David McHugh, CEO of ProAir said: “Since 1995 we have been developing ventilation systems improving the indoor environment for people by improving indoor air quality, which in turn improves health, comfort and productivity. As Ireland’s only manufacturer of ventilation systems, we have led the way in Research & Development and we are proud to continue this trend.”

proair.ie

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NEW BUILDS

Reimagining the homestead

DIY, budget friendly new build.

The smuggler’s watchtower

Renovation and extension that takes in the coastal views.

A visionary transformation Split level design on a sloping site.

Winning the space race

Modern new build in Dublin.

See your home featured in Selfbuild magazine by emailing info@ selfbuild.ie

More photos of these projects available on selfbuild.ie

70 At the mercy of everything New build that overcame the materials shortage.

76 Building old oak house

Family home on a site with mature oak trees.

82 Coastal garden

Garden design for a self-build overlooking Galway Bay.

Reimagining the

homestead

Words:

By doing a lot of the work themselves, Chris and Louisa Russell created a modern home that delivered all the space, style, substance and new tech they wanted at a fraction of the cost.

Overview

House

DOWN

We wanted to build a functional, modern home that could fulfil our family’s living needs every day. At the same time, it was important to us to respect and reflect the traditional farmhouse architecture that surrounds us here in rural North Down,” says Louisa.

“This is the area where Louisa grew up,” adds Chris, “so we have strong family ties here. It is also a very beautiful place with amazing and far reaching views – we can see Scotland on a clear day. Obviously, we wanted to enjoy those views as much as possible while we were inside the house.”

The couple keenly researched various architectural designers before deciding on Colin. They were impressed by his previous work which demonstrated how successful he was at combining the design aspects that were important to them.

“He completely understood our vision for the build and encouraged us to pursue

the things that we wanted,” says Chris. “He was also great at advising on what would or wouldn’t likely pass through the planning stages.”

“The design that we agreed on was formal at the front, along the lines of a traditional Georgian farmhouse, and very modern at the rear with lots of glass and a flat roof extension.”

“We installed cream, sash style, aluclad triple glazed windows to the front elevation and large paned grey aluclad windows to the rear, also triple glazed,” says Louisa, “to contrast the two distinct styles.”

The rear extension is parapet flat, fibreglass roof. A Spanish slated, pitch roof extension to the side of the house bridges the conformity of style at the front and the more unconventional rear.

In terms of how the house should work, Chris and Louisa were adamant that there was no room for dead space. “Our aim was to get away from the traditional format of a country home,” says Juila. “In my own childhood home, we had a ‘good’ room, dining room and a spare bedroom which were only ever used once a year at Christmas. We wanted to make use of all the space in our home, 12 months of the year.”

“That’s why we decided on having three generous sized bedrooms. Our two children

CO DOWN

NEW BUILD

have a bedroom each and Chris and I have a large master bedroom which includes two dressing rooms (his and hers) and a good sized ensuite bathroom. We could have opted for a smaller bedroom and added another even smaller spare bedroom, but for us, the space just works better this way.”

To futureproof, Chris continued the electrics and plumbing services up into the roof space just in case there is a need to convert the attic into further accommodation down the line.

Building the dream

The planning process was a long, drawn out but straightforward affair, says Louisa. “We had been concerned that the modern style at the rear might generate some pushback from the planners, but thankfully this was not an issue. The only stipulation was that we plant certain indigenous trees on our plot.”

In choosing a builder, the Russells considered recommendations from family and friends, and, following tendering the project out to a few builders, they chose Trevor. “He has been so easy to work with, and extremely flexible,” says Chris. “I have previous experience in property development and I’ve acquired quite a few

site skills, so I decided to project manage the build. However, due to my work commitments at the start of the project I asked Trevor to manage the first three months of the build, before I could take it on.”

The builder brought his own team of blocklayers. For all other trades Chris directly employed workmen, again following recommendations from family and friends and also contacts made at the Selfbuild Live show. “We spoke to a lot of

self-builders and asked them about their experiences with various trades people and we are delighted with the quality of work delivered by the ones we chose in the end.”

As project manager – bar the first three months – Chris ordered all materials following painstaking research. Being practically minded, he was also hands on during construction. “I put in all the systems myself,” he says, “and then had them commissioned by the relevant certified trades people.”

Stove. The contemporary standalone stove with its sandstone top, back and sides heats the open plan living area.

Playroom swing. Louisa loved the idea of installing a swing and hanging chair in the playroom and ever practical, Chris answered her brief by applying reinforced attachments to the ceiling joists while constructing the room. “Every child who visits wants one in their own home,” he laughs.

Q&A with Chris and Louisa

What is your favourite design feature / room?

Chris: My favourite room is the open plan living area and my next favourite is my man cave above the double garage which I finished building this year.

Louisa: I love the window seat and the corner window.

Biggest splurge?

The windows. We probably spent double what we had expected to. But the views are definitely worth it. Also our custom built dining table. It’s 3m long and seats up to 12 people. We ordered it before we even started the build and then designed the kitchen area around it.

What would you change or do differently?

In all honesty, we wouldn’t change a thing. We had a long time to really think about what we wanted prior to the start of the build, and with Chris being on site every day we could safely alter things that we didn’t think would work for us.

What surprised you?

We’re both optimistic by nature and I think we were quite bright eyed and bushy tailed at the start of the process. We didn’t think it was to going cost as much or take as long to complete. But I think it’s normal for self-builders to be like this; you learn as you go along. We know so much more now than we did at the start and you only get that knowledge if you go through the process.

What single piece of advice would you give a friend who’s looking to embark on a project similar to yours?

Take as much advice as you can from other people who have gone through the self-build process. That’s what we did before we started the build; we got lots of great advice and lists of reliable suppliers by doing this.

Chris and Louisa’s tips

Do your homework. Read home interior magazines, visit home shows and watch home TV shows. We got lots of ideas this way, such as the pocket doors for the playroom.

Be decisive. Builders and trades people need decisions fast – time is money. When our builder was project managing at the start of the build he made really good suggestions that ultimately saved us time and money down the line.

Create an online mood board with interior and exterior home styles on online mood boards and share it with your architect. We did that with ours. He saw our style preference and incorporated that into the plans.

Buy ahead. You have quite a lot of time before you actually start building so use it by looking out for store sales to buy what you want for the house. A lot of our sanitaryware was purchased from a local showroom that was clearing out stock and ex-display items; these were heavily discounted.

Take your time to study the plans. Consider where certain items are being placed, such as the wc. We didn’t like the fact that when we opened the bathroom door the wc would have been right in front of us, so we changed the location. You can’t really do that once it’s plumbed in.

Be on site every day. That really helped us. I could make changes along the way before it was too late.

Prioritise kitchen storage.

Spend as long as it takes with the kitchen designers to get it just right.

Chris and Louisa opted for oil fired underfloor heating on the ground floor with cast iron radiators upstairs in combination with a heat recovery system. “We had considered bringing the underfloor heating upstairs with a concrete floor, but we felt the extra cost and weight of this wasn’t justified. We went ahead and fitted 12-inch floor joists, which also made it a lot easier for me to run the heat recovery system pipework through.”

“We have thermostats in every room so we can control heat individually, which obviously saves on energy usage. The heat recovery system also helps by redistributing warm air throughout the house. It also ensures there is a constant supply of fresh air coming in; effectively we don’t ever need to open a window!”

A range in the kitchen provides continuous heat during colder months. “But we can programme it to different temperature settings. During the night, for

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example, it’s turned right down. It’s far more efficient than a traditional range.”

Grounded

The house is at the end of a 150m lane which had to be laid at the very start to allow access to the site. To make the most of the diggers when they were there, the electricity and water supplies were laid during those works. “I was lucky to have the use of heavy machinery which allowed me to carry out all the groundworks , with the help of family, during the entirety of the build, which saved a lot of money,” says Chris.

A precast concrete septic tank was

installed. “I did a lot of research on septic tanks. This particular model has an electric pump and an effluent quality of 99 per cent treatment efficiency for BOD5. In theory the irrigated wastewater is drinkable – not that we are keen to try that out!”

The irrigated wastewater then soaks away. “There is no smell at all, and we don’t need to empty it. We chose a concrete tank over a plastic one as we are on a hill and it can rain a lot here. We knew of plastic tanks in locations similar to ours that had popped up out of the ground during really heavy rain conditions, so naturally we didn’t want to risk that happening.”

Stairs. Choosing grey oak with twisted spindles, the staircase is a modern twist on a traditional style.

“The views at the front of our home are incredible and we wanted to continue to enjoy them from our living area without interruption. To do that we installed a single, 3.5m x 3m, window pane, which proved extremely difficult to source. I could only find one supplier capable of offering an opening of that size,” says Chris. “We originally wanted a floor to ceiling window, but the weight of the pane would have been far too heavy for its surrounds. So instead, it starts just four inches above the floor level and extends to ceiling height. To be honest, this works perfectly well for us.” A corner window provides the open plan living area with even more light and views.

“Our preference was for hardwood sash style windows at the front of the house, in keeping with the Georgian style,” says Louisa, “but because we are quite exposed to the elements in this location, we opted for cream aluclad frames, which are far more durable than full timber.”

Natural style

While Chris project managed and helped build their house, Louisa was the driving force behind the internal design scheme. The décor and fixtures are modern, reflecting the family’s contemporary lifestyle.

“We prefer a warm minimal style,” says Louisa, “and this has been the focus of the internal scheme. We’ve used lots of natural materials like wood, slate and stone.”

“Our lighting choices have also been a very deliberate part of the scheme. We followed the advice of our electrician to create a layered lighting effect – table lamps,

LED shelving lights, pendants and overhead lights.”

The open plan ground flooring was completed in engineered wood. “We chose wider planks because we felt they would look better in such a large space.” The hardworking boot room is floored in heavy slate.

“We didn’t know what to do with the garden,” admits Louisa, “it was just one large, blank canvass of mud. There were things we wanted, like an area to grow vegetables, some seating areas, a place to park the cars but we didn’t know how to achieve it all. So, I shared our wish list with a garden designer who delivered a really great plan which incorporated all the areas we wanted and included a planting list to work from.”

“Using the designer’s plan, I carried out the landscaping myself, which really saved us money,” says Chris. “Although it did take three years to complete.”

“Each year, we would buy a certain number of plants for the garden,” says Louisa. “I remember the first time I went to the nursery I spent quite a lot of money. When I got the plants home and planted them in the beds it looked really skimpy. Thankfully, they have since established and filled out to look great now.”

“There is a little outside sitting area in amongst a wildflower garden, which is really stunning at the back of the house,”

Spec

Walls: 400mm cavity wall construction comprising outer leaf of 100mm dense concrete block, 150mm wide cavity insulated with 100mm solid insulation, and inner leaf of 150mm lightweight concrete block, finished internally with 38mm insulated plasterboard fixed to inner leaf.

Pitched roof at ceiling level: 400mm deep roll insulation.

Pitched roof at roof level (vaulted space): 75mm pitched roof insulation between rafters and 52.5mm insulated plasterboard to underside of sloping ceilings beneath.

Flat Roof: Fibreglass roof covering on stich bonded reinforcement on 18mm plywood on 150mm insulation on vapour control layer on 18mm plywood deck.

Solid Floors: 100mm deep sand/ cement screed with reinforced fabric mesh to top side, on air and vapour control layer, laid over two layers of rigid floor insulation (50mm & 75mm respectively), laid on top of 150mm deep poured concrete floor slab, poured over damp-proof membrane, on top of 25mm deep sand blinding, on well consolidated hardcore to make up levels. 50mm wide edge insulation provided to the entire perimeter of the dwelling.

Windows: Triple glazed, aluclad. Airtightness result: 7.28 m3/(h.sqm) @50Pa

NEW BUILD

says Chris. “This is where we spend time during the summer, watching the kids play in the above ground pool we bought during lockdown. Then there is a sheltered patio area accessed from the open plan and playroom. We use it for BBQs and al fresco dining during the summer months.”

“We really love the home that we have created,” says Louisa. “We were careful in our choices but invested in the right places like windows and insulation. We put money into the things that are hard to change.”

“By doing a lot of the work ourselves we kept the budget within reason,” adds Chris, “but because it’s going to be a forever home we probably went for things we wouldn’t have done otherwise. We didn’t scrimp on anything.”

Timeline

“We were careful in our choices but invested in the right places like windows and insulation.”

Project info

Find

Suppliers

Architectural designer

Colin McAuley Planning

Building supplies

MacBlair (Bangor Branch)

Building contractor

Cuan Construction

Kitchen and interiors

Adornas Kitchens/Pavilion Home & Lifestyle Electrical

Livewire Electrical

Wooden floors

Woodfloor Warehouse

Stone walling

Neil Diamond Stonework

Windows

Feneco Systems (Internorm windows)

Stove

The Stove Yard

Plastering & Floor Screed

RJ Plastering

Joinery

Simon Brewster Joinery

Smart home software

Home Assistant, home-assistant.io. Chris can control all of his electrics from an Amazon Fire tablet that he recessed into a wall in his kitchen. Through a series of wifi plugs he has integrated his Phillips Hue lights to operate all indoor and outdoor lighting, the CCTV security system and cameras, blinds, garage doors, music/media, home heating, plus swimming pool heating and pump. His electric car is also integrated into it, allowing him to lock and unlock the car and view the fuel level, service intervals, etc.

Septic Tank

Turley Bros, turleybros.co.uk

Kitchen range

Everhot, everhot.co.uk

Building fabric

Flat roof: Polyroof 185 System GRP roof covering, Polybase & Polymat 450 reinforcement, 150mm Thermaroof TR26 LPC/FM insulation. Solid floors: D49 fabric mesh, Visqueen Vapour Barrier, Visqueen PIFA 300 DPM. Insulation: Earthwool Loft Roll Insulation

Family Room

Kitchen/Dining

Living Room

Utility

Snug

Winning thespace race

When you’re priced out of the housing market and

to

your

is at a

got

get

exactly what

CO DUBLIN

Ronan’s tips

Share the same vision as your partner. Laura and I were always on the same page. We looked at online mood boards, found stuff that we both liked and we agreed on it. So every time we had a design decision to make we knew the answer together already.

Pick your battles. There are things that matter and things that don’t. If there’s a cost involved in changing something the builder has done, ask yourself can you live with it or will it grate on you every single day. You’re building this house and you’re going to know where the flaws are, so you have to be okay with that.

Establish a set of expectations with the builder and your architect.

Who is going to make decisions? Who’s going to manage the suppliers? Who’s going to manage the project? What are you going to do if something goes wrong? What are you, as the self-builder, responsible for on delivery? Who’s managing the survey? Establish those duties at the start.

Contact your service providers early. Electricity, water and internet connections all take time and you need to do things in the correct order. For example, you can’t get an electricity connection without an Eircode, and you can’t get an Eircode without a certain amount of the build being done. And when you sign up for it, factor in a couple of months before the Eircode is actually provided.

Educate yourself on the things that need to be acted upon right now, and things that can be considered later. Try to have an understanding of the start to finish of the build and the deliverables in between. Be organised.

Add up the costs. Your build cost isn’t your only cost, you also have architect fees and additional fees, like service charge fees, all these things just add up. And then you need to furnish your home. Track your payments to your builder so you avoid the panic of thinking you owe an extra €10k when you don’t.

When we lived in Canada we heard about laneway housing, a construction practice that is quite commonplace over there,” says Ronan. “A laneway house is basically a small house that is built in the grounds of an existing house. It allows people to perhaps build on a family plot where there is a little bit of space that is accessible via a laneway or driveway – hence the name.”

“We saw an example of one of these house designs on social media. It was an upside down house; all the bedrooms were on the ground flood and the open plan living areas were on the first floor. We thought it was a brilliant idea and immediately fell for the design.”

Shocked by house prices when they moved back to Ireland in 2018, Ronan approached his parents about the possibility of building such a ‘laneway house’ in the side garden of their home in the desirable Lucan area of Co Dublin.

“They had a small corner piece of land that had previously been granted planning permission, so we knew it was feasible,” explains Ronan. “My parents generously agreed to give it to us at no charge, we just had to deal with the legal side of things.”

The design

“Straight away we looked for an architect,” says Ronan. “We didn’t want a conventional style of house but we were worried that we might have difficulty getting planning permission for something so different.”

“When we found Mark, our architect, he gave us exactly what we were looking for; a contemporary house design with a modern monochrome colour scheme and

“A laneway house is basically a small house that is built in the grounds of an existing house....”

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lots of crisp clean lines.”

“The house is a fully detached steel frame construction with all the bedrooms on the ground floor and the living accommodation upstairs. Originally, the design incorporated a flat roof but when I did some research, I found it might be hard to get insurance because, being

steel framed, it would be classed as a non standard build. We didn’t want to provide any more potential insurance problems that a flat roof might present so we changed the design to a pitched roof.”

“So upstairs we have a pitched ceiling with rafters. Externally, the roof is clad in black aluminium; the nearly floor to

Flooring. “We wanted polished concrete flooring on both floors but had to opt for microtopping as the depth of concrete needed for polishing would have been too heavy for the first floor,” says Ronan. “Microcement or microtopping is like a resin version of polished concrete but ultra-thin. We ended with a concrete effect, which we really like.”

ceiling window frames are also black aluminium and the external walls are an off-white. We love this black and white look.”

Planning issues

“From his previous experience with the planning process, Mark assured us that, because our corner site was so hidden away, we had a bit of flexibility – that the contemporary styling wouldn’t be an issue. He was right about that,” adds Ronan.

“However, when we applied for planning permission, we were hit with two additional requirements which we weren’t at all prepared for.”

“There is a graveyard on the other side of the boundary wall to our site, in which there are two big heritage oak trees which have Tree Preservation Orders on them. The planners told us we would need to get a tree survey done to satisfy them that there would be no likelihood of damage being done to the trees during the construction of our house.”

“We would then be required to set up a cordon around the trees to protect them. The bill for the tree survey was €1,500 and then we also had to pay a planning deposit of €7,000 immediately.”

“The second requirement was for a

Dining. The dining nook was custom made after seeing one on display at a home interiors show.

Lighting. Upstairs Ronan and Laura installed two lighting tracks, one in the sitting area with a directional art gallery light effect and one above the kitchen island.

CO DUBLIN

“...we had two very unique planning issues which caused us three months of panic because of all the hoops we had to jump through and it cost us €10,000 before we had even broken ground...”

NEW BUILD

bat survey to check if there were any in the area. Thankfully, none were found. If there had been, we would have had to build a bat house in our garden and ensure we didn’t change their flight path. This survey cost us another €1,500.”

“So, we had two very unique planning issues which caused us three months of panic because of all the hoops we had to jump through and it cost us €10,000 before we had even broken ground!”

Permission was finally granted in April 2019, but they had to wait a further six months to obtain a mortgage and start the build.

“Because we had been living and working in Canada for a number of years, there was a gap in our financial records in Ireland,” explains Ronan. “We had to provide a lot of additional information, but we got there in the end.”

“Once planning was approved we had to pick our building method and we chose steel purely due to cost and the speed at which it could be built – the entire house framing was done in three days from the

day the steel was delivered. Computer generated plans meant we had holes predrilled for the connections to other frame pieces.”

“We did consider traditional blockwork but the cost at the tender stage and time saved was why we chose a steel frame. Most of the build cost quotes came in around €450k versus steel frame at €305k.”

The build

“We broke ground in September, footing the cost for the groundwork ourselves, because the mortgage was still pending. It came through in November and that’s when the work really began. We needed to use a significant portion of the mortgage build cost up front, to order the steel frame fabrication from Poland.”

Ronan and Laura employed a build and design firm to construct their home. “They delivered the whole project, from the steel frame onwards, and project managed in terms of deliverables,” says Ronan. “Mark managed the house design and we made decisions on any design changes that were off spec.”

“The builder had an expert team on the job, and it was mostly plain sailing. By Christmas, the house frame was up and everything was ready to go. We were just waiting for the externals, the front door and the windows. There was a big delay with the windows which were eventually delivered to site at 6pm on March 18, 2020, just before Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced the lockdown.”

“All work stopped for eight weeks, which was horrendous – we had been so close to finishing. It just illustrates how an issue with one set of deliverables, such as the windows, can ripple down through the whole build.”

Once the build got back on track, the final touches could be made to the upside down house, including underfloor heating both upstairs and down.

“Our main living area is upstairs and open plan into the kitchen,” says Ronan.

“It’s bright and airy and has access on to a large balcony with an external staircase leading down to the rear garden. The ceiling in the sitting room area is pitched with rafters, which gives a great sense of height. I call it our cathedral ceiling. Although this is a small house, the open

2

“We did consider traditional blockwork but the cost at the tender stage and time saved was why we chose a steel frame. ”

plan design makes the best use of space and light and it never feels cramped.”

Unusual finishes

“All the interior walls are white, and we have opted not to have skirting boards, which was a pain for the builder and will be a pain for us down the road, but we really like the clean edge look,” says Ronan.

“The door frames are large so all the doors had to be custom made. We saw the height of the door openings in the raw steel frame and decided to keep that oversized look. It actually makes the room appear taller and it’s one of the best decisions we made.”

“We are also very happy with our choice of a high end shower in our ensuite and a

standard one for the main bathroom. It’s worth paying extra for a shower that you will be using every day.”

The couple decided against tiling the main bathroom and master ensuite. “We visited tiling showrooms, but we just didn’t like what was on offer. Instead, we opted for coloured waterproof plaster, which was applied to the walls.”

“In the dark, windowless main bathroom we went with a stormy grey, to accentuate the darkness. The walls in the ensuite are a much lighter colour. They should have been a bright white, but the plasterers mistakenly applied the dark colour as the first coat, before finishing the final two coats in white.”

“You need to know when to pick your battles on a build,” adds Ronan. “If a

Q&A with Ronan

What is your favourite design feature? Biggest splurge?

I love the modern style of our home, the amount of light that we have and the black and white colour scheme. Our biggest splurge was on the bathrooms, but we also invested in good lighting –the two track lights cost €3,000 – and the marble kitchen island which was €4,000.

What would you change or do differently?

I would walk in with my eyes a bit more open. I think I would take more of a leading role in the project management. Builders are going to build in the simplest and cheapest way to get the job done, so if the job is left unsupervised they’ll take decisions that could have an impact on your overall design vision.

What surprised you?

The feeling I had when it was finished. It just blew me away. When I get home, I can truly relax and breathe out, because I’m in my safe space.

What single piece of advice would you give a friend who’s looking to embark on a project similar to yours?

Have an overall vision of the house style you want to create, and defend that vision. Knowing this will help you make instant decisions when the builder prompts you. It all moves very quickly.

Would you do it again?

We built this as our forever home, so I really don’t know if we would need – or want – to ever embark on another selfbuild project.

mistake has been made by the builder or supplier, you really need to ask yourself whether the cost and time needed to rectify it is worth it. We encountered this when the sliding patio door in the kitchen was installed. Instead of it opening from the left hand side onto the balcony, it opened on the right, which impacted on opening the oven door.”

“We were already behind on the build due to the lockdown so having the patio door removed and then waiting nine months lead in time for a replacement door was just not realistic for us. Instead, we had a wall built to act as a kind of frame to the kitchen units which overcame the issue.”

In the kitchen, Ronan and Laura insisted on the installation of a letterbox style window along the back wall to allow in more light and act as a focal point. “It’s one of the little extras that worked out really well,” says Ronan. The monochrome colour scheme continues in here with black and white cabinets and a large white marble topped island.

Landscaping

Outside, the main landscaping element required building a boundary wall between their garden and Ronan’s parents.

“We made good their part of the garden and converted some of the space at the front to use as our driveway. We chose a gravel surface, which was one of the biggest mistakes of the build.”

“There are a lot of trees around our site, and each autumn the driveway gets flooded with fallen leaves. Although we laid a weed barrier underneath the gravel, the decaying leaves that lie on top get

mixed with dust and eventually creates soil where the weeds thrive. The plan is to eventually replace the gravel with an alternative covering like tarmac.”

As Ronan and Laura settle in for the third winter in their forever home they are delighted with what they have created.

“Every day we say to each other how much we love this house,” says Ronan.

“It’s bright, and although small, it feels so spacious. That’s down to the design. The patio door to the balcony and the big window to the front on the first floor allow the light to flood in, as do the roof lights, and the white walls just add to the sense of brightness. Everything just clicks.”

Timeline

back to

frame erected

delivered

end and moved in

More

Project info

Find out more about Ronan and Laura’s project in Co Dublin...

GROUND FLOOR

Suppliers

Builder

KAP Eco Homes, mobile 087 953 1951

Architect Mark O’Donoghue, Moda Architects, mobile 086 826 1328

Ventilation

Vent-Axia Lo-Carbon Sentinel Kinetic Plus

Heat pump Joule Samsung

Flat roof insulation

Mannok Therm Roof / MFR-GFR

EPS wall insulation Baumit Ltd, baumitireland.com

Microcement (bathroom walls)

Microstuk from TileStyle, tilestyle.ie

Photography

Dermot Byrne Photography, dermotbyrnephoto.ie

FIRST FLOOR

NI calling ROI prefix with 00353 and drop the first 0Master Bedroom

Spec

Walls: steel frame with 11mm OSB and 100mm EPS external wall insulation in grey, 150mm mineral wool 11mm OSB, 12.5mm plasterboard.

Roof: metal sheeting, timber battens, roof flet, 11mm OSB, 150mm mineral wool insulation, 11mm OSB, PIR insulated plasterboard 60mm insulation 12.5 plasterboard.

Balcony: 90 mm warm deck, plus 150 mm rockwool insulation to floor void under.

Windows: Black aluminium window frames, double glazed to front and triple glazed to rear.

Airtightness: 1.144m3/h.sqm at 50Pa

Bedroom Bedroom

Ensuite

Wardrobe WC Hallway

KitchenDining Living

Reading Nook

transformationvisionaryA

Frustrated by the local housing market, Alanna and James Connolly bought an overlooked problem site with planning approved for a basic split level design. They changed the plans to a three layered dream home for their growing family.

Overview

House size:

size:

Heating and

water:

centralised mechanical with heat recovery Build method:

(cavity

CO FERMANAGH

NEW BUILD

Our family was growing and we needed somewhere to live, but at that time, there weren’t many houses for sale locally,” says Alanna. “However, there was a site in town which had lain empty for a long time. Plans for a split level bungalow had previously been approved, but most people thought it was a really bad site as it was steeply sloping.”

“I studied and worked as an architectural technologist for a short while before the crash happened in 2007; that’s when I took a different route. But I still have a love for buildings and have a good vision for things and I could see the potential the site offered. So we bought it not long after James and I got married.”

“The original plans weren’t to our taste – the whole house was bungalow style on the upper level and the basement would have been used as a store. We wanted a more modern style and a better use of the space we had, one that would take advantage of the slope.”

“I drew up a rough sketch for our own architect Donal, and he came back with a plan that was probably a safer option in planning terms, but we said no. The revised plan on three levels that he came back with was right on the button. It is very different, quite box like, modern in style. Living in a small village we’re probably best known as the ones with the flat roof house.”

Capturing views

“So we ended up here because there was nowhere else to buy,” says Alanna. “But it is a great location, we’re still within the town boundary with the amenities within walking distance, yet we look out onto open

countryside with spectacular views across to Carnmore Rock, Co Fermanagh and Bragan Mountain in Co Monaghan.”

“We wanted to enjoy those views with large frame glazing. It drives me mad when I see new homes being built with small windows. That’s not my style. I like modern, strong lines and big windows, so that was always going to be the design no matter what house we built. We don’t get that much bright sunlight in Northern Ireland so you need to make the most of it when it comes.”

“We have a large grass bank sloping down onto the backfield, which we had landscaped over the past 18 months. We took loads of time thinking about what we should do with it because we didn’t want to waste money. But eventually, we decided to hedge it and plant trees and wildflowers.”

The planning process went through without objection. There was just an instruction regarding the sightlines. “The planners seemed to really like the design despite it being so different to the local architecture. We couldn’t believe it; it only took six weeks to get approval. It was very

NEW

straightforward.”

“Our contractor lined up all the tradespeople and between us, we project managed the build. We were renting nearby and I had to drive past the site on school runs every weekday so it was easy for me to pop in and make decisions when the builder needed them.”

A home that works

“We have an open plan kitchen and living dining area in the basement with full height glazing on two sides. The downstairs toilet and utility room are in the back of the basement and are windowless. Entering the

house at ground level, you come into the hallway with three bedrooms in front of you and a bathroom. A doorway hides another staircase that brings you upstairs to our master bedroom. That’s the kind of box on top of the house. There is also a living room cum playroom on the ground floor and a landing with a glass mezzanine that looks down to the open plan area. You access the basement living area down a concrete staircase.”

The kitchen design was driven by the overall modern house style. “We needed to continue the modern edge through all the rooms,” says Alanna. “I love shaker

style kitchens but that wouldn’t work in our house. So instead, the kitchen is very minimalist with handleless, matt grey cupboards and drawers with a granite top island and countertops.”

“Originally, there were cupboards on either side of the oven, but I’ve since taken them down, replacing them with open oak shelves which house our mugs and glasses.” “In the living area, there is an open stove with an oak beam above it. On the suggestion of our architect we had a bench custom made to run the whole length of the large window in the dining area which is great, especially when you have small kids. You can fit six children in there, perfect for parties.”

The different zones are lit with differing lighting sources – spot lighting, a large glass orb over the island and a long light over the dining table.

With such a clear modernist vision and some good advice, choosing sanitaryware was straightforward too. “We went to the bathroom showroom and showed them our plans. They made some great suggestions which helped improve the functionality of the family bathroom.”

“They encouraged us to go mad and make a style statement with the downstairs wc, which is most likely to be used by guests. We took their advice and chose a turquoise freestanding sink and gave the room a bit of a quirky look, which we love.”

The family bathroom has a freestanding bath and a separate shower with a sunken tray. “They are so much easier to keep clean than the plastic shower trays,” says Alanna. “We have them in the two ensuite shower rooms also.”

“I am quite conservative with my big

Timeline

Dining bench: The bench is a great addition and opens up to store the kids’ games.

NEW BUILD

purchase choices, and then I like to make my own stamp with individual touches like the pictures hanging on the wall going downstairs to the basement to the open plan area. They weren’t that expensive, and I can easily change them in years to come if we get bored of them. Whereas I wouldn’t buy a huge, madly coloured sofa because you’re never going to get rid of it and you will get tired of it. Styles change and trends change, so I like to keep the big ticket purchases very plain and simple.”

The Connollys originally wanted a polished concrete floor on the ground floor but were unable to source a contractor

to carry out the work. “Instead, I chose a large, concrete effect tile in a light colour downstairs and a darker shade upstairs as you walk in from the front door. The stairs leading to the basement are exposed concrete with oak steps while the wooden staircase up to our master bedroom is painted white with a herringbone patterned stair runner. We chose a chalky grey coloured laminate flooring for the bedrooms for warmth and ease of upkeep.”

Style counselor

Alanna admits she was the main driver in the interior design process. “Luckily, James

NEW BUILD

likes the same style as me so when I showed him my choices he was always on board. My mum was my sounding board if I was really unsure about some of my more unusual ideas. I got a lot of inspiration from online mood boards.”

“My friends sometimes ask me for interior design advice for their homes and I always tell them to go create an online board of styles and colours they like. Then we go through their choices and find a way to pull it all together. It can be scary and

overwhelming when you have to translate what’s in your head into real purchases. That’s where these tools can help.”

“When you self-build you have to do your homework and know what you like and what you don’t like. It’s about being confident in what you’re choosing. I suppose that’s why interior designers are so popular; it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of micro decisions you have to make.”

“Many self-builders are young with a fairly modest, fixed budget and they don’t realise how much things cost. When do you ever buy a toilet? You just don’t, unless you’re building. Then the reality hits, crikey, there’s five or six of them to buy!”

“Most of us are blind to costs when we start on the self-build journey. This is why it’s so important to be open and honest with your contractor at the start. They need to understand what scale of budget you have. You don’t want to come to the end of the project and find that you have a list of expensive extras that weren’t on the original costings, and you don’t have the money to pay for them.”

The construction process was without major issues. “The only frustration we had was how long it took. We were renting and towards the end, you start to wonder if you are ever going to move. But you do, and then

CO FERMANAGH

Q&A with Alanna and James

What is your favourite design feature / room?

I have favourite places all around the house where I can soak up the views. Sitting on the couch in the basement I can look up and see the full sky with birds flying overhead. At the dining table, you can see what weather is coming towards you. Then at sunset when you’re coming up the stairs, the long window frames the sun going down over Carnemore Rock.

Biggest splurge?

I suppose the biggest splurges so far were the large handmade sofa and refurbishing the garage into an entertainment room.

What would you change or do differently?

Probably the utility room was the biggest thing that I regret. There were so many decisions to be made near the end, that I didn’t take enough time to think about how it would work. In hindsight, I wish I had put more thought into it, maybe stacked my washing machine and made better use of the space.

What surprised you?

How full on it gets when you have so many decisions to make at once.

What single piece of advice would you give a budding self-builder?

The number of extras at the end can be a big shock. So make sure every decision that you make is included in your costings. We were pushed to the edge with our end cost and then we were pushed even further because there were huge extras. Our builder trusted us to pay off the extras in instalments, but others wouldn’t be as kind. Tell your builder at the start that if they’re making you pick something that isn’t in the costing, they have to tell you how much it will cost.

Would you do it again?

This is our forever home, so no we don’t plan on doing this again. If we did, though, we’d be going in with our eyes wide open.

“Most of us are blind to costs when we start on the self-build journey. This is why it’s so important to be open and honest with your contractor at the start.”

Alanna and James’ tips

Decide where to get advice. If you struggle with colours, or visualising things get help from people you trust. Just don’t ask too many people because it can get confusing!

Don’t pick something when you’re not sure. Really think before you make a large purchase because chances are you’re going to have it for a long time.

Find a contractor that you can speak openly to, someone you can trust and someone who can be straight with you.

your new build just becomes home.”

A final project has just been completed, the transformation of the garage into an entertainment/fitness room. “We’re big football fans and love to entertain so we have a bar in there with a big TV and sofa. It’s going to be a great place to sit and watch the matches. We’ll also have an area to put our gym equipment.”

“We are really happy with the way the house works for us. Every room in the house is used. There’s no room that you’re like, ‘Oh, why did we do that?’ There’s no design decision made that isn’t a good one. Thankfully, it’s all worked out as we had hoped.”

“I suppose when you’ve been through the whole process, from the first days of planning out the project everything should be the way you want it. That’s why people are driven to build themselves – to get their dream home.”

Project info

Find out more about Alanna and James’ project in Co Fermanagh...

BASEMENT FLOOR

Suppliers

Architect

Donal McPhillips Architecture, mcphillipsarchitecture.com

Design SAP and air test

QEL Air Energy Consultants, qelair.com

Windows

J&N Windows, interluxsystems.com

Roof

Sika-Trocal Type S single ply waterproof membrane, 150mm Sikatherm AL LPC/FM roofing board insulation, Sika-Trocal S-VAP 1000E E vapour barrier, Sika Primer 600

Insulation

Walls: 100mm Xtratherm Thin-R plus CavityTherm CT / PIR insulation, floors: 100mm Bally/Quinntherm insulation

Spec

Roof: Single ply waterproof membrane fitted by approved installer in accordance with manufacturer’s specification on 150mm roofing board insulation, on 1,000E E vapour barrier, on concrete screed to falls with primer applied to the surface of screed, on 200mm prestressed hollow core slabs to manufacturer’s layout, grout between all slabs with dryish C35 Newton concrete immediately after placing of units.

U-value 0.142W/sqmK

Walls: 150mm concrete block inner leaf with bonding and skim finish painted, 130mm cavity with 100mm PIR insulation held in place with s.s. wall ties located @ 450mm centres vertically and 750mm centres horizontally and staggered. 100mm concrete block outer leaf with 19mm smooth render finish consisting of 10mm scratch coat layer with 10mm topcoat rubbed smooth with float to achieve 19mm finished thickness with white painted finish. Windows and front door: Windows double glazed dark grey aluminium windows installed in accordance with manufacturer’s details and spec. Overall U-value 0.14W/sqmK. Bespoke insulated and draughtproof front entrance door with timber clad finish painted grey to match window frames. U-value 1.0W/sqmK.

Floor type 1: Selected semisolid timber/ ceramic tile finish, on 100mm concrete screed, on 100mm PIR insulation, on radon resisting membrane to equivalent of 2,000 gauge continuous polythene DPM lapped and bonded to DPC, on 100mm C30/20 newton concrete subfloor, on 150mm min. consolidated and blinded hardcore.

Floor type 2: Selected semisolid timber/ ceramic tile finish, on 100mm concrete screed, on 200mm prestressed hollowcore slabs to manufacturer’s layout, grout between all slabs with dryish C35 Newton concrete immediately after installation.

Floor type 3: Selected semisolid timber/ ceramic tile finish, on 100mm concrete screed, on 100mm insulation, on radon resisting membrane to equivalent of 2,000 gauge continuous polythene DPM lapped and bonded to DPC, on 150mm C30/20 Newton concrete subfloor, on 150mm min. consolidated and blinded hardcore.

Airtightness test result: 2.41 m3/h.sqm

photographs

Patio

Hall

Ensuite

Patio

Patio

Smuggler’s watchtower

CO DONEGAL Enjoyed as a holiday home, this historical lookout for seafaring smugglers has been in John Arthur’s family for almost a century. Renovated many times over the years, its most recent

brings extra space and a better view of the spectacular Donegal

EXTENSION & RENOVATION

The watchtower, perched on the coastline above Portnablagh, was built to aid the local coastguard in their efforts to keep a lookout for seafaring smugglers. “The earliest detailed record I can locate of the tower is 1841 when it was mortgaged to the Northern Bank,” says John, “but I believe it is much older, perhaps even 250 years old.”

“My family’s first involvement was in November 1925 when it was put up for auction by Lady Ena Stewart-Bam of the Stewart family of Ards. My granduncle Alexander Lecky Wallace owned the local foundry in Letterkenny and decided to buy it as his holiday home. He paid £255 - quite a lot of money in those days!”

“Back then the property consisted of one room downstairs and one room upstairs with a wooden ladder connecting both levels, which is exactly how I remember it when I visited as a child in the 1950s. It also had a tunnel running from underneath the ground floor out to the shoreline, a remaining link to the days when it was part of a network of watchtowers. Coastguards would raise a warning flag if a smuggler was spotted.”

“When Alexander passed away it was left to his youngest sister, Mabel Wallace and then to my father for his lifetime and he passed it on to my eldest sister. After my father passed away, my sister, who lived in England and rarely visited the house, put the watchtower up for sale. She was about to accept an offer and asked me what I thought. As our mother loved the property, as indeed I did, I offered my sister a bit more to keep it in the family so I’ve owned it since 1987.”

Form and function

“Owning this property is hugely sentimental to me. I have been coming here on holiday my whole life. My father built a couple of extra bedrooms when he inherited it, but when I bought it, I knew we needed an extra bedroom to accommodate my three children.”

“So I instructed Ken, a local architect, to extend the building to create an extra bedroom and a liveable, more modern kitchen and sitting room. He also designed a courtyard and what we call the outhouse, which is a little shower room and storeroom for the children to wash off the sand when they came in from the beach. That was the first extension and we used it for several years.”

“My wife and I previously had a house in the south of France, which was a sunnier and more favourable holiday destination. But as we got older, we began to appreciate Donegal far more and wanted to spend more time here. We realised that the building needed to be modernised to work better for us. My wife wanted a new kitchen and

EXTENSION

RENOVATION

I thought we needed an extra bedroom so we asked Ken and his son Philip, also an architect, to take another look and design something more modern. Somewhere we could comfortably spend more time in. It was also extremely important that we didn’t lose the original watchtower architecture completely.”

“When we saw Philip’s plans it felt just

right. What was the sitting room on the first floor is now our master bedroom. Our new first floor lounge enjoys magnificent views out to the Atlantic, across Portnablagh Pier, Horn Head and Dunfanaghy golf course. It’s modern, filled with light and very inviting.”

The challenging extension for the living room on the first floor was achieved by removing the existing roof and projecting

a new space adjacent to the original tower. Cantilevering half of the gable meant they could connect onto the side of the tower and keep a traditional elevation from the pier.

“Externally, it still looks like a watchtower but with a modern extension. The view of the house hasn’t changed much at all. Coming from Dunfanaghy on the west, it looks just as it did before. That was important to us, as we didn’t want to alter anything historically.”

Plan B

Despite this attention to detail, the original plans were rejected by the local planning office. “While they approved the modern extension facing the sea, they turned down the plans for a small rear extension which would have provided the opportunity for a south facing balcony. We can get the morning and evening sun at the front of the house and the afternoon sun at the rear downstairs, but not upstairs, which would have been ideal. To be honest, I can’t understand the planners’ decision making when I look around and see what they have subsequently approved.”

The reason for the rejection was that the balcony would overlook two properties at the rear. “What was odd was the fact our neighbours raised no objections. However, we altered the plans to avoid the

Q&A with John

What is your favourite design feature / room?

We absolutely love the whole house, particularly the new first floor extension which has made the most of the spectacular views.

What would you change or do differently?

If we could have changed the planners’ decision on the rear upstairs balcony, that would have made it complete.

What surprised you?

The light and views afforded by the first floor living room extension surpassed our imagination.

What single piece of advice would you give a friend who’s looking to embark on a project similar to yours?

I recommend sharing your ideas with the architect and ask them to prepare alternative plans. Our original instruction was very simple – a new kitchen and an extra bedroom. Our architect presented several plans which pushed the boundaries and we ended up with the perfect house design. One we didn’t know we needed.

Would you do it again?

Even though we lived away from the build, the process was extremely smooth. So yes, we would do it all again. But as for any future work, no – we’re very happy with what we have.

John’s tips

Get a professional to oversee the build. If you live far away from the property, as we did, make sure you employ people (architect, contractor) who are competent and you can trust.

Aim high. If the site is situated in a particularly scenic area, consider having a first floor living area to take in the views. The higher you go, the better the views.

“...While keen to make the centuries old property work as a modern home, John didn’t want to lose the original charm of the flint and stone built tower structure...”

Canon. A relic from the Spanish Armada.

EXTENSION & RENOVATION

overlooking issue and they went through successfully.”

“We got rid of the courtyard and extended it into a dining area with bifolding doors opening onto a small, terrace area, which gets the sun in the afternoon. So despite the fact we couldn’t get planning permission for the balcony upstairs, we can now open the bifolding doors and enjoy the sunshine downstairs.”

The architects inspected everything, working closely with the foreman, while the Arthurs remained in London. “We came over half a dozen times to review how things were going. It was so important to us to have a good architect and foreman on the job and we could not have asked for better people.”

The construction work was put out to several builders for tender. “We didn’t select the cheapest by any means,” says John, “but the high standards of the work delivered made it worth it.”

Despite the project starting modestly as a request for a new kitchen and an extra

bedroom, the subsequent plans required a complete gutting of the property. “All the radiators were removed and the whole ground floor reduced to earth as the builder dug down to provide a new subfloor for the underfloor heating,” explains John.

The new layout of the watchtower comprises a kitchen on the ground floor and a dining area. The old ground floor houses three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Upstairs is the master bedroom and bathroom.

“Apart from the original watchtower, the rest of the property is extremely bright, vibrant, and almost all glass,” says John. “From where I’m sitting downstairs, there’s only one solid wall; everything else is glass to open up the views.”

“Earlier this year, we put in a small terrace. Even though it’s northeast facing, it gives us the sun in the morning until about 10 am. We can have breakfast out there and enjoy the views. We also have electric points, enabling us to have outdoor heaters so we can enjoy it regardless of the temperature - a very useful feature to have here in Donegal.”

Local suppliers

When it came to introducing new features and fixtures John insisted on using local suppliers and tradespeople as much as possible. “From the builder, roofer, glass, kitchen, staircase, bathrooms and so forth, I wanted to keep it local. As you look around the house, every picture hanging on the walls, bar one or two, is the work of a Donegal artist.”

Externally, John has so far resisted his architect’s suggestion to employ a landscape designer to make more of a feature of the garden. “It’s currently just lawn so we’ll have to mull that one over. It might well be the next project.”

Staircase: The curved handrail was crafted from one piece of wood.

CO DONEGAL

EXTENSION & RENOVATION

There is, however, an interesting feature that not many gardens can boast about – a canon from a shipwreck of the Spanish Armada. “When I was quite young, I remember it just appearing in the garden. It had been given to my great aunt Mabel and it just sat outside, gradually deteriorating. Donegal County Museum authenticated the canon as being from the Armada. They attempted to renovate it and put it on display, but sadly it was beyond reasonable repair so it remains in our garden on a

special mount.”

The sentimental and historical value of the watchtower and the surrounding area has been a guiding influence on this project. John’s role as custodian of this slice of Donegal’s past is strongly felt. While keen to make the centuries old property work as a modern home, he didn’t want to lose the original charm of the flint and stone built tower structure. Nor did he want to impact the surrounding area.

“We won’t be doing any more work to the

building,” says John. “Amusingly, when I looked up the auction sale brochure from 1925 the wording said the watchtower would be suitable to extend, or, given the large amount of attached land, another dwelling could be built on the plot.”

“There’s certainly room to build another building, but we would never allow that. If I , or my heirs, sell this house I will put a restrictive covenant in. I don’t want to see this part of Portnablagh overdeveloped.”

Project info

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

GROUND FLOOR

Suppliers

Architect

Bond Architects, Portnablagh Builder

Terence Ponsonby Building Contractor, Letterkenny Kitchen

Brian Dukes Kitchens, Newtown Cunningham

Staircase

Designed by Bond Architects, made by PJ Designs, Drumkeen. Frameless glass panels for both staircase and terrace by Letterkenny Glass

Photography

Paul Lindsay, paullindsayphoto.co.uk

Spec

Existing walls: existing blockwork 100mm wide cavity pumped with EPS beads, 100mm external rockwool finished with polymer render. U-value 0.135 W/ sqmK.

Extension walls: steel frame / timber stud infill with 35mm multilayer foil insulation, 150mm rockwool between studs, 100mm external rockwool finished with polymer modified render. U-value 0.130 W/sqmK.

Existing floor: 80mm screed over 100mm PIR insulation over 150mm RC slab. U-value 0.153 W/sqmK.

Extension floor: 80mm screed over 150mm PIR insulation over 150mm RC slab. U-value 0.113 W/sqmK.

Existing warm pitch roof: 100mm mineral wool between rafters, 100mm PIR board over. U-value 0.105 W/sqmK.

Extension warm pitch roof: steel frame / timber infill with 35mm multilayer foil insulation, 200mm rockwool between rafters, 100mm PIR over rafter insulation. U-value 0.075 W/sqmK.

Extension warm flat roof: timber frame with 35mm multi-layer foil insulation, 150mm rockwool between rafters, 100mm PIR over rafter insulation. U-value 0.080 W/sqmK.

Windows: triple glazed, argon filled, aluclad with whole house averaged U-value 0.84W/sqmK. RAL colour inside 9001, outside 7024.

Airtightness: Airtightness test was not performed. The whole house was covered with 100mm of rockwool and windows rebated 30mm. Given the different wall constructions of block, masonry and timber frame the wall hole tolerances would vary a lot. Airtight tape, mastic, compriband tape and expanding foam were used to accommodate the different conditions.

More photographs available at selfbuild.ie

Build warmth with Grant

Grant launches Spira Pell condensing wood pellet boiler

Leading heating technology manufacturer Grant has unveiled its newest highly sustainable heating technology – the Grant Spira Pell condensing wood pellet boiler. This ultra-high efficiency wood pellet boiler is one of the most innovative and sustainable boiler designs on the market today and offers a cost-effective, low carbon heat source for homeowners.

The units utilise indigenous wood pellets to offer a truly environmentally friendly heating solution. The Spira Pell range is made using high grade steel and stainless steel, with the same simplicity of operation of any boiler type and is available in outputs from 5kW to 33kW. The model is easily installed and offers optimal control with an easy-to-use touch screen which provides clear and accurate information on the systems daily operations.

The original Spira was launched in 2011 and was the world’s first condensing wood pellet boiler. The new Spira Pell model will include some new and improved

a universal hopper, rapid ignition and user-friendly digital display. Commenting on the launch of the new Grant Spira Pell, Founder Stephen Grant said, “The Grant Spira Pell model is powered using wood pellets which are one of the ‘greenest’ fuel sources on the market today. Compared to other fossil fuel heat source options, wood pellets provide a more cost-effective and eco-friendly option for homeowners. With the spike in cost of living and fuel prices, the launch of the Spira Pell model further reflects our commitment to understanding the current home heating landscape and the needs of our homeowners.”

For over 40 years, Grant has continued to advance its range of highly efficient heating technologies to help future-proof homes for their changing heating needs. The focus on sustainability is a priority for the company along with helping homeowners throughout the island of Ireland and further afield on the journey to achieving de-carbonisation.

Key Features

Highly efficient, reliable and low-carbon heat source

Available in outputs from 5kW to 33kW

Powered using wood pellets – one of the ‘greenest’ & cost–effective fuel sources on the market

Easy installation and service

Easy to operate

Low maintenance

Universal Hopper

Rapid Ignition

User-friendly digital display

Automatic pellet feed, ignition and internal cleaning system

Founder, Stephen

At the mercy of

everything

Brian Corry recently completed his self-build amidst a materials price crisis and the pandemic. Here he shares how he got on.

It only took myself and my wife Karen five months to physically build our house. But if you were to start the clock the day we bought the site, it took us three years. It’s no surprise then that the first night we spent in our new home, we were both elated and exhausted.

In the evenings, when I finally get to sit down and relax, my mind still wanders back to everything that happened over the past five months. In retrospect, the schedule was ambitious. Not that we picked the move in date arbitrarily. The end of July 2022 was when we were supposed to hand our old house over to the people who had bought it eight months previously.

In the end we ran over this deadline by two weeks. Given all the challenges we

encountered along the way, we don’t think that was too bad…

Pandemic beginnings

Our journey started back at the beginning of 2019 when we bought land to build on. The site clearing and levelling took place in the autumn of that year with the plan to start the build in 2020 after we got back from our honeymoon.

In early 2020 we had everything in place with the foundations and footings in. I had lined up the tradesmen we needed and ordered the glulam solid timber kit. Our build method is HBE which is a lighter weight version of cross laminated timber (CLT) suited to two storey designs.

But in March Covid struck – forcing us to suspend all construction activity whilst I worked hard with our team to ensure our business got through the pandemic.

It was hugely disappointing but we couldn’t risk it financially. After spending so much time preparing, it was deflating to walk around the site in the subsequent months imagining what could have been. Karen was always positive and kept repeating that “one day it will happen”

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and she was right.

But as the weeds started to spring up all over our foundations and we lurched from one lockdown to the next, I sometimes wondered if it ever would.

It wasn’t until the autumn of 2021, with our business functioning once again, that we felt confident enough to proceed. However, financially we knew we wanted to sell our old home first and either rent or strike a deal with the new owners to stay on for a time.

As it turned out we got extremely lucky with the purchasers who were willing to delay their occupation by eight months, giving us time to build the new house.

Cost and availability

The two year delay had not only cost us time, it also cost us a lot more to buy the materials as prices rocketed with the post pandemic inflation. Fortunately, we

had locked in prices for a couple of the main items like the timber kit and the ventilation and hot water systems.

But we were not so lucky in others. Everything from the roof system to the insulation and fixings were costing at least 50 per cent more than in 2020 and the lead times for ordering some items were startling.

We took the decision in early 2022 to identify materials that might be hard to get and place an advance order so that we could be sure we would not be delayed on site.

A large part of this was speaking with suppliers and finding out what products had the longest lead times (how long it would take them to deliver the item after we placed the order).

Ultimately this turned out to be an important decision and having sold our house the previous year, we were lucky to have had the cash to be able to do this. The mortgage company only released

funds at fixed stages during the build.

There is no question that if we hadn’t purchased supplies in advance, we would never have achieved our move in date. Our wood fibre insulation was a good example. It used to take three to four weeks but even though we ordered in January 2022, it didn’t arrive until the end of April. Or three and a half months later.

Similarly, when the roofing company came to install the covering they said that if we hadn’t ordered the coils of metal when we did, we could have been waiting another three to four months. Normally the lead time is a week or less.

Other items proved impossible to get. We had to choose a slightly different colour cladding as the supplier could not get the stock in from Canada with the global shortage of shipping containers at the time.

Tracking prices andbuying just enough

With prices rising throughout the build, it was vital that we buy materials at the best rates. I spent my evenings with the laptop on my knee contacting suppliers for quotes, placing orders and chasing up on deliveries.

One thing I learned early on was the importance of contacting the builder’s

merchant’s sales representative to get the prices he quoted recorded on the self-build account I opened with them. Depending on the item, you could save up to 40 per cent on the retail price.

On one occasion I went to get a load of 2’’ x 1’’ planed timber in 4.8m lengths with the deal price set by the rep. The store only had 5.2m lengths in stock, which I took instead. However, because the length was slightly different, I was charged the shop rate instead of the deal rate.

To be fair they credited me the difference after I contacted them, saving me several hundred pounds for just that one item, but it proved just how important it was to get a price set beforehand and to then check the invoices afterwards.

Knowing exactly how much to order is a real skill and I was keen to minimise waste. Waste is both costly, having bought something you then have to pay to get rid of, and not great for the environment. My lack of experience in building meant that I felt very much at a disadvantage when it came to judging how much material to order.

There were some items where the risk was relatively low because there was plenty of availability, but other items such as insulation had an eight to 12 week lead time so we couldn’t afford to be short.

Self-builders are probably more

incentivised to reduce waste than contractors who tend to take the easier option and reach for a new piece instead of using up an offcut. Most times I ordered just slightly more than I thought we needed and nine times out of 10 this worked out.

This thriftiness saved quite a bit of money and also greatly reduced the amount of waste that naturally occurs during any build. I was also careful to store

and protect materials that were brought to site so that they could be returned for refunds if there were items left over.

Getting stuck in

As material prices were going through the roof so too were the rates for tradesmen – if you could get them. I had originally lined up two local joiners to help with the build as well as a plumber and electrician.

Despite keeping them regularly

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appraised of the start date, I received a message from the joiners just before we were due to begin that they had taken on another job. The plumber said he was heading to Dublin on a three month contract.

We decided then that I would take a more hands on role building the house, and I managed to find a local joiner who could commit to three days a week. I also got a couple of guys whom I knew through our business to provide additional help.

Like me, they were not time served tradesmen but the type of construction we had chosen meant that this didn’t matter so much. We were very much a Jack of All Trades – Master of None crew!

Despite our enthusiasm for the job, I was under no illusion about our ability to do some tasks and indeed I had arranged for a couple of Welsh joiners who had previous experience building with the HBE glulam kit timber we chose to come over for two weeks at the start to get the main structure up.

There were other areas that required specialist skills such as the roof finish and electrics and so I only took on the jobs I thought we were genuinely capable of. Despite this assistance I was still ultimately responsible for all the decisions and works on site and ensuring things were done correctly. Any mistakes would be my fault. This was

build, a position first time self-builders will be familiar with.

We took every opportunity to speak to different people for their advice and based on that we drew up a schedule that we sent to key suppliers to pencil us into their calendar so that they had a rough idea when we might need them.

This proved to be highly beneficial as we rarely had to wait long for them to finish up other jobs and come to us. There was also a certain obligation on them to turn up when they had known three months beforehand when they were likely to be needed.

Every so often I would send them an email or a WhatsApp to let them know how we were progressing and reconfirming the date with them.

Despite all the planning, Covid was not done with us. The sawmill in England that was CNC (precision machine) cutting the HBE timbers to the required lengths for our build got hit with Covid. Our build was due to start two weeks later.

I had booked accommodation and ferries for the Welsh joiners and arranged transport to pick up the HBE panels from the sawmill in England and it all had to be cancelled and rescheduled for three weeks later – at significant cost.

This was the biggest single delay we encountered and we were able to catch up most of it in the subsequent months. The only other delay we encountered was much later on in the project and it caused a substantial amount of trouble.

Mid-June was scheduled for the drylining. After the first fix electrics, plumbing and ventilation installation. I had allowed two weeks for fixing the plasterboard and taping and jointing however this took twice as long as I had allowed for, in part due to contractor encountering the universal difficulty in getting skilled jointers and tapers at the time.

2

simultaneously scary and exhilarating.

After six weeks of living in our new home we haven’t discovered anything major although I did find out that I had accidently plumbed the hot and cold water supplies to the bath the wrong way around – but that was easily rectified.

Planning the build schedule

One of the most challenging aspects when doing the build timetable was predicting how long each stage was going to take and this was primarily down to our lack of experience in managing a

The painter was due to come in immediately afterwards but this delay meant we were now into the July builder’s holidays and we had to wait another week before they could start. This was probably the most frustrating time of the whole build as we were supposed to be moving in at the end of the month (less than two weeks away) and we still had a lot to do.

The finishing stages of the build was incredibly busy. Doors, architraves, skirting all had to be fitted. Kitchen units and bathrooms needed to be installed along with all second fix electrics. Floors needed to be laid and carpet fitted.

I had to contact lots of suppliers and delay them for two or three weeks at short notice to wait for the painting to be completed. Most were fine and juggled things around for us and I guess if we

hadn’t had the deadline to move out, it wouldn’t have mattered so much.

This episode demonstrated how some parts of the build process can have a huge knock on effect but yet the risk of this was not something I had identified in my original schedule and in hindsight I should have allowed more time.

Mastering the detail ofeverything

Over the course of the build, I found it pretty much essential to have a good understanding of the detailing for most things. This helped ensure that what we were about to do with one part wasn’t going to cause issues further down the line. At times it felt that I could barely leave the site for more than a couple of hours without getting phone calls.

In fact one of the most surprising aspects of the build was the sheer number of queries that needed answered on a daily basis. Particularly when the main structure was up. I think this was undoubtedly exacerbated by the non standard HBE solid timber construction method we had chosen.

In some instances we just had to work out what to do at the time but in others we had to adhere to very specific detailing. A good example was the installation of structural fixing screws on both the main structure and also for the roof beams and roof.

These large screws (sometimes 600mm in length) needed to be applied at specific angles in a set pattern to conform to the engineer’s specification. It was essential that I understood completely what screws were needed and where, prior to starting the task as no one else was going to show me how to do it or tell me that it wasn’t being done correctly.

It required constant checking with the rest of the team so it was absolutely

was crucial to spend time in the evenings reviewing the tasks that were coming up and familiarising myself with the detailing involved.

This was something that was very difficult to do on site as inevitably I felt under pressure to make a quick decision with guys standing around waiting for guidance. It was much better to take the time the week beforehand and think it through with the help of Google and YouTube and work out exactly how it should be done so as to be knowledgeable and prepared for the task.

essential I was on site 100 per cent of the time during this period.

Naturally the suppliers and tradesmen working on site preferred to run everything past me instead of ploughing ahead. And I’m glad they did – but it was relentless. To avoid delays and errors it

On many occasions I contacted the product supplier directly with queries on installation and their advice was usually very useful. It gave me considerable confidence when the time came to do the job, that it was being done correctly and more importantly it allowed me to show the rest of the team exactly how it should be done rather than just guess.

The quality and accuracy of the detailing will determine whether the house is both weathertight and airtight and a small error in installation can lead to huge problems further down the road.

So all in all, would I do it again? We’re in six weeks and are really enjoying all the benefits of having a house that we designed for ourselves, from the little things like being able to put away 99 per cent of the contents of the dishwasher without moving our feet to enjoying the benefits of a wonderfully social and atmospheric main room that we use 90 per cent of the time that we are awake. So even though I’d absolutely take on another project, I hope we don’t ever have the cause to move.

house Building Old Oak

Niall and Gillian Brophy are in the midst of building their new home on a site surrounded by old oak trees. Niall shares their story to date.

One of the biggest factors for us as a newly married couple choosing the correct site and location to build our dream home was its exact precise location. We had tried to secure planning on an alternative site some miles away, and thankfully that was turned down as it was located too close to a busy roadway.

Looking back, we chose the site we have now because it ticked all of the boxes we were looking for. The location was ideal as it was on a quiet narrow roadway that has little traffic using it. The nearby vibrant village is only a short walk away and has a fantastic community feel to it with a large supermarket, traditional pub, post office

and pharmacy.

I had lived in the town for over 10 years whilst working in the locality between 2009 and 2019 and have very fond memories of my time here. The proximity to world class beaches such as Curracloe definitely played a key role in our final decision.

The site itself is right alongside a stunning waterfall with its breathtaking views and lovely nature walk. This is an area of Wexford where many men have fallen on one knee!

The town of Wexford is only four miles away which provides as all the services of a large town such as schools and hospitals.

This will come in handy as we are in the early stages of building our very own family, with baby number one due in October.

The site is elevated and located at the top of a long gradual hill. This gives us fantastic views over Wexford Harbour and we knew from the early stages, with the use of a good architect and engineer, we could take advantage of these stunning views.

We bought the site from a local farmer. We arranged to meet him and negotiated a price subject to planning permission getting granted by Wexford County Council.

Pre planning

I must admit we were super excited to have such a beautiful site in close proximity to my work and to Wexford Town. We’re both originally from Carlow, and being close to a city was something we wanted. It also meant it would be easier for Gillian to relocate her own work to Wexford.

I rang a local groundworker and he carried out a small bit of digging on the site to test the percolation consistency of the soil to ensure the land was suitable to sustain an onsite wastewater treatment system. It passed with flying colours.

This was overseen by our engineer and photographed for the council as proof the test was carried out correctly. Thankfully, the land was in great shape. The next task was to engage an architect, draw a house and submit plans. This was when the fun began.

I really thought once I employed the right people and obtained the right advice I would have no problems. I suppose I was a bit green around the ears when it came to planning. I wasn’t long learning.

Design

I spoke to Anthony Burke our architect who trained with world renowned architect Fergus Flanagan. Anthony sat with us for hours and eventually drew what we agreed was the ideal house. We spoke about our budget and a major cause of concern was inflation in the

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building sector especially the cost of materials.

He was super to deal with although he did come up with what we thought were a few wacky designs at the start.

We wanted a large master bedroom, walk in wardrobe and ensuite to span one side of the property and two other bedroom ensuites at the opposite side.

We also wanted to steal the views of Wexford Harbour, therefore the window sizes were increased and the house

slightly elevated in order to catch this. We wanted the living space downstairs to include a large kitchen and dining area all in one, leading into a double height ceiling sitting room.

We found that the majority of our time was spent in the kitchen and a kitchen island was a must. We changed the plans a few times and made the sitting room a double height space which works well and looks great.

We added an office/library to the wish list but agreed to wire it as an extra bedroom so technically it’s a five bedroom house if ever we decided to sell.

A large downstairs guest bedroom completes the setup and the thinking behind this was for later years if our parents came to visit, we felt the stairs may pose a danger. And we too will eventually be getting older. It’s very difficult to explain the theory behind this room to our parents now, especially when they help pull scaffolding around the site.

False start

Once we had the house finalised, I gathered all the required paperwork, documents and letters together and Anthony submitted the plans in duplicate. Our application was refused

three times on the basis of local needs.

Once I had ironed these issues out and explained my circumstances to the council, planning was granted on 25th October 2019. We spoke to our solicitor who received the paperwork but we came across several issues.

A land registry issue was flagged and this took some 12 months to resolve. This whole process was extremely stressful and time consuming.

We lived for over two years not knowing whether the works put into site and expenses incurred to date were ever going to amount to anything. We had absolutely no idea if it would ever resolve itself.

Thankfully, with the help of a very skilled solicitor and the continued encouragement of our architect, we managed to come out the far side of it.

Breaking ground

Once planning was granted and all the associated issues with the site resolved, I began extensive research into various different tradesmen and mind you, tradeswomen too.

Both Gillian and I had discussed on several occasions that we wished to take our time with the build. We wanted to strive for complete quality instead of

CO WEXFORD

Timeline

Oct 2019

Planning granted Sep 2020

Hedges planted and garden designed

Jan 2021

Kitchen and utility designed off plans

Mar 2021

Bespoke kitchen cabinet and sitting room display unit finalised

Apr 2021

Well bored on site and pump installed

May 2021 Broke ground July-Sep 2021 Blocklaying Oct-Nov 2021 Roofing Dec 2021 Windows installed Jan 2022 Wall EPS bead insulation pumping Feb 2022 First fix plumbing Mar 2022 First fix mechanical ventilation April 2022 First fix electrical

May-June 2022

Airtightness membrane, window tapes and loft insulation including mineral wool in sloped areas

July 2022

Finalise first fix electrical Aug 2022 Slabbing of house and garage

Aug-Sep 2022

Plastering of house and garage

Selfbuild+

Follow the rest of Niall and Gillian’s journey exclusively on Selfbuild+

Accessible on selfbuild.ie

“A land registry issue was flagged which took some 12 months to resolve. This whole process was extremely stressful and time consuming.”

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Top tips

Buy your own scaffolding

even if it is just the metal components and without the planks. It will cost you a fortune to hire and you will rush trades just so you can return scaffolding. Sell it afterwards. This will allow you to slow the build down and strive for quality every single time.

Question things. If you are unsure or you don’t know, just stop and ask.

Keep your site immaculate Dump rubbish daily. It sets a good tone for people coming to visit your site or price work.

Plant hedges early on. It gives them a great head start.

Engage a garden designer. It sounds like a waste of money but it is far from it. Do this at the early stages of the build.

Engage an interior designer early on. They also sound like a waste of money but worth every penny. You can just have one consultation and it may open your eyes to small things you have overlooked.

Design your kitchen and finalise it completely before you start any electrical work.

Secure your site well. Use solar floodlights and look into solar cameras even if they are fake. Put up plenty of signage and secure the site with a five bar gate. The last thing you want is windows smashed and tools stolen.

Don’t borrow tools, buy them as you require them. That way you’ll always have your own.

Invest in… a super sharp cutting knife, lots of work gloves, suncream and an endless roll of black plastic bags for dumping rubbish.

rushing people and making silly small mistakes and accepting substandard work.

We asked around about groundworkers and eventually spoke to Fintan. He had quite a reputation when it comes to breaking ground on a field and, following a meeting with him, we immediately knew he was the man for the job.

We broke ground on May 4th 2021. Fintan positioned the house perfectly and did an expert job preparing the foundations for both the house and garage. The entire groundwork process was an enjoyable experience. He left the site in immaculate condition for the blocklayers.

We had contacted our blocklayers a year previous as we knew they were one of the best around so we booked then in despite not knowing whether we would ever get building at all.

They arrived on site in July and spent three months laying all the blocks. Some 14 lorry loads of blocks entered the site during this time. It was a real eye opener for us and gave us a sense of exactly how the house was going to look.

We changed one or two walls inside the house ever so slightly. If we learned anything at this stage, it was that it pays to be available to call to the site every day and just have a chat with the lads. They tend to show you something that might not seem a big deal to them but is to you.

They did a fantastic job and this was well appreciated when other trades looked at the quality of their work, most notably the plumbness of the blockwork.

I had bought scaffolding the previous year and it was erected using a qualified

scaffolder and with the help of family and friends.

Read up on the rest of Niall and Gillian’s journey on selfbuild.ie and on Instagram @brave_old_oak_wexford

Suppliers

Architectural technologist

Anthony Burke

Engineer for percolation

Anthony Murphy, Millennium Design

Engineer overseeing the build

Justin Kelly, capitalsurveys.ie

Groundworks

Fintan Whelan from FW Groundworks in New Ross Co. Wexford

Insulation

Floors: Kingspan phenolic boards. Walls: Kingspan full fill EPS Eco Bead (conductivity 0.035 W/mK). Roofs: Metac by Isover.

Blocks

Wexford Block

Builder’s merchant

Cement, timber and roof lights from Cleary and Doyle

Airtightness materials

Keating Insulation Wexford Security Rath Security Ltd

Roof slates Cembrit Ireland Steel

Murphy Fabrication in Castlebridge, Wexford Hedges Hyland Nurseries

Spec

Walls: Block construction, 180mm cavity walls filled with EPS beads with conductivity 0.035 W/mK, overall U-value 0.18 W/sqmK

Floor: two layers of 75mm phenolic board crosslaid to eliminate cold bridging, U-value 0.12 W/sqmK

Roofs: flat roof two layers 200mm fibreglass insulation, crosslaid to eliminate cold bridging, U-value 0.12 W/sqmK; pitched roof 150mm high efficiency fibreglass insulation between the timbers, counter battened with 50mm timbers and filled with 50mm fibreglass insulation, U-value 0.19 W/sqmK.

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

Coastalgarden

Landscape designer Anne Byrne shares how she designed a garden for a self-build overlooking Galway Bay.

The coastline stretching west from Galway City through Connemara has to be one of the most beautiful parts of this small island we are lucky enough to call home. My clients, having roots in the area, were able to secure planning permission for a stunning home with views overlooking Galway Bay.

The downside, as anyone familiar with Ireland’s west coast will know, is that sea views usually come with sea winds – and a typical stiff south westerly can make sitting outside rather uncomfortable for all but the hardiest souls.

The site posed other challenges too – although the main front door is on the seaward, south side of the house, the entrance used most often by the family is the sliding doors opening on to the open plan kitchen / living area.

Placing the outdoor seating area just beyond the kitchen, which might at first seem the obvious location, would mean parking further away from this frequently used entrance – not ideal with small children, bags of shopping or in inclement weather.

This side of the house faces north, so a patio here wouldn’t get much sun. So I needed to design a seating area at the side of the house which could be easily reached from the kitchen while still allowing room for parking, that benefitted from the Atlantic views but was sheltered enough to sit in and for plants to grow.

The solution

Glass panels were the answer to the shelter issue. These are toughened clear glass panels suitable for outdoor use, and when fitted to a low wall, such as the back of a built in raised planter bed, can

provide shelter up to a height of 1.5m, which makes seating in a windy location much more comfortable.

There are narrow gaps between each panel, allowing the wind to filter through but slowing it down greatly. This will also give the plants in the raised bed enough shelter to establish and grow, so that the

paved seating area could be surrounded by greenery and colour.

The clients needed vehicular access to one side of the seating area, as this was the only way to reach the garage entrance. So areas of lawn and planting were used either side to make the most of the space.

A row of small trees help to bring some height to the flat, quite rocky site, while providing some screening from a neighbouring property. The trees for this task are Sorbus aucuparia, our native rowan, which can withstand exposure very well.

Meanwhile, flowering cherry trees will go in a more sheltered part of the site so that their spring blossom can be enjoyed for as long as possible.

A wide path runs from the kitchen doors to the patio so that two people

Anne Byrne annebyrnegardendesign.com

Sligo Glass, sligoglass.com

can stroll each way comfortably, making the patio feel more accessible.

There is room outside the kitchen for much needed parking, but planting between the path and the driveway helps to visually separate the areas. A curved triangle of planting along the approach to the house helps to soften the architecture and enhance the entrance to the home.

Plants for this garden need to be able to withstand frequent stormy days and salty winds. Luckily the proximity to the ocean means that frosts are rare, and the rocky nature of the Connemara site means that drainage is good, so a wide variety of attractive plants should do

very well here.

Summer colour is provided by the rounded blue globes of agapanthus, pink rock rose or helianthemum, and osteospermum lady leitrim, a spreading, mat forming perennial with daisy shaped flowers in delicate mauve and purple.

Year round structure comes from tough but beautiful shrubs – hebe Mrs Winder with striking purple leaves, hydrangea Limelight with glowing flowerheads extending well into autumn, and phlomis fruticose or Jerusalem sage, with evergreen sage leaves and cheerful yellow flowers.

DESIGN TIPS

� Make sure your seating area is easily accessible from the entrance you use the most, or you’ll end up never using it.

� Plants for coastal gardens are exposed to salty air as well as wind, so need to be chosen carefully to cope with these conditions.

� Hydrangea and hebe shrubs will provide evergreen winter structure in a coastal garden, while agapanthus brings brilliant blue summer colour.

Osteospermum

Agapanthus

Hydrangea limelight

Hebe

Phlomis

the

lowdown

OPINION . ADVICE . INSIGHT . KNOWLEDGE

Why self-build?

There are many obstacles self-builders face when they want to go DIY with their self-build. Self-build experts Harrison Gardner and Erin McClure explain how to overcome them.

Like all rewarding things in life, building your own home is a daunting adventure for the uninitiated. Take it slow, do your research, ask questions, listen to all the differing opinions and ideas. And then apply them to your own set of priorities to find the fit that is right for you.

It’s worth reminding prospective homeowners that building, mending and maintaining our homes was standard practice just a couple of generations ago.

Homes were built by their owners and neighbours. In Ireland, this way of pulling together and skill sharing is immortalised in the spirit of meitheal.

Our social enterprise Common Knowledge was founded on the same principle, and to date we shared with over 600 novice owner-builders the skill, knowledge and community required to successfully achieve a selfbuilt home.

The mortgages our salaries qualify us for are a fraction of what they used to be. And there is a harsh reality in the fact that the majority of houses we could afford to buy with these limited mortgages are usually going to require extensive renovation work to get them to a liveable stage.

The reality for a lot of people looking to create their forever homes right now is that they would require an equal sized additional mortgage to bring them up to a comfortable living standard. For so many, that is simply not an option.

And so we see more and more people make the transition from home buyers to home builders, as they take their

renovation and reclamation projects into their own hands.

The combined pressure of trying to secure the salary to qualify for the mortgage to have access to the home which we will have little to no time to spend in, is causing a wave of ownerbuilders to take on their own budgets, material and contractor choices and treading a new path toward security of shelter for themselves, and the next generation.

Whether it’s a new build, an extension, a collaboration or a restoration, this is just the beginning of the self-build revival. You too can be part of it.

Our Common Knowledge offers courses to prospective self-builders, see ourcommonknowledge.org/ course-listings

Learn how to build the 20sqm Tigín tiny home on wheels (it can be moved in 10 minutes) or even buy one ready made for €48k with timber cladding.

Tigín tiny home on wheels

Where to next?

Martin Markey hardwareassociation.ie

There’s still huge uncertainty around building costs, from material price increases to the availability of tradesmen, not to mention the health of the economy. What should self-builders do now? Martin Markey has some suggestions.

Most large building manufacturers are members of the trade association I work for, Hardware Association Ireland. They tell me they believe that since the start of this year, building material prices have increased 15 per cent.

In conversations with them, I’ve asked how they expected the remainder of 2022 to work out and what their plans are for 2023. Their answer is, they don’t know.

It’s not that they do know and don’t want to tell anyone – simply put, there is too much uncertainty over energy prices. Early in the year there had been hopes that with the lessening of Covid and the opening of supply chains that costs would stabilise.

However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has dashed these hopes. This generation has never seen a major conflict in Europe, let alone one in which energy is used a weapon of war.

The need to build

For those reading this who are contemplating building their own home or have weathered the planning system and are about to start, uncertainty offers little comfort in what is already a stressful choice. To add to price inflation, interest rates are going up which will make a self-build mortgage costlier.

To those faced with this decision, the options are to postpone, to abandon, or to go ahead. Within the go ahead option, there are a number of choices. Build a new home on a greenfield site or choose to rejuvenate a vacant property.

Postponing is just as risky as going ahead. Postponing is based on the

“Postponing is just as risky as going ahead. Postponing is based on the belief that the situation will improve in a timeframe that you can live with...”

belief that the situation will improve in a timeframe that you can live with. None of us know what levels inflation and interest rates will reach. Or how long this inflationary period will last –that is, when prices will begin to come down.

What we do know is that demand for housing will continue to outstrip supply. Since 2006 the population of ROI increased by 900,000 and it is expected that it will expand by a further million over the next 15 years.

While the population has increased by 21 per cent, the housing stock has only increased by 13 per cent. And this gap is widening.

Demand for housing is increasing with most experts believing that there is an immediate demand for 35,000 units. This year new builds may only reach 23,000 units.

We all know there is a chronic shortage of housing for sale and in that market, ready cash is chasing everything. And there is plenty of

ready cash. Before Covid we already had very considerable savings, since Covid this has been added to each month and now there is €135 billion squirreled away in low interest deposit accounts.

Hands up who thinks that demand will lessen. In the next 12 months will it get cheaper to build? And for those renting – will rents go down?

Renovating an existing property

One choice in selfbuilding that is gaining traction is to rejuvenate an empty home. The good news is, we have enough of them – the recent Census recorded 166,000 vacant and derelict residential buildings.

Of these, 86,000 have only become vacant since 2016 which indicates that they are in reasonable condition and can be modernised for a sensible sum.

“

There are a number of advantages to rejuvenating an older property including revitalising the street it’s on or the town or village it’s in.

Of more interest to self-builders there’s also the fact that many are in good locations, in contrast to new builds as it is often difficult to find a good site with a good aspect because many of the best sites are already taken…by older homes.

Renovating an existing property is also typically more cost effective –restoring an older home uses 60 per cent of the building materials of a new home. That’s a saving of 40 per cent.

As TV programmes have taught us, letting light in, reorientating and insulating older homes can bring them up to the living standards that we expect in 2022.

With hybrid working now the norm, the search for an older property can be broadened out geographically as commuting is not as critical. And the further you go from the capital the more value there is to be had.

Incentives

Until recently the ROI government didn’t seem to be that keen to help the self-builder – planning permission to build new is difficult to get and renovating an older property whether in town or in the country attracted little financial support.

Our ROI budget submission suggested the government expand the Help to Buy scheme to vacant properties and imposing a vacant property tax at 6 per cent to discourage hoarding/inaction and to pay for the subsidy.

Our third proposal was taken up in the form of the Croí Cónaithe Towns Fund scheme with a grant of €30k for those buying a vacant home and €50k for a derelict one.

Another initiative by government is vacanthomes.ie, the brainchild of Tom Gilligan of Mayo County Council, which aims to match buyers and sellers of vacant homes throughout

the country. It’s a good place to start if you’re looking to avail of the Croí Cónaithe Towns Fund grant.

House size

Another cost saving option to consider when self-building is to reduce the size of the house. In a recent conversation with a HAI member who owns a builder’s merchant, he spoke of the high cost of building his new home.

It turns out that he is planning a 3,500sqft house. Few of us actually need a house of that proportion. So perhaps a bit of scaling down would help?

And, up to very recently, the cost of labour has been expensive and finding good tradespeople has been difficult. However, as some larger builders move away from fixed price contracts we may find that it will free up some trades professionals to move on to self-builds. Every cloud has its silver lining.

Builder’s survey: tender prices

79 per cent of builders said they charged more for projects in 2022 than in 2021. 65 per cent said they will continue to increase their prices over Sept/ Oct/Nov 2022.

96 per cent reported a year on year increase in the cost of raw materials, with 85 per cent expecting these costs to continue to increase in Sept/ Oct/Nov 2022.

Source: Construction Industry Federation Construction Outlook Survey, data collected from 202 CIF members from 2nd to 9th September 2022, cif.ie

Air to water heat pumps

Patrick Waterfield Energy consultant based in Belfast

How to choose the right type, the importance of system sizing, what they cost, installation, maintenance and troubleshooting.

Around the turn of the millennium, the market for heat pumps in Ireland (north and south) was still in its infancy – only a handful of heat pumps were being installed each year. In 2013 there were around 7,000 units in ROI (all building types) and by 2020 the figure had risen to around 56,000.

Indeed, heat pumps are now the heating system of choice for new builds. And that’s likely to continue to be the case until hydrogen fuel cells become practicable. Heat pumps are cheaper to run than fossil fuel boilers (when correctly installed), only need electricity to work and will make your life easier to comply with the building regulations.

Whereas most of the early heat pumps were ground source or water source, air source heat pumps now dominate the market in both NI and ROI.

This is due to two main factors: air source types are much simpler (and thus cheaper) to install as they need no ground/water loop or borehole. And the efficiency of the heat exchangers has improved dramatically in recent years. But there are alternatives to consider (see page 91).

Types of air source heat pumps

Air to water heat pumps can provide both space heating and domestic hot water. There are two types of air to water heat pumps:

Split systems, as the name implies, has two main components which are split – an outside unit that harnesses the low temperature heat and an inside unit that contains the heat exchanger

and heats the water. The outside unit will be smaller and usually quieter than monobloc, which may be a consideration in smaller, urban/ suburban sites. Some split systems can also reverse to provide cooling in summer, though it is much better to design your house to avoid the need for mechanical cooling, via overhangs, thermal mass and cross ventilation, for example. Otherwise, you are introducing another carbon burden into your home.

Monobloc systems incorporate both heat capture and heat exchanger functions within a single outside unit, which is thus bigger, but does not take up so much room inside the building. These are cheaper to buy

and are easier to install than split systems. Even though split systems come pre plumbed you need an F-gas certified installer for the connection from outside to inside. But the heat pump will need to work harder to heat the water outside and pump it into the house.

Heat pumps are also available that come integrated into the hot water cylinder, though note that these are designed to work most efficiently by scavenging waste air from areas such as kitchens and bathrooms, which would already be targeted by a mechanical ventilation heat recovery system.

Air to air heat pumps are also available which, as the name suggests,

Pipelife, pipelife.com

use the outside air as the low temperature heat source and supply tempered air into the building. These tend to be used in smaller dwellings or flats and, though very efficient, will not generally produce hot water as well thus in most cases requiring an alternative means of doing this. Air to air heat pumps are also more common in warmer climates as they can readily be used for cooling as well as heating.

Mechanical ventilation heat recovery systems are available with an integrated air to air heat pump. These systems use the ventilation exhaust air as the low temperature heat source for the heat pump, which then boosts the recovered heat in the supply air. This approach is likely to work best in an extremely well insulated and airtight house (such as a passive house) that isn’t any bigger than about 150sqm as the supply air flowrate from the ventilation system will be low, with a correspondingly low heat supply rate.

Sizing

Whereas boilers are available in a huge range of kilowatt (kW) outputs, heat pumps tend to be manufactured in predetermined sizes of say, 8kW, 11kW, 14kW etc. It may be tempting to opt for a smaller output model to reduce capital cost, but this is likely to turn out to be false economy.

Correct sizing of the system is critical. An undersized heat pump may struggle to provide enough heat on the coldest days. If you try to extract too much heat from the low temperature heat source you can end up causing freezing. And running the system at high output for prolonged periods will not yield good efficiency – the system will have to work harder and thus use more energy.

Conversely, an oversized system can also create problems resulting from frequent cycling (on and off) and even overheating in some cases.

A buffer tank can be used to reduce cycling, especially at either end of the heating season. Another advantage of buffer tanks is hydraulic separation between the heat pump circuit and the heating distribution/emitters (radiators or underfloor).

It might sound obvious to many, but do not install the outdoor unit in internal spaces – although you might think it would be advantageous in raising the air temperature, it will

restrict airflow and compromise performance.

Fabric first

Heat pumps work best with low flow temperature heating systems, in very well insulated dwellings. That’s what makes them so well suited to new builds.

If you can get the heat loss rate of the dwelling down really low, you will not only be able to size your heat pump much smaller but, also, you will need only to trickle background heat into the dwelling. An existing home with a typical boiler is heated via radiators sized to run at around 70degC.

But the heat pump system will be much most efficient producing water at around 40-45degC, meaning that in the case of an existing home the radiators may need to be replaced with larger ones – even though the fabric insulation can almost always be improved which will help.

If you have underfloor heating this will already run at around 35-40degC

How heat pumps work

All heat pumps operate on the same principle – a refrigeration circuit boosts low grade heat (from the ground/water or air) up to the required temperature for heating (and sometimes hot water) in a building.

It does this by exploiting the physical properties of the refrigeration fluid and its ability to absorb or release heat after going through expansion and compression cycles.

The system uses electricity to power a compressor, but the energy consumption of the compressor is less than the heat energy produced by the system, which gives it an efficiency (known as Coefficient of Performance) greater than 100 per cent – typically 300 to 450 per cent, or CoP 3 to 4.5.

The fluid passes through the low temperature heat source where it absorbs heat, being at a lower temperature than the heat source. The fluid then passes through the compressor which has the effect of increasing its temperature. This high temperature heat is then given over to water (or sometimes air) for use in a heating system (and/or for domestic hot water) before the fluid goes through an expansion valve, thus being further cooled and ready to absorb heat again from the low temperature heat source.

Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery Systems

Choose Self-Balanced Ventilation for Greater Efficiency and Effectiveness

For ease of installation and to maximise energy conservation, our range of Brink MVHR units is self-balanced as standard.

By balancing air-pressure outside and inside the home, the risk of exporting heat on cold, winter evenings and importing it on warm, summer nights through the fabric of the building is avoided. So, you can expect are a more comfortable living environment, with fewer drafts, together with enhanced levels of energy efficiency all year long.

Surprising as it may seem, not all MVHR systems feature inbuilt self-balancing as standard. Self-balancing technology is just one of many features which differentiates Brink. When installed alongside our clever, click-together Air Distribution System, Brink MVHR units combine unsurpassed ease of installation, with remarkable levels of efficiency and incredible levels of airtightness.

Learn more at www.BrinkHRV.com

Brink

Fir

Alternatives to air source

If you have sufficient land (or a body of water) adjacent to the dwelling, you might consider a ground source or water source heat pump. The temperature of the low grade heat source (the ground about 1 metre down or water) will be higher than the air temperature in mid heating season and the system will therefore be more efficient and will need to do less work in order to boost the low temperature heat up to the required temperature for the heating (and/or hot water) system.

It is perhaps more likely that a self-builder will have the land available and will be able to schedule the works such that a ground array, for example, can be installed.

As a rule of thumb, the area of the ground array will need to be around two and a half to three times the floor area of your house – so a 150sqm house will need around 375-450sqm of land, which must be unobstructed by trees/roots, pipework, cables etc and with good access for the digger.

A borehole will require much less room but will be more expensive –and a larger dwelling may need two or three boreholes. Of course, a lower heat requirement will mean you can size the whole system smaller.

In ROI, supplier quotes found online range from €8.5k-€14.5k bracket to €12k-€18k bracket for homes up to 200sqm. And between €15k-€23k for homes up to 500sqm. In NI, the Energy Savings Trust reckons a heat pump installation costs £7k to £13k – presumably for the smaller sized homes.

Installation and maintenance

Twenty years ago, a heat pump expert told me that a significant amount of his time back then was spent assessing heat pump installations that had been wrongly sized or installed, or both. Of course, a lot has happened in the world of heat pumps since then, but these remain two key factors.

So, what sorts of installation problems can arise?

� Simple electrical issues, faulty wiring for example – use a reputable installer who will install and test the system properly.

which would be ideal – just as well as you don’t want to go digging up the floors.

Cost

Heat pumps are currently more expensive than the liquid or gaseous fuelled systems we have been used to, but again do not be tempted to save on capital costs by undersizing the system as it may either struggle to heat the house or end up costing more than you expect – or both.

The cost of installing a heat pump can vary widely – it can depend on the manufacturer but most of the cost has

to do with sizing (the bigger the house the bigger the size of the heat pump) and how much hot water storage you need. How difficult the installation is will also impact on cost. Get at least three quotes to compare specification and cost, choosing reputable installers.

This will be a prerequisite for grant aiding – on the topic of grant aiding, grants are only available in ROI for existing buildings, see selfbuild.ie for full details. In NI the grant that’s available is only for boiler upgrades (to high efficiency fossil fuel or wood pellet).

� Wrong type of refrigerant – it is important to make sure that the refrigerant is suitable for the model of heat pump installed. There are more environmentally friendly refrigerant options available but not all systems can use them.

� Poor performance and/or high costs due to wrong sizing (usually undersizing).

� Unfavourable location: too close to house (insufficient air circulation); exposed to direct sunlight; too close to planting (leaves can foul grilles/ fans and restrict access and airflow); too close to areas likely to be affected by snow drifts (not such an issue in Ireland perhaps).

� Coastal locations are not favourable as the salt air corrodes metal surfaces – look for really good quality coating or consider a ground source heat pump instead.

� Excessive noise: inadequate mountings, too close to a window, too close to neighbours – if noise is going to be an issue, compare dB rating of different models.

Above all, don’t forget about maintenance. Heat pumps are promoted as the low maintenance option – after all, how often does your fridge need serviced? But a heat pump contains a few more components than a fridge and will need servicing periodically – this is especially true of water source types. Easiest is to sign up to a maintenance contract with your installer.

Kitchen islands

Victoria Hunter shares some inspiration for those who are thinking of adding an island to their new or existing kitchen.

Self-builders often have islands at the top of their kitchen wish list. As the name indicates, an island is a standalone countertop unit. And these beauties not only look appealing but can be used for entertaining, dining, food preparation, extra storage, or a combination of these. They create a wow factor and a sociable environment in what is otherwise a functional space.

To maximise how much of it you can use, the most common shape for an island is a rectangle. Any other shape, such as a curve, could lead to costlier

worktops and undercounter units. As an island tends to create a focal point, it’s also a good design tool to help define the kitchen area in an open plan configuration.

Ample seating

Whether you are entertaining friends or simply feeding your family, a kitchen island provides a more informal dining experience, letting you be part of the action.

Extra storage

Incorporate creative storage solutions into your island for crockery, utensils, and other bits and bobs. Customise your island with accessible cupboards, invisible drawers, or built in shelves.

Add in a hob or a sink

Extra work space

You will without a doubt take advantage of the additional counterspace that a kitchen island provides. You can even incorporate a built in chopping board if your main objective is to use it for food prep.

Adding a hob to your island will create the ideal cooking zone for entertaining as you won’t be turning your back to your guests when frying or otherwise sautéing. A sink equally provides a space for you to interact better with your family or friends.

Cash & Carry Kitchens

Photo by R ARCHITECTURE

Extractor fans

To eliminate moisture, smoke and odours, you’ll need to invest in a good extractor fan. If you have the hob in the island, the high end option is the downdraft extractor. Ceiling hood extractors jutting down from the ceiling are also possible, as are pop up ones from the island. The correct pipework will need to be installed early on in the build - make sure your electrician knows what type of fan you want.

Most kitchen islands require electricity, for sockets (at the side, under counter or popup), smart technology, cooking or lighting. Many will need some form of plumbing, for a sink or dishwasher. Wires and ducting will have to run in the floor at first fix (early construction stage, before pouring the screed).

Additional appliances

When it comes to appliances, there is no limit to what you can add to your kitchen island. You can integrate a dishwasher, a fridge, an oven, or a microwave. The trick is you need to know where they will go so you can plumb for them at the early stages of the build.

Slim & Narrow or Big & Bold

The average size for an island is 2m by 1m but if you want one solely for the extra countertop and storage space then a slimmer 700mm to 900mm may work (standard appliances are sized 600mm deep so you need room to fit and plug them in). If you have the space (and budget) you might want a large kitchen island to be the talking point – in that case if you’re going for a width above 1.2m consider seating on the other side.

Portable & Versatile

Not all kitchen islands have to be stationary. If you have or want a smaller kitchen, you may prefer a kitchen island that can move around to allow for more space when necessary. But that means no fixed plumbing or electrics.

Give it a pop of colour

Use your island as a focal point by adding some colour and making it stand out. You can choose a colour that complements your kitchen, makes a statement, or is simply eye catching to help make your space come alive.

Light it up

Include lighting in the form of an overhead pendant light, in built lighting in the taps, in the drawers or built in undercounter to amplify the entire space. LED is the norm, and there are now many colour options to choose from.

Photo by Eddy Lee

Photo by Sergio Hernandez Trejo

WHY CHOOSE PERGO FOR YOUR HOME?

Pergo is one of the most popular floor coverings on the market today Its authentic wood appearance and wear resistance makes it a great option for those wanting the look and feel of real wood flooring without the everyday hassle and upkeep. In recent years, Pergo has introduced the all new Click Vinyl waterproof flooring solution in Flex Click, Flex Glue & Rigid Click. So why choose Pergo floors for your home? What does Pergo have that is not available elsewhere?

WATERPROOF

Pergo’s AquaSafe technology creates a sealed surface right into the bevels which prevents water from penetrating the floor This means that Pergo Laminate and Click Vinyl products are suitable for bathrooms Pergo is 100% worry proof flooring

DURABILITY

Pergo invented the very first laminate floor, and with it a whole new category of durable flooring. With its patented TitanX technology, Pergo flooring has multiple layers giving the floor extra wear and impact resistance making Pergo one of the most durable floors on the market today Pergo flooring is for life

WANT TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT PERGO? Visit the Wood Innovations website www.woodinnovations.com

Daniel George by Inspired Furniture Ltd, a collective of luxury kitchens available across Ireland and Northern Ireland direct from the Manufacture. Speak to our in-house Kitchen Design team.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Keeping sweet with the neighbours

Andrew Stanway Author of Managing Your Build

No matter how nice you are or how brilliant your project is, your neighbours will have their own views on the matter.

Regardless where you build, you’re likely to have neighbours who’ll want to get involved at some stage, somehow. After all, your construction site is bound to cause them some concern over the year or two you’ll be working on your outdoor factory right next to their homes.

The minute you start removing trees, streaking the road with mud, erecting scaffolding that overlooks their garden, taking deliveries in huge trucks that threaten to scratch their cars or ruin the road surface, and so on, what had previously been theoretical to them will soon become all too real.

The first thing to remember is that busy bodies, who have nothing better to do than police your build, are few and far between. The vast majority of people are reasonable and helpful. Here are the top reasons your neighbours will take issue with your build:

• Noise, dust and other pollution

• Anything that encroaches on their land

• Endangering their children

• Parking outside their place

• Early starts and late finishes, especially over weekends

• Damaging their property or to any of their underground structures (drains, foundations, gas or water supplies)

• Your site becoming a magnet for vandals or criminals

So here are my top five tips to help reduce the likelihood of problems.

Introduce yourself and your project

As soon as you have drawings ready for the planners, arrange to see your neighbours. Take a bottle of wine or some flowers and show them what you have in mind. They may even have some good ideas that you, as an incomer, wouldn’t have thought of. This gets them on the team, feeling involved. Some neighbours will be delighted to imagine that your up market new build will enhance the area generally and maybe even increase the value of their home.

Introduce your builder

People like to feel they know the builder who they’ll be seeing a lot of for many months. It’s not just putting a face to someone but actually feeling the builder will hear them when things go wrong. And they will.

Day to day complaints may not have to be escalated to project manager level (or even to you) if your builder is pleasant and understanding to the neighbours. Big matters to them will usually be very small issues to him as a professional who has seen it all before. Such gripes, nipped in the bud early, won’t escalate to become a world war.

Use a project manager

If and when issues that concern your neighbours do occur, having a neutral intermediary

is worth its weight in gold. It stops the whole thing from getting too personal. And they’ll be more expert than you at assessing the complaint and dealing with it. Your neighbours will also be more likely to accept and respect their opinion on the matter rather than yours, especially if you are a first time self-builder.

Keep a close eye on the build yourself

However good your contractor and project manager, it’s still sensible to keep an eye on how things are going. It’s easy for professionals to get sloppy about parking, for example. On many sites this is a real issue, especially towards the end of the build when there are so many trades on site at the same time.

It is you who is going to have to live with the neighbours, not your tradesmen, so it’s in your best interests to smooth things over quickly and empathically.

Keep your neighbours informed

A bit of empathy goes a long way here. What would you like to be informed of if your neighbour were building? No one wants a nasty surprise so warn them of significant events that might affect them. Being kept in the dark is not a good feeling – fertile imaginations make for bad enemies.

For example if there’s going to be an early start or a late finish, especially over weekends, let them know.

Winter sparkle

Fiann Ó Nualláin theholisticgardener.com twitter @HolisticG

The starkness of winter can be the perfect foil to planted treasures.

Winter can be long, but it is not boring or still when you plant it with life. And if you bed out with seasonality in mind, you will have a sustainable garden – one that looks great for years to come.

A few plants from each section below will provide a dramatic change to a barren garden, will enhance a traditional layout or complement a contemporary design. These plants will not be out of place in any style or scale of garden. In fact these plants should be in place in every garden.

Evergreens

A few well placed conifers can literally illuminate your outdoor area. Many are also available in shrub sizes, which helps with layering. Different heights will provide a softer effect.

You don’t have to go for the traditional green of the pine family, but what a range of shades, needle type and stature. Firm favourites are the stunning blue grey and silver shades, in trees such as Korean fir (abies koreana) whose large ornamental

cones cap it all.

For hedges, the best evergreen contenders for all year cover are yew (taxus baccata), grislenia (griselinia littoralis), cherry laurel (prunus laurocerasus) and of course for a fantastic flash of red tones – phontinia Red Robin.

If you’re looking for standout specimen shrubs, you can’t go wrong with a bottle brush (callistemon viminalis), heavenly bamboo (nandina domestica) or the all round performer of mahonia (mahonia spp.) with butter yellow flowers and distinctive blue berries. Not to mention its delightful gift of fragrance at a time when not much else is.

In the medium to lower growing range of plants that will readily fill a gap, I delight in the white and green flashes of euonymus fortunei Emerald Gaiety. Or for the shine of yellow and green there is the Emerald ‘n’ Gold.

So easy to keep and rewarding in all seasons are the winter berrying skimmias: skimmia x confusa or skimmia japonica rubella.

Even the ground cover can be vibrant. Select pachysandra (pachysandra terminalis), liriope (liriope muscari), hellebores (helleborus x hybridus), periwinkle (vinca minor) and for some purple blue, and pink flushed foliage opt for bugleweed (ajuga reptans).

Hanging baskets, ground containers and window boxes can get the evergreen treatment with the addition of semperviviums and sedums and species mentioned in the floral list further on. That’s the great gift of containers – how easy they are to make relevant and beautiful any time of the year.

Dramatic bark

The stunning whites of birch bark (betula spp.) lights up the garden and the spirits – simply magical in winter – while the spectacular reds, oranges and yellows of the winter bared stems of dogwoods (cornus spp.) are positively luminous at this time of year. The trick is to hard cut back dogwoods every few years to keep the colour strong in the new shoots.

I adore trees with textured bark – the likes of arbutus, acers, prunus, to add

Cherry laurel

Heavenly bamboo

Korean fir

Christmas box

some wow in winter. Some are riveted, some fissured, some peel. Others have patterns of delight. All invite the eye to trigger appreciation in the brain. I can recommend acer griseum (paperbark maple) and acer davidii (snakebark maple) but you will find a great array in local garden centres and nurseries.

Perfumed presence

I am a fan of the small shrubby sarcococca confuse aka Christmas box or sweet box, as much for its evergreen nature as for its deliciously fragrant creamy white flowers in late winter and early spring. It is indeed sweet.

Winter can easily be perfumed with witch hazel (hamamelis mollis), the awesome winter honeysuckle (lonicera fragrantissima)

and the spicy undertones of wintersweet (chimomanthus praecox).

Those pines and abies, and other conifers, will also fragrance the air. Even overwintering herbs such as rosemary and aromatic floral fillers can perk up the senses over the cold months.

But for me the best winter fragrances, with strong wafts and heady intent are the scented viburnums, of special note is viburnumn x bodnantense and also the daphnes (daphne x burkwoodii or D. odora). Best planted in a sheltered spot, but hard working and once established, a long lasting delight.

The flowering contingent

When it comes to petal power, primulas including primrose (primula vulgaris), cowslip (P. veris), and oxlip (P. elatior) can dot the garden and containers for a touch of softness.

Auricula (primula auricula) and polyanthus can really extend the colour palette – with vibrant shades and interesting cultivars new to the market every few years. Rich pinks and oranges can paint the winter scene. Pastels can dress spaces too.

Most garden centres will stock winter bedding at this time. From winter pansy (viola spp). in all the shades ( blue to orange lemon, purple, white) and also winter daisy (bellis spp.) including double pinks and white tops – all ideal to flesh out window boxes and containers and add to patches in the border.

For me you can’t beat hardy cyclamen (cyclamen spp). for elegance and that keynote of winter. All of these flowering choices can bloom from November to March.

“ “... if you bed out with seasonality in mind, you will have a sustainable garden –one that looks great for years to come....”

Acer griseum

Primrose

Viburnum

Cowslip

Primula auricula

Insulating Concrete Formwork Guide

ICF is fast becoming the most popular modern building method in Ireland today – it’s quick, cost effective, and pretty much guarantees a quality finish. Here’s what you need to know about how it’s made, the design and build stages, what to look out for on site and how to choose the system that’s right for you.

Over the years working on large commercial and residential projects of all sizes, I’ve come across most methods of construction.

I’ve worked on traditional masonry builds, timber frame, structural insulated panels (SIPs), precast insulated twin walls panels, steel frame construction with composite panels, and light gauge steel (LGS) systems that incorporate POD bathroom and kitchens. PODs are most common on large scale domestic and commercial projects as they’re factory made and come fully plumbed and kitted out, craned on site to directly plug into the electrics and drains.

I can honestly say I now rank Insulating Concrete Formwork (ICF) up there with the best of them as it ticks all the boxes: speedy to build, thermally superior, cost effective, provides structural integrity, can be finished with several different cladding systems.

So what is ICF? It’s a lego like system – lightweight, hollow Expanded Polystyrene or EPS insulation blocks (think styrofoam) are stacked to make the walls. The blocks are reinforced with steel and concrete is poured into them to make a solid wall.

The beauty of ICF is that you’re guaranteed a high quality build at the end of it – if the blocks aren’t laid correctly, you’ll know it at the pour. You’ll get a blow out - as in the blocks will come apart when you pour in the concrete. With a masonry build, you might think that on paper you’re getting a high insulation value thanks to the boards

you’ve put into the cavity – but if the workmanship isn’t there, you won’t actually get the benefit of all the insulation you put in.

It’s perhaps not surprising then that self-builders have come to embrace ICF as a

building method of choice.

The only downside, perhaps, is the amount of concrete you need to build an ICF house.

Large scale developers seem to think its green credentials are not very palatable given the amount of energy and raw materials it takes to get your ICF blocks to the site.

But the energy and water it takes to make concrete, and the environmental impact of producing the EPS blocks alongside issues around

Guide

Selfbuild

biodegradability, should be weighed up against the near passive standard you will achieve. I would argue that an ICF building’s credentials over its entire lifecycle is hard to beat.

At the end of the day, it’s up

Daithí McGourty Architectural Technologist

information you need to tackle an ICF self-build, be it a new build or extension project, focusing on practical tips to prepare you for what’s to happen on site. I wish you every success as you venture forth on your self-

to you to decide what building method ticks the boxes that matter to you. This guide very simply aims to give you the

build journey, whichever method you wish to pursue.

About the ICF Guide’s author:

Daithí is an architectural technologist working for MMA Architects, a practice located in Co Westmeath. He has over 20 years’ experience working on large scale commercial and residential projects, schools, private health care clinics, and one-off private dwellings. This guide is for information purposes only; professional guidance must be sought for your own specific project.

In the ever changing world of modern methods of construction, Insulating Concrete Formwork is up there with the best of them, says Daithí McGourty.

ICF

Formwork

In construction, formwork refers to a temporary shutter/mould into which concrete is poured and formed. You can also mould lime or hemp lime mixes in this way.

If you want to build an in-situ concrete wall, you will need to cast it in shuttering or formwork made of plywood or other board material. The shuttering is tied and propped the required distance apart to form your mould which is then filled with concrete.

When the concrete is set you can remove the temporary timber shutters, leaving you with a cast in situ concrete wall. A very labour intensive and costly exercise.

Now imagine you didn’t have to strike (remove) the shutter but instead, it’s part of your wall.

Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) With Insulating Concrete Formwork (ICF) there is no timber formwork. The shuttering is made of expanded polystyrene (EPS) which is lightweight and interlocks together. It can be built like a traditional block wall, one on top of the other. Instead of mortar, you have a sealant you apply with a silicone gun. And when you are at the required height, you pour your concrete into the mould.

You now have a solid concrete wall with an inner and outer shutter of EPS. What’s important to remember is that you now have a solid concrete wall, not an EPS wall. The EPS is the shuttering that you leave on to provide insulation. The wall is made of concrete.

Remember that you as the owner will be the person filing the documents with building control: the building notice in NI (you need to file one for the drawings and another before you start), or the commencement notice in ROI. In those documents, you can file that you are building a solid concrete house. Not a house

made of EPS. I have had some queries from ROI Building Control about the description of the ICF materials used to build the house. Structurally, it’s mass concrete.

Building regulations

There is no one standard for EPS blocks. There are in fact several ICF suppliers on the market who supply different certified EPS blocks. Common wall thickness we have used in one-off dwellings over the past 12 months consisted of:

- 100m EPS external leaf - 150mm reinforced concrete core - 100mm EPS internal leaf.

The height of the blocks is typically around 400mm. This build up achieves a U-value of approximately 0.14W/sqmK. This is based on a 12.5mm skimmed plasterboard finish internally and a 7mm acrylic render externally.

Considering the minimum elemental U-value required for walls in both NI and ROI is now 0.18 W/sqmK, this build-up is building regulations compliant. It also contributes greatly to a high energy rating.

Acceptable or Accredited Construction Details (ACDs) are the go-to when it comes to checking if the work on site is done correctly. In ROI, Acceptable Construction Details were initially published in 2011 and in NI Building Control Northern Ireland published Accredited Construction Details in 2015.

The ACDs are to be read in conjunction with TGD Part L 2021 Dwellings (ROI) and Technical Booklet F1 2022 (NI). There have been several iterations over the past 11 years, mostly focusing on thermal bridging and airtightness.

The ACDs make for a good read if you’re technically minded as they are presented in two parts. Part 1 discusses the general theory of insulation continuity

What is Insulating Concrete Formwork, how does it comply with the building regulations and how does the choice of building method impact on the design and cost?

More about Robbie and Ciara’s Co Tipperary project on p128

and airtightness in construction. Part 2 provides indicative detailed drawings of thermal insulation and airtightness details for specific construction interfaces.

However, ICF systems are not covered under the ACDs. This is why it is important to work closely with ICF suppliers, certified installers, and architects with experience in the use of ICF.

In both ROI and NI, some ICF suppliers have all critical details thermally modelled by a National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) registered thermal modeler or Building Research Establishment (BRE) registered modeller in NI.

Psi values measure how thermally efficient the house is and you will get a better energy rating if you don’t use the default Psi value. With an ICF house it’s better to have the energy assessor calculate it with the Psi value calculator, as detailed in the technical guidance documents.

ICF construction comes into its own with thermal bridging; because you are dealing with a continuous solid wall construction, you are reducing the likelihood of heat escaping.

Mortgage insuranceand

To date, our practice has had no issue with the banks approving mortgages for ICF dwellings. Similarly, I have had no issues reported back by clients on insuring their dwellings, during or after construction.

All certified ICF systems, built as specified on the certificate, meet the requirements of fire safety concerning means of escape, the internal spread of flame and the external spread of flame.

Design Process

In my experience, the design process does not differ significantly when designing for ICF. If possible, it would be good practice to keep window and door openings and floor levels to ICF block dimensions.

Your typical ICF block is 1200mm long by 400mm high by 350mm. Trying to achieve this in the design may reduce the amount of waste and also labour in constructing the formwork prior to the concrete pour. This does not mean that you are limited

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to just square boxes –quite the contrary.

ICF is ideal if you plan to have curved walls –when building with other methods, curved walls usually add to the cost but not with ICF.

You will need to take into account how the external finish may impact on the cost and complexity of the build. For instance, the use of some external cladding systems such as stone, timber, and metal cladding may lead to constructability issues at roof junctions or overhang details, for example, or weathering.

Cost of ICF versus traditional masonrybuild

This is a very difficult topic to address given the current market volatility around the cost of insulation and other relevant construction materials. I can only speak from my current experience and at this point in time, to build to current energy standards, ICF is slightly cheaper to build than your traditional masonry build. But not by much.

ICF roofs

Still in its infancy I have only detailed one in all my years’ experience which never made it to site due to the pandemic.

Much like the walls it’s very fast to erect and also very safe as you are not dealing with heavy loads at height. However, the roof system still requires a primary steel structure to carry large spans.

Typical Timeline

For an average 2,000sqft single storey house with a simple design. Lead times on materials such as reinforcing bar, structural steel etc. not accounted for in any of the time estimates below.

Insulated raft foundation installation two weeks including radon barrier

First concrete pour one day

Curing time two days for the concrete raft to cure (technically you could walk across the slab after 10 hours) before starting the ICF build –as opposed to seven days for a traditional block house built on a raft foundation

ICF block lift to first floor level two weeks

Second concrete pour one day

Hollow core placement (assuming all structural steel elements are in place) one day

Second lift of ICF walls to wall plate two weeks

Third concrete pour one day

Roof (standard cut timber A roof counter battened with a natural slate finish) approximately three weeks.

Rendering (weather permitting) two weeks

ICF walls propped and ready for concrete pour

FOR FASTER BUILD AND GREATER ENERGY EFFICIENCY

As the acknowledged experts in the field, Altherm ICF projects range from single homes to multihome developments as well as other large structures up to a height of 18 metres.

Supplied by Altherm ICF, the insulated flame retardant premade forms simply fit together like interlocking blocks, ensuring vastly improved quality, compliance and construction efficiencies.

Furthermore, ICF product benefits also include industry-leading Structure, Air, Sound and Thermal specifications for a simpler build process with minimal waste.

This construction method eliminates thermal bridging resulting in a warmer, dryer, and more comfortable building that meets all industry standards including NZEB, and yields energy ratings of A2 or better.

For more Technical and Sales information, visit altherm.ie or call +353 1 8422 823

Why choose ICF

Why choose ICF in the first place? We look at the top 10 benefits.

Airtightness

Unlike a porous concrete block, ICF gives you a monolithic concrete core wrapped with a continuously insulated blanket, giving you an airtight house that allows the internal temperature to be controlled constantly.

Energy efficiency

All of the ICF houses we recently completed achieved an A energy rating. This is down to the superior U-values but also to the detailing that can be achieved around windows and doors thanks to an especially designed cavity closer which allows your window frame to sit against. This is not only excellent thermally but also from a weathering point of view, negating the need for traditional stepped and vertical damp proof courses.

Speed of build

ICF is extremely lightweight and easy to handle as the blocks click together like lego. This reduces construction time considerably along with labour costs. The concrete is pumped into the formwork, again reducing time and further reducing labour costs. Speaking from experience, on average an ICF dwelling with a floor area of

279sqm will be completed 12 weeks earlier than a traditional masonry build. That’s assuming a straightforward design and a well managed project.

It’s not weather dependent ICF is not affected by the rain, so unlike your traditional blockwork building it can be erected during inclement weather with no adverse effects.

Complex designs are often cheaper with ICF

Unlike many other building methods, curved structural walls are straightforward to build with ICF. Meanwhile, designs with large window and door openings tend to require structural beams to carry blockwork over. Same with a large open plan with first floor overhead – you may require structural steel beams to carry hollow core slabs where load bearing walls do not exist. By using ICF you can negate the need for a high percentage of structural steel requirements as you are now working with a reinforced concrete frame. Although this may yield small monetary gains, the real saving is in time saved.

Guide

Reduces the need for lintels

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ICF construction yields a monolithic structure. The beauty of this is that you are eliminating the need for concrete lintels and beams on the majority of one-off domestic dwellings.

Eliminates the need for corner window supports

The concrete core is reinforced with steel at 1200mm centres vertically and horizontally. If you have longer window and door spans, extra steel reinforcement can be specified by your structural engineer specialised in ICF to allow you to span the distance without any intermediate supports.

allowing our client to get the full benefit of their wonderful view.

First fix is easier

First fix electrical and mechanical can be carried out without any labour intensive chasing of walls of the type that has to be carried out on a traditional blockwork house. The track can be cut into the EPS easily and cable placed in uPVC ducting. This is then covered with a 12.5mm plasterboard slab.

Acoustics

We recently completed 10 semi detached dwellings and a ground and first floor apartment building for a local authority. ROI’s technical guidance document Part E says that separating walls

First fix is straightforward; the chasing here was done using a hot wire gun

I recently detailed a corner window in a dwelling that on traditional blockwork would have required a special lintel with a corner supporting column. This specification leads to many thermal bridging issues that need to be resolved as well as the aesthetics of having a support column in the corner of the window.

With ICF the structural engineer was able to reinforce the concrete core over the window, negating the need for a corner column and allowing us as architectural designers to achieve a corner window with no vertical mullions – just two panes of glass meeting and

should have a minimum sound insulation value of 53dB and we bettered that with a 200mm reinforced concrete core.

Lighter materials = safer site

ICF is a lightweight material to handle and erect, with no cranage required. The concrete core is pumped into the cavity so by its very nature it helps reduce the risk of accidents and injury caused by heavy lifting. However, I must caveat this by saying that working at a height is always dangerous. And all building sites, regardless of the method of construction, come with the risk of accident or injury.

Wall to floor junction

The weakest links in construction are where two elements meet. We start by looking at where your ICF wall will meet with your foundations and how to minimise thermal bridging.

The ICF walls can be taken directly off your traditional strip foundation, raft foundation, or best in class, off your insulated raft foundation.

Traditional strip foundations

The one downside I have found in bringing ICF off a standard strip foundation is that a contractor will have to carry out two concrete pours to get to first floor level on a two storey house, and to wall plate level on a single storey house.

That’s because you first need to pour up to the finished floor level where you need to add a horizontal damp proof course. The second pour can then take place to the wall plate or first floor level.

The small issue (additional cost) of the two concrete pours can be eradicated with a standard or insulated raft.

Standard raft foundations

There is currently an ongoing debate among industry professionals as to the necessity of vertical reinforcing bars at the edge of foundations. Thickening the raft or the strip foundation

punctures the horizontal damp proof course at finished floor level every 1200mm centres.

This leads to a very costly and labour intensive detail where each protrusion is required to be sealed with radon and moisture resistant tape.

But is the rebar required at all? I have inspected some sites where the contractor has poured them as per the structural engineer’s detail and then when laying the first row of ICF forms, they cut away the rebar.

If you take a standard blockwork house, where the walls are built directly off the foundation without any rebar, what’s the fundamental difference? Two other alternatives for the horizontal damp proof course (DPC) allowed for in the certified ICF systems are as follows:

A plastic applied DPC across the wall at 150mm above external ground level.

The use of waterproof concrete up to a minimum of 150mm above external ground level, which in practice requires two concrete pours and once again is a costly option compared to the more traditional horizontal DPC shown in Figure 6.

ICF rising wall off standard strip foundation

Rebar penetrating horizontal damp proof course (DPC) at finished floor level (FFL)

Recently I have seen the introduction of a hydrophilic strip placed on the raft slab in the centre or slightly off centre depending on the cover required by the strip. This can negate the need for the horizontal DPC. However, my advice here would be to have it installed by a competent installer.

considerable protection to the radon barrier, preventing it from tearing due to the installation of rebar and subsequent pouring of the floor slab. We also used the hydrophilic strip for the horizontal DPC.

However, the insulated raft is now your finished floor. Should you wish to have a polished concrete floor then ICF may not be the way to go. If a standard

costly.

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Insulated raft foundation

From experience, an insulated raft foundation is the best thermal and damp proof detail out there. In Figure 2, the white EPS is the insulated raft and the grey EPS is the ICF system. There is continuous insulation wrapped around your building, with no breaks or gaps for a thermal bridge.

On this particular project, we placed the radon barrier beneath the insulated raft which provides

cavity wall had been built, then there would be no issues with a polished concrete floor because there is no need for propping a block wall. Props for the ICF have to be fixed to the floor for stability when pouring the concrete.

See Figure 3 of the prop fixed to a finished floor slab that was eventually polished. In this particular project the clients were happy to see the prop marks from the fixings on their finished floor however, we have had clients who want them polished out which can be difficult and

A critical point to note: if using a tanking membrane below ground, say on a basement wall, ensure no primer is used on the EPS as it will erode the EPS. And this will make the tanking membrane useless. Speak with a tanking specialist to ensure the correct membrane is used for ICF walls.

How are ICF projects costed?

ICF manufacturers will each have different cost points depending on how they make their blocks. The price of these will be partly determined by the cost of EPS and other components such as the webbing but will mostly be related to their manufacturing processes and efficiencies.

Manufacturers have a network of approved installers who will be the self-builder’s contact point for pricing an ICF job. They will include the cost of the blocks, their own labour/ margin, and also the cost of concrete, steel reinforcements, propping and other materials required, including scaffolding and other standard building materials and equipment.

Pricing will also hinge on factors such as geographical location and the type of project – due to economies of scale, a one-off house is likely to have a higher cost per sqm than a development or a commercial unit for example.

Concrete is one variable within ICF construction projects which self-builders can organise themselves, as agreed with the ICF contractor. For poured concrete, the price increase has been of 5 to 7 per cent over the last 18 months.

Jamie Smyth, Stax ICF staxicf.ie

FIGURE 2

FIGURE 3

ICF wall starting off an insulated raft foundation

ICF formwork prop mechanically fixed to floor slab

Openings

Window heads, sills, and reveals are the next junctions to pay close attention to.

There is no need for traditional horizontal and vertical damp proof courses (DPC) at window and door openings in ICF construction.

As you’re constructing a reinforced concrete building, the need for precast window/ door lintels for smaller openings and steel/special lintels for larger door and window openings is now eradicated.

Your structural engineer can specify additional rebar over the window or door heads that will allow the concrete core to carry the window and door openings, and for larger spans it can also eliminate the

requirement for intermediate supports such as steel/ concrete columns.

If you need a reinforced column, to provide additional support, you can have it placed vertically and incorporated into the core of the ICF walls.

Cavity closers

Most ICF system installers have preformed cavity closers. These are either flat and rebated, or have raised reveals. These allow the window or door frame to sit tight against the head and reveal. From a thermal perspective and airtightness perspective, this is an excellent detail.

Reinforcing steel for reinforced concrete column incorporated into ICF formwork

However, there is one consideration. That is you need to allow for an extra deep frame or be willing to live with over 25 per cent of the window frame being hidden behind the reveal.

See Figure 1 for the pre formed closers both over the head of the window and on the reveal of the window, ready for the concrete pour. Figure 2 shows a rebated vertical closer waiting to receive a door frame

Cavity closers are propped from the outside with a timber shutter before the pour. If you have windows of the same dimensions at first floor level and so on, these timber props can be reused in the second pour. That’s if they’re removed carefully.

Timber props to windows ready for the concrete pour

Window sills

Another issue to be aware of is the placement height of window sills. I have found on numerous projects, whilst carrying out my pre-pour inspection, that the sills were being placed at the incorrect height off the finished floor level.

You need to allow for the height of the sills in the window opening when installing the ICF formwork. See Figure 3 where

The installation of the DPC around the window sill is still extremely important and should be installed with care and not trimmed until the finished render has been applied.

Chimneys

Although most of the new dwellings today install a heat pump for space heating and hot water, with underfloor heating at the ground and first floor levels,

Equipment Testing and Approvals Scheme) installer and also engage with them to install your stove or similar heating appliance.

Internal walls

Internal walls both load bearing and non load bearing can be made of ICF instead of traditional masonry block or stud (timber or metal) internal walls. The most important connection is between the loadbearing internal walls to the ICF external wall.

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the outside leaf of EPS has been cut down to allow for the sill and the inside leaf has been left up to help insulate the rear of the sill.

I have also encountered instances where no allowance had been made for the sill overhang, or ears of the sill as they are also known.

The sill is not to be rebated but the ICF is to be cut to allow for the sill. This is much like the installation of the sill in a traditional blockwork building, leaving you with the required sill overhang on either side of your window opening.

we are finding the majority of our clients like to incorporate a solid fuel stove into their design.

But chimneys are not covered in the majority of ICF system suppliers’ Agrément Certificates or BBA Certificates. This does not mean that you cannot install a stove with a chimney system if it is detailed correctly, which in turn will guarantee that it is in compliance with Technical Guidance Document Part J (ROI) / Technical Booklet L (NI).

I would also recommend that you seek the advice of an approved HETAS (Heating

This should always be detailed by a structural engineer. If using block work for the loadbearing wall, I would highly recommend the use of thermal blocks where the block wall butts against the ICF wall’s concrete core.

If using ICF internal walls make sure that the wall forms used are specified for internal use. I have seen ICF internal walls with 150mm on one side, 150mm concrete core and 50mm on the other side of the concrete core. Not alone are you losing valuable space but it’s quite difficult to find the web in with a plasterboard screw on the 150mm EPS side of that internal wall.

Before pouring, make sure that the walls are all plumb and level, especially around internal door openings. This means there needs to be sufficient propping and bracing of all the internal walls.

The internal finish to the EPS wall is normally a 12.5mm plasterboard slab screw fixed to the PVC/Aluminium webs at 200mm centres in the ICF block.

Always remember to use green (water resistant) plasterboard to wet areas. As I mentioned all first fix electrical can be carried out with speed as the trades can easily chase the EPS before the plasterboard slabs are put up. This then receives a skimmed finish with a selected paint or other finish.

FIGURE 1

FIGURE 3

FIGURE 2

Window sill heights accounted for in formwork

Picture taken looking down into ICF cavity above the window level

Rebated vertical door reveal

Upper storey junctions

Other critical details include the junction between the external walls and first floor level, and between the walls and wall plate.

The vast majority of self-build projects we come across choose hollow core slabs for their first floor construction. The beauty of ICF is that you can be ready for the hollow core at the first floor level very early into your build.

The slabs sit onto a bed of mortar laid on the concrete core, see Figure 1 for ICF walls

at the first floor level waiting to receive slabs. As you can see from the photograph the vertical rebar is also left up to tie the first and second pour of concrete together.

Always refer to the precast floor manufacturer’s instructions regarding the minimum bearing required. It’s very important at this stage

to ensure that the concrete core of the ICF is left level after the concrete pour.

Also, a note from the picture, the outside leaf of EPS is left to allow integration of the next lift of ICF formwork. This first block at the first floor level will need to be cut to allow for the depth of the hollow core. This is another good detail from an airtightness perspective.

You can also use timber joists at the first floor level. This once again is front loaded at the design stage, with input from your architect, structural engineer, ICF system supplier and webbed joist supplier.

Once spans are agreed and

Wall plate detail

The wall plate can be bolted down or strapped to the concrete core much like the first floor. It is extremely important that the concrete is left level.

Note the EPS on the inner leaf is left up level with the top of the wall plate. As you can see galvanised wall plate straps were set in the concrete during the second pour.

Alternatively, a threaded bar to your structural engineer’s specifications can be used. This may be a better option as the wall plate can be shimmed if required to be levelled.

I always detail a warm pitched or flat roof for ICF

joist centres are agreed the ICF installer can cut out pockets at the required centres in the EPS to enable the concrete when poured to finish level with the outside of the internal leaf.

Figure 2 shows pieces of plywood screwed to the plastic supports of the inside leaf of ICF formwork. When this is struck (removed) the concrete will be level with the inside of the EPS which will allow you to fix a timber ledger to receive your timber or webbed joists. See Figure 3 for concrete pockets ready for timber ledger.

houses. This carries on the blanket of insulation that wraps the structure on the outside of the building. It starts with the insulated foundation, ICF walls, and then carries over the roof structure.

This ensures that the structural elements are kept at or near internal environmental conditions, therefore, reducing the chances of thermal stress and risk of condensation.

The concrete pours

Concrete pours are usually completed by the ICF installer, the contractor who built the walls.

FIGURE 1

FIGURE 16

FIGURE 2

Shutter for concrete pocket

ICF wall awaiting hollowcore slab

Concrete pockets ready to receive timber ledger fixings and centres to engineer’s details and specification

FIGURE 3

FIGURE 1

This happens after the architect and engineer have checked and signed off on both the ICF formwork and that the window and doors are in the correct locations, straight and plumb.

The structural engineer will check all rebar is as specified and will get an adequate concrete cover. It’s time for the concrete pour. This is ordered from your local concrete batching plant. Key point here is to ensure the correct compressive concrete strength class is ordered as specified by your structural engineer.

The pour is not very labour intensive as the concrete is pumped using either a line pump or overhead boom from a concrete pump lorry, which moves around the formwork in a circular fashion and pumps the concrete into the cavity of the ICF formwork.

When pumping the concrete, ensure it’s pumped into the central cavity away from the corners and not directly against the polystyrene. The pour should happen in layers not exceeding 1200mm/hr and the total daily height should not exceed 3m. This ensures adequate compaction is achievable and to avoid possible movement and excessive pressure being placed on the ICF formwork.

A single storey dwelling with a wall plate higher than 3m will require two pours. This is where a good installer is required who knows their trade.

If the next lift is only 1350mm high, or approximately three ICF blocks, my experience has taught me that it is very difficult to keep this section of wall plumb and level during the pour. Extra attention is required during the propping and pouring of this section of the wall to ensure it is plumb straight and level.

This I where I would recommend bracing on both sides. Generally bracing only occurs on one side, usually the inside.

To avoid air pockets /voids in the concrete, particular attention should be paid to areas where the flow of concrete may be impeded such as corners or lintels where extra rebar is placed. The use of a vibrating poker is recommended but the poker diameter should not exceed 25mm and when using the poker keep back approximately 1m from the corners and do not touch the ICF formwork.

Once pouring is complete, immediately check the walls are straight, adjusting props vertically as required. Any damaged forms should be repaired immediately and concrete leakages can be

Guide

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hosed off the external face of the forms before it sets.

The concrete should be left to cure until it has achieved the minimum strength class, usually after two to three days to allow construction to continue. Props

should be left in place as long as possible.

In freezing or very hot weather, ensure the top of the ICF formwork is covered to protect the concrete from adverse weather curing.

Ledger bolted through ICF core and webbed joist hung as per manufacturer details

Wall plate detail

External finishes

You will need specialist systems to finish the external wall; find out what your options are and what to look out for on site.

Now that your building is weathertight, the next step is to apply a finish to the external wall.

Render

A traditional sand and cement render is a cost effective solution but it is not acceptable on EPS as it will not bond to the EPS and the weight of the render will ultimately cause it to slip off over time.

Most of the ICF houses I have completed to date have received an acrylic render system externally, giving a traditional render finish. It has to be an approved BBA (NI)

/ NSAI Agrément Certificate (ROI) system for use on EPS walls.

All ICF render systems provide a robust wall with high resistance to hard and soft impacts likely to be associated with daily life situations.

My top tip for rendering is to wait until the ICF is fully dry if it has been exposed to the elements for a period of time during the construction period.

Very important is to only apply the render in the specified temperature and weather conditions. This can be checked with the rendering contractor. Next comes the question of the best way to

apply the render, and there is no best solution.

You have the option of a spray gun application or with a hand trowel. Either way, make sure that the scaffolding is away from the wall enough to allow for the installer to safely apply the render without the scaffolding being in the way and without leaving a gap big enough for the installer to fall through. On many occasions I have seen the line of the scaffolding on the finished render.

Rendering is usually a four stage process: bead it in two days, apply the base coat over three days, primer over a day, and then the final acrylic render which usually takes three days. If sprayed on, there might be two applications of the final acrylic render. Know that if a coloured render is used it may discolour with time.

You will probably need to recoat the render every 18-20 years. This means that you will have to reapply the final layer

Types of ICF finishes

The most common finishes for ICF include dry dash, brick and stone cladding, or a thin coat render made of acrylic or silicone resin.

Mid weight build ups such as dry dash and brick slips (up to around 30kg/

sqm) would normally have mushroom fixings applied through the mesh reinforcement layer so that some of the load is transferred back to the concrete core. Heavier build ups such as stone cladding should be secured primarily by the concrete (e.g.

expanded metal mesh or ties fixed back into the concrete). Your cladding or ICF supplier will be able to provide specific guidance for your situation.

Light render systems can be applied without extra support. However, because ICF surfaces tend to be very smooth, the installer will give the surface a light rasp to provide a key for the render. ICF renders

of the acrylic render system (trowelled or sprayed) by an improved installer. This may afford you the opportunity to change the colour if you so wish.

Other options

Much like a traditional block dwelling you can also use different forms of external finishes such as the most commonly used one, stone. Top tip for this is make sure you have a damp proof membrane between the EPS and the stone cladding and also have the wall ties drilled in straight after the concrete pour.

This way your stone mason can tie stone in as he builds it rather than trying to make the stone courses work to the walls ties that may have been set in the EPS prior to the pour.

Another finish I have used is external timber cladding both laid vertically and horizontally. Again, a damp proof membrane should be used between the EPS and timber battens.

are commonly thinner than traditional cement render so it’s important that any irregularities are taken out of the wall before starting. The surface should be checked with a long straight edge for areas that have bowed outwards during the concrete pour and these should be rasped back. Deep pits should be dubbed out flat. Good preparation will ensure

Shaun Ingram Eco Celt, ecocelt.com

Photo courtesy of Robbie and Ciara, see p126

Watchpoints

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You will need an architectural designer to design the house and help you through planning, a structural engineer to work out the construction drawings for ICF specifically, and some to sign off on the sages of the build and oversee the construction for your mortgage and for building control purposes.

Bearing that in mind, here are my top tips for a quality build:

Appoint designers who are familiar with your chosen system.

The benefit of this is that nine out of 10 times your architectural designer and structural engineer will have come across the most common issues with ICF and will know how to deal with them. Or better yet, avoid them altogether.

Keep on top of quality control.

Once on site, the person overseeing your build (usually an architectural designer or structural engineer)

less material is needed, avoiding unnecessary extra expense.

How to get the bestresult

Dirt and algae can build up on non vertical surfaces, wash down onto the wall by rain and stain. Certain finishes will be more resistant to this but the risk is best controlled by providing a sufficient overhang at fascias and soffits, good drip details on beads and flashing, and a well defined throating and projection

should check that all walls being poured are plumb, level, and straight and that there is a satisfactory amount of propping in place prior to the pour.

Plan ahead for service routes.

Mechanical ventilation ductwork or cable trays may need to pass through load bearing walls in the attic void. If your architectural designer can coordinate with the ventilation installer and electrician at the earliest stage of the build and agree on duct runs, then service letter boxes can be designed by your structural engineer and left in ICF walls rather than having to engage with a subcontractor to core out the wall at a later date. It’s an exercise I feel is worth giving the time to.

Choosing the right suppliers

Of paramount importance is choosing the right suppliers. Here’s what you need to know:

on mouldings and sills. Avoid rust stains by using stainless steel (or other corrosion resistant) fixings. Quality UV resistant mastics will help prevent water ingress but these shouldn’t be relied on completely.

They should always be paired with a redundancy such as damp proof courses, secondary seals such as compression/sealing tapes and upstands/stooling to sills. Water ingress into the system could potentially result in the finish delaminating if it

ICF block system

Make sure the system you choose has an NSAI Agrément (ROI) or a BBA Certificate.

The ICF block manufacturer/supplier is unlikely to install the system for you, although some companies do. Make sure you use a certified ICF system installer, one who’s been trained and approved by the system supplier. This is the best way to ensure you avoid a cowboy builder. Also if there is any issue, you can contact the system supplier for advice as they’ll have recommended the installer. Make sure to check to see if your chosen certified installer has any previous projects in your vicinity and ask to inspect their work on a building site, and speak to the homeowners when the installer is not there.

ICF render system

It is good practice that the chosen render system is Category I at a minimum as described in European Technical Assessment Guidance (ETAG) 004:2013 or BS EN 17237

Thermal Insulation Products For Buildings – External Thermal Insulation Composite Systems With Renders. The company supplying the render system doesn’t usually install it, so make sure you use a certified acrylic render installer. As with the ICF blocks, they must be certified by your selected render system supplier.

were to freeze during cold winter weather.

Ensure that your render supplier has provided a specification for your project and that your installer is familiar with it. Mistakes at this stage can be costly down the line. Care should be taken to respect temperature ranges for application and to protect the surface from rain and strong sunlight whilst it cures.

We’ve gone through some of the critical details when building with ICF. Now here’s a list of what to do to ensure a smooth build and a hassle free home at the end of it all.

From tip to toe

What other building methods did you consider?

We considered timber frame and traditional block cavity wall. Timber frame was more expensive but a key requirement was for the house to have concrete floors and this isn’t straightforward with timber frame. ICF then seemed to be better from an airtightness perspective, and that’s what clinched it over traditional blockwork for us.

What was the design process like?

We chose ICF after we’d designed the house. A benefit was that there was a lot less steel required as compared to a traditional cavity wall build. From a design point of view, a benefit is that if an opening is wrong you can easily shift it on site and it just takes a couple of hours labour. You can’t do that with blockwork or that many other methods.

A general design tip is to have your bathroom and kitchen plans finalised before you

design the house. We gave them to our architectural designer and he had to design around them. This approach had two benefits.

The first is we knew how much to budget for those elements, and therefore didn’t run out of money at the end for them. We also weren’t stuck to a size or shape of room that didn’t suit us. I have friends who self-built and didn’t design the kitchen ahead of time, and they had had to make compromises as a result.

How did you choose your ICF supplier?

We compared three different companies and chose based on

price and features. The company we hired had completed a number of ICF builds and were very competitive. The drawback was that we suffered some delays because the supplier had a couple of other jobs underway. But the price point made the delays worthwhile.

We also chose them because we liked that the system was flexible. It came in set insulation thicknesses in flat pack – the webs can be adjusted to increase or decrease the width of the cavity. Another supplier we looked at had fixed blocks but offered more variation for the insulation, as in thinner internal insulation and thicker external.

How was the build project managed?

I project managed the build but the ICF portion was overseen by the ICF company. Building

and hot water:

Jason Piper built his home five years ago with ICF from top to bottom. He looks back on his experience and shares what he would do differently.

Timeline

Control came to do their checks and the process with them was straightforward – they were pragmatic about the whole thing.

It was a stressful time because we’d sold our house to finance the build and we knew the house wouldn’t be ready in time. So we made sure we could move into the garage we were building. We’d always had a plan to have it converted to a flat, we just did it sooner than anticipated.

The benefit of that was living on site all the time. I was working remotely and was able to keep an eye on the build at the same time. I made sure people showed up, got materials they needed.

I did some DIY work on the other elements of the build but had to balance it across the time I had available and the overall schedule not being impacted. I tried to keep it largely to areas that didn’t require any real skill such is insulating the floors or painting. I also did the majority of the electrical work and networking in the house.

What was the process of building with ICF, from foundations to roof?

There were two pours for the structure, followed with a third for some flat roof elements that were completed in concrete.

in which avoided the need for multiple holes afterwards. Soil stacks were kept internal to the structure, and we used air admittance valves so that vents didn’t need to go out externally.

Spec

Walls: ICF blocks made up of 63mm internal and 63mm external EPS, with 8 inch core in most places, 10in core for steel beam reinforcements.

U-value 0.18W/sqmK

Roof: warm roof design made from 150mm polystyrene panels. U-value 0.15W/sqmK

Floor: concrete sub floor, 180mm interlocking single polystyrene insulation panel, 80mm liquid screed, porcelain tiles. U-value 0.15W/sqmK

Windows: triple glazed aluminium, U-value overall around 0.8W/sqmK

Airtightness: 0.72 m3/(h.sqm) at 50Pa

Any issues with securing a mortgage or with insurance?

Because we self-funded the build, we didn’t have any financing issues. Insurance wasn’t problematic either.

I’m glad we went with ICF roofs, even though we did have to find a specialist supplier. It offers excellent insulation and a continuous layer of insulation. I think the extra cost was minimal compared to trusses and spray foam plus insulated plasterboard. ICF roofs are relatively quick to install and there are no additional labour costs to take into account.

For the external walls, holes were kept to an absolute minimum. I put large ducts in at subfloor stage to bring services

I didn’t do any DIY on the ICF, we had a good team of people who knew what they were doing. The ICF installer had a foreman on site the whole time we were there, I got a good feel for the guys doing it, they were very professional.

I wouldn’t have done it myself simply because I could see how experienced the crew was. They were meticulous, more than I would have been, and laid it all out perfectly.

A top tip for the construction stage is getting a concrete staircase in after your first ICF pour. We’re glad we did as it was a safer means of access to the top than a temporary staircase.

For the internal walls, we chose either concrete blocks / lightweight blocks or standard timber studs.

What would change or wish you had known at the start?

When we went with ICF, there weren’t that many other ICF projects knocking about so it was difficult to gauge how much was too much for the insulation. If I were to do the build again

now, I would choose a different company for the ICF structure but I don’t regret the decision we made at the time.

Were there any curve balls?

I thought the polystyrene was closed cell but it’s not. Which means the ICF materials aren’t fully watertight. We didn’t realise this at the time.

Once water gets in, it will find its way out and it’s not necessarily obvious where it’s coming from, and we had a leak years after moving in. So with hindsight I would look into the self-adhesive membranes that are commonly used on ICF houses in other

countries.

It’s still an excellent build method, I have no regrets. In many ways ICF is a failsafe when it comes to the build as you don’t have to trust the installer for placing the PIR boards correctly in the cavity or trust the EPS bead installer to make sure the beads are blown everywhere in the cavity.

Our airtightness results were excellent and the soundproofing exceptional. The house is also very comfortable and cheap to run. I’m happy with our bills; the first year we moved in we spent £1,000 on oil for the entire year –a lot less than our previous home that was a third the size

Selfbuild

DREAM CREATE INSPIRE

What other buildingmethods did youconsider?

I also considered a conventional double leaf block with insulated cavity and timber frame construction. There were pros and cons to all methods but for me, ICF had some strong advantages. Such as airtightness, fire safety, structural strength and speed of construction. I have previously lived in a timber framed house, and I found it quite noisy, in particular the timber first floor. That was a game changer for me and the main reason for not going with timber frame.

How did you chooseyour ICF supplier,and builder?

I did get quotes from three suppliers, and the one I chose had the option to add 100 mm

external wall insulation but I decided against that based on cost. And I’m glad I didn’t upgrade the specification as the house is very energy efficient as is.

I wasn’t confident to take on the ICF construction so needed a contractor specialised in ICF. The ICF block supplier recommended a few and I spent time doing my research on them. I went to view their work at different stages – the best information you’ll get from other homeowners is when the builder isn’t there. I found projects they’d worked on that they hadn’t recommended and had a chat with those homeowners too. I spent two to three years researching the building method and all other aspects of my build project, and choosing the right builder.

Had you consideredICF before the design stage?

Before I started on the design process, I had decided that ICF was the way to go. There were no changes or restrictions with ICF, in actual fact, the ICF method helped greatly with my house design. I had a lot of large openings with lent itself well to

Engineer Michael McKeon looks back on how he built his ICF home six years ago, and why it took him two years to do his research.

ICF as there was no need for lintels above large openings - these were constructed using rebar within the ICF, and then all poured together.

What do you wishyou’d known at thestart?

As I was going with ICF I needed to employ an engineer that had good experience with ICF. This limited the engineer options, but I still had three to pick from nationwide. I hadn’t realised I would need to hire him, as I had an engineer overseeing the project already.

This added €3k to the build cost, to get him to turn the design drawings into construction drawings for the ICF portion of the

build. If he’d overseen the build, he would have charged an additional €8k to €9k. His input was vital to the construction drawings for the rebar deign, structural steel, and concrete pads for the steel to rest on or for where the precast concrete slabs would sit on the ICF.

My overall certifying engineer then took the ICF drawings and based his inspections on those. I’m an engineer myself and I kept an eye on things too.

What was the build process like?

We started with an insulated EPS foundation. For the services I ran all of the waste pipes under the house, so there are no openings through the walls. I have the soil vent pipe at the back of the garage and it’s working fine, there’s no vacuum.

I also went with a radon sump outlet so that was all done with groundworks. As I was doing a lot of the work myself, the build went over two stages – getting the house watertight, which happened within the space of a few months, then the kitting out which took about a year. I took a six month break between those two stages.

The ICF took three pours – one at ground floor level, then first floor, then gables. I chose the cold roof method to ensure continuity of insulation: the ICF runs to the top

Selfbuild

Guide

Timeline

Apr 2016 Project start Dec 2016

Plastered and watertight

2017-2018 Internal fit out

of the walls where it meets the horizontal insulation in the attic.

And, perhaps because of the build method, we got a rare inspection from the local authority. They sought out the compliance certificates for the ICF and the steel, which I had to send on to them within a certain timeframe.

What tips do youhave for the build stage?

Internally, I used a timber router to chase the walls but it was dirty and dusty. I had to use a mask. Since then I realised there’s a hot wire gun you can use instead – it’s a cleaner and neater option.

Something to bear in mind with ICF is if you plan to fix anything to the external wall, such as an external light fixture – you’ll need specialist anchors and plugs. I put a gate on the wall and because they’re so heavy, we had to go into the concrete to secure them.

Any issues withthe mortgage orinsurance?

No issues with the mortgage as I listed the build method as a mass concrete structure, which it is. But with the self-

build insurance they wanted the full details and because of ICF, the quote probably came in 10 to 15 per cent more than if it had been a standard build.

How is the house working out?

The bill for the first year was €1,350 and that’s everything, including all electricity costs.

So I’m more than happy with that. But in summer the house is very warm due to the south facing glazing, so I’m looking into adding a cooling cycle on the heat pump. Not all heat pumps can do this.

Grand

Ursula & Michael Kennan first came across ICF on a television programme. When they decided to build their own home, they realised it really was the building method for them. Michael explains.

Why did you chooseICF?

The end product is a very airtight house with continuous insulation both inside and outside the house. That keeps energy bills to a minimum. Our airtightness test showed our house is very near passive even though we hadn’t planned for this.

For us, the main other benefits include:

� Relatively quick build.

� Because the ICF blocks are lightweight, it’s a lot easier for workmen – less manpower required as well.

� We didn’t have to procure structural steel lintels, instead we easily cast our own structural lintels for our large openings such as the sliding door and apex window on site. This saved on both waiting time and cost.

� Our house is very soundproof with little to no exterior noise –the only drawback to this is it can be difficult hearing a car arrive on the street.

� With ICF, you can achieve any exterior finish and we went with a silicone render.

How did you pickyour supplier?

Just before we got planning passed, I visited a couple of ICF builds at different stages and was impressed. We got a couple of prices from ICF contractors, and thought one was very reasonable so we just went with them. We didn’t even bother pricing a standard concrete block build.

The ICF block has a 75mm inner and outer layer of insulation with a 150mm cavity with reinforced internal plastic webs. U-Value of our block is 0.2W/ sqmK.

Any curve ballsduring the build?

After pouring the concrete, recheck all the walls to ensure they are still plumb. We had a slight issue with one of our walls slightly going off plumb during the pour and had to be pulled back in before the concrete had set. It wasn’t a big deal, but it could have been if the walls weren’t rechecked after the pour.

When pouring the concrete, ensure all walls and openings are firmly braced to support the weight of the wet concrete. Again, we had a slight issue with an internal concrete block wall not being tied in perfectly to the external ICF wall, again a simple fix but was something that needed to be sorted and something to watch out for.

Any other tips for asmooth ICF build?

Know that the foundations need to be level to ensure the first row of block sits neatly on top of the foundation. I was constantly checking the levels were correct and we had no issues with the foundations when I had them screeded.

If using concrete block for internal walls, ensure they are correctly tied into the exterior ICF walls. Also double check all internal room dimensions. You can’t ever be too well prepared!

Did you do any DIY onthe ICF?

Our self-build was a direct labour build and I did some of the smaller ICF work, such as insulating around the ends of the trusses but the main build was left to the contractor.

Any downsides tohaving chosen ICF?

We probably didn’t realise that one downside to having an ICF house is that the mobile phone signal can be limited because of the dense structure and insulation.

Follow the rest of Ursula & Michael’s journey on Instagram @crockanboy_selfbuild

Selfbuild

Timeline

Apr 2021

Build start, foundations in

May 2021

ICF blocks to first floor, first concrete pour, internal concrete block walls

Jun 2021

First floor slabs, ICF upper walls up

Jul 21

ICF upper walls poured, roof trusses in

Aug 21

Internal walls and roof structure finished

Sep 21

Roof covering, timber cladding, ceiling joists

Oct 21

First fix, roof finished Nov 21

Windows and doors in, spray foam roof

Dec 21

External render start, second fix

Jan 22

Internal plastering done Feb 22 Underfloor in Mar 22

Screed, external render finished with topcoat

Apr 22

Tiling downstairs

May 22 Kitchen installed Jun 22

Internal doors, laminate upstairs, bathroom tiles

Jun 22 Moved in Jul 22

Utility, bathrooms finished Aug 22 Kitchen worktop in

Upside down house

Anita and Brian Joyce built themselves a contemporary country home with farmhouse elegance written all over it. Brian shares what his experience of building it with ICF was like.

TipsHave all components on site for the ICF and reinforcement steel, before starting as production delays can slow down the build.

Pay particular attention to the joints between the wall plate and roof, the ridge and the verge at the gable as these are the points that can compromise airtightness.

Sink plywood into the external ICF anywhere you want to put fixings such as lights before you render it as this makes life easier down the line.

No need for passive sills, concrete sills will work fine with correct insulation and damp proof course.

Consider the aesthetics of internal walls. We created wide stud walls to match the doorways in the ICF walls. This meant we had to allow for the extra width of these internal structural walls.

Tell us about yourproject.

The site had two old stone buildings so we had those as inspiration for the design of our new home. The exterior is a mix of render and stone cladding. I did a lot of the work myself as I’m a joiner by trade.

Why did you chooseICF as your buildmethod?

We chose ICF because the simplicity of the construction appealed to me and the risk of thermal bridges and damp ingress were reduced drastically. It also reduces the drying time. It slashed costs too, especially around the large corner windows and sliding door as there was no need for structural steel.

I was building this house myself within a tight timeframe so being able to contract the ICF to the one contractor saved me

time and represented a reduced labour requirement.

What is the build up?

It’s a fully wrapped EPS build. We chose a passive raft foundation (300mm EPS), and for the walls 150mm ICF blocks on the outside leaf, 50mm internal leaf with a 150mm concrete core. We went with an ICF roof too, 350mm EPS, because this removed the need for an airtightness membrane and attic insulation, and also to speed up the build. Our ICF supplier poured our upper floor concrete deck too.

Overall we have an average U-value on the build of 0.15W/sqmK and achieved an airtightness test result of 1.556 m3/hr/sqm. The build took a total of 14 months – we started in June 2020 and completed it in August 2021.

Favourite feature?

The king roof trusses crafted out of Douglas fir. I did those myself. They serve a structural purpose to support the vaulted section of ceiling, and also add style and warmth to the interior. The roof is also supported by a steel beam in the attic.

For more about Brian and Anita’s project, follow their journey @upsidedown.icfbuild

Overview

Plot size: 1 acre Bedrooms: 4 House size: 2,500 sqft Heating and hot water: air to water heat pump

Ventilation: centralised mechanical with heat recovery BER: A1

The kitchen is upstairs

Selfbuild

Payback time

Construction manager Stephen and accountant Lisa were well placed to self-build their family home. Here Stephen O’Hanlon shares his experience building with ICF on a budget.

How did the projectget started?

I’ve been in construction all my life. I am a multi trade person: I did a full apprenticeship as an electrician before moving to bricklaying and finally joinery. Unfortunately I had an accident and hurt my shoulder in 2009, resulting in having to swap the tools for project management. It was while completing my degree in construction project management, when Lisa and I were living in Glasgow, that I discovered ICF in the context of a sustainability course.

Then due to family reasons we decided to move back home to Ireland in 2020 and started to look at putting this research into practice by designing a local sustainable building, with very little energy consumption.

Tell us about the site and the designphase.

We bought a site with existing stables, riding arena and an existing block foundation for £67k. There was planning

permission for a full house on this, however it was not to our liking so we made a fresh application.

The house we designed used the original footprint already built to subfloor level. We felt we had paid plenty for the site at the time and didn’t want to then have to start and redo £20K of foundations. The house has deep foundations due to the gradient of the site.

Our choice of ICF meant we saved on expensive structural steel supports. We have a large window opening with a corner detail – with a traditional block house we would have had to compromise on making the reveal double what we wanted, and paid thousands in structural steel. With ICF the additional cost was just four 25mm rebar and two posts to make cast concrete heads.

ICF GUIDE / CO TYRONE PROJECT

TipsSet aside more than 10 per cent for contingency. We found our estimate was not enough.

12 months in a mobile is long enough. Two and half years is too long – we can vouch for it!

Stay on top of the numbers. It’s ridiculously easy to spend more so price around and don’t be afraid to haggle.

Don’t panic. ICF looks unstable before the concrete is poured, and that’s the way it’s meant to be. A top tip before you pour the concrete, check you have fixing points for plasterboard around window reveals - you may need to put in some timber before pouring the concrete.

You won’t need a fire. We liked the idea of having a fire but now that we’re in, the stove is probably never going to be used.

Be prepared for delays outside of your control. Although ICF is a quick build, trying to be in in less than 12 months can be extremely stressful. If you’re one of the first people building with ICF in your area, know that you may encounter delays getting building control or building professionals on board.

How was the ICF project managed?

Because Lisa is an accountant and I’m a project manager, this was always going to be a self-build. We used a local architect to draw our house. Myself and Lisa had this all planned out already and had a fair idea of what we wanted. I had supervised the building of enough houses over the years to have seen common mistakes and tried not to replicate any of these.

I finished up my job in

England working as a project manager for a construction firm to give me the free time to work on our self-build. I was on site every day alongside each subcontractor, assisting them to reduce costs.

We didn’t want to spend money on hiring equipment, so we purchased our own 13t digger and dumper along with a set of pallet forks to use for the construction phase.

After that we set a limit of a 25 mile radius where possible for supplies and materials. Ironically, the only exception was the ICF which came from Dublin. We also used local tradespersons, paid on a day rate.

Any issues withinsurance, getting a mortgage, or anyother curveballs?

It was only later in our build that I realised some people were having issues. We never did –we went through our insurance broker without any problems. We had issues with the mortgage in the sense that our surveyor undervalued the house,

possibly because he wasn’t familiar with ICF. This in turn meant we were dealing with

restricted cashflow throughout the build as the mortgage is tied in with the valuation.

We did run into delays getting building control to sign off on our drawings. The local council here, Mid Ulster, apparently had never seen an ICF house before and perhaps struggled with the concept of change. I had to get additional engineer reports and sign off, then pay to get these calculations confirmed before they would grant us approval.

It took the intervention of a local MLA and the fact that the G10 summit was taking place on sustainability in Glasgow at the time, to get my house over the line. Hopefully now that they have seen an ICF house built, it should make it easier for anyone else planning an ICF build.

Did the budgetguide your decisionmaking?

Yes, we based our decision making on cost versus payback. It was all about energy consumption. We analysed how much the additional costs for our decisions would benefit us in the future. Lisa took into account interest rates when working out the true costs of products, and how if paying extra at the construction stage would save us in the future.

This helped us decide on the solar panels and heating system. We went with gas heating in the form of a bulk tank. An air to water heat pump was too expensive and we felt there were too many horror stories online where people had massive electricity bills and still had a cold house.

We went with gas over oil as gas burns more cleanly, thus keeping the boiler cleaner and running more efficiently over time.

The solar panels we went for only justified their cost when we went with the inline panels. This meant we didn’t have to slate most of the south facing side of our roof, saving the cost of buying and installing 600 slates.

How about the building fabric?

We chose a 300mm ICF block for the walls. Lisa did the numbers on the 350mm block and didn’t feel the extra cost was justified in the better insulation value. We then subcontracted the ICF construction to a local outfit.

As a project manager, I concentrated on quality during the build. Trying to ensure as little thermal bridging as possible. For example the first course of blocks on the slab were thermal blocks to reduce thermal bridging from the uninsulated slab.

The chimney, two courses below the celling, was built of thermal block right through the attic and to the lead tray. I used 25mm phenolic sheets of insulation under my joists, taped and sealed with foil tape, before plasterboarding. We drylined all ceilings and walls, it was all tape and jointing – no skim coat.

We used 400mm of rockwool in the attic, leaving soffit vents around the roof to allow the roof space to breathe. The hip roof design has a cold roof space (insulated at the floor level). All electrical conduits, cables and openings were sealed with proprietary sealers to prevent drafts.

The house was watertight with windows and doors arriving within a 12 week timeframe. This allowed us to continue to work away inside all through winter. All windows were also sealed with airtightness tape.

Guide

How did the material priceincreases affect your build?

Selfbuild

Timeline

Our initial costings were done early 2020, before Covid and the material price rises. Originally, the cost of a traditional block built house only represented a saving of 5 per cent (to our specification). But when we added in preliminary costs for scaffolding, site accommodation and the fact that we would be living in a mobile home during the build, this was not worth the saving.

At the time, we had priced

our build at £230K including a 10 per cent contingency reserve. We hoped this was going to do most of the outside to a basic standard however from May 2020 the prices on materials started to rise very quickly.

We had prices for roof trusses go from £4k to near £8k, plasterboard went from £5.10 per sheet to £7.80 per sheet. Concrete, rebar and labour all rose significantly. It became impossible to price

materials any further than seven days out.

This left us making a few cost cutting decisions on site, although we tried not to cut costs on structural materials but rather on replaceable internal finishes. The only things that are outstanding now are landscaping and some internal finishes like painting.

Follow

and Stephen’s story on Instagram

A

build

Robbie Ingram and Ciara Ryan built a south facing, storey and a half, ICF home. Ciara had the site, and Robbie the know how.

Why did you choose ICF?

I worked in construction for four years in ICF. I had good contacts with our ICF supplier so I used their block on my own house. The block I used is made up

of 75mm polystyrene on the outside 150mm cavity and 75mm polystyrene on the inside with an overall U-Value of 0.2W/sqmK.

The block is Irish made with the webs being made from 100 per cent recycled plastic.

For me it was a no brainer to build with ICF as I would have no labour costs and I had access to the bracing system plus I had experienced colleagues to help on pour day. It’s so important to have experience there on pour day so if there’s a problem, it can be dealt with quickly.

ICF also achieves a far higher thermal, sound and fire performance standard. It has a much lower cost for comparable performance than any other building system available today. A house built with ICF easily meets building regulations requirements for airtightness, junction and thermal bridging.

What are yourgeneral tips for asuccessful ICF job?

The first thing is to get an engineer that has experience with ICF. Otherwise they’ll over-spec everything to cover themselves. Such as specifying too much steel for example. The problem with too much steel is concrete will find it hard to flow through walls.

I’d also advise not to take on ICF yourself if you’ve no experience. I’ve seen it go wrong/ blowouts and it gets messy and you lose a lot of concrete. You only get one chance with concrete.

Guide

Selfbuild

Timeline

August 2020

Foundations, ICF rising walls built, first concrete pour, waste pipes in floor, concrete blocks laid externally to carry stone, whacking under subfloor, sand, radon barrier, subfloor poured, shipping container storage unit arrives on site, concrete block delivery for internal walls, ICF block delivery, ground floor ICF walls start going up.

September 2020

ICF blocks up to first floor level in three days, top block cut down for upper floor concrete slabs, scaffolding goes up, ICF window heads and front door arch (20mm reinforced steel over the front door arch – when poured it forms a lintel), bracing, second concrete pour from three loads of concrete, hollow core slabs sit on top of the floated concrete with the 12mm steel bars acting as starter bars to link the ground floor and first floor, internal block floor walls go up (four inch slot cut out of the ICF to take blocks).

October 2020

Single storey gable wall goes up, guide rafters go up to build up feature window, removal of temporary window sills to measure up the sills, stairs and concrete slabs arrive on site, RSJs lifted into place to carry the gable and the slabs, stairs and 25 slabs installed, electricity poles arrive on site.

November 2020

Joints between the upper floor slabs filled with concrete, ICF second storey walls go up, upper storey gable rafters and ICF walls go up, feature window ICF walls fully built and reinforced by placing 20mm steel bars into the cavity before the concrete goes in. Walls braced ready for pouring.

December 2020

Third concrete pour, upper storey walls now ready for wall plate. ICF work is done.

January 2021

ICF braces off and all timber strapping off. ESB poles installed.

March 2021

ICF stops hacked out of the external wall to allow for bridging for the gable rafters, window sills fitted, upstairs internal concrete block walls go up, roof timbers arrive on site. Started the roof over the downstairs bedroom to allow the block layers to finish upstairs. Formed a small door in the ICF before pouring to allow access into the small attic over the room, to save on putting in attic stairs. This small door is hidden in a wardrobe in the upstairs back room. Rafters cut for main roof, steel goes in to carry the ridge in living room which has a vaulted ceiling.

April 2021

Main roof is up, scaffolding up in the main house to get the ridge up and rafters on. Chasing wall with hot knife. Plumbing started and ducting in for the mechanical heat recovery system. Priming the support steel in the window.

May 2021

Slating completed on main roof, single storey ends of the house to be slated after the walls above are plastered. Suspended ceilings go up. Stonework (dark limestone) starts, base coat of external plaster. Windows and doors in.

June-September 2021

Rafters spray foamed, final coat of plaster on the front of the house along with the plinth done in a grey colour similar to the sills. Stonework and external plaster complete, scaffold down.150mm PIR floor insulation installed, plastic laid, underfloor heating pipes laid. Floor screed poured over pipes. airtightness membrane on attic ceilings and all the windows and doors taped. Electrical conduits sealed. Wastewater system installation, storm water pipes with soak pit.

October 2021 to July 2022

Internal work including kitchen and bathrooms, moved in at the end of it.

ICF GUIDE / CO TIPPERARY PROJECT

Also if walls are wavey, your plasterer will have to make up the difference to get a flush wall. Plaster for ICF isn’t cheap. When you’re on site, there are a few things to keep on top of, including:

� When ICF is delivered be careful how you store it. It’s safer not to have the bales stacked as they can blow down and get damaged.

� Don’t unwrap too much ICF at a time as weather can change quickly and wind can take it.

� When moving ICF around the site, be careful not to damage the lugs. Every damaged block costs money.

� Keep all the off cuts of ICF until the end as you’ll more than likely need them for something. This saves you cutting a full block for the sake of a small bit. A sheltered part of the site or container/shed is best for offcuts.

� Use up offcuts as you go, to stop them building up.

� Don’t cut corners when bracing the walls (especially corners, as this is where most of the pressure is). These are the only thing keeping your walls plumb during the pour.

� Before each pour, allow walls to lie in slightly as the concrete will naturally push them out. It’s much harder to pull the walls back in than to push them out with your braces/ push pulls.

� Make sure you know your heights for scaffolders. The last thing you want is to be at an uncomfortable height pouring.

� Don’t order the concrete too wet. Water can be added on site if needed. If it’s too wet, it can cause bursts and it’s impossible to pour gables with watery concrete.

� Make sure have a concrete poker/ vibrator on site. If concrete comes right, you might not need it but I’d always advise poking over window and door openings where you have plenty of steel.

� I’d advise getting concrete into the walls as soon as they are ready. I’ve heard of gables falling down in heavy wind and insurance not paying out.

Follow Robbie & Ciara’s build on Instagram @icf_newselfbuild_ graffin

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