Building a house

[sammymaguire]

Get yourself a good trustworthy builder. MMOD are one of the best in the business.

[Minder]

I take it this thread will just turn into an advertisement for building companies?

[Tony Baloney]

I take it this thread will just turn into an advertisement for building companies?

Vote McMullan and O'Donnell #1.

[mannix]

If you do not know the game the best way is to get a builder and get him to write down to the smallest detail what he is doing for your money. It's a good time to build but youbstill need to be on the ball and watching everything, log every penny spent.
Underfloor heating? I have it but advise using rads instead with oil burner.
Insulate like it was going to be freezing every day of the year and you will not be sorry.that's my best advice.
If you do not know about building get a good engineer that will not be shy about ripping them. I did that and they hated him coming to the site which meant he was on their case and it was done right, worth every penny.
You should be sourcing blocks, sand, slate or tile, roof truss,windows,doors,and plasterboard and cement yourself and write down the price from different suppliers. In other words you will be spending a lot of time on the hoof or else on the phone but it will pay you.
Pm me if you want, I just finished building a biggish house.

[thebigfella]

If you building a house and your not going for the generic 1 and half story uninspired design IMO don't put in white PVC windows. Personally I think they are for people with no taste, even though I put them in my Dublin place; but that was more for the low maintenance. 

Do listen to the people on the cheaper kitchens and some fittings. Gone are the days people spend big money on a kitchen expecting it to lat 20 odd years. They are have become as disposable as sofas and modern kitchens go out of fashion very quickly. Spend a bit of extra money on the work surface and doors; it will look every bit as good. No one will ever look inside your cupboards to see where the skeleton came from

[lawnseed]

fit an alarm. dont get the balls for under your soffit lighting they fill up with rain as do the square conical types electricians drill holes in them now before they fit them.. shite

[Tony Baloney]

If you building a house and your not going for the generic 1 and half story uninspired design IMO don't put in white PVC windows. Personally I think they are for people with no taste, even though I put them in my Dublin place; but that was more for the low maintenance. 

Do listen to the people on the cheaper kitchens and some fittings. Gone are the days people spend big money on a kitchen expecting it to lat 20 odd years. They are have become as disposable as sofas and modern kitchens go out of fashion very quickly. Spend a bit of extra money on the work surface and doors; it will look every bit as good. No one will ever look inside your cupboards to see where the skeleton came from

Where did you build your house? A few years ago planners wouldnt have passed anything other than "generic" houses. That's why they were designed and built that way. It's only very recently that planners and architects have both agreed that there is room for some innovation.

[Big Puff]

can vouch for mc mullan and o donnell myself

[supersarsfields]

Prob not much use considering the stage your at at the min, but there is going to be a price hike on most building products from March 1st. And that's across the board. Due to the price of petrol. We're going to start building shortly ( plans are in but not passed yet) but putting the order in tomorrow. We can always cancel it if we hit problems. 

[Family guy]

Pump your cavitys with insulation and also insulate like its goin outa fashion,insulated plasterboard on all external walls,maybe even make the cavity 6inch and pump it

[Main Street]

What's the point in having a cavity in the construction, if you are going to fill it in?

What type of construction are you going for Jim?
whats a stone finish house?  is that a wooden frame house with a stone finish external cladding?

[Family guy]

The cavities bes filled with insulation,pumped insulation seems to be better than the 100m wool insulation,also is faster as the builders can build away without having to worry about putting insulation in as they go along.Some people put insulation when there pouring the concrete at sub floor level,wouldnt bother with it,wait till put it under the finished floor,just make sure to rember to allow for it in your ceiling heights and when setting door frames for the plasterers as i know a fella got in2 a bit of a handling with it,also that latex screed for the finished floor supposed to be good dont know much about it tho

[The Worker]

How much it cost to put a 6 person sauna in your house ?

[mylestheslasher]

I built my house a few years ago. Learnt a lot of things the hard way so I will try and save you the making the same mistakes.

-Before you consider a heat system you must consider 1st how to keep the heat in your house. iInsulation is critical. I strongly suggest you put foam back slab on the inside of your outer walls. 100mm thick stuff would be a good job. This is vital. Never mind pumping walls, that is mostly for old houses and is not as efficient insulatation as on the slab.

- Windows. Do not skimp on windows. Get double or triple glazed, 25mm thick or more. Windows are a hoor for letting in the cold. Get a good company to fit them. Thie cheapest in the south are probably Munster Joinery and they are absolutely useless.

- Sunrooms. Everyone likes the sunroom but beware if you are considering leaving them open plan. They get very hot in summer and cold in winter. If you go for underfloor it can really struggle with rapid temp changes in temperature of rooms.

- Open fires. They are nice and add a nice "feature" to a room. Unfortunately, they also cause drafts and let heat escape. A good alternative is to put a small stove into your fireplace. This will seal your chimney and if you do want to light the stove it will heat the room better than an open fire.

- 2 Story. If you are building a two storey I strongly suggest you go for a hollow core floor and not ply on joists. Putting floors on joists, no matter what dampening you try, will not conceal noise from upstairs.

So now to the heat system. I think anyone with an eye on being efficient has to go for underfloor. It is simply much more efficient than every other system and anyone who tells you otherwise either installed it incorrectly or likes a house that is baking hot. It does have some downsides. You cannot quickly change room temps by say +5 Deg in an hour. Underfloor is a slow steady constant heat. That is why you must be careful about sunrooms and drafts.

Underfloor could be powered by standard oil burner, wood chip or geothermal. Oil is least efficient. Wood chips were all the rage but you need an outside shed for taking bulk delivery and it will need to be really dry (ie have a heating system) as damp wood pellets spells big probs. Geothermal is my choice, ground loop is the best. A Geothermal system, underfloor pipes and cylinders/plumbing will prob cost you in the region of 15-20k (for a 2000sq/ft house approx). Get someone decent to do it. You do not want a cowboy doing this as once it is done it is done!

One other thing I would suggest is to take your time designing the layout of your home. Make a model with cornflakes boxes or whatever. To it right up front cos it is very hard to change. Nearly everyone who builds a house (myself included) was rushing to get out of rented accomodation and regrets certain aspects of design. Try and meet the county planner as that will get you brownie points when he looks at your application.

If you are considering Geothermal then you are effectively using some electricity to heat your house. One way to offset this is to have someone build a wind turbine behind your house (if you have space). This can be wired into a 2nd meter which allows you to sell any energy created back to the ESB as opposed to the older systems which tried to store the electricity in batteries and which couldn't power a kettle. A turbine could be installed for about 15k.

One final thing - what size is your house and what style (cottage, dormer, 2 storey). Your budget may need to be revised, I'm thinking a €150k would be minimum you would spend. Good luck with it!

[Hardy]

Alternatively, if you live in Cavan, just take the pigs into the house for the winter. They are a great source of heat and you can move them from room to room as heating requirements demand.

Cavan people have understood for generations the economics of combined pig farming and central heating. Instead of spending money on oil or coal, you spend it on pigmeal. Then you sell the pigs in the Summer and actually make a profit on the whole deal. It's like being able to sell your ashes for more than you paid for the coal. Plus you can use the manure for growing spuds - free grub as well.

If you don't have pigs ... scrub that - if you live in Cavan, you have pigs.

(Great post, Myles, in all seriousness).