Building high performance homes in Ireland
BUILDING High Performance Homes in Ireland, the first question has to be why build a High Performance Home? We at O’Leary Building & ICF Services believe that HP Homes are more suited towards the majority of people who are looking to build a house in modern Ireland nowadays.
The approach with a HPH is to get as much value for money as possible. The building envelope is a critical part of this and if constructed well will reward its owners for years and years.
Most of us can’t afford to build a Passive House and there is also a point at which you are spending too much money for the rewards, so we at O’Leary Building & ICF Services think that our High Performance Home construction method finds the correct balance between spend and performance.
O’Leary Building Services started constructing new builds at probably one of the worst times you could have ever imagined. When established, O’Leary Building Services was just a block & brick laying service. Then, during the last boom we also offered a groundworks and foundations element, too.
Next up was the recession - that’s the ‘worst timing’ bit - it was decided that in order to survive this we needed to be different, but different alone wouldn’t be enough, we needed to be better; well, in our opinion anyway!
This led to a vast amount of research on how to build better houses. It was our belief that ICF (Insulated Concrete Formwork) offered a far better build structure as it seemed to tick all the boxes. So then came the researching of ICF suppliers, both from a homeowner’s point of view and us the builders’ point of view. From our list, a meeting was arranged with the number 1 supplier, as we saw it, and we knew straight after that meeting this was the company we were interested in moving forward with,
As a result, O’Leary Building Services can now offer clients a High Performance Building Envelope, taking the elements of a standard build that work well and improving other elements so as to give a better overall structure.
High Performance Homes offer many benefits, some of these include; lower bills, healthier living, greater comfort and heat, reduced noise levels etc.
Our HPH building envelope explained:
• Strip Foundations - these have been proven over time to be the best choice for most situations, both from a structural element and value for money (there is the odd occasion that raft foundations are required due to ground conditions) moving on to ...
• ICF rising walls - we do our dead-work in ICF in order to almost entirely eliminate any cold bridge details. This type of foundation system gives almost the same benefits as an insulated raft foundation at a fraction of the costs up next ...
• Floor slab - a well insulated floor slab. There are two options here, really, one being a finished floor with the insulation underneath or the other with a concrete subfloor and insulation sandwiched between it and a floor screed. The target here is to have between 150mm & 300mm of underfloor insulation, depending on the budget then ...
• ICF wall superstructure - these work exceptionally well, offering a superstructure of reinforced mass concrete walls with insulation on both sides, thus having the walls wrapped in insulation and helping to create a much desired airtight, draft proof, well insulated wall system. next ...
• Traditional Timber Roof - with spray foam or sip roof panels - again depending on your budget. For the majority it’s the spray foam option as most of our clients would prefer to put the extra spend of the sip roof system some where else.
All these elements, along with some air tightness, works, giving the home owners an extremely warm, comfortable, draught free home. These homes perform to an extremely high level without having to spend extortionate amounts of money trying to achieve a passive house.
It is also our belief that working with the correct companies when it comes to plumbing/ heating, HRV systems etc, is a vital part in delivering our high performance homes as these elements are very specialized and if done well contribute to our overall builds.
As it turns out, the recession probably helped us with this new venture. It is our opinion that most people building a house during the recession were putting more thought and research into what they were building as they wanted better houses than some of those built during the Celtic Tiger - and who could blame them. So, now, a lot of these people were researching different build types and came across ICF. As you could imagine, there was probably not too many in Cork at this specialized work - so with the help and backing of our ICF supplier we were up and running.
Now, O’Leary Building & ICF Services are celebrating 20 years since being established and offer a variety of different options for home owners. For some we only supply and install ICF Wall Superstructures, for others we offer full builds and for others we offer anything in between. Our aim is that the home owners we work with have houses that perform far beyond their expectations and our high performance home system can achieve all this and more.