Background to the renovation works

Reason for works

The house had already been fitted with fibre quilt attic insulation, proprietary draught stripping to the sash windows and a modern efficient condensing gas boiler located in an outhouse. The works being studied were undertaken following the cold winter of 2010/2011 when it was found to be difficult to heat the house to any comfort level and ice formed on the inside face of the windows. The cement facing to the façade plinth base appeared to be causing spalling to external brickwork. There was also a desire to modify the layout of the ground floor of the return.

Design approach

The owner was influenced by property-themed television programmes and media coverage of approaches to upgrading period houses. The owner wanted the conservation of the architectural character of the house to inform the works undertaken and consequently appointed an architect with conservation experience.  An energy audit identifying areas of potential upgrade and their likely impact was initially undertaken. The works were exempt from requiring planning permission as they were internal only (this would not have been the case if the building was a Protected Structure).  A package of works was developed which was felt would yield the best energy savings with minimum impact on the heritage value of the house, particularly the principal rooms. The idea that further works that would have a greater heritage impact (e.g., thermal lining of rooms with significant cornice features) could be considered at a later stage was discussed. This was considered at design stage so that any future work would not result in the undoing of what was done previously. Essentially, a phased approach was discussed – further works could be considered following an assessment of the impact of the works in hand on thermal comfort levels.

Procurement

The architect undertook a selected tender and a main contractor was appointed to carry out the works. A conservation joiner was appointed separately for the works to the sash windows.

Grant applications

SEAI grants were not applied for as the insulation measures proposed were to part of the house only (it was also felt that it was not appropriate to aim to achieve a U value of 0.27W/m2K to traditionally constructed walls as per the SEAI code of practice).