"Retrofitting External Insulation to a mid terraced concrete built local authority house in Crumlin, Dublin 8."
3000 homes were built in Crumlin during the 1930 a massive project by anybodies standards! At the same time Rialto and Dolphins Barn added 610 more homes to the mix.
The reason for this large scale building program was to relieve the terrible overcrowding problem in the core of Dublin City. In the 1926 census it was estimated that there were nearly 15,000 families of three or more living in one room accommodation.
At the time there was a lengthy debate about building houses so far from the 
city and there were allegations of the Dublin Tramway Company engaging in immoral practices by raising tram fairs for these newly built areas. A debate which was revived again during the Celtic tiger and will no doubt be revived in the next boom.
To give you an idea of how Crumlin was viewed at the time consider this quotation from the Irish Press in 1936, in which Crumlin is described in idyllic, almost Utopian terms by contrast with the tenements of the inner city.
"Up here, in this airy, wind-swept, sun-bathed plateau, far from the squalor that palled their earlier times, there is being written for those reprieved slum denizens a chapter in what might well be titled Paradise Regained .... Here are flowers instead of cluttered garbage and debris; songbirds instead of stifling effluvium of open drains; the robustious laughter of happy, healthy children instead of the querulous moaning of ailing little ones; hope instead of despair."
Planned and designed by the local authority these homes in Crumlin were state of the art. There were three main house types: the Mk 1, the Mk 2 and Mk 3 the first being a two-bed mid-terrace, the second a three-bed mid-terrace, and the third being an end-of-terrace which is usually 3-bed.
Most of the houses are built of solid concrete, making them incredibly solid, very badly insulated, and completely sound-proofed from neighbours. The original interiors featured quality carpentry in doors, architraving, skirting and stairs.
While there is no fear of these concrete homes ever falling down this lack of insulation makes them very expensive to heat. The simplest and best solution is to attached a layer of insulation to the outside of these cast concrete walls. The amount of insulation can vary from house to house according to the householders wishes. Roughly speaking the minimum should be 100 mm of GEEP to match the 2007 building regulations. There is no maximum limit to the amount of insulation, but beyond 200 mm in our mild maritime climate is not very useful.
For these Mk1 & Mk2 mid terraced homes the original external wall area is about 50 sq meters. Today the Irish Government gives a 4000 euro grant which works out at 80 euro a sq meter in these homes. This explains why we can offer householders great deals to Externally Insulate these homes.
If you would like to learn more about External Wall Insulation please contact us now to learn how your home can benefit.
Click here to return to examples of external insulation projects in the Dublin Area.