"Deep Retrofit: adding External Insulation to a house in Clontarf Dublin 3 ."
This case study is one of a series produced by www.wallinsulation.ie to illustrate aspect of external Wall Insulation projects.
HES Grants and mixed solutions
The SEI HES scheme is a flat rated scheme. The SEAI pay out a fixed amount of money per measure, regardless of the size of your home. This can be a great advantage for smaller homes as the HES grant for External Insulation is 4 000 euro.
This money can go a long way for a single story mid terrace cottage. 
In a mid terrace house normally 50% of the house is the front facade and 50% is the rear facade.
In many cases there is also a rear extension which meant that more than 50% of the wall area is to the rear. When it comes to applying for the grant more than 50% of the wall area of the house is covered with External Insulation and so the householder qualifies for the full 4000 euro SEAI grant.
This can reduce the payback period for a deep retrofit project to a very short time!
External Insulation in Clontarf
For example we recently externally insulated a home in Clontarf. The house opens directly onto the street (IE there is no front garden) and has attractive brick detailing on the front. This made internally insulating the front wall an attractive option.
Normally we avoid internal insulation, but when deep retrofitting a 100 year old house that people are living in compromise and common sense are necessary.
Using Polyisocyanurate insulation externally
To the rear we deployed an 80 mm layer of Polyisocyanurate insulation. This reduced the depth of insulation as much as possible.
In most homes external insulation takes up 110 mm (4 and 1/3 inches) by using the Polyisocyanurate insulation we brought that down to 85 mm (3 and 1/3 inches).
Saving 25 mm (or an inch) may not be significant in most homes, but in some cases it is vital. That can be the difference between being able to keep your wheelie bin behind the house or not.
Polyisocyanurate insulation is more expensive than "platinum" or Graphite Enhanced Expanded Polystyrene which is most commonly used. But we are proud to be certified to be able to use the widest range of materials to do the best job for our clients.
Application of External Insulation
Fitting Polyisocyanurate Insulation (PIR) as a part of an External Wall Insulation project is unusual. PIR is not approved for use with any other system than PowerWall, and most projects in Ireland are completed using the standard and cheap EPS. With the PIR boards a longer drying time has to be permitted once the first layer of adhesive has been applied to these PIR boards. This can slow down the deep retrofit project. But otherwise the project goes on much the same as before.
The PIR insulation is secured in place by adhesive and a mechanical fixing. We still need to Extruded Polystyrene for the plinth etc.
In this case we finished the project with a fairly smooth white acrylic render on most of the walls and the plinth was finished with a very smart black acrylic render.
We also offer a full range of powder coloured window cills, where our customers can specifiy any of the RAL colours for their new cills.
Click here to return to examples of external insulation projects in the Dublin Area.
If you would like to learn more about External Wall Insulation please contact us now to learn how your home can benefit..