And more work.

They say Time flies when you're having fun.. seeing as this week flew I must be having fun ! I didn't think beginning rushed off one's feet was the definition of fun.

Another very busy week which didn't seem to produce much in the was of significant progress on anything, a few sketch proposals for jobs here and there, a few letters and then there was a few mapping issues to be sorted out. Boy do I hate clients who decide to change maps and boundaries and then never think of the long term effects. I spent the afternoon checking maps prepared over 3 years ago.... :(

This week saw the latest Technical Guidance Document L relating to dwellings published. It brings with it many new changes, both in terms of design and how we will construct dwellings. Air tightness beginning the major new element for the builders. The publication was timely, as on Wednesday night I was in Limerick to attend Homebond's Right on the Site seminar. As always it was very informative and well worth making the effort attending. It covered many of the new technologies associated with Part L, Air tightness, Sustainable Energy and BER (Building Energy Rating). My conclusions are that it will be worthwhile doing the BER assessor training, as I design houses in the future.

CIAT have started a weekly email effort with information for members, which is great, hopefully some Irish news will make its way into it. Speaking of CIAT, its time I went and done some more of my POP record.

Where does the time go!

Another week almost down and I'm wondering where it when to? I had loads of work to do and it sees as if I have as much to do at the end of the week as I had at the start !

Well I suppose the best part of a day was spend revising the house plans for one client.... revisions and further revisions had to be made to the internal layout. Then there was the revisions to the scheme in Ardfinnan, I suppose I did make progress on this project, now that I think of it, seeing has I have the amended house type designed, just a few elevations to tidy up.... Hopefully I'll be finished tomorrow, as the programme is to have the planning application lodged on 15th February and the engineering consultants have yet to receive the revised site layout to commence their works. The drawings also have to go to the landscape architects for their design proposals.

Then there was a very letters and a review of a RSA undertaken during the week as well so I suppose it hasn't been a bad week's work so far on reflection

The week's events at work

First full week of the year and what a one it was ! Early in the week I received, instructions to hold off on preparing tender documentation on a mixed development , in Cashel. I think the client is getting a little anxious that the development will be over budget. I have a bad feeling that it may be the first of many jobs to be put on hold/not go ahead in the coming year.... hope I'm wrong.




On Thursday I had a meeting with one of our developer clients , and a potential purcasher of a new large house((image above). Apart from wanting some major changes internally to the ground floor, the main issue was energy efficiency and how the house will achieve a BER A rating. At least most of the fenestration is located to capitailise on the solar gain. One for the energy consultants.

Just as we are getting our head around the current elements of the energy building regulations, a new lot are coming into effect in July of this year and with air tightness the new focus. And further amendments to the same element are planned for 2010.

We arrived into the office this morning with 100mm of surface water on the street. The heavy rain over the last year meant that the River Suir burst its banks yesterday and the water is starting to back up on the neighbouring streets. The ground floor of the office has been flooded badly twice in the last 8 years. With more rain forecast over the weekend, we decided as a precaution, to lift everything off the ground floor of our offices, include taking the doors off the hings. Exterme actions, possibly but its better to be safe than sorry. So Monday next the morning will be spend putting things back to normal, assuming the office is not flooded and is accessable.

Tomorrow sees me travel to Dublin for the first CIAT Centre meeting of 2008.

Recent Project

The above is a light industrial/warehousing unit which I was working on last year. We were ready to lodge the proposal with the planning authority, when it was discovered that there was a problem with the title of the site. The issue is now, almost resolved (thankfully) and we will be lodging the planning application in the near future.Planning should be straight forward so I expect that we will be starting on site in early summer... but you can never tell.


I expect "the world and its mother" will be wanting to price the construction of the project, as slowdown in the construction industry continues here. We have an average of one new guy a day ringing up to price projects, many of whom we have never heard of.... no hope of them getting any work from us I'm afraid.

Sketch proposal of dwelling

I have recently started experimenting with Impression, software developed by Autodesk. It gives AutoCAD drawings a hand drawn effect, which is ideal for presentation of concept drawings. The software is still in development, and has some bugs, the print quality from the software itself is poor for example.

I have found, however that printing the final image to a .pdf file produces a better result or saving the image as a .jpg. Different styles can be applied to different layers so one can of a combination of effects.

Software Software ....... everywhere

In the last week we received delivery of our new software. On Tuesday of last week NBS Scheduler arrived. We'll be using this to assist us in generating specifications for projects. After spending a few hours examining it I have figured out how to use it.... Now for the real test.... to put it into practice on a project. Its content appears to be sufficent for what we do, which is important, I would have got my ass kicked if it didn't cover our basic bread and butter work.

Yesterday I took delivery of AutoCAD's Revit Architecture Suite. Haven't had a chance to use it yet, although I did manage to find time to install it on my laptop. For the moment I'll work thought the tutorials to get familiar with the software before attending a training course. The best way of learning is of course to start a project, but as we're on the run in to Christmas, the pressure will be on to get stuff out in hurry. New Year new beginnings or that's the plan anyway.

Plan Expo Visit

Last Thursday I visited Plan Expo and attended the seminar on Alternative House Building Types. The exhibition itself , had a large selection of stands devoted to energy efficiency, from heat exchangers to air tightness membranes. Many of the more traditional exhibitors were missing, no Velux windows, no Moy Materials to name a few.

The seminar on alternative house building types was worth attending. Gerry McCaughey, Chief Executive, Kingspan Century Ltd as expected spent the afternoon telling us that timber frame is the future in housing building and that the concrete block is on the way out. What a load of sh!te. Naturally the concrete representatives disagreed. Each of the building methods have their own advantages and disadvantages and should be examined for individual projects.

The main thing I took from the seminar was, the standard of workmanship on site will have to drastically improve as air-tightness is here to stay whether we like it or not. It was stated that insulation standards are now at the standard where any further reduction in u-values would not have a significant improvement in energy efficiency, however substantial improvements are to be gained by improvements in air tightness of the construction. Off-site construction, where services are integrated into the construction in the factory definitely have the advantages as regards air tightness and quality control.

The question is how well the builders will adopt to the new requirements and at what cost .Time will tell....

Plan Expo

Heading to Plan Expo this week , which is Ireland's largest annual construction show. In the past, I used only visit the event every second year, however it is now necessary to attend every year to keep abreast with new technologies and advancements within the industry. This year there is a zone focused on sustainability, no doubt in response to the growing interest in the area.

As part of this year's visit I will be attending a seminar on Alternative Housebuilding Types which takes place on Thursday afternoon. It should be a useful seminar and hopefully give an insight of how the industry as a whole foresee the future of housing.

While attending the event, I hope to do some networking and gathering information for future CPD events, both for the office and CIAT. Naturally I'll also be looking for information for some projects that are in the pipeline and will be going to tender soon and of course doing some research of products for my own house which is under construction. I will particularly be interested in sustainable elements, solar heating, rainwater harvesting etc, which I am considering to put into the house, might even be ale to twist a few arms and get a few deals or at the very least ensure that the builder isn't going to screw me.

I'll report on my visit next week.

Sketchup for Dummies

I picked up a copy of Google Sketchup for Dummies. It's a typical Dummies book, with loads of basic information. In saying that there's loads of information in it which I don't know, including tips and methods of improving the way I do things ..... so its well worth the €23.70.

CIAT Conference

Friday last 19th October 2007 , all roads brought us to the RDS, in Dublin for CIAT's Conference on POP records. The event was partly orgainised in response to the IATGN's report and recommendation of its members to join both CIAT and RIAI.

While the attendance was only in the region of 70 and nothing like the claimed 1500 members in the IATGN, I think the event was worth while for everyone who attended. I have to say that I found the conference worth while and should be of assistance in completing my POP Record. Many of the key staff of CIAT from City Road were over for the event, including the current President and President Elect, which demonstrates CIAT's commitment to Ireland.