Not again! I feel a bit of a rant coming on!

Geez! I am tired of self-builders putting on "the poor mouth".

The argument to let unskilled, inexperienced and unsupervised persons build
private houses is unsustainable. They may not like it but that is the way the industry
is going. You need professional advice and skilled labourers and diligent inspections
to get it done right!
Gone are the days when farm labourers who build pig stys and cattle sheds can turn
their hands to building houses and extensions and produce a compliant building.
Even trained tradesmen, who were able to keep abreast of cavity wall construction
in the 80's and 90's cannot build Part L compliant buildings without professionally
prepared documents.
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But self-builders? They're magic! Wave the wand and their buildings are perfect!
Even using Uncle Joe the carpenter who hasn't swung a hammer in 20 years to
supervise Michael the blockie who never did his time to become a qualified
bricklayer, they can turn out compliant houses.
Sorry I'm not buying it. External render covers up a multitude of mistakes.
The self-builders argument against using professionals and competent contractors
invokes everything from Ye Olde Oirish building tradition, family members who need
the work, to acts of God, giving kids a childhood to remember, cats, dogs, teddy
bears and fuzzy warm feelings of home and hearth!
But that's all just waffle - in the end it is all about money and what they can get for
it and what they can get away with not doing to conserve it - not quality or
compliance.
===
Compliance is often the product of advice from whatever specialist supplier is to
hand. The window guy selling K-Glass or somesuch. The External Insulation guy who
can quote u-values in his sleep.
These islets of competence do not make a masterpiece because it is how the whole
building goes together that matters. Part L is not the only Building Regulation. In
fact, as the occupants of a terrace of houses in Millfield Manor recently discovered,

when the chips are down in a fire situation, the strategies used to achieve Part - if
improperly understood or installed - are part of the Life Safety problem!
How many of these self-obsessed builders bother to put fire hoods over
downlighters to preserve the 30 mins FR required to protect the 1st Floor sleeping
occupancy? How many realise that 600mm of insulation on the flat in the attic will
lead to condensation in the void above? How many leave out the Radon gas barrier
and sump to shave a few shillings off the costs.
How many put the fire door and 100mm step between the house the the garage?
How many know the dangers of having an oversized wood-pellet store in an Irish
Climate? How many have non-compliant stairs to their non-compliant attic
accommodation?
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When you look at the size and scale of some of these builds (2,700 to 3,500 sq.ft or
250 to 325 sq.m) , you realize that the money saved is not so they can afford to put
on a roof or even build and extra room or afford to fit the windows before they move
in.
Its about finishing the driveway (the DRIVEWAY! I ask you!) or the entrance pillars or
putting in the Aga Cooker or the French Kitchen.
This creeping non-compliance is the real reason self-builders don't want
professionals hanging around - self-builders don't like to be told when they are
breaking the law to save a few Euro. They ESPECIALLY don't like it when they don't
know anything about the laws they are breaking in the first place.
After all, that's the cute hoor's prerogative isn't it? Break the law and get away with
it and sure what's the problem?
"Sure my dad's house has no foundation and the roof is supported by a banister rail
and it never did US any harm - Hahahahahahahahaha!"
===
Professional attendances and fees are not envisaged because to do so would get in
the way of the self-aggrandizement of these mini-empire builders. Professional
oversight is not required because they might see and stop the non-compliant
activities - WASTING THE SELF-BUILDERS HARD-BORROWED OR INHERITED
MONEY!!!

"The Bank will only lend us 100,000 Euro so that's all we're paying. Can ye do it for
that, can ye?"
And before all the indignant and hurt wannabee self-builders and mini-imperialists
chime in on this post wondering how I DARE voice these comments...
Well boys and girls, I was one of the go-to guys on the "Sites, Planning, Self-Builds
and Extensions" Forum on www.askaboutmoney.com for a while. Long enough to
learn the foibles and mistakes of the typical self-builder who finds himself or herself
in trouble.
But you never saw an increase in their knowledge base. Each one came to the same
problems de novo.
Maybe things have changed since. They certainly know how to lobby.
But do they know how to build?