Traditional Irish Mud/Stone Houses

MazyMo

Does anyone know anything about traditional Irish mud houses constructed from a mixture of stones and rammed soil, and then covered in plaster.

I happened to notice one for sale, so was just wondering if anyone happens to know any problems with such houses.

Is it difficult to obtain insurance for these houses?

Victor

One would wonder about (a) damproofing, (b) insulation (c) structural integrity and while hopefully it would be cheap, I imagine it would involve a lot of work.

Occidental

It will lack damp proof coursing, which may be a problem depending on where it's located. If you're planning on extending it, most builders have a preference for knocking and rebuilding from scratch(Ireland's breeze block mentality). No specific insurance problems exist, as long as you're not going to thatch it.


BTW, if it's in one of the rural tax break area's, you will get 100 percent of the restoration costs in tax allowances over 10 years.

MazyMo

Thanks for this guys!

Do regular old stone houses have/require damp proof coursing just as a block/brick house would?

(I don't mean the mud & stones houses I mentioned before)?

If a house does not have damp proof coursing, is this usually difficult/expensive to install?

Victor

By dampness, I was referring to penetrating dampness through the wall from rain, not rising dampness that comes up through the walls from the ground.

Originally posted by MazyMo
If a house does not have damp proof coursing, is this usually difficult/expensive to install?

A specialist can install a chemical DPC, it means removing a lot of plaster / skirting boards, but is generally effective.

If it is an old floor (concrete / stone), there may not be a damp proof membrance under it, meaning you will have to take out the whole floor and replace it (not as essential if it is a raised timber floor, but these have insulation / ventilation issues).

Borzoi

Be careful....


Older mortars need to breathe, placing a DPC can cause the mortar to detiorate and crumble.

You might also get dew forming within the wall too, which will destroy any plaster.

It will really depend on age and materials.

Old houses, fun and games...

ednwireland

We bought an old stone house in Donegal most of the damp problems were from poor guttering and bad outside drainage (blocked field drain caused stream to run round two walls of the house) its not got a damp course, injecting stone walls doesn't tend to work, get the drainage away from the house sorted and you'll be spending your money much more wisely imho. you have to watch as some old houses have a slate damp proof course and these can get broken esp. if you've got pilers or rock crushers working nearby (usually from road works). seen it happen.

Gearoid

The one great advantage with houses built with traditional materials is that the walls breathe or let air passs through them. therefore if ur in a good location dampness mightn't be much of a problem. A big disadvantage that is attributed to concrete houses is that they close u off to the outside air and have been blamed for the increased amount of Asthama cases in Ireland a disease that was apparently unknown when the traditional house was the norm. If I were you I'd try and contact someone who's a specialist in clay/straw/stone construction.

Heres a site I found with links on the type of thing you're looking for

[URL=http://]http://homepage.eircom.net/~thehollies/pages/naturalbuild.html[/URL]

Beir bua!

Victor

Originally posted by Gearoid
A big disadvantage that is attributed to concrete houses is that they close u off to the outside air and have been blamed for the increased amount of Asthama cases in Ireland a disease that was apparently unknown when the traditional house was the norm.

And neither was SARS.... there are more causes to asthma than different construction materials, like urban living, our obsession with cleanliness and so on.

Gearoid

Victor

And neither was SARS.... there are more causes to asthma than different construction materials, like urban living, our obsession with cleanliness and so on.

Yes but these things come out of the same thing, Urban living- to make urban houses they used new naterials, the desire to make everything cleaner was solved by getting rid of the perceived dirty materials but yes you are right they are other causes to Asthma I'm just pointing out that using traditional materials can counter this.