Irish House Oddities

tricky D · 22-10-2015 2:04pm

jester77 wrote: »

What is wrong with this? That's how it works in my house, water is fed into the house through pipes in the basement and it goes direct to all the taps, showers and toilets over 3 floors. There is no pump and there is no problem with pressure.

You'd better make bloody sure all your fittings are brass not plastic, otherwise you might need an emergency plumber (up to €400) when the plastics ones fatigue and crack, usually in the small hours of the morning when mains pressure is highest and you're probably asleep. Not fun at all fighting a flood, despite a good bit of luck when it happened to me.

22-10-2015 2:04pm

Two taps, the whole immersion thing, and the existence in older houses of The Boxroom.

A boxroom is a tiny room that's too small to be a bedroom and too large to be a cupboard. It often has a bed stuffed into it, two sides of which are
jammed into the walls, and there's perhaps one metre clearance around the edges. An inexplicable use of space.

Carpeted bathrooms are still to be found in Ireland too, usually old houses in the sticks. Because you really need something absorbent and unwashable around a toilet!

sbsquarepants · 22-10-2015 2:07pm

Do foreigners not have immersions or something?

What possible benefit would not having an immersion bestow - they are immensely useful devices. Instant showers are all piles of shíte no matter how much they cost, what you want is a pumped shower with an immersion to heat the water - you could never go back to an instant shower once you've experienced the luxury! It's like washing in a warm Niagara falls.:D

buyer95 · 22-10-2015 2:07pm

Candie wrote: »

Two taps, the whole immersion thing, and the existence in older houses of The Boxroom.

A boxroom is a tiny room that's too small to be a bedroom and too large to be a cupboard. It often has a bed stuffed into it, two sides of which are
jammed into the walls, and there's perhaps one metre clearance around the edges. An inexplicable use of space.

Carpeted bathrooms are still to be found in Ireland too, usually old houses in the sticks. Because you really need something absorbent and unwashable around a toilet!

The scourge of all college students.

whisky_galore · 22-10-2015 2:07pm

Candie wrote: »

Carpeted bathrooms are still to be found in Ireland too, usually old houses in the sticks. Because you really need something absorbent and unwashable around a toilet!

Yeah the little shag pile carpet yoke that goes around the jacks bowl!

KERSPLAT! · 22-10-2015 2:08pm

whisky_galore wrote: »

Yeah the little shag pile carpet yoke that goes around the jacks bowl!

It's a toilet bib

22-10-2015 2:11pm

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Do foreigners not have immersions or something?

What possible benefit would not having an immersion bestow - they are immensely useful devices. Instant showers are all piles of shíte no matter how much they cost, what you want is a pumped shower with an immersion to heat the water - you could never go back to an instant shower once you've experienced the luxury! It's like washing in a warm Niagara falls.:D

Where I live there's a hot water heater. You turn on the (mixer!) tap, and lo and behold hot water comes out. Kitchen, bathroom, anywhere you want it. When you turn the tap off, it stops!

Its like magic, so it is.

Medusa22 · 22-10-2015 2:14pm

Candie wrote: »

Where I live there's a hot water heater. You turn on the (mixer!) tap, and lo and behold hot water comes out. Kitchen, bathroom, anywhere you want it. When you turn the tap off, it stops!

Its like magic, so it is.

This luxury that you speak of.....you must be living in paradise..

jester77 · 22-10-2015 2:16pm

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Do foreigners not have immersions or something?

What possible benefit would not having an immersion bestow - they are immensely useful devices. Instant showers are all piles of shíte no matter how much they cost, what you want is a pumped shower with an immersion to heat the water - you could never go back to an instant shower once you've experienced the luxury! It's like washing in a warm Niagara falls.:D

I've 2 pipes coming into my house in the basement, one brings in warm water, the other cold water. They feed all the taps around the house. There is one tap on my shower, just need to lift it in the 6 o'clock position and I have instant warm water with lots of pressure, I can turn it to the right for cooler water or the left for warmer water. No pumps, immersions, electrics or magic involved.

22-10-2015 2:17pm

Medusa22 wrote: »

This luxury that you speak of.....you must be living in paradise..

I live in a grace and favour apartment on campus where I work, and I pay a nominal rent of a few dolla a week. All my utilities are included, also my meals.

Real life is going to bite me hard on the backside when I leave.

BattleCorp · 22-10-2015 2:19pm

jester77 wrote: »

I've 2 pipes coming into my house in the basement, one brings in warm water, the other cold water. They feed all the taps around the house. There is one tap on my shower, just need to lift it in the 6 o'clock position and I have instant warm water with lots of pressure, I can turn it to the right for cooler water or the left for warmer water. No pumps, immersions, electrics or magic involved.

Who heats your hot water?

donegaLroad · 22-10-2015 2:20pm

this guy that people put in their windows facing out

jester77 · 22-10-2015 2:20pm

BattleCorp wrote: »

Who heats your hot water?

We are supplied using district heating

BattleCorp · 22-10-2015 2:26pm

jester77 wrote: »

We are supplied using district heating

No pumps, immersions, electrics or magic involved.

So that's where your pumps and tanks and electrics are located.

redbel05 · 22-10-2015 2:28pm

The compulsory sacred heart picture in rural homes. Extra Irish if it has a red light attached that flickers subtly. Just to give that homely feeling, ya know

asherbassad · 22-10-2015 2:28pm

Matt_Trakker wrote: »

Two taps! One for hot one for cold.
Why?
Why?
One is enough.

Tap

Oh also, using a washbasin in a sink to wash dishes.
The sink is a basin!
WTF is wrong with people?

And what do you do with the cups that are still half full of tea or milk that are waiting to be washed? Do you just fcuk the tea dregs into the water that you are using to wash everything else or do you empty a perfectly good sink-full of hot, sudsy water, pour the dregs down the drain and then refill the sink to wash the cups?

Or do you yourself gulp down all the slops and then wash the empty cups? Most people don't want to do that.

pxdf9i5cmoavkz · 22-10-2015 2:29pm

I've been waiting for this thread to appear.

I've been living in Ireland for just over 6 months now and Irish housing is utterly atrocious. Seriously Ireland, what the hell? Did the architects / builders all have a couple of pints before arriving at work?

As the OP mentioned, what is up with all the hollow walls? You can hear everything your neighbour or even room mates do and trying to sleep in a place like that is unpleasant. This was the most miserable 5 months of my life.
The layout of most of the places I've seen. It smacks of insanity, I've seen houses where you need to walk past your neighbour to go to the bathroom / shower. WTH??!
Some units had a bathroom basin sitting in the middle of a room, literally in the middle.
Places are so stupidly small (two steps and you've reached the other wall) but you can be damn sure someone will try rent it out for 900 quid.
Flooring not properly flush with the walls. I could feel a breeze coming from between the floor and walls.
Immersion tanks that screech at you if you use the water for too long.
Wooden floors are great for insulation, but please do it properly! Even a Ninja would struggle to walk across these wooden floors quietly.
Privacy in your own home or yard? Bwahaha! Completely non-existent.

Look, I like living in Ireland, but the housing situation is my one and only complaint about Ireland. It truly is terrible and this is from someone who lived in deepest darkest Africa...

Effects · 22-10-2015 2:30pm

The Backwards Man wrote: »

No need for immersion with a back boiler.

Yeah, that's true. Nothing like putting on a fire on a warm July night to make sure you have warm water for the following morning.

the_barfly1 · 22-10-2015 2:32pm

jester77 wrote: »

We are supplied using district heating

Thats a nifty system. According to wikipedia it's pretty widespread across europe. Of course, only two instances of it in Ireland, a few apartments in Tralee and a school in Limerick.

I'm guessing the urban planners here have never heard of it.

PolaroidPizza · 22-10-2015 2:34pm

Whatabout bathrooms without a window and whose only source of ventilation is a fan the size of a matchbox. ..or even worse...bathrooms that open into the kitchen! Unheard of in most countries. We end up with very damp houses as a result.

The Backwards Man · 22-10-2015 2:36pm

jester77 wrote: »

What is a back boiler? And how is it different to a front boiler?

A wee yoke behind the fire/stove/range that heats the water pipes that feed the hot tank that distributes the water for central heating and taps.

Exact same system as you're using btw, except someone else is heating it for you.

The Backwards Man · 22-10-2015 2:39pm

Effects wrote: »

Yeah, that's true. Nothing like putting on a fire on a warm July night to make sure you have warm water for the following morning.

I light the fire every day of the year so it doesn't bother me

22-10-2015 2:42pm

PolaroidPizza wrote: »

Whatabout bathrooms without a window and whose only source of ventilation is a fan the size of a matchbox. ..or even worse...bathrooms that open into the kitchen! Unheard of in most countries. We end up with very damp houses as a result.

I've been in houses in Ireland and the UK with no fan at all. In older houses, a fan is practically unheard of, mould is usually a problem as a result.

Compared to my little place, where a fan is activated by closing the door and hits mach 5 within 30 seconds. There's never any fog on the bathroom mirror with an efficient fan.

Irish Steve · 22-10-2015 2:43pm

the_barfly1 wrote: »

Thats a nifty system. According to wikipedia it's pretty widespread across europe. Of course, only two instances of it in Ireland, a few apartments in Tralee and a school in Limerick.

I'm guessing the urban planners here have never heard of it.

There was a system that heated the area in Ballymun. It went when the towers went.

I suspect the problem was getting people to pay the bills that were involved, there seems to be this strange aversion to paying for services in Ireland, so the only solution is to privatise everything so that they can then take action to get paid for providing the service.

The Backwards Man · 22-10-2015 2:44pm

Hunter Cold Catapult wrote: »

I've been waiting for this thread to appear.

I've been living in Ireland for just over 6 months now and Irish housing is utterly atrocious. Seriously Ireland, what the hell? Did the architects / builders all have a couple of pints before arriving at work?
As the OP mentioned, what is up with all the hollow walls? You can hear everything your neighbour or even room mates do and trying to sleep in a place like that is unpleasant. This was the most miserable 5 months of my life.

The layout of most of the places I've seen. It smacks of insanity, I've seen houses where you need to walk past your neighbour to go to the bathroom / shower. WTH??!

Some units had a bathroom basin sitting in the middle of a room, literally in the middle.

Places are so stupidly small (two steps and you've reached the other wall) but you can be damn sure someone will try rent it out for 900 quid.

Flooring not properly flush with the walls. I could feel a breeze coming from between the floor and walls.

Immersion tanks that screech at you if you use the water for too long.

Wooden floors are great for insulation, but please do it properly! Even a Ninja would struggle to walk across these wooden floors quietly.

Privacy in your own home or yard? Bwahaha! Completely non-existent.

Look, I like living in Ireland, but the housing situation is my one and only complaint about Ireland. It truly is terrible and this is from someone who lived in deepest darkest Africa...

You missed the time when youngfellas left school two weeks had a C2 and their name on the side of the van and developers and architects flew to New York to buy a pair of thermal socks. It would be hilarious some of the tricks I know of that were pulled in the big cities if it wasn't so downright dangerous.

Thud · 22-10-2015 2:45pm

Toilet lids/seat that don't open enough to stay open

22-10-2015 2:48pm

Thud wrote: »

Toilet lids/seat that don't open enough to stay open

OMG that reminds me while I'm at it! Those bits of carpet that don't even go on the floor, but on the toilet seat lid!

LIKE THIS!

Who need the lid of the loo seat carpeted???

whisky_galore · 22-10-2015 2:53pm

Candie wrote: »

OMG that reminds me while I'm at it! Those bits of carpet that don't even go on the floor, but on the toilet seat lid!

LIKE THIS!

Who need the lid of the loo seat carpeted???

You have somewhere nice to sit to finish reading the newspaper.

22-10-2015 2:56pm

whisky_galore wrote: »

You have somewhere nice to sit to finish reading the newspaper.

You don't sit on the carpet to read the paper!

Well, I don't.

maudgonner · 22-10-2015 2:57pm

redbel05 wrote: »

The compulsory sacred heart picture in rural homes. Extra Irish if it has a red light attached that flickers subtly. Just to give that homely feeling, ya know

Bonus jackpot points if it's one of the holographic Sacred Heart of Jesus pictures with the UNDEAD EYES THAT FOLLOW YOU AROUND THE ROOM!

Irish House Oddities

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