Irish House Oddities

The Backwards Man

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

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

PolaroidPizza

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

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

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?

1. 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.
2. 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??!
3. Some units had a bathroom basin sitting in the middle of a room, literally in the middle.
4. 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.
5. Flooring not properly flush with the walls. I could feel a breeze coming from between the floor and walls.
6. Immersion tanks that screech at you if you use the water for too long.
7. Wooden floors are great for insulation, but please do it properly! Even a Ninja would struggle to walk across these wooden floors quietly.
8. 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

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

Thud

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

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.

whisky_galore

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

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!

whisky_galore

The built-on additions, that make the whole house look lop-sided.

And converting the attic space with this crap sticking out of the roof.
http://c2.thejournal.ie/media/2011/03/Seaview-Clifden-Co.-Galway1-390x285.jpg

jester77

The Backwards Man wrote: »

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.

ah, I know that system, didn't know the name of it. My parents have that in their house. They have this huge Stanley range taking up the best part of the living room (used to take turf, has since been converted with some sort of an oil burner that requires turning up the TV when it kicks in) and it heats the boiler.

Another great feature from my parents is that this range will heat all the radiators in the house. These radiators are mainly behind couches or beds and under windows. When you walk into the rooms they are ice cold while the radiator would burn the hand off you to touch. You could hold your hand a foot away from the radiator and feel no warmth, just the cold coming down from the window.

Thud

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???

gotta match it with one of these:

Thud

Thud wrote: »

gotta match it with one of these:

That's style, that is. :pac:

jester77

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???

Have you never come home absolutely wasted and have had to spend the night hanging over the toilet, unfit to drag yourself back to your bed? You will be greatful for having this for resting your head on

jester77

jester77 wrote: »

Have you never come home absolutely wasted and have had to spend the night hanging over the toilet, unfit to drag yourself back to your bed? You will be greatful for having this for resting your head on

*smug face*


I don't drink.


*smugger face*

TheNobleKipper

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

:eek:
I hope this is a joke, for your sake.

No it's not, why would it? What's the reason for not having sockets in the bathroom when it seems OK to have them right next to the kitchen sink? I really can't understand it.

KERSPLAT!

TheNobleKipper wrote: »

No it's not, why would it? What's the reason for not having sockets in the bathroom when it seems OK to have them right next to the kitchen sink? I really can't understand it.

It's not OK to have them right next to the kitchen sink, there are regs that give minimum distances with regards to sinks, etc and zones in a bathroom as to where and what electrical devices can be placed in that zone.

Each electrical device is IP rated. An electric shower would have a high IP rating, it would have measures in place to stop steam and water getting inside, a 13a socket doesn't.

Spray water on an electric shower and you'll be fine, spray water on a standard socket and you'll probably get lifted out of it.

TheNobleKipper

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

It's not OK to have them right next to the kitchen sink, there are regs that give minimum distances with regards to sinks, etc and zones in a bathroom as to where and what electrical devices can be placed in that zone.

Each electrical device is IP rated. An electric shower would have a high IP rating, it would have measures in place to stop steam and water getting inside, a 13a socket doesn't.

Spray water on an electric shower and you'll be fine, spray water on a standard socket and you'll probably get lifted out of it.

But that doesn't explain why other countries have sockets in bathrooms without fatalities being reported on a regular basis?

KERSPLAT!

TheNobleKipper wrote: »

But that doesn't explain why other countries have sockets in bathrooms without fatalities being reported on a regular basis?

Lower voltages, different regs, no idea tbh but that's the reason we don't have sockets in the bathroom. There probably is a zone where you can have one and sure you can have shaving sockets

jester77

TheNobleKipper wrote: »

But that doesn't explain why other countries have sockets in bathrooms without fatalities being reported on a regular basis?

I have four sockets, a double on each side of the sink in my bathroom. Electric tootbrushes, razor and hair dryer are plugged in. Pretty much standard in every house here. Haven't heard of anyone being electrocuted from it.

Doesn't Ireland also have a funny rule regarding the light switch for the bathroom, that it has to be outside the bathroom and not inside?

Duggy747

A wooden spoon that used more for beatings than making food with :pac:

Eutow

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Sink full of dishes and someone comes along with a cup to be washed that's half full of cold tea. What do you do?

asherbassad wrote: »

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.

Simple. Pour it down the sink beside the one that is full of dishes.

whisky_galore

Holy water fonts.

TheNobleKipper

Also, why don't Irish houses have cellars?

Cantona's Collars

"The good room". A firm staple for the older generation.A room where kids weren't allowed into as it was kept immaculate for visitors who also got to use the "good delph and biscuits".

whisky_galore

TheNobleKipper wrote: »

Also, why don't Irish houses have cellars?

Irish houses are damp enough built above ground...

KERSPLAT!

jester77 wrote: »

I have four sockets, a double on each side of the sink in my bathroom. Electric tootbrushes, razor and hair dryer are plugged in. Pretty much standard in every house here. Haven't heard of anyone being electrocuted from it.

Doesn't Ireland also have a funny rule regarding the light switch for the bathroom, that it has to be outside the bathroom and not inside?

You can have a pull cord switch inside with the correct IP rating but yes, for the most part you wouldn't find a standard light switch inside a bathroom in Ireland

mikeymouse

sticking stones onto walls to look like a stone built house

whiskeyman

No one mentioned 'the parlour' yet?
It's really more from the older generation I guess... the one room in the house that smells of rich mahogany, has all the wedding crystal etc... photos everywhere, and it totally out of bounds unless the local priest pops in for a cuppa.
The rest if the house could be falling apart, but the parlour is always immaculate!


EDIT - sorry, Zerks got there with 'the good room'

jester77

zerks wrote: »

"The good room". A firm staple for the older generation.A room where kids weren't allowed into as it was kept immaculate for visitors who also got to use the "good delph and biscuits".

My parents had that as well growing up, was always locked except when guests were over. Actually, thinking about it, they had a very odd naming convention for the rooms in the house. They good room was called the "sitting room". The room that I would call the living room, was called the kitchen (technically there was range in it where you could put some pots on for keeping food warm), and the room where the cooking was done was called the "back kitchen". Probably because it was at the back of the house and it was a kitchen.

secondrowgal

Washing machines in the kitchen (where there is no utility room/space under the stairs).

My friends on the continent cannot understand this - dirty washing in the kitchen, with food, uggghhh.

Most of the houses that I have been in in Europe have the washing machine in the bathroom.

Buona Fortuna

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

That was the first thing to go on the fire when we first moved back here.

Mind you I'm probably still paying for it.

Bloody creepy things.

kylith

Eutow wrote: »

Simple. Pour it down the sink beside the one that is full of dishes.

Look at you; la-di-dah with your two sinks!

Separate hot and cold taps comes from the days before central heating and the cold water would be heated by boiling. When heating came in it was rare to see mixer taps so two single taps would have been used.

Radiators under windows: the cold air coming in the window meets the hot air rising from the radiator and stops it rising to the ceiling so it heats the middle range of the room. What I find bonkers is people who then have long curtains that hang down over the radiator which ensure that no warm air reaches the room at all.

LDN_Irish

secondrowgal wrote: »

Washing machines in the kitchen (where there is no utility room/space under the stairs).

My friends on the continent cannot understand this - dirty washing in the kitchen, with food, uggghhh.

Most of the houses that I have been in in Europe have the washing machine in the bathroom.

Clean washing in the bathroom? Where the dirty people wash? Uggghhh. I hope the toilet isn't in the bathroom in thise fancy continental houses. Otherwise there's **** all over the clean washing the same way there's dirty washing all over the food in our houses.

Only messing, I don't understand this being an issue at all but its not the first time I've heard it.

whisky_galore

In older houses, every single room covered in fcuking wallpaper, usually the floral/paisley pattern variety.

Net curtains, the precursor to the one-way-mirror.

The coloured bathroom suite.

ballsymchugh

gutenberg wrote: »

Have been living in the UK for 5 years, and no English house I've been in has had a hot press. I miss it...

the house i was living in in England had a hot press, it was built around 2001.
combi boilers have become more common since so the water is heated as you use it. it helps when the country has a widespread gas network though.
hence we have immersion heaters.

alias no.9

Scipio_Hib wrote: »

Had visitor once remark on the lack of bidets in Irish houses - implication being that we all must have mucky arses!

Easily solved by doing a handstand in the shower

P0lygon Wind0w

whisky_galore wrote: »

Holy water fonts, Batman.

FTFY

kylith

secondrowgal wrote: »

Washing machines in the kitchen (where there is no utility room/space under the stairs).

My friends on the continent cannot understand this - dirty washing in the kitchen, with food, uggghhh.

Most of the houses that I have been in in Europe have the washing machine in the bathroom.

Do they think we rub the dirty clothes on the food or something?

I'd imagine this came from the kitchen being the only room with a water connection, toilets being either tiny or outdoors.

I've been in European houses with no sink in the WC. Now THAT is rank

Effects

the_barfly1 wrote: »

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

Of course they have heard of it. Isn't that what the towers in Ballymun ran off.

LDN_Irish

kylith wrote: »

I've been in European houses with no sink in the WC. Now THAT is rank

I've been to a couple of houses like this on the continent and in England. Wipe your arse and then walk to a room beside the toilet opening and closing all the doors along the way to wash your hands. Lovely.

Dutch houses are weird. Toilet and sink in a room downstairs smaller than a broom closet, shower and sink in the room above the same size. Washing machine and tumble drier out in the shed.

uch

ballsymchugh wrote: »

the house i was living in in England had a hot press, it was built around 2001.
combi boilers have become more common since so the water is heated as you use it. it helps when the country has a widespread gas network though.
hence we have immersion heaters.

Make sure you turn it off before you leave

Nekarsulm

Had friends to stay from France, and they were greatly impressed with the way wall sockets have an on/off switch built in.

Regarding the level of building standards here during the boom, the practice of building a single leaf wall using cavity blocks and plastering the outside and sticking cosi-board to the inside, and calling it an "insulated exterior wall" beggars belief. (new apartments in Navan, between the two sets of traffic lights, I'm thinking of you)
No wonder damp and mould is a constant problem in apartments here.

Don't get me started on Architects and their love or flat roofs, Butterfly roofs and strange Mansard window type eruptions on houses.

Eutow

whisky_galore wrote: »

In older houses, every single room covered in fcuking wallpaper, usually the floral/paisley pattern variety.

The excuse for that is because the walls are so uneven, badly maintained that covering them with thick wallpaper is better and more practical than trying to paint them.

Buona Fortuna

Deleted User wrote: »

Dutch houses are weird. Toilet and sink in a room downstairs smaller than a broom closet, shower and sink in the room above the same size. Washing machine and tumble drier out in the shed.

They're just encouraging people to take a wazz in the shower.

Boom_Bap

Buona Fortuna wrote: »

They're just encouraging people to take a wazz in the shower.

or wazz in the sink from the shower.

jester77

LDN_Irish wrote: »

I've been to a couple of houses like this on the continent and in England. Wipe your arse and then walk to a room beside the toilet opening and closing all the doors along the way to wash your hands. Lovely.

This is common in Germany in the older building. These buildings were put up during a time when it was common to have a communal WC. Later when it became standard to have a WC in each apartment, they had to fit them in somewhere. Usually it was in a closet on the other side of the kitchen where they had access to the pipes.

In the old apartment's it is very common to have a very narrow bathroom, just the width of the door, with a wash basin inside (if there is space), a toilet at a 45 degree angle which you have to step over to get into a very small shower.

BattleCorp

I'm always amazed at air vents in houses.

We have to insulate the bejaysus out of the house to keep it warm and then leave a big hole in the wall so that freezing cold air can enter to stop the place going mouldy.