Irish House Oddities

Padster90s

whiskeyman wrote: »

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'

My parents house still has the good room that we all call "the parlour"! When were at home with friends over and say come into the parlour, the looks we get, you'd swear we were taking them into Christian Grey's playroom!
Had a quick scan of the thread and nobody seems to have mentioned those story and a half houses, not dormers. You know the ones, one full story and a half story with the upstair windows starting an inch or two above the first story ceiling. Why didn't they just add a few more rows of blocks and make if a proper two story house! Only really see these types of houses in Ireland.

MadsL

http://totallydublin.ie/more/lady-on-the-rock-tracing-the-phenomenon-of-dublins-own-venus-de-milo/

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=61707220

Creepy if you ask me...

MadsL

Also any mobile developers want to help write an app that checks if the immersion is on, just writing the Kickstarter now..."this time next year Rodders!"

jester77

DivingDuck wrote: »

Tiled floors in bathrooms are wretched. The shocking cold of the tile underfoot when you need to visit the loo in the middle of the night is horrible, and wet tile is so slippery it's a hazard. I can't stand the thought of having carpet either, though, for hygiene reasons.

The man who invents the easily cut-to-size, machine-washable carpet tile will be a millionaire.

Tiled floors in the bathroom are the best. Carpet and wood rots from the water and urine. Don't be stingy with the heating (my parents are like this). The heating in my house is on 24/7 and it's regulated by the internal and external temperatures so nothing is wasted and the bills are just fine. It's nice walking in on warm floors.

Oh, and another thing pops to mind. Irish people wearing their shoes inside the house. What's that about? Dragging in all the crap from outside and spreading it around the house.

LynnGrace

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.

Can't stop laughing at this. So first, some poor creature gets stuck with the washing up, but on top of that they have to drink the slops .

Love this thread. Nodded my way through loads, the sacred heart picture, the lamp, the parlour... I remember at a schoolfriend's house, there was a picture of JFK, I think that was mentioned on here too. I didn't know the immersion was an Irish thing, I have heard the jokes alright .

fizzypish

LynnGrace wrote: »

Can't stop laughing at this. So first, some poor creature gets stuck with the washing up, but on top of that they have to drink the slops .

If you don't check the cups for dregs before hand then you deserve to have to boil the kettle a second time for a new pan of hot water. Never in a million years would I drink the dregs of other peoples tea. That's what the dogs bucket is for.

LDN_Irish

LynnGrace wrote: »

. I didn't know the immersion was an Irish thing, I have heard the jokes alright .

Every house I've lived in in England had had an immersion too. They just don't deify it like the Irish for some reason. Probably because they can afford to run it at our expense for the laSt 800 years or something.

jester77

jester77 wrote: »

heating in my house is on 24/7 and it's regulated by the internal and external temperatures so nothing is wasted and the bills are just fine. It's nice walking in on warm floors.

:eek: that looks an awful waste of money to me. We haven't had the heat on in the house since last April! Got its first run early this week for 2 hours to warm the place a bit and hasn't been on again since. Not saying it's always warm but we just don't put it on unless it's freezing.

Irish Stones

I and my wife spend our holidays in your country every year, and we always noticed some oddities in Irish houses, things that we wouldn't tolerate in ours, but because we are guests in your country and in those houses we can't complain at all.
But what drew our attention lately is that reddish bleeding on most of outer wall of the houses. The plaster, that might be white or grey or whatever else colour, after a few years shows this reddish/purple colour running down the walls.
Is there an explanation for this bug?

whisky_galore

Irish Stones wrote: »

But what drew our attention lately is that reddish bleeding on most of outer wall of the houses. The plaster, that might be white or grey or whatever else colour, after a few years shows this reddish/purple colour running down on the walls.
Is there an explanation for this bug?

Many Irish Catholic houses are affected with the Stigmata.

kylith

Speaking of the sacred heart picture; what about the bit of twig over it, changed every Palm Sunday

LDN_Irish

Irish Stones wrote: »

I and my wife spend our holidays in your country every year, and we always noticed some oddities in Irish houses, things that we wouldn't tolerate in ours, but because we are guests in your country and in those houses we can't complain at all.
But what drew our attention lately is that reddish bleeding on most of outer wall of the houses. The plaster, that might be white or grey or whatever else colour, after a few years shows this reddish/purple colour running down the walls.
Is there an explanation for this bug?

This is a good question actually. It's one of those things I've seen so much that I've never noticed or questioned it but now I'm curious.

sunnysoutheast

Raiden Odd Student wrote: »

:eek: that looks an awful waste of money to me. We haven't had the heat on in the house since last April! Got its first run early this week for 2 hours to warm the place a bit and hasn't been on again since. Not saying it's always warm but we just don't put it on unless it's freezing.

It's all regulated by thermostats. Our heating is on pretty much every day of the year but the 'stats determine whether there is any demand or not so it doesn't come on at all from (say) May - Sept. but we run it periodically to stop pumps etc. seizing up. The hot water and towel rails are on all year round. The underfloor heats up for a day or so and then tops up based on the 'stat settings. We plan to put solar water panels in next spring.

The common master switch - usually the sole preserve of the man of the house - to "put the heating on" was one stipulation that we wanted to get away from when we built. We know people who run UFH like that and wonder why it breaks so often from all the thermal cycling.

jester77

Raiden Odd Student wrote: »

:eek: that looks an awful waste of money to me. We haven't had the heat on in the house since last April! Got its first run early this week for 2 hours to warm the place a bit and hasn't been on again since. Not saying it's always warm but we just don't put it on unless it's freezing.

The house is kept at a constant temperature, the internal and external thermostats dictate how the heating system operates. The system is always on, but during the summer when it is 30+ outside it is not going to be pumping hot water around the house.

sunnysoutheast

LDN_Irish wrote: »

This is a good question actually. It's one of those things I've seen so much that I've never noticed or questioned it but now I'm curious.

I believe it's some sort of fungus. Our neighbours have had their affected walls washed with a mild acid to see if it gets rid of it and if so we will follow suit.

It's a cosmetic issue only and can almost disappear in a dry summer.

whisky_galore

kylith wrote: »

Speaking of the sacred heart picture; what about the bit of twig over it, changed every Palm Sunday

Supposed to be from a palm tree for Palm Sunday, but since palm trees aren't native to Ireland they use bits of cypress tree instead.

Alf Veedersane

sunnysoutheast wrote: »

I believe it's some sort of fungus. Our neighbours have had their affected walls washed with a mild acid to see if it gets rid of it and if so we will follow suit.

It's a cosmetic issue only and can almost disappear in a dry summer.

I think it's algae/lichen. You can get a bleach solution in any hardware shop that you mix with water, brush on and wash off.

j@utis

KungPao wrote: »

Vents.

The Irish version of ventilation is to smash through the wall and leave a massive hole for the northerly howling wind to rush through.

The main problem (apart from them being unnecessarily large) is usually it's:

• hole in external wall
• cavity being filled with freezing air
• hole in internal wall

Why they don't have a pipe/duct through the wall is beyond me.

We used to live in the apartment in dublin (cherrywood) where wind was blowing sand in through the vents. you get up in the morning and have to brush sand of your dinner table before you sit down to eat

We bought a new built house back in 2011. Vents do have pipes going through the wall. I stuffed them with pillow filling to stop the wind and cold air from coming in. Builder explained that when you have a fireplace in the room there must be a vent hole in the wall. Our 'fireplace' was a gas gimmick that we got ripped out and plastered over.

Fake 'fireplaces' (gas, electric) is one of the things I don't get in modern houses. I love real fireplace where you can actually lit a fire in but burning gas instead leaves you with stinky room (hence the need for the hole in the wall aka vent).

j@utis

j@utis wrote: »

burning gas instead leaves you with stinky room (hence the need for the hole in the wall aka vent).

The vent isn't there for the smell (though I don't recall noticing any smell from a gas fire in any case) its there for safety (carbon monoxide etc). You need the vent just as much with a solid fuel fire as with gas or oil. The vents also help to reduce dampness.

j@utis

Raiden Odd Student wrote: »

The vent isn't there for the smell (though I don't recall noticing any smell from a gas fire in any case) its there for safety (carbon monoxide etc). You need the vent just as much with a solid fuel fire as with gas or oil. The vents also help to reduce dampness.

but there's no hole in the wall in the kitchen where the gas cooker is used everyday I know it's for carbon monoxide too.
now our house is built to new regs and has B1 energy rating. we struggle to keep the moisture UP, esp. in the bedrooms, not a sniff of dampness in here.
old built houses (pre 2008) are absolutely horrible comparing to new builds (A or B BER).

Ghost Buster

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?

Ive never understood peoples difficulty with the practicality of the basin in the sink!!!!.
Youre washing dishes, you come across half a cup of manky cold tea which needs to be disposed of. You dump it down the side of the basin rather than into your dish water.
Simple really

The Backwards Man

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

I think it's algae/lichen. You can get a bleach solution in any hardware shop that you mix with water, brush on and wash off.

Diluted Domestos works just as good.

whisky_galore

fuzzypickle wrote: »

Also love how we call it a press instead of a cupboard. Never thought about it until my OH asked me what the fcuk a press was.

Comes from 'linen press', a piece of furniture.

Galadriel

Your house was very small with wood chip on the wall.

pxdf9i5cmoavkz

colm_mcm wrote: »

I think you need to up your rent budget

AKA: You have to pay extra to get a house that may meet minimum standards.

Hamadeusentman

Extractor fan leading into attics. Cannot understand this one. Was in an attic of a pal's house recently and you could smell what they had for dinner hours earlier. It should go directly into the atmosphere through roof vent.
Another strange one. My grandmother's house used to have thousands of tiny prick holes in the wallpaper in the kitchen. For years I couldn't understand it. Then I saw that's where she used to keep her safety pins and needles for sewing. Odd.

josip

fuzzypickle wrote: »

People displaying those little obituary thingies

They're called memory cards so you don't forget about what's his name.

sunnysoutheast wrote: »

It's a cosmetic issue only and can almost disappear in a dry summer.

So once every generation then?

Apartment windows that can't be cleaned from the inside.
For 1 week a year, after the window cleaners have been around, it's like living in Newgrange.
For the rest of the year you might as well have frosted glass.

BattleCorp

Hamadeusentman wrote: »

Extractor fan leading into attics. Cannot understand this one. Was in an attic of a pal's house recently and you could smell what they had for dinner hours earlier. It should go directly into the atmosphere through roof vent.

I have my extractor fan piped up through the attic but it goes outside through the soffit via some flexible ducting.

No point venting it straight into the attic, that would only cause damp up there.

heathledgerlove

Map of Ireland / the World on the kitchen wall / door

LynnGrace

Ghost Buster wrote: »

Ive never understood peoples difficulty with the practicality of the basin in the sink!!!!.
Youre washing dishes, you come across half a cup of manky cold tea which needs to be disposed of. You dump it down the side of the basin rather than into your dish water.
Simple really

Or as someone suggested upthread you might have to drink the slops , in order to do the washing up .

Irish Stones

sunnysoutheast wrote: »

I believe it's some sort of fungus. Our neighbours have had their affected walls washed with a mild acid to see if it gets rid of it and if so we will follow suit.
It's a cosmetic issue only and can almost disappear in a dry summer.

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

I think it's algae/lichen. You can get a bleach solution in any hardware shop that you mix with water, brush on and wash off.

So, why doesn't it happen elsewhere in the Continent/world? Is it some of the components of the plastering material? Is it in the air?
I have noticed that (I think) all over Ireland, both on old and new houses.

What if you don't have a dry summer?
And even if you do have a long and dry summer, it sounds like you'll have to deal with it again in the following season until another dry summer...

I still stick with the idea of something in the building materials.

BattleCorp

Irish Stones wrote: »

So, why doesn't it happen elsewhere in the Continent/world? Is it some of the components of the plastering material? Is it in the air?
I have noticed that (I think) all over Ireland, both on old and new houses.

What if you don't have a dry summer?
And even if you do have a long and dry summer, it sounds like you'll have to deal with it again in the following season until another dry summer...

I still stick with the idea of something in the building materials.

I'm not a builder but I'd go with the theory that it is something in the building materials.

miezekatze

'The good room' also exist in older farm houses etc in other countries, that's not really an Irish thing. Both sets of my grandparents had one.

Most things I noticed have already been mentioned - the immersion, hot press, water tank in the attic, wall vents, etc. I don't think anyone has mentioned the waste pipes on the outside of the houses yet though! My family have often asked me if they don't freeze/burst during the winter. On the continent the waste pipes would go down inside the house, inside a wall.

Before I moved to Ireland I had only ever lived in houses where each floor had a concrete floor. Here the upper floors even in newer houses are held up by timber beams with wooden boards nailed on to them... Creak, creak, creak!

Irish Stones

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

Can I kindly ask you what an immersion is?
Is it a tank with something in it that heats up the water?

We have instant water heater fuelled by methan or LPG gas.
Some can have tanks 20 to 80 litres where the water is heated by an electric resistance/heater.
All the taps are mixers, fully turn to left for hot water, to right for cold water and any position between the extremes to have various temperatures of the fluid.
The flow is adjusted by lifting the same lever.
I think that in excess of 90% of houses in Italy are equipped with those items.
I am sure you all know what I am talking about but I have hardly seen one of them in Ireland.

Irish Stones

miezekatze wrote: »

I don't think anyone has mentioned the waste pipes on the outside of the houses yet though!
...
Here the upper floors even in newer houses are held up by timber beams with wooden boards nailed on to them... Creak, creak, creak!

I was going to, you've been quicker!

Irish Stones

Another oddity, the power mains coming into the house through the wall above the front door.
Why aren't they run through a wall below the roof level, or better, from an underground conduit?

Ant695

kylith wrote: »

Speaking of the sacred heart picture; what about the bit of twig over it, changed every Palm Sunday

And the st brigids crosses.

pxdf9i5cmoavkz

Irish Stones wrote: »

Can I kindly ask you what an immersion is?
Is it a tank with something in it that heats up the water?

Yes, In Europe it's called an "Immersion Tank", where I came from, we called it a "Geyser".

The easiest way to explain what it is as follows:

Think of a Kettle, now an Immersion tank is just a very large Kettle. It has an element inside of it that uses electricity to heat up the water.

You have ready to go hot water most of the time.

The Cons are:

1. They will eventually burst.
2. Electricity costs could be high. There is a thermometer in the immersion tank that measures the water temperature. When it drops below x'C; It turns on the element to heat up the water.

Irish Stones

Hunter Cold Catapult wrote: »

Think of a Kettle, now an Immersion tank is just a very large Kettle. It has an element inside of it that uses electricity to heat up the water.

Thanks Jason!
It's like I wrote in the same post of mine
"We have instant water heater fuelled by methan or LPG gas.
Some can have tanks 20 to 80 litres where the water is heated by an electric resistance/heater."

Caliden

Irish Stones wrote: »

Can I kindly ask you what an immersion is?
Is it a tank with something in it that heats up the water?

We have instant water heater fuelled by methan or LPG gas.
Some can have tanks 20 to 80 litres where the water is heated by an electric resistance/heater.
All the taps are mixers, fully turn to left for hot water, to right for cold water and any position between the extremes to have various temperatures of the fluid.
The flow is adjusted by lifting the same lever.
I think that in excess of 90% of houses in Italy are equipped with those items.
I am sure you all know what I am talking about but I have hardly seen one of them in Ireland.

I can answer the tap question with this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfHgUu_8KgA

Fr_Dougal

JasonS246 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...

Well la dee da! Thinly veiled "I've been to Africa ' post.

pxdf9i5cmoavkz

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Well la dee da! Thinly veiled "I've been to Africa ' post.

Not been to, lived, lived in Africa, for 33 years.

Ireland trumps Africa in almost every single area, except housing. I figure housing is rather important for the welfare of the countries inhabitants.

anothernight

Nichard Dixon wrote: »

So how do they heat water in Spain then?

I think* what my apartment in Madrid has is a combi boiler. It heats water whenever a hot tap is turned on. I'd never heard of an immersion heater until I moved to Ireland.



Not sure if this is an Irish/UK thing only, but I've only seen it in older houses in Ireland and England: the short row of tiles above a bathroom sink. When we bought a house in Ireland, our bathroom sink had maybe 4 tiles serving as a splashback, and again a few more tiles for the bathtub. The rest of the bathroom walls were painted. My dad retiled the bathroom, making it look much nicer and easier to clean.




*I might be wrong though! I haven't been there in years and I'm going by memory of what it looked like! It was definitely gas though.

Buona Fortuna

anothernight wrote: »

Not sure if this is an Irish/UK thing only, but I've only seen it in older houses in Ireland and England: the short row of tiles above a bathroom sink. When we bought a house in Ireland, our bathroom sink had maybe 4 tiles serving as a splashback, and again a few more tiles for the bathtub. The rest of the bathroom walls were painted. My dad retiled the bathroom, making it look much nicer and easier to clean.

When we bought a new house in the UK, the money grabbing b4stards builders would give you four rows of tiles above the bath and basin included and for extra tile the whole thing.

We tiked the whole thing but wtf.:mad:

sunnysoutheast

Irish Stones wrote: »

So, why doesn't it happen elsewhere in the Continent/world? Is it some of the components of the plastering material? Is it in the air?
I have noticed that (I think) all over Ireland, both on old and new houses.

What if you don't have a dry summer?
And even if you do have a long and dry summer, it sounds like you'll have to deal with it again in the following season until another dry summer...

I still stick with the idea of something in the building materials.

You can often see the same staining on motorway concrete so I don't think it's anything in the plaster.

Ireland very rarely has sustained periods of temperatures below zero and summers are typically warmish and wet. Both of which are good for fungal growth as I understand it so that might be a factor.

We find that the stains fade almost to nothing on our walls exposed to the sun but come back quickly when they get wet.

I am not setting myself up as any sort of expert on this BTW!

Irish Stones

anothernight wrote: »

When we bought a house in Ireland, our bathroom sink had maybe 4 tiles serving as a splashback, and again a few more tiles for the bathtub. The rest of the bathroom walls were painted. My dad retiled the bathroom, making it look much nicer and easier to clean.

Over here in Italy, the bathroom walls aren't tiled up to the ceiling, the last two or three rows, about 50-60 centimetres are left tile-free for a very good reason.
It's a way to allow walls to breath. If they were all tiled, the damp couldn't leave the room through the "porosity" of the walls.

I have to say,though, that we usually paint our walls with transpirant painting, unlike with washable painting that I have seen in Ireland.

Irish Stones

sunnysoutheast wrote: »

You can often see the same staining on motorway concrete so I don't think it's anything in the plaster.

I haven't noticed that, I will pay attention to it next time I go there

anothernight

Irish Stones wrote: »

Over here in Italy, the bathroom walls aren't tiled up to the ceiling, the last two or three rows, about 50-60 centimetres are left tile-free for a very good reason.
It's a way to allow walls to breath. If they were all tiled, the damp couldn't leave the room through the "porosity" of the walls.

I have to say,though, that we usually paint our walls with transpirant painting, unlike with washable painting that I have seen in Ireland.

I don't think the damp could leave through the walls in Ireland. The air humidity is much higher than I would expect it to be in Italy, so the walls would already have absorbed a lot of humidity.


We didn't actually tile the walls up to the ceiling, but to the standard height that you see in most (newer) Irish bathrooms. The rest of it was painted with bathroom paint, which as you know, is not breathable at all, but very resistant to mould and very easy to clean.

timthumbni

All these posts and no mention of a the infamous Irish "crying chair", placed there out on its own just waiting for a drunk mammy/daddy to sit down and sob uncontrollably about their life.

Haven't time to post pics but I remember some cracking crying chairs being posted on another thread on here.

Dyr

I grew up in the ballymun flats where we had central heating, so stuff just heated

I still view the immersion as a bit like sharing your home with some sort of unfathomable malevolent demigod