SEAI grant for external wrap + dry lining

eve

We live in a semi detached house (dormer at front but straight up at back) built 1990. The front is a red brick with the side and back wall being pebble dashed

we can’t externally insulate the front wall as there is brick at the first floor level and porch at ground level and any amendment would make it stick out further than the houses around it.

as a result our plan is to dry line the front of the house and externally wrap the side and back walls.

however looking at the SEAI website it’s not clear whether they would pay the grant for either option - what I have read seems to dictate that ALL walls must be done in EITHER one OR the other with no flexibility for a mixed solution.

i can’t be the first person to have run into this problem so I’m looking for anyone else who has already had this problem and what the outcome was.

TimHorton

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058269091/seai-grant-for-external-wrap-dry-lining

Have you the news recently? Basically, the scheme is a scam and you are far better financially to get the job done privately. https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40990973.html

eve

Yes, there are a lot of questions about the grants in general. I’ve heard suggestions that they use anything at all to deny paying the grant so it’s annoying to be doing the best I can do for my case and (potentially) denied just because it doesn’t fit their ‘cookie cutter’ scenarios.

Lumen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119800498#Comment_119800498

I think "scam" is a stretch. Doing work with proper documentation, independent inspection and tax-compliant contractors is going to work out more expensive.

TimHorton

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119801144#Comment_119801144

Care to explain how "proper documentation, independent inspection and tax-compliant contractors" will benefit the homeowner in the long run, Before you answer think of how good the "Homebond" scheme was....

Lumen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119803009#Comment_119803009

In general terms, higher quality of work and better legal recourse if things go wrong. Do you trust contractors to follow all the conditions in the NSAI certs for the systems used? Do most homeowners even understand what an NSAI cert is? Most civilised countries use government inspections to enforce building standards, Ireland is an outlier in this respect. Are you opposed to state inspections in general?

Obviously part of the structure of these schemes is about avoiding abuse of government grants and improving tax compliance, these are in the broader interest of taxpayers rather than the homeowner. What do propose instead - having the state shell out money without any checks in place?

The wider problem with these schemes is that there's hardly any take up. This isn't a politics forum but is seems like a massive coincidence that most times in the last ten years that the govt has announced a State intervention to improve the quality or quantity of housing, there's hardly any take up. IMO it's symptomatic of a weird mashup of thinking the market will solve the problem...but then can't be trusted to do it without govt interference. Either that or the schemes are cynically designed to fail. The exception would be steady improvements to standards (particularly energy efficiency) in new build construction, although even those should have been introduced faster.

mp31

"we can’t externally insulate the front wall as there is brick at the first floor level and porch at ground level and any amendment would make it stick out further than the houses around it."

What's wrong with the front sticking out a bit - I've seen it done where I live. I've seen external insulation on the front of houses where they apply a thin brick like tile on the ground floor that makes it look like the the houses nearby.

eve

If it was just in one plane it would be fine. But there are two join points with the other semi detached and a range of ratios and angles on the brick means it would stick out (both physically and metaphorically)

in comparison a house in a neighbouring estate has a simpler finish with a mixture of concrete and brick frontage-they were able to insulate, add the brick slip and it’s practically indistinguishable unless you know what you are looking for.