KMC Homes

I passed this castle ruin just outside Lahinch in Co. Clare yesterday and marvelled at how it’s still standing. The massive winds off the West Coast during the winter must have put it under huge pressure down through the centuries, particularly when there would have been no steel to hold it together. No engineer or builder today would ever have thought this possible

A rare fine and evening this evening and what a wonderful surprise! A pink moon rising over Gally Head in West Cork. Sleep well wherever you are tonight

Back to our new site again today in Blarney. Our team are generally tidying up the site after a busy day n Friday where we poured all the house and garage foundations whilst making the best of the summer weather (lol) what do you think of the progress so far?

Today in Glenville was an exciting day. We removed the scaffolding to catch a first glimpse of the finishes beneath. Now all we have to do is pick a pain colour. What do you think?

I spent all weekend trying to capture the Giralda Bell Tower in Seville on a recent weekend break and finally on our way to the airport, with an empty street and a lone lady tourist(who shall remain nameless) I caught a final glimpse of the tower bathed in early morning sun

Just back from a short break in Seville in Spain. We visited the ancient Roman settlement at Itálica. This photo shows an early Roman iteration of the modern toilet. These hollowed out stone slabs sat above an open running sewer. No doubt this worked at a basic level but it was still primitive by today’s standards. We don’t appreciate how lucky we are

An interesting aerial view of our newbuild home project in Crosshaven County Cork. You can clearly see how the ground floor layout will take shape. We have poured the external walls in ICF and we are currently shuttering the internal walls for a pour shortly. ICF is a great product for this site due to its for limited access and the structural retaining walls on the external envelope of the building.

Great progress on site today in Crosshaven. He took delivery of the ICF material from who will shortly begin installation of the ICF walls on the lower ground floor. These walls will also be retaining the banks of earth on 3 sides so this is indeed a complicated build. Stay tuned for more updates

50 years ago today I was born in Holles Street Maternity Hospital in Dublin. My mother reminded me this morning that there were very few visitors allowed due to The Troubles and indeed the Dublin Bombings took place only a few days later. Anyway, as you can see, I survived 😊

This is a huge problem in Ireland and has been developing ever since the financial crash went a lot of trades people lift construction and retrained in other industries. The government is becoming aware of this problem, but to be fair, it’s very late particularly given that we have had a housing crisis for many years. What do you think of this situation? Do you have any friends or family entering the trade?

We began to fit the herringbone timber floors today. Took a while to get the moisture content of the concrete floors down to the required level then a quick level check before the flooring can commence. Here we review the tiling levels nearby as we design the threshold detail.

I came across this wonderful thached cottage in my travels in county Tipperary today. I couldn’t get over the condition of the roof. It looks like it was thached yesterday Are you familiar with it? Are there any touched cottages near you?

If you are familiar with the Schull area of West Cork, you’ll recognise Mount Gabriel behind me. This mountain has a particular significance to me. On 3rd March 1942, a German Luftwaffe plane crashed here killing all on board. My grandfather & granduncle Michael & Gerald McCarthy, who were in the FCA at the time were the first to the crash to help secure the site and recover the bodies. This was one of three N**i warplanes that crashed in this area during WW2. Have you any knowledge of the others?

I came across these old bottles on site today in Cork City. Have you ever come across anything like this in your build? Do you know anything about these bottles or their history? Surely they must have an interesting story to tell?

Great to see on site today as we installed solar panels on a natural slate roof. This was a complicated install so great to have an experienced team for the job. Looking forward to the longer sunny days ahead 👍😊

Called to today with my daughter for coffee (and hot chocolate), I remember sitting here (upstairs) with the camera crew admiring the texture of this wall as we got ready to start shooting the first scenes outside the old tailor shop in Skibereen. These are timber laths that used to hold plaster in place on the ceiling old stud walls, a common practice in the days before plasterboard. Do you have this in your house? Oh, and by the way, you’ll never have a nicer coffee..

When designing a utility or dedicated plant room these days there are a lot of things to consider. You may have an indoor air to water unit (pictured), your heat recovery unit, your solar PV inverter, your solar battery storage, your ELCB board, your heating manifold. Many of these items would not have featured in a house 10 years ago. What did you do in your project? Did you have a separate plant room or a large utility/closet/bootroom?

Update on progress in our new home build in Innishannon. Started at the beginning of November and we are now beginning roof works on site today. This is the benefit of our Design & Build approach where KMC project manage the full process from design to planning permission to build, ensuring everything runs to schedule and budget, turnkey. Well done to the crew on site

This is Ballintotis Castle, outside Castlemartyr in East Cork. It’s actually up for sale now if you’re interested. I came across it online today and it got me thinking. Not about the castle but about the small national school nearby. I attended this school (of the same name) from 2nd class to 6th class (my previous school in Templenacarriga had closed down). Lovely memories of being taught Irish grammar and tables in a classroom where 4 classes were taught together. Those were the days. Where did you go to school?

Great progress by the team on site in Innishannon. This week we expect to get blockwork up to first floor head level and get windows on order as we begin to prepare for the roof installation (roof trusses on site) hopefully the weather will stay with us.

We’re just starting to fit out the attic in our new home build in Model Farm Road in Cork. This attic was built using ‘attic trusses’ which are designed so you don’t have intermediate cross members and bracing allowing you full access to all the space available. The bottom chords are also strengthened to make the floor firm and weight bearing. Have you converted your attic? How did it turn out?

We had hoped to pour last week but the weather was just too cold. The danger of pouring concrete on freezing conditions is that the water in concrete turns to ice and damages the concrete finish and ultimate strength. Next we had to navigate a narrow window of opportunity between Storm Isha and Storm Jocelyn. So, after a diligent site inspection at 6:30pm and crews removing protective covering at 7am, we began our pour in earnest at 8am. Well done t the team in Glenville as they rest easy as the concrete sets this evening.

This might not look like a very exciting post and definitely not click bait but this Gantt Chart is a key project management tool for keeping your project on schedule. Before we start any new project we list out all the key tasks, assign team members, timelines and dependencies and run up a project schedule like this as a plan for the whole job. It shies you what happens, how long it takes, when it happens and who does it. It is constantly updated as things change but it’s a great resource for us and indeed our personnel and clients. Have you ever had a project run over schedule?

You might be looking at this photo wondering what happened this lovely new front door but in reality, this is a protective covering that our site crew installed today in Model Farm Road in Cork. How many times have you heard of someone building a new home only to find one of their prized new possessions damaged during the build? Well done to the team on site at KMC Homes for thinking ahead 👏👏

Called down to my parent’s house today and caught sight of my father’s new tool box. I guess the practical signage on the top was added following a previous frustrating oversight. This put a grin on my face. Hope you got to catch up with your family over the holidays

We are at an exciting stage on site in our new buiid home in Model Farm Road in Cork. We are just completing the acrylic render externally and beginning to strip the scaffolding. Internally we are finishing plastering 3 stories of accommodation so excited to begin the internal finishes after Christmas as we get to finally see the elevations in all their glory outside. What do@you think so far?

Just putting the final paint touches to this beautiful new hone in East Cork. We broke ground on 3rd April and set diligently to work. The frame is blockwork, there is a detailed roof and the external finish is a crisp acrylic render so a relatively complex build overall but a great result overall and currently slight ahead of schedule! Well done to all the building team at KMC Homes

Looking forward to a wonderful new home project next year in Crosshaven. This will be a 3 story house built into the hill with the entrance lobby at the top and the other 2 floors housing the living space and bedrooms. This house will be constructed using ICF which we haven’t used in a while so looking forward to sharing some exciting updates next year

No, this isn’t a tiny home, it’s a gingerbread bird box my daughter made. (She’ll be morto if she finds out I posted it so please keep it to yourself) Love the detailing, she must have building in the blood!!

So, we’re nearing the end of 2023 and the Irish construction industry is busier than ever. So many houses to build and so little trades. Are you building or renovating at present? What is your experience of building prices? Are they still going up, staying the same or dropping a little?