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3 Benefits Of Building A Passive House

3 Benefits Of Building A Passive HouseIf you have been looking into building a new home and carrying out some research to get a better understanding of what you are looking for, then you will have almost certainly come across the term passive house. Passive homes are built to an extremely high standard in a bid to make them take as little energy as possible to heat them in winter and cool them in the summer. Here are just 3 of the benefits of building a passive house in Ireland.

1: Big Savings On Energy Bills

Passive houses are designed from day one to be energy efficient and they utilise extremely high-quality components that are purpose-built for the same reason. For example, a passive house window can actually reduce heat loss by over 70% when it’s compared to a double glazed window. Combining this with the high-quality insulation that is used in the walls means that it only takes a very small amount of heating in the winter or cooling in the summer to maintain comfortable temperatures in your home. The amazing heat retention capabilities of passive homes are just the start, if you add solar panels to your home then you could be making huge energy savings in your home for many years to come.

2: Good For Your Health

As passive homes are virtually sealed shut, to meet the strict standards, they have advanced ventilation systems installed. These ventilation systems work 24 hours a day to bring in a supply of fresh air while simultaneously removing pollutants, toxins and odours before they reach unhealthy levels. The air in your home is fresh all day every day without having to extend any effort on your part. These ventilation systems also filter out pollen from outside which can be a huge bonus for anyone who suffers from hayfever.

3 Benefits Of Building A Passive House Donnelly house3: Peace & Quiet

One of the most underrated benefits of building a passive house is how quiet they are when you are relaxing inside. The level of insulation is so high that it greatly reduces the noises that come in from outside and make it possible to enjoy peace and quiet in your home. This is especially true when your home is in an urban area or next to a busy road and can greatly increase your enjoyment of your home.

There are so many reasons to build a passive home when building a new home for your family. You make big savings on heating bills, the constant flow of fresh air and filtration of toxins can be good for your health and you can relax peacefully in your home even when you’re living in a busy and noisy area. Thinking about building a passive house? Book a consultation with Sigma Homes today!

4 Things To Consider When Building A New Home

4 Things To Consider When Building A New HomeIf you have come to the decision that it’s time to build your own house from the ground up, it can seem like a daunting task. There are so many steps and decisions laid out in front of you that are crucial in determining how you want to spend your time living in your new home and how it can work with you to complement your lifestyle. Here are 4 things to consider when building a new home.

1: What Are The Key Features You Need?

Every home, just like every person, is different. Arriving to your first meeting with your builder/architect armed with a comprehensive list of the key features you require of your new build is a great way to get off to the best possible start. Maybe you need a drive in garage with enough space for a 4×4, an open plan kitchen and a home theatre room. Communicating these ideas early on will generally speed up the build as there will be less back and forth on design changes.

2: Furniture/Cabinet Placement

To make the most of your property you should be thinking about where you plan on placing all of the furniture and cabinets in your home right from the initial design. Think about how you plan on living in your home and if there is really enough space to include the furniture you want. If you think there won’t be enough room, you can always discuss it with your architect and use their experience to help you come up with the best solution.

4 Things To Consider When Building A New Home - floor plan3: Builder’s Reputation

The design and build team you choose for your project will have a huge bearing on your overall success and satisfaction with the build. Your dream home is in their hands, so you should always be sure that they have a good track record of completing new builds on time and on budget, and that they are easy to contact and communicate with. Typing the building company’s name into Google, checking the testimonials on their website or their Facebook reviews are usually a good indicator.

4: The Angle Of Your Home

You might have a beautiful design for your new home that ticks all of the boxes, but if it’s dark and lacking in natural light it can take away from your enjoyment of everyday life in your house. A simple way to get the most possible natural light in your home is by discussing the best angle for your home. Changing the angle by just a few degrees can mean the difference of a cold dark room, or one that gets hours and hours of sunshine every day.

If you plan on building a new home make sure to outline all of the key features you want included, think about where all of your furniture and cabinets will be placed, ensure the design and build team you choose has a great reputation and discuss the angle of your home early on with your architect.

Book your new build consultation with Sigma Homes today by visiting us online or by calling us on 021-436-5866.

Welcoming Baby Kate To Her New Home

Sigma Homes will be completing the handover of Baby Kate’s new home to Lisa & Mark on Thursday the 23rd & as a thank you to everyone who helped with this project we’d like to invite you to come along & share in this experience with the Flynn family. There will be food, refreshments Santa Claus & his Elves on the evening & Neil Prendeville from Red FM will be doing the grand unveiling & turning on the Christmas Lights!

Again everyone at Sigma Homes would like to thank those who donated their time, money, materials & labour to this project from the bottom of our hearts, it’s been an amazing experience & without your dedication it would not have been possible. 

We look forward to thanking you in person on November 23rd, 7:30pm at 36 Riverside Rise, Rushbrooke, Cobh.

 

Neil Prendeville Visiting Sigma Homes On Site – A Home For Baby Kate

Sigma Homes was delighted to welcome Neil Prendeville from Red Fm on site in mid September to show him the progress that had been made on Baby Kate Flynn’s home, where she will be able to comfortably live with her family when the work is finished. The project was really starting to take shape at this stage of the build, take a look at Neil’s reaction below.

If you would like to show your support for Baby Kate, you can make donation to Go Fund Me at https://www.gofundme.com/a-home-for-kate

4 Reasons Natural Light Is Important In Your Home

4 Reasons Natural Light Is Important In Your HomeWhen building a new home, one of the things that you should always be considering is the best ways to take advantage of natural light, and how even small changes in your architectural planning can make a huge difference when it comes to letting in more light. Here are 4 reasons natural light is important in your home.

1: Energy Conservation

The obvious way that natural light reduces your dependence on electricity, is that you won’t have to turn on your lights in dark rooms as often and you can leave them off for longer as the day turns to night. However, natural light can also help reduce your heating bills. The sun coming in through your windows in the morning time and throughout the day will actually heat up your rooms, you may still have to use your central heating system but for a bit less time each day. When building a new home, conserving energy wherever possible is always high on the list of priorities.

2: Better Views

More natural light means more windows, and more windows means more views. If you’re building a new home in an area you love, being able to see that area is a huge bonus. That comes with the added bonus of being able to easily keep an eye on the kids while they play outside without having to constantly go back and forth from that one window that has a good angle of the garden.

Natural-Light-Is-Important-In-Your-Home-plant-life

3: Healthier Indoor Plants

Plants need the natural light of the sun to survive and be healthy. Having a home with plenty of natural light is the easiest way to keep your plants thriving and detoxifying the air. More natural light gives you far more opportunities to grow indoor plants to decorate your home.

4: Increased Vitamin D

When your skin is exposed to the sun it makes vitamin D. Vitamin D is important for healthy bones, immune systems, intestines, cardiovascular systems and much more in both children and adults. Due to the weather, Irish people are generally lacking in vitamin D so creating a home that helps you get the most natural light can only be a good thing.

When you are designing your new home, natural light is hugely important. It can help you save money on your energy bills, open up more views to look out at, give you far more opportunities to easily grow indoor plants and it increases your vitamin D production.

If you have been thinking about designing and building a new home, book your consultation with Sigma Homes today by visiting us online or by calling us on 021-436-5866.

House Extension Advice

House Extension Advice – The Existing House & Living Space

Before looking at what type of house extension you want, it’s important to review your existing house to make sure you focus on critical areas. Make a list of your priorities and look at what rooms you spend the most time in, often that’s the kitchen. Now look at what you’re doing in each room, if you find, for example, that you’re socialising in the kitchen and leaving you dining space empty and unused, it’s time to look at merging these together to maximise their potential. We would also recommend that you start looking at completed projects to get a feel for how you’d like you finished home to look, websites like Houzz or Pinterest are great resources for getting ideas. Don’t worry if you can’t find the perfect example of what you want, just build up a scrapbook of the various elements you like as these will prove invaluable to the designer when they are getting a feel for the look you want, and to yourself when you the time comes to select the final finishes for your project.

Do I Need An Extension At All?

90% of our clients are looking to modernise their living space. Houses designed as recently as 2010 had small separate kitchens and dining spaces that end up with families using the smallest rooms in the house the most often. By opening up the interior of the house and creating larger rear openings, you can create a far larger sense of space and better utilise the interior. The sketches below show rearranging the existing interior to form a larger open plan space without the need for extension.

Rear Extensions

By far the most common extension in the city is the single storey ground floor rear house extension, these don’t need to be huge, and more often than not, a modest extension can give the best value for money while still transforming the way your home and the way you live. However, it is important that the design is carefully thought through as we find that the ‘standard’ rear extension can leave existing internal rooms lacking light making them unusable in certain situations. The first thing to consider is the orientation of the house and how to maximise the sunlight throughout the extension and existing house. Below are some quick sketches showing alternative arrangements for a rear extension.

As you can see the there are many different forms that rear home extensions can take, all with their positives and negatives depending on the site and the orientation of the house. What we find most important is that these options are explored fully to ensure you get the perfect design for your home. Be open minded and you might just get the dream home you always wanted.

Will My Extension Need planning?

In our experience single storey house extensions to the rear of existing property can generally be achieved without the need for planning permission, the following would be the basic criteria for an extension to be exempt from requiring planning:

  • It needs to be less than 40sqm/430sqft in floor area, that would be an extension approximately 6m/20ft by 6.5m/21ft.
  • This extension must be entirely to the rear of the existing property with no element to the side and it must be attached to the existing house.
  • When the extension is complete it must leave at least 25sqm/265sqft of open space.
  • The walls of the extension can only be as high as the existing walls, if the roof is pitched it can’t be higher than the existing roof, if flat it can’t be higher than the existing gutters.
  • Ground floor windows can’t be closer than 1m from the boundaries.

If the house extension you have in mind meets the above criteria, it’s more than likely it won’t require planning, however it is always best to confirm this prior to construction. It’s also possible for a first floor extension to be exempt from planning but the requirements are far more restrictive and in our experience it is rare when building in the city.

If the project exceeds any of the criteria or you’re looking for a first floor extension, don’t worry. While it can take longer to achieve obtaining, planning permission doesn’t cost a huge amount of money and if it ensures the extension is perfect for your house, it is worth the time and money it requires. We will explain the planning process in more detail at a later time if you book a consultation online.

The Growing Family – First Floor Extensions

A growing family means the requirement for more bedrooms, unless you’re existing house is a bungalow this generally means an extension at first floor level. First floor home extensions generally require planning but, as noted earlier, this shouldn’t be an impediment in ensuring you get the right extension for your home. Critical to the first floor extension is how it is accessed from the existing house, often part of a bedroom has to be sacrificed if you require a new separate bedroom and careful thought must be given as you are reducing the size of an existing bedroom to provide a new one. That being said, the first floor extension is an excellent opportunity to get that master bedroom with walk-in closet and en-suite you have always dreamed off! Here a couple of examples of two storey developments we have sketched up:

If you need advice on which type of extension is best for your needs. Visit us online or call Sigma Homes today on 021-436-5866 to book your house extensions design and build consultation.

How To Choose The Right Builders For Your Project In Cork

The Right Builders For Your ProjectWhen it comes to your home, you should never settle for anything less than the best. The quality of the work that is carried out will have a direct impact on your life for years to come, so choosing the best builders for the job is extremely important. There are a wide variety of factors that should influence your decision when you are trying to choose the right builders for your project. Here is how to choose the right builders for your project in Cork.

1: Location

If your project is in Cork, you should choose a construction company that is also located in Cork and has a history of completing building projects on time and to a very high standard in the area.

2: Easy To Contact

Being able to get in touch with a builder quickly and easily is very important. Over the course of a new build or an extension, you will probably have a few questions that you need answered or some changes you want to make along the way. If you can’t seem to get through to them or they don’t get back to you quickly, it can add a lot of unnecessary stress to the build.

3: Portfolio

Another important factor when choosing the right builder for your project is their portfolio. This should always be something that is readily available to you when dealing with any reputable builder. This a fantastic way to get a feel for their work and the type of projects they excel at. If there is no portfolio made available then you should keep looking for the right builder.

5: In-House Architect

If you’re building a new home, an extension or completing some renovation work you should always choose a construction company that has an in house architect or architecture team. Being able to change plans and cost things completely in house can save you a substantial amount of money. Also having the builder and architect working closely together can often allow them to team up and come up with creative ways to keep your project within budget while still delivering on key aspects of the build.

How To Choose The Right Builders For Your Project In Cork4: Reputation

The reputation of a construction company can really be what sets it apart from their competition. Google any companies you are considering and take a look at their reviews. What their past clients have to say about their experience and the quality of work that was carried out is just about the best indicator of how you will be treated as one of their clients.

When you’re choosing a builder for your project in Cork you should consider choosing a company with a good history of projects in the area, is easy to contact when you need them, has a great portfolio of past projects, has an in house architect and had a fantastic reputation with their clients.

Book your design and build consultation now by visiting us online or by calling us on 021-436-5866.

Visit Us at

Unit A4, Donnybrook Commercial Centre
Douglas, Cork

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