Triple A kudos for rare retrofit BER of A1 for €450k Cork city 1930s home

Dogged builder wasn't happy with his A2 BER on 1930s suburban semi-d at 4, Mount Pleasant Road, so he took a second bite to hit the gold standard, A1, for energy, pocket-friendly and climate friendly running costs

Exterior of 4 Mount Pleasant Road, done by builder Stephen Marsh of Mulrock Construction to an incredible  A1 BER, rarely achieved in a retrofit. Agents Behan Irwin Gosling  guide at €450,000

Mount Pleasant Road, Turners Cross/Ballyphehane, Cork City
€450,000
Size	130 sq m (1,400 sq ft)
Bedrooms	3+attic
Bathrooms	5
BER	A1

Builders today have to deliver new homes to an ‘A’ BER standard: That’s a given.

Interior kitchen/living with two bay windows and huge insulation values.

So, buyers today will get an A3, at a bare minimum on their brand-new home; an A2 if they are buying higher-end or from an energy-scrimping scrupulous and fastidious builder, whilst A1s are still rare among the vast swathe of new builds. A’s, and A1’s, are ever more rare in older and retrofitted Irish housing stock.

Entry point to A1-rated 4 Mount Pleasant Road: Showhouse standard and best in class energy performance.

Up to 2010, just 1% of Irish homes hit any sort of A energyrating, according to the CSO, and an A1 would have been a far small subset again (the CSO doesn’t seem to subdivide beyond an A rating.)

So, No 4 Mount Pleasant Road in Cork City, a retrofitted 1930s semi-detached bungalow with an A1 stamp of approval is out on its own, and simply outstanding in anyone’s book.

Sky's the limit: First floor with views.

Now, this “best in class”, future-proofed, low-carbon emitting city homes is up for sale with a €450,000 AMV cited by selling agent Cearbhall Behan who says it’s not just super-easy to heat and power but also done to a showhouse standard.

Mr Behan lauds the work of builder  Stephen Marsh of Mulrock Construction,  who’d previously done work for clients on the adjoining No 3 Mount Pleasant Road between Cork city’s Turners Cross and Ballyphehane.

Mr Marsh, originally trained as a carpenter and running his own company for over 30 years
employing 19, including now his 24-year-old son Ben, later bought No 4 when it came up for sale about two years ago. (The Price Register shows he paid €210,000 for No 4, aka Kathrew, in 2021 as a do-er up.) He then proceeded to finish No 4 externally to a similar appearance as No 3, but went ‘above and beyond’ with his own
investment when he did a total
refurb, from a new roof down to the ground level.

In fact, Mr Marsh (advised by Ballincollig-based DL GroupEngineers’  Brian Murphy) went “above and beyond” a second time, as his BER assessor at first advised him he’d hit a super solid A2 BER but said if he had upped the number of solar panels for electricity generating on the rear extension he’d have awarded him an A1. 

So, that’s what dogged Mr Marsh did: he added more panels and got the coveted, and rarely awarded AAA “gold standard”.

Maintenance-free lawn.

It’s an accolade that will appeal to bidders this month if they are climate change aware… and after a scorching summer like we’ve witnessed around the globe and highest every July temperatures on land and sea of all time, who isn’t?

An A-rated home has the
energy demand and emission of just 10% of the CO2 of a G-rated one (1.1 tonnes vs 10.2 tonnes of a F- or G-rated one) so will repay both the builder and the buyers’
investment in the decades to come, future proofed indeed.
Running costs, all in, per month in this home’s case should be under €100 per month, it’s reckoned.

The finished home No 4 has super-high insulation levels and air tightness, air to water heating delivered via radiators in the main (some underfloor heating only in the main en suite bathrooms), has heat recovery, and highly efficient double glazing (from Munster Joinery), not even triple.

There’s no open fire, obviously, or even a stove in semi-detached No 4, which is now about 1,400sq ft or 130sq m, with three en suite bedrooms at ground level plus an en suite attic level room. It’s one of the largest rooms in the house, with a suite of four Veluxes in the roof, facing south and opening wide up and out for distant suburban views towards the hills south of Cork City and the airport.

That uppermost room can’t officially qualify as a bedroom due to building regs, so it’s up to next occupants to see how they make best use of this ‘storage space, with additional eaves storage.

Cearbhall Behan says his client/Mulrock Construction undertook “a show house project to demonstrate his capabilities. It was “completely re-modelled to include open plan kitchen /living room with fully fitted kitchen with brand new appliances, three bedrooms (all en suite) with fitted wardrobes, converted attic with additional en suite, gets its A1 BER and the finish on this house is incredible too”.

It has a new roof, pressed metal and brick-finished feature porch entrance, re-rendering over external insulation, grey energy efficient window and electric gate access to a limestone paved patio (plus electric car charger) with scope for up to three cars to be parked off-street, and has a bus stop by its front wall on Mount Pleasant Road, between Upper Friars Road and Fr Mathew Road (helping give the house its name from previous owners Kathrew?)

Externally, and part-sheltered by its rear add-on (also with pressed metal trim on the fascia) it has a small, enclosed rear garden with timber fencing, astroturf seating area and more limestone paving.

The committed, or merely curious, will get some idea of how Nos 3 and 4 might have looked a few years back if they go a few doors down the way at Mount Pleasant Road to another, originally similar pair of semi-detached houses also sandwiched between two two-storey detached houses in corner setting in this cris-cross section of southside suburbia.

The Anchorage, aka No 2  Mount Pleasant Road also has a €450,00 AMV and a D1 BER.

It's within an easy walk of the city centre, and No 4 comes to market the same month as No 2, aka The Anchorage, a corner detached two-story 1,500 sq ft four-bed home which featured in these pages last Saturday, also with a €450,000 AMV and with a D1 BER.

VERDICT: With an A1 BER you won’t need a jumper, not to mind a coat here. But, for the true ‘anoraks’ out there No 4 has…deep breath ... floors dug out 3’ and reinstated with masses of insulation and barriers; 100mm external insulation, 62.5mm internal insulation and 25mm pumped closed cell on internal walls of the old house (it’s block on flat), along with an attic with 100mm open cell plus 62.5mm on ceilings.

All-in-all, A1-rated No 4 is more than pleasant, indeed.