Renovation, Insulation

What was involved?
My house was originally built in the 1890's and hadn't been lived in for about ten years. It really wasn't in a liveable state and needed to be completely renovated and insulated. It was a red brick house with one storey in the front and two storeys in the back located in the city centre.

Anthony took out everything I didn't want and put in insulation, new windows, bathrooms, kitchen and a new floor. I had a twelve foot high ceiling in the single storey front living room so I had Anthony build an attic room above using the space. From the stairs, drainage, roofing and plastering, Anthony did everything from top to toe.

The house is spectacular now. I had gotten SEAI grants that helped me towards paying for the insulation, boiler and dual heating controls.

How did you choose Clancon Build?
I had heard horror stories from people who had work done and they told me to be careful. I was worried, this was my first house and I don't plan on moving. I heard about Anthony from my aunt who knows him but I spoke to another six builders as well to get quotes.

Anthony came across as the most competent and had a full written quotation back to me within a day of meeting him with everything broken down. The other builders who got back to me could only provide me with rough ideas and wouldn't specify what that included. Anthony was very thorough, he has a business background and it showed.

Had you definite ideas in mind before you talked to Anthony Clancy?
I had a bit of an idea myself and had an architect come up with some rough sketches of different ways I could do it.

Did Anthony introduce new ideas?
Anthony took the ideas of what I wanted to do and came up with the best ways to achieve that.

How did the project run?
Literally 100%. There wasn't a single day that there wasn't at least four or five guys here working and Anthony was here every day as well. There was no, "well I'll be there next week or tomorrow", he was here every day working.

Anthony listened to everything I wanted and with Anthony, all I had to do was to mention something once and he would get it organised right away. I wanted an understairs cupboard and toilet installed, mentioned it to Anthony and it was done like that.

The whole job took about nine weeks and when he was done, the finish was superb. Anthony also did a lot of other little extras. With the house being old, I wanted older style stuff and he went to a lot of trouble to source things for me like reclaimed timber floors and reproduction old cast iron radiators.

Anthony also went to a lot of trouble making sure that all the fine details were looked after, he's a perfectionist and won't leave something unless he's happy with it. I wanted the house revalued for my mortgage and the guy who came out had seen it before was so amazed at the difference, that he wanted the number of my builder.

What was the biggest benefit to you of using Clancon Build?
It's hard to think of just one. Anthony was so easy to work with, very good natured and he was able to deliver what he said he would do.

What's your favourite part now?
I really love the attic room that Anthony built for me over the sitting room. I liked the high ceilings I had before but from a heating standpoint it wasn't practical and besides, I wanted another room. Anthony dropped the floor down so that I would still have the full room while building the upstairs room in such a way that you can't see it from outside the front of the house. He had a carpenter build a glass box around it so that upstairs in that room you have the light coming up from downstairs and you can also look down and see into the living room, its fantastic. Other houses on the street have added an upstairs room like mine but you can see it from outside their house.

Would you recommend Clancon Build to others?
100% and I've already given his number to anyone who has even mentioned that they might be doing a building project. I can't recommend Anthony more highly.

Any tips for other people?
Definitely shop around but also go with your gut instinct, you usually get a feel for someone that way. Definitely get everything in writing and broken down so that you can see where your money is going and where you might be able to save money.