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Eight years after first phase of Dolphin House regeneration, tenants report leaking roofs and heating problems
Eight years after first phase of Dolphin House regeneration, tenants report leaking roofs and heating problems Sinn Féin councillor Ciarán Ó Meachair outside the regenerated housing units at Dolphin House in Dublin.
Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill/The Irish TimesThe regeneration of 100 units in one the city’s largest and most dilapidated social housing complexes was completed at a cost of about €26 million. This included 37 newly-built homes, with the remaining 63 flats refurbished under a “deep retrofit” programme. The 1950s estate near the Coombe hospital in Dolphin’s Barn, Dublin 8 had become notorious for its heroin problem in the 1980s and 1990s.
The flats were increasingly neglected, with persistent damp, mould and sewage problems. After weeks of rain I flew to Minneapolis and was greeted with intoxicating brightnesscouncillor Ciarán Ó Meachair raised the issue at a local area meeting in April and asked council management what precautions were being put in place for new housing developments under way “to ensure that they don’t have the same fate as Dolphin House 1a”.
“The maintenance to fix units that have only been occupied for a few years is into the tens of thousands at least and there’s evidence, not just in Dublin 8 but across Dublin, that new builds are just not being built to good quality and taxpayers’ money is being wasted,” he claimed. Mary*, who was living in a two-bedroom flat in the complex for five years with her children before being upgraded to one of the newly built houses in 2018, cites problems with leaks and dampness.
“Last year the rain started coming through the walls, like, pissing through the walls, really heavy,” she said. “It wrecked the whole place and caused a load of dampness upstairs. I had a bed destroyed, the kids’ stuff upstairs, their runners downstairs, the floors downstairs, towels, duvets; all destroyed.
“I had a window explode over the heat shining in too much when I first moved in. It just cracked from the heat and it happened to another girl as well. That was replaced at the time.
“There are cracks right up the walls, every house has them, the exact same. I do like living here but I would have rathered my old flat compared to the house I’m in now. The flat had no dampness, the only problem I had was water pressure. That was it, whereas with this house it’s problem after problem even though we’ve more space now and it’s much bigger.
I’m not messing, my old flat was a thousand times better than this. ” Michael* has been living in Dolphin House for more than 25 years with his family and also moved from a flat to a new-build home. There are “massive problems”, he said, including a leak in his roof which first emerged 2½ years ago.
“The water does be flowing in,” he said. “When the leak started coming in from the roof I put a hole in the ceiling so it didn’t really spread down the walls or anything. But I have got damp in my sittingroom and my sittingroom is nowhere near the leaks.
“The heating system is wrong, I don’t think the boiler is going to last long. You can’t put the shower and the washing machine on at the same time. The radiators are too small, they’re just single rads, so during winter time it is freezing.
” Leaking roofs, damp, heating retention problems and windows overheating and cracking are some of the issues at Dolphin House“I think the old flats now would be about 80 years old but I’d go back into the old flat tomorrow,” he said.
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lovely house. If everything was right in it, it would be brilliant but I’m only living in it 7½ years and it’s been nothing but trouble since we moved in. I can’t enjoy the new house. You dream of these things – from going to an old flat that is cold to getting a brand new house, A-rated and Ber rated ... but every few weeks there’s problems.
” Noel McCarthy has lived in the flat complex his entire life and currently occupies one of the new one-bedroom apartments. He references continuing problems with antisocial behaviour and rats. Robert Buckle, a senior engineer in the council’s housing maintenance department, acknowledged there have been “issues with regards to new builds” and that “we’re trying to work with the architects on that”.
“There is a desire within the organisation to now try and listen to the issues we’re having now with maintenance, especially on the new, more modern buildings that we’re building,” he told councillors last April. People who drive up down Crumlin Road, past Dolphin’s Barn and into town every day see the front apartments and think ‘that looks well’.
That’s their surface-level view of what’s happeningCollette Egan, a senior executive officer, also told that meeting it was “disappointing” to hear there were problems emerging at Dolphin House but that lessons had been learned.
“There’s been a lot of improvements into how we tender , how we appoint our contractors since the time of Dolphin House,” she said. “Our standard of inspections have increased on how we do it and there’s a lot more regulations in terms of building control. ” The next phase of the regeneration of Dolphin House, known as phase 1B, will go out to tender in October, said Dublin City Council. On-site work is expected to begin next year.
“The city architect advises that construction defects and valued residents’ feedback on issues arising on Dolphin Phase 1 have been used to inform the design and specification of later phases, the risk review on future phases and site stage inspections, including ‘first of kind’ benchmark inspections on all new works areas,” said the council. Local residents met council officials this week and were informed that problems with roofs and leaks had been identified, with works set to commence next month.
Labour councillor Darragh Moriarty said he wanted to see details on what “lessons had been learned” by the council and “we don’t have that”.
“People who maybe aren’t as familiar with the complex who drive up down Crumlin Road, past Dolphin’s Barn and into town every day see the front apartments and think ‘that looks well’. That’s their surface-level view of what’s happening,” he said.
“We have swathes of tenants for the last six to eight years who supposedly are living in shiny new blocks while their neighbours are still living in absolutely dilapidated, appalling conditions and they’re having to shout for maintenance issues just as much as the people living in the dilapidated blocks. It seems farcical.
” Purcell Construction, the building contractor involved in the first phase of the Dolphin House regeneration, said: “We have no knowledge of the matter and will not be commenting further. ”Students warned of ‘spike’ in accommodation scams as they return to collegeIreland’s padel court building boom in full swing despite high-profile planning refusalsWhat triggered catastrophic flood on the Nepal-Tibet border? Fortycoats, ‘Felt Jesus’ and the time Aonghus McAnally said bum instead of bottomHeavy rain warning for six counties on Thursday
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