Pioneers of Timberframe and Passive House Construction

Donal and Maria Mullins from Carne, Broadway, Wexford established Shoalwater Timberframe Ltd. in 2000with a view to manufacturing high quality timber frame houses for the Irish market.  The concept was still very new in Ireland at the time but was beginning to attract significant interest with pioneers like Shoalwater leading an emerging movement in the construction industry. 

The company is approved by the National Standards Authority of Ireland and is involved in once-off and group housing schemes right across the south east.  Despite Shoalwater’s experience in large projects – the company manufactured, constructed and erected a 90-house scheme in Castlebridge in 2001 and a 30-house scheme in Enniscorthy in 2004 – it was originally formed to meet the demand of high quality private houses. 

Operating form the purpose-built, state of the art factory in Carne, Broadway, Shoalwater employs a team of highly skilled and motivated craftsmen who not alone manufacture the houses but also erect them on sites across the south east and much further afield. 

This allows for Donal and Maria to monitor quality control form the factory floor to the place of erection, thus ensuring that all work carried out is to the company’s specifications and structural requirements as demanded by the company’s structural engineers. 

Donal Mullins has years of experience in the construction industry having served his apprenticeship as a carpenter to some of the biggest names in the building trade in the early 1980’s.  Even then he showed exceptional talent when working with wood and it came as no surprise to his then colleagues when he was named as ANCO’s ‘Carpentry Apprentice of the Year’ in 1981. 

Interested in all new innovative forms of housing, Donal began researching the idea of passive housing in the late 1980s and was soon convinced that timber framed passive housing was the building method of the future.  He immediately began making plans, the first of which was the building of a factory for the manufacture of such houses in Carne, close to where he was born and reared. 

He achieved his ambition in 2000 when Shoalwater Timberframe Ltd. commenced operations and since then the company has gone from strength to strength gaining an ever growing reputation along the way. 

Shoalwater has been involved in the manufacture and erection of timber framed houses right across the south east and the company is now regarded as a leading builder of timber framed houses.

In planning a timber frame or passive house, Shoalwater employs the construction guidelines as laid down by Sustainable Energy Ireland.  It is a specific standard designed to provide to provide optimum levels of comfort in both winter and summer without active cooling. 

Typically, this includes optimised insulation levels and minimal thermal bridges, low air-leakage throughout, utilization of passive solar and internal gains with good indoor air quality.  All this is maintained by a mechanical ventilation system supported by a very high and efficient heat recovery method. 

Donal is enthusiastic when talking of savings which can be achieved in the construction of a timber frame or passive house and he is always willing to discuss his ideas with interested parties, particularly young couples about to build their first.  

Call today for a free quotation or further information on making your house a timber frame home.