The house the fireman built

Lee Conlon’s determination to build himself a log home in Co Monaghan shows just what can be done when you know exactly what you want.

Site size: 4 acres
House size: 2,100 sqft
Total cost including kit, fit-out and furnishings: €296,000
Construction: 230mm thick patented engineered logs, warm roof with natural slates
Insulation: exposed logs on walls, on floor 3x75mm rigid polyurethane boards, on roof 175mm recycled newspaper pumped between rafters and 50mm sheep’s wool between battens supporting 75mm timber panel
U-values: log walls 0.54 W/m2K, floor 0.18 W/m2K
Windows: argon filled, double glazed, U-value 1.1 W/m2K

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Written by Astrid Madsen

Astrid Madsen is the editor of the SelfBuild magazine. She previously held the same role in an Irish trade publication, before that she worked at the National Standards Authority of Ireland. She graduated with a BA in Urban Studies from Columbia University in New York and holds an MBA from the Instituto de Estudios Bursatiles in Madrid. France of origin, she now lives in Portarlington, County Laois, where she's taken on the task of renovating a listed building! Email astrid.madsen@selfbuild.ie

Hanging Doors

Hats off!