Mica family building home for third time

“We are facing building this house for a third time,”- those are the words of Buncrana artist Josephine Kelly, who unsuccessfully replaced the outer leaf of her mica-affected home four years ago.

Not surprisingly, she would not recommend the outer leaf repair option to anyone, as four years on, cracks are appearing inside and outside her home.

Speaking to Donegal Live, she said: “We have more than 30 individual cracks inside our home now and they have definitely got worse in the last few months.

“In my experience, anyone who does an outer leaf repair now is going to be sitting worrying, 'Is it going to work out for me?'. Outer leaf is not a 100% solution. No-one can be sure it will work or how long it will last. I would not recommend outer leaf. I would say to anyone being recommended to do it not to waste their time, don't even go there.

“When the time comes to do my home, I am hoping the foundations and everything come out. I want a clean start.”
She feels it does not make sense to build a good house on the existing foundations.

She also points out that “the cost of an outer leaf is another worrying thing. Building materials are getting hard to get and people could be paying up to €100,000 for something that might not work out, which is crazy money to be spending.

“Our engineer has told us we might get five more years in the house. Hopefully costs will have come down by then,” she said.
Josephine and husband Sean built their Clonglash home in 2002.

In 2010, following the bad winter, they noticed spider cracks appearing on the outside.

“The cracks were getting worse every year. Our house was getting worse in the corners and the plaster was starting to fall off.
“At that time, 2017, there was no scheme in place, so we decided to fix it because we thought, 'There's nobody coming to help us. We are on our own'.
“

Other people were starting to fix their outer leafs then too. That was the solution. There there was no talk of demolition. We had to go to the Credit Union and take out a loan for €30,000. We are paying back €40,000. We are still paying it. It was not easy for us to get that money. It was and is a lot of money.

“We did the outer leaf. At that time too there was not a lot of talk about testing but we knew it was mica because the house was falling apart.

“People think outer leaf is an easy option but they are wrong. It was very traumatic. The house was covered in scaffolding for more than four months. We were also living in the house at the time. I would describe it as like living like Beirut a lot of days. The kango was going all the time and you could see your walls coming down. That went on for four months,” said Josephine, who had also had to wait a long time for the contractor to come on site.

Josephine estimated there are a few hundred “outer leafers” in Inishowen.

She observed no-one seemed to want to talk about it, which she found strange.

“I have been trying to start a data base of outer leafers but I am not getting very far. I know there are about seven other houses in Buncrana in the same boat as us, they have done the work and their home is cracking again.”
Cracks returned

Josephine described how the outer leaf on the gable of her home contains four big cracks, in spite of the fact she used an expensive acrylic render in the hope it would offer extra protection, as there would be no moisture coming into her home.

“Inside is cracking very fast, even in the last couple of months. One room in the house, where I work, is pretty bad. There are lots ot of horizontal and vertical cracks above the doors and windows and high up in the wall. I can't get away from it and I am working in there all the time.

“The cracking has now moved into our sitting room. There are five or six cracks above the windows and doors. We have two big walls in the hall, which are structural, they are supporting bison slabs, which were built on the flat block. One of them now has cracks on both sides the crack is going right through it, that is worrying, that is structural, on the very inside of the house.

“I can't see how the moisture is getting in as the hall is right in the middle of the house, unless the moisture is coming from upwards from the ground. There is talk now about pyrrhotite and pyrite, deleterious materials, which do not need moisture to deteriorate. Our house is still 50% mica.”

She continued: “While the work was being done, we were going to bed at night and one of the gables was just standing with one leaf and you were just thinking, 'Am I going to be still here in the morning?' I was always thinking about the slabs and the roof and wondering if the gable was going to hold. It was very scary.”

“Outer leaf is not an easy option,” she said.

“The structure of your house is compromised. Your home takes a huge pounding. The kango hammer was going all the time and the walls were coming down. They were using props to hold up windowsills. Our doors and windows have never been the same. They are leaking now and they are draughty. The builders did their best but they were not miracle workers. They had to put the house back together again. The windowsills are sloping now.

“Another problem, and it is true of many homes in Donegal, was the depth of the foundations. Our footings were very deep, so the builders could only physically go down a certain distance.

“Our roof is also quite big, so they had to leave mica-containing blocks in above as they were afraid of damaging the roof.

"Our house only lasted two years before the cracks came back again, in the walls we replaced, probably because the house is 50% mica and the older blocks are pulling the good blocks out.

“The older, mica-containing blocks are still deteriorating. Mica in the inner leaf and the concrete of the foundations is bringing the good blocks down. Our house is still falling apart.”
Josephine recalled she was wary initially about saying publicly her outer leaf had not worked.

“However, when I put it out on social media, a few people got back to me and said it was happening to them as well. I was glad to think it was not just us. It was a big thing to come out and say this is not working.

“The [Defective Concrete Blocks Grant] Scheme was not there the first time around and we were excluded when it did come out.

“I was angry because all of the politicians, everybody knew about our story, as I had written to them and met them but it did not matter, when the scheme came out, it was no good to us.

“I am also worried about the proposed new scheme because, when (Housing Minister) Darragh O'Brien was on Claire Byrne, he said there would be some demolition but he was emphasising outer leaf and he casually said, 'But you can jump back into the scheme if it doesn't work out'.

“In reality, however, you are going to be at the end of a very long queue. In addition, and outer leaf is not easy. We are facing building this house for a third time.

“We built it and rebuilt it and I am afraid they are going to propose inner leaf job for us. I am not prepared to do that because it is going to take everything we've got mentally, physically and financially to go and try and fix this house it is going to have to be demolition,” said Josephine, who said it was going to take everything now to muster up the strength to do this.

‘Don't waste your time’

Josephine, who was part of an awareness raising campaign at Buncrana's Westend during the summer, said she would not recommend outer leaf.

“Don't waste your time. Don't even go there. When the time comes to do this house, I am hoping the founds and everything come out.

“I want a clean start. Founds are not being tested so it does not make sense to build a good house over bad founds, that is common-sense.”