Builder claims house defects caused by infill

ONE OF the State’s leading housebuilders, Seamus Ross, is seeking indemnity against claims from up to 750 householders over defects which have arisen in houses built by his companies in north Dublin.

Four companies controlled by Mr Ross yesterday began Commercial Court proceedings in which they say the problems in three estates were caused by defective infill supplied by three companies in the Lagan group of companies.

The outcome of the case will decide liability for up to €60 million in damages to the houses, whose owners are expected to prosecute their own legal proceedings. The case is also being watched closely by other builders who have experienced problems with cracking and “heaving” after construction.

The case, which opened before Mr Justice Paul Gilligan in the Commercial Court, sitting in Clonskeagh, is expected to last between three and nine months.

Opening the case on behalf of Mr Ross’s companies, Brian O’Moore SC contended that the common denominator causing the damage was defective infill from one of the Lagan companies, Irish Asphalt Ltd. That company was aware the infill contained pyrite, which caused the problem, he claimed.

Lawyers for the Lagan com-panies are set to reject these contentions in their opening submissions today.

The companies taking the proceedings are Hansfield Developments, Viking Construction, Menolly Properties and Menolly Homes and the defendants in the Lagan group are Irish Asphalt, Lagan Holdings Ltd and Lagan Construction Ltd.

The case centres on 420 houses at Drynam Hall in Kinsealy, along with 186 houses at Beaupark, Clongriffin and 153 at Myrtle, The Coast, Baldoyle. Menolly and the other plaintiff companies claim aggregate infill bought from Irish Asphalt was used in the construction of all three estates and was placed under the floors of buildings and footpaths.

Menolly claims the pyrite in the infill swelled and caused the damage to buildings and footpaths.

Before proceedings began, the court swore in two technical assessors, Dermot Rooney and Dr Philip Nixon, to assist the judge during the case.

Mr O’Moore said Mr Ross has been involved in construction for over 40 years and his companies had an extraordinary and unparalleled history of construction in the State and overseas.

Menolly had registered more than 14,000 new houses under the Homebond scheme and, until the present problems arose, had been the subject of just two complaints under the scheme.

There was “nothing new” about the science underlying the problems that had arisen. Pyritic heave was a recognised form of damage resulting from relatively simple chemical reactions which cause a house to heave up and leads to serious damage. Counsel pointed to factors which, he said, indicated that the source of the problem lay with the infill supplied by Irish Asphalt’s Bay Lane quarry in north Dublin.

The only houses that suffered were those built using infill purchased from the quarry. In estates where Bay Lane infill was used to construct footpaths but was not used on the roads, the footpaths heaved up, but the roads remained perfectly normal. When remedial works were carried out, and the Bay Lane material was removed, the cracking closed.

Mr O’Moore also said that the houses were built using a variety of designs, sites and infill thicknesses by different work crews and architects. The only common denominator in the damaged houses was the Bay Lane infill material.

He said Menolly had had a good working relationship with Irish Asphalt and never had any reason to doubt its product before Bay Lane opened in 2003. Irish Asphalt’s technical adviser, Prof Geoffrey Walton, was “troubled” by what he found on the ground at Bay Lane, counsel claimed, and was “frozen out” when he tried to get test information from the company. He also questioned why the aggregate from Bay Lane was not used to supply Irish Asphalt’s plant at Ballycoolin, just a few miles away, which used material purchased from a competitor.