Structural Engineer in Bray, Co. Wicklow, for Period Terraces, Extensions and Cracks

Local knowledge

Ground, housing and council rules in Bray

Bray grew as a Victorian seaside resort after the railway arrived, and the streets near the seafront and the Quinsboro Road still show it: two- and three-storey brick and rendered terraces with solid walls, timber floors built into the masonry and chimney breasts back-to-back on the party walls. Alterations in those houses, such as removing a spine wall, a chimney breast or a rear return, need steel and bearings designed to suit lime-mortared masonry, not a standard detail from a cavity-block house.

Further from the sea, estates in Ballywaltrim, Boghall, Old Connaught and Oldcourt are mostly 20th-century cavity-block semis and terraces, where the work is rear extensions, knock-throughs and attic conversions. Little Bray, along the River Dargle, flooded badly during Hurricane Charley in 1986, and the River Dargle flood defence scheme was built in response. Houses that have flooded, or have had long-running leaks, are worth checking for decay in joist ends and timber floors before refurbishment covers them.

The coast is the other factor. Exposure to salt-laden wind degrades render, brick and steel wall ties, and the cliffs between Bray Head and Greystones have been eroding by up to half a metre a year. Wicklow County Council is the planning and building control authority for Bray, and protected structures along the seafront need permission for works that would be exempt elsewhere.