Plantech Design Ltd

The business has grown every year and we have been lucky to get references constantly

admin — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 22:06:09 +0000

The business has grown every year and we have been lucky to get references constantly

Plantech are a professional Architectural Design and Build company specialising in residential projects. Prior to founding Plantech, Managing Director Christopher Boylan studied Civil Engineering at D.I.T. Bolton Street, with a passion for technical drawing and home design, the business was born in 2007. Initially specialising in planning applications and architectural draughting before evolving into a ‘one stop shop,’ home design and build service to meet client requirements.

Plantech’s services include Architectural and Engineering design, planning applications, project management as well as design and build.

The company processes your query through a few simple steps including query, meet, design, quote, contract, build and certify.

Plantech projects have received national media recognition and recently the Company has also recently received a ”five in a row Certificate of Accreditation” at the All-Ireland Business All Star Awards, where they received the award for best in class Architectural Design and Build Company of the year 2023.”

This accreditation is in recognition of the company’s outstanding contribution to quality and standards in the sector over the last five years. This accreditation recognises Plantech Designs conduct in the areas of trust, commitment, performance and customer centricity.

“The business has grown every year and we have been lucky to get references constantly.

We have an excellent design team and site crews who work to the highest standards as set and expected by the company.

The toughest element of our industry process throughout this period (post pandemic) has been our clients willingness to commence a build on completion of their designs and or planning applications. Factors of no confidence include their own job insecurity, global conflicts, interest rate and cost of living hikes, the price of materials and labour increase. It is a changing time but we are changing with our customers and we’re adapting to suit their requirements. We have a very specific niche target market and are focused on giving our select clients the optimum value for their investment. Our client s project is our passion.

“Our design studio and showroom is based in Dublin, in association with our main building contractor partners we provide building services in the Dublin and surrounding satellite town areas only due to logistic restrictions, – we do however provide design services nationwide,” explained Christopher Boylan.

“In 2023 the realistic budget for a major home renovation and extension project currently is between €250,000 to €500,000 other factors like professional fees, connection services, Local Authority contributions, interior décor, contingency and VAT need to be considered when calculating a total bottom line.

This in addition to the average cost of a home in Dublin circa €500-€850k is a huge investment and something a homeowner will not get a return on any time in the near future.

So there is actually no such thing as a ‘good time,’ to build or renovate your home as it comes down to each individuals circumstances, budget and personal requirements.

“For the majority of recent design and build projects, we are seeing clients investing these amounts of fees into their ‘forever family home,’ and not considering resale value. Lower budget renovations projects are also feasible but compromises need to be made on finishes and the overall scope of works. These types of projects tend be geared toward building survey recommendations of essential piecemeal works and actioned via direct labour.“
Christopher Boylan

“In addition to the complexities and price increases in the private market, at the opposite end of the spectrum we have an obvious current housing crisis, which requires rapid action.

Irish citizens housing requirements coupled with the influx of international refugees arriving into the country has resulted in a national emergency.

“We’re branching into eco-structures, pre-fabrications, concrete and steel construction, we can design and build pre-fabricated eco homes rapidly for any local authorities throughout the country.

I think planning laws are going to need to change in the short term future to aide in the housing crisis, as well as the fast tracking of some of those legislations, including the current appeal system-which can take 6-12+months.

The traditional Irish home build is onsite blocks and mortar but I can see prefabrication/offsite construction becoming the main form of house building here, and we should to consider the European model of ecohomes or similar as a template,” he imparted.

“Our country has extremely challenging times ahead but with good Political leadership, investment and proactive we have an opportunity to use this housing crisis to our advantage and create a construction boom for our economy,” concluded Mr Boylan.

Source: Link

All-Star Architectural Design & Build Company Of The Year 2022

admin — Thu, 05 May 2022 10:17:49 +0000

All-Star Architectural Design & Build Company Of The Year 2022

Plantech Design Ltd has achieved AIBF All-Star Architectural Design & Build Company of the year 2022. This accreditation is in recognition of the company’s outstanding contribution to quality and standards in the architectural design and build industry. The AIBF also wishes to recognise Plantech Design Ltd’s conduct in the areas of trust, commitment, performance & customer-centricity. Plantech Design Ltd is hereby included in the AIBF Register Of Irish Business Excellence for the fourth year in a row.

– Kieran Ring, Deputy Chair, Adjudication Board

Message from Christopher Boylan – MD, Plantech Design Ltd

We are delighted to announce that Plantech has been named All-Star Architectural Design & Build Company of the year 2022.

This prestigious accreditation recognises our contribution to quality and standards in the architectural design and build industry and its one we are extremely proud of.

This achievement represents our fourth Business All-Star Accreditation which highlights our commitment to continuous improvement in our service for the benefit of our customers.

Plantech Design LTD has achieved AIBF 2021-1014 Business All-Star Accreditation for a third successive year. We wish to recognise Plantech Design’s conduct in the areas of trust, commitment, performance & customer-centricity.

Plantech Design LTD is hereby included in the AIBF Register Of Irish Business Excellence.

– Kieran Ring, Deputy Chair, Adjudication Board

Message from Christopher Boylan – MD, Plantech Design Ltd

Our team is extremely proud to have received the Business All-Star Accreditation for the consecutive third year. This is an accolade that has helped us grow and expand our business over the last number of years, none more so in the last twelve months which has been an extremely challenging year.

We fully support the Business All-Stars and Tribe members on an ongoing basis and value our peers guidance and business coaching. This Accreditation is a testament to our team’s continued effort and drive at our company, the high standards we set and aim for, and a market branding that gives our clients the trust and confidence to engage with us in a professional business capacity.

Source: https://aibf.ie/times/profile/Plantech-Design-Ltd

How a ‘Playbook Approach’ can improve your business

admin — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 14:08:11 +0000

How a ‘Playbook Approach’ can improve your business

Strong processes are the key to an effective business that provides consistency and quality to its customers.

Plantech Director Christopher Boylan has used a ‘playbook approach’ to build a market leading Architectural Design Consultancy.

Plantech Design Limited is a Dublin based Architectural Design Consultancy, specialising in residential house design.

Christopher’s process oriented approach to the business allows Plantech to maintain a premium level of service, ensuring clients get first class experience every time.

In this episode of AIBF Business Talk Elaine spoke to Christopher about the power of the playbook and how your business can benefit from building strong processes.

The AIBF would like to thank Christopher for sharing his practical knowledge and insights with our listeners.

We are proud and endorse and support his fantastic work with Plantech.

About the All-Ireland Business Foundation

The AIBF is an independent national body that identifies and acknowledges the country’s most ambitious and visionary businesses.

As the accreditation body for the Business All-Star mark, the AIBF recognises Best-In-Class Irish businesses. Companies that merit recognition based on an independent audit of their performance, reputation, and customer-centricity.

Business All-Star Accreditation Is The Nation’s Symbol Of Trust.

Currently, there are over 500 companies that are accredited by AIBF. Since 2014, over 2,500 companies have participated in our programs.

The AIBF also hosts the annual All-Ireland Summit and monthly gatherings to promote peer-learning and collaboration among it’s accredited companies.

Find out more here

A soft landing – peek inside this stunningly renovated house with secret hideaway

admin — Sun, 30 Jan 2022 14:31:14 +0000

A soft landing - peek inside this stunningly renovated house with secret hideaway

Shane Kirby and Brian Gorry lived in a perfectly fine three-bedroomed semi, but the problem was where to accommodate the country cousins when they arrived. Their clever solution includes a secret hideaway and lots of colour.

Location is what the estate agents always emphasise when they are selling a house, and it’s such an important issue that they like to cite it as the three most important aspects of buying a property – location, location, location.

Shane Kirby had no problem with that when he came to Dublin from Cork in 1999. Originally from Ballincollig, he had got a job as cabin crew with Aer Lingus and he wanted to be near his job, so he only looked in one area – Swords, which is minutes from the airport. In fact, so paramount was location as a prerequisite that once he saw a house in the area, that was it – he bought it. “It was the first house I viewed; the only house I viewed,” he says. “My parents both have their own businesses in Ballincollig in Cork. They both said, ‘Get your foot on the ladder immediately’.” Shane adds that his mother, Eileen, had her own shoe shop, while his dad, Tony, who used to be a showband musician playing guitar and fiddle, has a recording studio. “They went guarantor, and I got a mortgage. It helped that it was slightly before the Celtic Tiger; I couldn’t have done it otherwise,” Shane, the middle of three boys, adds.

The house in question was a three-bedroomed semi-d in a residential cul-de-sac, but Shane and his partner, Brian Gorry, have so completely transformed the house that it almost looks custom built, and, in a way, it is.

However, they didn’t do anything until last year, after they had both travelled extensively and formed clear ideas of what they wanted in a house. And a lot had happened to both of them in the intervening 16 years.

Two years after Shane bought the house, 9/11 hit, which affected air travel enormously. Staff at Aer Lingus were encouraged to take unpaid leave, so he spent a year in Australia with friends. Shortly after his return, in 2003, he and Brian met. “We met in The George,” Shane says with a laugh. “Funnily enough, we wouldn’t be people who go to The George often. I went with a gang, including a friend, Leah, who has a regular boyfriend, and she wanted to go to a place where there wouldn’t be guys after her. I spotted Brian straight away when I went in. He got chatting to Leah, he was spotting me at the same time and Leah noticed, and said, ‘Is that my friend you’re looking at? I’ll introduce you’, but Brian ran away,” Shane reminisces. Brian adds, “I did, I got nervous, I said ‘I’m outta here’, but anyway I came back and I asked Shane for a light – you could smoke then – and we got chatting and that was that.” Brian explains. They both muse that the smoking excuse was a useful device as a chat-up line. Interestingly, they both gave up smoking once they got together.

Brian moved in shortly after, and they’ve been a couple ever since, enduring some turbulent times together, including redundancy for Brian in 2008, when the garage he worked in closed, but it led to a job as a greenkeeper in a golf club, which he loves. “What happened was I got a job working in Ballincarrig golf club, through Fas, three days a week. I took it to get me out of the house. Then Fas asked me would I be interested in doing a course in greenkeeping, which involved two years study. I said, ‘Yeah’ and did the two-year course. Then, literally, on the 21st of April, I passed all my exams and, on the 22nd, a lad who was there 19 years handed in his notice, and I landed on my feet,” Brian notes, adding that the job involves maintaining the greens, and checking for disease among the plants and trees. It’s not so surprising that it suits him, as his father, who had been in Bord na Mona before he retired, is a keen gardener. “It’s never what I thought I’d do, but I had to reinvent myself after the recession. It’s outdoors all the time, lots of variety; I love it.”

Worse was to come for Brian, who’s the youngest of four, with the loss of his beloved mother Eileen, who took her own life in 2010. “She was 59. It was tragic,” he says. “And the mystery is it was a joyful time. My sister Fiona had battled cancer twice, and was told she’d never have another child. She had one daughter, Kelly, then 14, but to everyone’s amazement, she did get pregnant,” Brian explains. “Her second daughter, Fia, arrived within months of Fiona being pronounced clear of cancer. It was the night of the christening, we were all still in the pub; my mam had been in the pub with us. She’d been drinking tea; she’d been in great form, then she said she was tired and going home to bed. And she was in bed and all. My dad was in the kitchen, and he saw her pass by on the way, going to the garage where there was a washing machine, and she didn’t come back out. My dad thought, ‘What’s keeping her?’ and he went out and found her. She had taken her own life.” Brian recalls with some difficulty, “She was never depressed; she had called my sister around a quarter to 11 and they were chatting. She said, ‘We’ll go in the morning and we’ll pick up paint and rollers and we’ll paint the kitchen on Monday’. My sister said, ‘Yeah’, and by a quarter past 11, Mam was found dead.”

Needless to mention, the years in the aftermath of Eileen’s death were hard. “It was tough for all of us, Brian recalls. He says, “What doesn’t break you, makes you stronger. My dad gets on with it, and he has my two sisters living near him. I was lucky, I have a great partner.”

It took Brian a while, but happier times were to come, and two years ago he and Shane decided to finally renovate the house the way they wanted it – they love having their parents to stay, as well as their siblings with their children.

The great thing was the house – dating from the 1980s – is on a corner site, so they had plenty of room to add a two-storey extension to the side.

They found Christopher Boylan, architectural designer and owner of Plantech, on Facebook, and gave him their brief. They wanted to increase the size of the kitchen, and create a separate little apartment – a bedroom, en suite and den, for visiting family and friends.

Christopher brought building company Nuhaus on board to do the work according to his designs, and the couple are thrilled with the result.

The front living room, two of the bedrooms and the original bathroom remain virtually the same, but the kitchen is twice the size, with a special space for the third member of the family, Minnie, the tiniest miniature Yorkshire terrier imaginable. The kitchen now also has tons of light, courtesy of a wall of glass to the back. A dining area has been added and the guest apartment is accessed both from the hall and from the dining area – bookshelves slide back to reveal the den, and there’s a staircase in there leading to the light-filled bedroom en suite above.

Once the work had been done, Shane and Brian added their own personal touches, which includes big splashes of colour, and lots of retro furnishings and souvenirs from their trips all over the world. Collages of photos from their travels hang on many of the walls – Nashville with Shane’s parents is a favourite location for holidays.

Since they’ve done up the house, they still love to go away, but they say they adore coming back home – their favourite location of all.

‘Our kitchen extension went over budget but the result is priceless’

admin — Sun, 30 Jan 2022 14:12:01 +0000

'Our kitchen extension went over budget but the result is priceless’

Patricia and Tom McDonagh opted for a bold renovation of their Portmarnock home.

If Patricia McDonagh has a claim to fame it’s that she once advised Dermot Bannon to steer clear of a career in architecture. She was a guidance counsellor at Malahide Community School where Bannon was a pupil dreaming of amazing houses. Later she became principal. She and Bannon joke about it now, and these days she’s a huge fan of Room to Improve. She and husband Tom are enthusiastic renovators: over the years they’ve continually updated the Portmarnock home they purchased back in 1977 as newly weds. But the lure of a big renovation job beckoned.

By the time she retired in 2017, Patricia was determined “not to grow old in an old person’s house”. The kitchen was beginning to look old-fashioned and dated. “We had always kept the house up to date and started looking at how we might open up the space.” The couple had a budget of about €60,000.

She signed up to Pinterest and did several Simon Open House consultations where architects showed her, using the original plans of the house, how to make changes to the layout by placing tracing paper atop the plans and redrawing the lines of the room.

Visiting the Ideal Homes Show she came across NuHaus, a one-stop refurbishment shop set up by Lithuanian Vilius Cesiunas in 2015. In terms of budgets she felt the firm was talking the couple’s language. “It was refreshing to meet a firm that could talk figures. ‘We can do this for €60,000,’ they said.”

She had spoken to one or two other kitchen providers at the show and found them to be “sniffy’ about her budget constraints.

After an initial conversation with NuHaus she realised that “we didn’t really need any more space but rather needed to reconfigure the space we had so that it worked for us”.

Complete service

As the firm offers a complete service, from initial design drawings to the supply of engineers, builders, tilers, plumbers, electricians and carpenters, they didn’t have to get tenders in or chase builders, she explains.

A start date was set, the McDonaghs turned their diningroom into a temporarykitchen and the builders arrived on site. The original NuHaus estimate went over budget. Instead of the €60,000 quoted, the job cost €80,000, including VAT, but factored in additional requests made after the original quote.

These included a new internal high spec door, a new kitchen that cost €26,000, rewiring to accommodate the underfloor heating, the flooring, building labour and design fees as well as external landscaping and paving. The firm replaced the roof over the garage part of the kitchen, gratis. The same kind of job, about 28sq m in size would now cost €75,000-€90,000, incl VAT, says a spokesperson for NuHaus.

It was NuHaus that suggested installing electrical underfloor heating. “If we had gone for piped underfloor heating it would have elongated the build-time – there would have been three weeks of drying out time for starters,” McDonough explains. A decision to lay porcelain wood-effect tiles underfoot takes the chill from the floor and the luxury costs about €1 a day to run, Tom estimates. It allows the couple to pad about in their stockinged feet. The space is now so well insulated that the couple spend much of their time in just T-shirts.

The Kube kitchen has smart units in a deep marine blue of the nearby sea, the same colour that an exposed support beam, a rolled steel joist (RSJ), is painted. A long roof light beams natural light onto the worktops and island.

Magnet collection

Across the room an upright metal plate has become a place for some of Patricia’s extensive magnet collection from their travels across the world, with passport stamps of everywhere from Nepal to New Zealand.

The couple has a separate dining room where the family eats when they’re all together.

The job was delivered within 18 weeks. It started in January and was finished by mid-May. The project was delayed about 10 days, Patricia recalls. “Like every episode of Room to Improve we were waiting on the windows.”

But what they got was, she says, “so worth the hassle”.

“Gone was our dark kitchen with high windows and a wall that ran halfway up the room from the original garage conversion. What we have now is a big, bright, wonderfully insulated open room with floor-to-ceiling windows which bring the garden into the house. A skylight that lights the interior of the room and a painted beam holds up the walls, adding character to the room. They even built us a magnet wall to compensate for the fridge being integrated!”

In their 40 years in the house they estimate that keeping the place up to date has cost about €150,000, including the recent big job.

In the 1980s they converted the garage so that it became part of the kitchen with a dining area hived off it by a horizontal half-wall. A glass room to the rear became a utility.

Over time they invested in new double glazed windows but not before one of their au pairs, a Swede used to highly engineered windows that could keep out any sort of cold and wind, wrote an account of her Dublin experience for a Swedish newspaper that described how cold the house was when you stood or slept near the windows.

In the 1990s they converted the attic. Tom, a model aircraft hobbyist, wanted a room for his toys. In the noughties they installed a downstairs shower room and guest wc.

Does it still feel like home to the kids? It is different but her son, Ross, and daughter, Sarah, agree that yes it does.

“Anything we’ve done to the house is to improve the quality of our home and that to us is priceless.”

Third Business All-Star Accreditation in a row

admin — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 22:28:30 +0000

Third Business All-Star Accreditation in a row

Thank you to all of our past and present clients! We are extremely proud to have been awarded our third all star business accreditation. Well done to all of our extremely hard working team and associates. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Plantech Design Ltd has achieved their third Business All-Star Accreditation in a row from the All-Ireland Business Foundation

[25th March, Dublin] This Accreditation is an outstanding achievement for Plantech Design Ltd and recognises their hard work and dedication in continuing to provide a best in class service to their customers three years on.

Responding to today’s announcement, Christopher Boylam, Managing Director of Plantech Design Ltd says, “Our team is extremely proud to have received the Business All-Star Accreditation for the consecutive third year. This is an accolade that has helped us grow and expand our business over the last number of years, none more so in the last twelve months which has been an extremely challenging year. We fully support the Business All-Stars and Tribe members on an ongoing basis and value our peers guidance and business coaching. This Accreditation is a testament to our team’s continued effort and drive at our company, the high standards we set and aim for, and a market branding that gives our clients the trust and confidence to engage with us in a professional business capacity“.
Kieran Ring, Deputy Chair on the Adjudication Board said in support of the announcement: “This certificate verifies that Plantech Design LTD has achieved AIBF2021-1014 Business All-Star Accreditation for a third successive year. We wish to recognise Plantech Design’s conduct in the areas of trust, commitment, performance & customer centricity. Plantech Design LTD is hereby included in the AIBF Register Of Irish Business Excellence.”

Dr Hynes said the Accreditation, which is now held by over 450 firms, is needed by the thousands of small and medium businesses which operate to their own standards, but have nothing to measure them by.
“We evaluate a company’s background, trustworthiness and performance, and we speak to customers, employees and vendors. We also anonymously approach the company as a customer and report back on the experience. The business goes through at least two interviews and is scored on every part of the process against set metrics“. she says.

RDS Ideal Home Show

admin — Sun, 26 May 2019 03:55:06 +0000

RDS Ideal Home Show

First day at the RDS ideal home show complete. Thank you to all who visited our exhibition stand M2, Especially to our recent clients Tom and Patricia McDonagh who had their new home featured in the Irish Times.

Business All-Star Accreditation

admin — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 03:42:51 +0000

Business All-Star Accreditation

Extremely proud to announce we were awarded with the coveted Business All-Star Accreditation at Croke Park on Tuesday. It is an independently verified standard mark for businesses based on rigorous selection criteria; performance, trust & customer centricity. #businessallstars

Boxing Champion Bobbi Flood

admin — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 03:42:08 +0000

Boxing Champion Bobbi Flood

Plantech are proud to be supporting and sponsoring local boxing champion Bobbi Flood. We wish Bobbi and his dedicated team continued success.