Resources & Useful Documents
2017 Report of the Expert Panel on Concrete Blocks
Report of the Expert Panel on Concrete Blocks published in June 2017 established by the then Housing Minister Paudie Coffey to try and establish the numbers of homes affected, the nature of those problems and to outline a range of technical options for remediation.
The panel found the deleterious materials in Co. Donegal was primarily muscovite mica while in Co. Mayo it was primarily reactive pyrite.
Note: The panel did not carry out any tests on buildings or building materials itself.
Recommendation 1 was that the NSAI should establish a standardised protocol to assess and categorise damage and establish the likely cause. The expert panel stated that “The protocol should include a suite of the minimum laboratory tests required to facilitate an informed judgement to be made by a competent professional regarding the appropriate remediation works to be applied.”
Download Report of the Expert Panel on Concrete Blocks
I.S. 465:2018
NSAI Publishes Protocol to Assess Homes Suspected of Being Affected by Mica or Pyrite. The National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) has published a standard protocol called I.S. 465.
This protocol will be used by engineers, geologists and laboratories to assess, test and categorise the damage in properties negatively affected by defective concrete blocks, due to excessive free muscovite mica and pyrite. It will also give guidance on remedial works, on what, if any, remedial works might be carried out.
I.S. 465:2018+A1:2020
On foot of a clarification issued by the Expert Panel on 02/12/2019, it appears that possible issues in the foundations that could be caused by problem minerals in the foundation have not been researched at this point and therefore are out of the remit of the current version of I.S. 465.
Read Annex F of I.S. 465:2018+A1:2020 for further detail.
Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH)
Minister O’Brien provides update on Defective Concrete Blocks Grants Scheme - 9th of June 2021
Statement on Defective Concrete Block Working Group Meeting - 29th of September 2021.
Report from the Working Group on the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme - 4th of October 2021.
Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme: Your Questions Answered 30th Nov 2021
Report of the Expert Group on the Enhanced Defective Concrete Block Grant Scheme - 16th March 2022
Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland
SCSI Report on Construction Costs for the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme
Legislation
The statutory instrument legislation that transposes the current defective blocks scheme into law (S.I. No. 25/2020).
Pyrite Publications
“From a public policy perspective, what happened with pyrite should not have happened and there are important lessons to be drawn from the experience.” - Published on 26th June 2012
Report of the Pyrite Panel (June 2012)
Overview of The Pyrite Remediation Scheme
Pyrite Resolution Board / Pyrite Remediation Scheme
I.S. 398: 2017 REACTIVE PYRITE IN SUB-FLOOR HARDCORE MATERIAL - PART 1:
TESTING AND CATEGORIZATION PROTOCOL
I.S. 398-2:2013 REACTIVE PYRITE IN SUB-FLOOR HARDCORE MATERIAL - PART 2:
METHODOLOGY FOR REMEDIATION WORKS
Dwellings damaged by the use of defective concrete blocks in construction (remediation) (financial assistance) regulations 2020
(30th Sept 2021) Report from the Working Group on the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme
30th June Working Group on the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme Agreed Terms of Reference
Independent Research publications
Development of a SEM-EDS method for quantifying free mica in building materials by Leona O’Connor - 2021.
The free mica content of the sand that is used in the manufacture of concrete products may be a significant factor in contributing to failure mechanisms in defective concrete blocks.Thirty-two samples (not 32 counties) of building sands were independently collected from pits and builders suppliers around Ireland.
Have a look at Tyrone’s extremely high levels but Wexford has reasonably high levels also.
Note: This study only quantified the muscovite variety of free mica.
Useful methodology to quantify the fee mica in the sand is also contained in Appendix E.
“Methodology for the determination of <63 µm free mica fines in sand and within the cement matrix of hardened concrete blocks using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy by Leona O’Connor; Robbie Goodhue”