Since its inception in 2010, SouthCoast Homes & Construction has earned an enviable reputation for delivering a wide range of building projects to industry-leading standards. We travelled to Timoleague in County Cork and spoke to co-founder Michael O’Callaghan – who runs this exceptional civil engineering / building contracting company alongside business partner Alan O’Leary – to find out more.
From design through to completion, SouthCoast Homes & Construction (SCHC) project manages and delivers a complete range of commercial and residential construction projects, from a small attic conversion to a largescale multi-unit refurbishment or new build.
With a thorough knowledge of every aspect of the construction industry, directors Alan O’Leary and Michael O’Callaghan boast a wealth of experience and expertise of public and private sector works, from manufacturing, civil engineering and defence forces to housing, agri buildings, sports and commercial properties, consistently delivering the highest levels of quality, professionalism and service on every project undertaken.
Little wonder SouthCoast Homes & Construction has become a building contractor of choice in County Cork, benefiting from a large volume of repeat business from satisfied customers as well as a steady flow of new business through positive word of mouth!
“For us, it is all about quality and service,” Michael confirms. “We believe in looking after our clients through the entire building process, and building and maintaining relationships. We enjoy good working relationships with all our clients and that is very important.”
Prior to setting up the company 13 years ago, the co-owners of SouthCoast Homes & Construction – both of whom graduated from UCC together with Honours Degrees in Civil Engineering in 1999 – had already amassed considerable expertise in delivering a wide range of projects, working as project managers for a well-known main contractor.
“We worked for Fleming Construction until they went bust in the recession and we decided to set up our own company to provide contract building,” Michael reflects. “We do a lot of maintenance and contract building for Cork County Council. The maintenance contract includes a good bit of building refurbishment, say where a tenant vacates a building, to get it ready for the next tenant, or making a property wheelchair-compliant.
“A lot of the work for the council would involve upgrading homes to a higher level of energy efficiency – upgrades to insulation, heat pumps, windows and doors, etc. Essentially renovating their housing stock and keeping it up to speed with current guidelines.
“Cope Foundation [a not-for-profit voluntary organisation which supports approximately 2,150 children and adults with intellectual disabilities and / or autism throughout Cork city and county] are a very good client and the work is hugely rewarded. Cope Foundation have five schools and 250 houses located across Cork and we provide both building work and maintenance for them.”
SouthCoast Homes & Construction also carry out a considerable amount of contract building and maintenance work for the army and defence forces, including one or two navy projects every year. “Jobs for the army could be anything from road upgrades or grenade ranges to a new auditorium at Collins Barracks, painting or new fire doors, while we do a lot of naval base accommodation.”
Working for the Department of Defence, SouthCoast Homes & Construction converted an existing internal rifle range to a tiered seated lecture auditorium. The impressive new theatre also incorporates stately conference rooms, classrooms and offices. Externally, the arena is finished with a limestone-paved fabric, which is interspersed with mature landscaping. The four-month turnaround of this exhausted old shooting range into a state-of-the-art army facility demonstrates the exceptional workmanship for which SCHC are renowned.
To ensure that the most exacting standards of workmanship are invariably delivered, an experienced in-house crew of 16 skilled tradesmen are directly employed alongside an extended team of tried-and-trusted, industry-leading subcontractors with whom SouthCoast Homes & Construction enjoy excellent ongoing relationships.
Supplementing the public contracts, at the time of writing, Michael and Alan and the SCHC team were working on (or preparing to start) up to seven private residential projects between new builds and extensions / refurbishments.
One of the great strengths of SouthCoast Homes & Construction is that they have the capacity to deliver literally any type of building project and the flair and enthusiasm to take on awkward jobs that other contractors might shy away from:
“Having civil engineering degrees and expertise of that area is very advantageous and we know building inside-out,” Michael continues. “I do like projects where there is a small bit of engineering involved and I also enjoy the challenge of a tricky job, like the Timoleague AgriGen biodigester we completed a couple of years ago or doing up roads or platoons for the army on Bere Island.”
The €4m biodigester in West Cork is Cork’s first on-farm biogas, renewable energy plant which has a 500KW electrical output and is capable of processing 35,000 tonnes of biomass per year, with a licence to process 48,000 tonnes of organic material.
“We can take on any type of building project large or small,” Michael confirms. “We’ve just finished seven high-end, gated, red-brink residential properties on Model Farm Road in Cork city, called Vailima, and we have a nice mix of public and private work on at the moment. The work with Cope Foundation is very rewarding and you need people skills as well for those jobs, which is something we possess in abundance. All our men are very good with people.”
Michael is content with the size SouthCoast Homes & Construction is at right now and says there is no real desire to chase down growth or expansion going forward: “We’re happy with the way things are,” the personable Cork contractor concludes. “We’ll stay focused on what we have, delivering quality workmanship whilst looking after our clients and our staff.”
SouthCoast Homes & Construction Ltd.,
Carhue,
Timoleague,
Bandon,
County Cork.
Tel: 086 8354096 (Alan) / 086 8254231 (Michael)
Email: [email protected]
Web: schc.ie
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, October 2023, Vol 9 No 10
SouthCoast Homes & Construction
