Murphy & Kelly (Thomastown) Ltd has been providing exceptional mechanical contracting solutions since 1985. The Co. Kilkenny-based company is a one-stop shop specialising in the supply and installation of heating, plumbing, ventilation, air conditioning, renewable energy, oil and gas systems.
Co-founder Denis Kelly continues to run the family business along with his son Steven, nephew Dean Kelly and 57 direct employees who are supported by their tried and trusted subcontractors. The other founder, Eamonn Murphy, retired in 2011. The award-winning company is active across many sectors and works alongside all the main contractors, including John Sisk & Son, Duggan Brothers, JJ Rhatigan, Tom O’Brien Construction, Mythen Construction and MMD Construction.
“We have 19 live projects so we’re very busy,” explains director Steven Kelly, who is primarily responsible for estimating, purchasing, quality control and managing Murphy and Kelly’s in house ventilation department.
“We’re going from strength to strength after almost 40 years in business. I would put that down to the quality of our work and the huge amount of repeat business we get. It’s an exciting time in our company’s history as we’re planning to double the size of our sheet metal fabrication and manufacturing facility in Thomastown to 12,000 sq. ft.
“We also plan to take on more staff in the coming months. We have three crews operating out of Dublin, Cork and Thomastown. Thomastown is centrally located between Dublin and Cork where most of our work is concentrated.”
Murphy & Kelly recently added two more prestigious projects – St Mary’s Healthcare Campus in Cork and Dominick Street Regeneration in Dublin – to its impressive portfolio of works. The St Mary’s Healthcare Campus project was a rapid mechanical services installation for a 60-bed community nursing home (CNU). The newly-built CNU, Heather House, provides both long and short-stay accommodation for Co. Cork’s older residents. The building was expedited as part of the HSE’s Covid-19 emergency works.
Mechanical services installation consisted of the complete installation of water services, soils and waste drainage, air source heat pumps, gas boilers, gas water heaters, buffer vessels, mechanical heat recovery, air conditioning, medical gases, M&E coordination and BMS controls.
The heating system is fed by two heat pumps into a buffer vessel with two gas boilers as backup also into a buffer. The heat pumps run in a duty standby arrangement.
Each room has a digital thermostat with temperatures controlled by Modbus from the BMS system. Control of the heating via the LST radiators is through pressure independent control values (PICVs) which are controlled by the addressable thermostat. Two gas-fired water heaters feed the domestic hot water requirements, assisting the heat pump preheat buffer. Each of the 60 bedrooms has a hand basin and also its own ensuite shower, basin and WC which is serviced by a Mitsubishi Lossnay heat recovery unit.
Murphy & Kelly contracts director Dean Kelly says of the project: “We worked closely with the main contractor MMD Construction and the M&E consultants Semple & McKillop on this design and build project to deliver a tight programme of works within six months.
“It’s a building that we’re proud to have been involved in and which was officially opened by the then Taoiseach Micheál Martin. It’s a heavily serviced building with heat recovery in each bedroom and air source heat pumps providing renewable energy sources.”
Complying with Covid-19 regulations meant the site team was split in order to mitigate against outbreaks.
“We kept the crews completely separate. They ate their lunch separately, had separate materials storage facilities and obviously never worked in the same locations. If any one of our crew had Covid, we’d only be losing half of our team due to self-isolation. We’d still be able to continue, and meet our timelines and programme deadlines,” Dean adds.
Murphy & Kelly collaborated with main contractor Duggan Brothers, Denis Byrne Architects and Carr Cotter & Naessens Architects as well as MMA Consulting Engineers to successfully deliver a mechanical services installation for 72 A-rated social housing units in Dublin 1. The newly-built Dominick Street Regeneration project, which was undertaken on behalf of Dublin City Council, consists of 67 apartments, five standalone townhouses, a community centre, retail space and a basement carpark.
“This was a sizeable project in terms of physical proportions and complexity of work,” Dean Kelly explains.
“The apartments are spread across seven stair cores with seven rooftop plant rooms serving each core. We installed two larger buffers inside each plant room, one for domestic hot water and one for LPHW, which were fed from three Kronotherm heat pumps – 21 in total – supplied by Glenergy.
“Each stair core plant room has its own BMS panel, supplied and commissioned by Control Tech, which then links to a central BMS system located in the basement carpark. Each townhouse has its own standalone heat pump, while the community centre also has its own heat pump serving hot water plus underfloor heating, heat recovery units and air handling units throughout.”
Internal pipework from the apartment plant rooms terminate in a heat interface unit that was supplied by RVR Technologies.
“The heat interface units then feed directly into the underfloor heating system which was designed, supplied and installed by Base Engineering,” Dean continues.
“Each apartment has a demand control ventilation system supplied by Systemair which is operated on humidity. “
All the lobbies, stairwells and communal areas are heated by Zehnder radiators supplied by Versatile and fed by the rooftop plant rooms for each core. All water services are fed from the water services plant room located in the basement car park. Booster pumps were supplied by Wilo and all of the tanks on the site were supplied by CubicM3. The dry risers run throughout the seven stair cores for fire protection, and were supplied by Apex Fire and installed by Murphy & Kelly.
The considerable fire-rated ductwork in the basement car park was supplied by Airforce H&V, while Ecocool supplied air conditioning equipment for the community centre and the comms room. In addition to the heat pumps and other renewable and efficiency-minded equipment installed on the project is a rainwater harvesting system.
Commenting on some of Murphy & Kelly’s current projects, Steven says: “We’re providing the full mechanical services package for a new 95-bed two-storey community nursing unit adjacent to the existing St Columba’s Hospital in Thomastown. The main contractor is John Sisk & Son.
“We’re also working alongside Duggan Brothers on the refurbishment of The Central Hotel on Dublin’s Exchequer Street and on a new six-storey building on Usher’s Quay for the Simon Community.
“Furthermore, we’re working with JJ Rhatigan on the new Scoil Chlíodhna Community National School in Carrigtwohill, the extension and refurbishment of Waterpark College in Waterford with Mythen Construction and with Tom O’Brien Construction on both Blackwater College in Lismore and St Senan’s Primary School in Enniscorthy.”
Passionate about mechanical contracting, Murphy & Kelly would like to take this opportunity to thank its clients and suppliers for their continued support as well as its staff and subcontractors for their hard work, dedication and expertise.
Murphy & Kelly (Thomastown) Ltd
The Fairgreen,
Thomastown,
Co. Kilkenny.
Telephone: 056 7724294
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.murphyandkelly.ie
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, August 2023, Vol 9 No 8
