Over the past two decades and counting, RP Construction has earned an unrivalled reputation as a building and carpentry contractor of choice, invariably delivering industry-leading projects across County Clare. Building Ireland touched base with founder and proprietor Richie Pyne to discuss his consistent adherence to the very highest standards of construction excellence.
There’s a reason why RP Construction is widely regarded as one of the Banner County’s premier building and carpentry contractors: quality workmanship.
A member of The National Guild of Master Craftsmen, hands-on owner Richie Pyne has been involved in construction all his working life. The Clare man started out working in the carpentry trade in 1995 (a magical year for his native county!) and went out on his own four years later, initially providing a keen carpentry / roofing contracting service before branching into extensions.
He started as a building contractor in 2002 and operated as a sole trader for a decade and a half before RP Construction was incorporated as a limited company six years ago. Today, specialising in bespoke, luxury, high-end residential new builds, RP Construction is firmly established as a building contractor of choice, with four prestigious homes in the works at the time of writing and the order book full going right into 2024.
Quality is key to the success of RP Construction and the fact that Richie is passionate about the art of construction and insists on spending his days on site, ensuring that every aspect of every project is completed to the highest possible standards, is central to this:
“As far as I’m concerned, you have to be there,” the Clare contractor comments. “There’s too much in these high-end houses not to be. I’ll only ever have four projects up and running at any one time and that’s plenty. Personally, I’m better suited to being on the ground working and I don’t like being in the office.
“I like to be on site; that’s my strength. I’ll be there from the first barrow of concrete to the last screw in the door. There’s a lot of RC work going in under the ground with these houses in Lahinch. With this type of construction there’s only a right way and a wrong way, no in between. You’ll be found out fast in Lahinch… it’s not called the Wild Atlantic Way for no reason.”
RP Construction possesses the experience, capacity and knowledge to take on any building project. As well as residential new builds, extensions and largescale refurbishments, Richie has also completed a couple of commercial refurbishment projects for one regular client, namely Knox’s Bar in Ennis and the iconic seafood restaurant Gallagher’s of Bunratty.
While RP Construction can take on literally any job, Richie is selective about which projects he chooses and has no interest in overstretching himself. “I’m not looking to be John Sisk or to have 17 houses on the go at a time,” he confirms. “I prefer to work in a manner where I can always give my full attention to each project. That’s extremely important to me.
“Even with the subcontractors I use, they are with me 10+ years and they all know what they are doing. I’m particular and so are they. I get the job and they do their part of it to the standards I expect. We work as a small tight team, subbies included.
“They are tried and trusted subbies – the best plumbers, plasterers, electricians. I sub out the roofing now, too, and we have a top-quality subcontractor on that. I used to do it myself but found I no longer had time, so it made more sense to bring somebody else in.”
Richie tackles groundworks and general carpentry and a variety of other jobs, often in close proximity to the various subcontractors. “High-end houses are very intricate and an awful lot of coordination goes into them,” he notes.
RP Construction is currently engaged on a number of large new builds. Two in Lahinch, one in Liscannor and one in North Clare.
One of the houses in Lahinch is part of a long-term collaboration with Fergal Coughlan Chartered Engineers. “It’s a luxury development of one-off homes called An Cregg, 150 metres from the beach, where I have built five homes so far and have just started on the sixth. The first four were 2,500 sq ft and the fifth, which we’ve just completed, is 3,100 sq ft approximately.”
As with every project that RP Construction delivers, quality is a given: “You have to produce quality work and there can be no exception,” says Richie. “When you are working on these luxury new builds, you are dealing with clients who will only accept 110% and you have to give them that every time.”
In terms of performance, every home delivered by RP Construction is finished to the most exacting levels of energy efficiency. “For the past ten years, everything we build is A-rated,” Richie attests. “They all come with underfloor heating, air-to-water heat pumps, heat recovery and full airtightness as standard. This is how homes are built now and once you get the hang of it, it’s very straightforward.
“This is one of the many reasons why you should never switch subcontractors or bring in anybody who doesn’t know exactly what’s happening. Everybody on the site has to know what they are doing. Sparkies can’t cut holes in membranes and plumbers can’t be drilling holes willy-nilly either. To get the best-possible result, everybody has to be on the same page and working together.”
Benefiting from a steady volume of repeat business and referrals through word of mouth, Richie currently has at least a year’s work in front of him and isn’t actively seeking new projects at the present time. “I’m as busy as I want to be,” he concludes. “I have twelve months in front of me, which is great and, as I said earlier, you don’t want to have too many projects going on at once.
“Every project demands a great deal of personal attention. I’d be there nonstop until it comes up out of the ground and then I have a bit of breathing space. I go back full time while the roof is being done and then again I get a little more breathing space but am back on site while the home is being finished.
“Even when I’m not there full time, I’m constantly checking in. With the four current projects, three of them are within five miles of each other and the fourth is only 20 miles away, so I can keep a very close eye on them all.”
RP Construction,
Drim,
Doora,
Ennis,
County Clare.
Tel: 086 2772733
Email: [email protected]
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, February 2023, Vol 9 No 2
