Modular build

[fidelcastro]

a modern irish A rated house has strange heating, terrible showers and damp?

tell me more....

I'd imagine that was the point, they've just been doing it a lot longer.

Exactly . Outside of city apartments, houses are pre built in factories and assembled quickly on site.
This has been happening for decades. You can achieve greater air tightness and precision of assembly this way. Nobody would argue a hand built Toyota would be built as well as a robotic assembly , so what's the difference?.

Granted the latest A builds have begrudgingly incorporated & accepted the need for improvements, but they are few and far , alot of Celtic tiger "new' builds achieve a C BER rating which is quite shocking.
Prior to this D ratings are very very common.

Your talking about c. 95% of the housing stock, which yes, these are experiences reported amusingly to me when conversation turns to immersion heaters , hot water tanks , bathrooms with funny showers , victorian era hot & cold taps rather than mixed, or why open hearth fires with great big bloody holes to the sky are common here.

F.