House design guide
What Limerick wants your home to look like
Limerick County Council expects new and extended homes to respect the traditional architectural style of the local area, utilizing simple roof forms and high-quality natural materials. Home designs must safeguard the privacy and sunlight of neighboring properties through strict setback distances and appropriate garden sizes. The council highly encourages preserving natural site features like mature trees, native hedgerows, and historic stone walls, while explicitly banning suburban-style layouts or ribbon developments in rural countryside areas.
Accepted house types & forms
What they want to see
Encouraged by the guide
Retention and refurbishment of existing buildings(Page 281)
Renovating and reusing existing structures is highly favored over demolition and rebuilding from scratch wherever practical.
Staggered building lines in rural areas(Page 299)
To prevent a suburban, linear visual impact, rural houses should avoid regular, uniform setbacks and instead use staggered building lines.
Permeable paving in front gardens(Page 334)
Where off-street parking is permitted in front gardens, hardstanding must use permeable surfaces like gravel, porous asphalt, or permeable concrete block paving to allow natural drainage.
Preserving existing trees and hedgerows(Page 287)
Applicants should retain and integrate mature trees and established native hedgerows into the landscaping of the site.
Underground utility cabling(Page 284)
All service cables, including electrical, television, and telephone lines, must be located underground within the development site.
What gets refused
Discouraged by the guide
Suburban-type or ribbon development in the countryside(Page 300)
The creation of suburban-style houses or continuous roadside ribbon developments in rural areas is strictly unacceptable.
Demolition of existing structures(Page 281)
Demolishing an existing home is discouraged if retention and renovation are practically viable.
Extensive blank boundary walls on public roads(Page 289)
Long, unbroken boundary walls should not face onto public streets or walkways. Designs should use dual-aspect layouts or alternative orientations to avoid this.
Open pigeon lofts(Page 298)
Open lofts are not permitted in residential areas. Pigeon lofts must be completely enclosed, solidly built, and limited to a maximum size of 25 square meters.
Removal of front garden walls and railings(Page 334)
The removal of front boundaries for off-street parking will be refused if it harms the visual amenity or character of the streetscape, particularly in Architectural Conservation Areas.
Materials & finishes
- Natural materials including timber, stone, and plaster
- Traditional finishes reflecting the local historic character of the streetscape
- Capped, rendered concrete block or brick walls for residential rear boundaries
- Plaster or dash finishes for any boundary walls visible from a public road or open space
- Native tree/hedgerow species and local materials for reinstated front boundaries
Roofs & form
- Simple roof finishes appropriate to traditional rural and village settings
- Dark grey, dark reddish brown, or very dark green roofs for agricultural or countryside-associated buildings
- Attic conversions and roof profile alterations (e.g., changing hip-ends to gables/A-frames) must respect established streetscape character and neighboring structures
- Dormer windows are assessed based on their impact on the existing roof form, street profile, and neighboring privacy
Siting & landscape
- Minimum rural site area of 0.2 hectares (0.5 acres) and a minimum road frontage of 30 meters
- Rural building setbacks must meet minimum distances from public roads: 20m for County/Regional roads, 30m for National roads, and 90m for New National Primary roads
- Minimum 22 meters separation distance between directly opposing first-floor rear windows to prevent overlooking
- Minimum 3 meters separation distance to the side boundaries of detached, semi-detached, or end-of-terrace dwellings (shared equally between properties)
- Minimum front garden depth of 6 meters (or a designed planting strip to create 'defensible space' where no front garden is present)
- Minimum rear garden depth of 11 meters (22 meters back-to-back)
- Entrance gates in rural areas must be recessed 4.5 meters behind the roadside hedgerow, with side boundaries splayed at 45 degrees to the road
- Strict preservation of existing front boundary hedges, sod banks, and stone walls