The Selfbuild Podcast

At Selfbuild Extend & Renovate Live Leinster 2026, quantity surveyor Keith Kelliher hosts a talk around the practicalities of building an energy efficient home, with a special focus on:
- Plant rooms: optimal sizes and what you need to include in them; optimal layouts and how to make sure systems don’t interfere with one another
- Common mistakes: from solar panels and heat pumps to insulation and windows, learn from other projects

Chatting through the ins and outs of energy efficient homes are: Scott McMurray from Epitome Living, Gerry Sheridan from GMS Insulations, Keith Scully from Grant Engineering, Andrew Acheson from Internorm, and Mark Farrell from New Energy Ireland.

For the next show dates, go to live.selfbuild.ie
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The interior design tips and pitfalls to avoid as shared by Stephen Blakely of Blakely Interiors, including how to prevent mistakes and how to make your house flow while keeping practicality in mind.
Topics include access, natural and artificial lighting, kitchens, colour and more with real life examples.
Excerpts from his presentation at Selfbuild Extend & Renovate Ulster.
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Quantity surveyor Keith Kelliher asks the experts to guide you through your project. The panel consists of Health & Safety advisor Helena Ryan of Cooga Safety Services, financial advisor Rachel Uí Bhaoill of SPREAG, serial self-builder Julie Burke of Dampmaster and Joe McBride of Walk Your Plans.
He looks at ways to save on your house build that most people don’t factor in, from your health and safety obligations to learning from the mistakes of serial self-builders.

This episode was recorded at Selfbuild Extend & Renovate Live Leinster 2026.
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Martin Markey, CEO with the Hardware Association Ireland, chats about the findings in the HAI's latest survey on on-off housing, The Potential For Rural Family Homes - A Survey Review, including:
Housing need or locals only rules being the main reason there aren’t more one-off homes being built in Ireland
Potential to double the amount of homes built and the huge demand behind it
What will happen if we don't build more one-off homes: emigration a big issue at the moment as is social capital unravelling in rural areas
Need for one-off housing as part of a mix of solutions in context of population growth
Cost of building not as big a driver of whether or someone will build a house
Building regulations and lack of guidance mostly an issue for architects
Volume and price increases for builder’s merchant sector
Costs coming down the line due to new regulations including ones on timber, steel and Repak

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In this 2026 build cost overview for Ireland, quantity surveyor Keith Kelliher looks at labour and material costs, and where they’re heading. Including:

· Labour costs: what the going rates are for trades
· Material costs: where they are and where they’re heading
· Direct labour vs hiring main contractor: pros and cons
· Should you wait to build?
· Reasons to shop around
· Warnings around site-related costs
· How to make savings

This episode was recorded at Selfbuild Extend & Renovate Live Leinster 2026 in February 2026.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.