July 18, 2024 • 43 mins
Welcome to another exciting episode of the Crazy House Prices podcast! I'm Ciarán Mulqueen, and today I'm thrilled to chat with my good friend Shay Lally from Houses to Restore on Instagram. Shay's got a wealth of experience in quantity surveying, and we dive deep into your top questions about home renovations.
In this episode, I pose five big questions to Shay, touching on everything from handling asbestos to calculating renovation costs per square meter. We also cover retrofitting, heat pumps, and more! And for a bit of fun, we finish up with five quick-fire questions. Trust me, it's a conversation you won't want to miss!
Make sure you're following me on Instagram at Crazy House Prices for more updates and tips on the housing market in Ireland.
If you're enjoying the podcast and want to show your support, head over to Patreon. Your support helps keep this podcast and my Instagram page going. Plus, you'll get access to exclusive bonus content and a community of over 100,000 followers.
Don't forget to check out my book, How to Buy a Home in Ireland, available nationwide. Can't find it in a bookshop? Just Google it or check your local library.
So, grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and enjoy this insightful episode with Shay Lally!
You can order my book: "How to buy a home in Ireland" here
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:13):
Falter rash to the crazy house prices podcast with me
carol mcqueen and today i'm chatting with
a good friend of mine shay lally from houses to restore on instagram i'm sure
a lot of you know the page i know shay and he's good crack and he is also has
a lot of experience with all things quantity surveying so in this episode we
(00:35):
are going to talk about well basically i'm going to post
five questions to Shay that you guys sent in five kind of bigger questions.
And then we'll finish up with five quick fire questions as well.
Touching on everything from asbestos to cost per square meter to renovate a
home to retrofitting and heat pumps and all the rest. So it's a really good chat.
(00:58):
So you're going to hear a little ad before we do that.
And then we're going to have a chat. There'll be a little ad in the middle and
then we finish strong at the end again.
So So make sure you're following me on Instagram at Crazy House Prices for updates
and tips on all things housing market in Ireland.
I have an outrageous amount of content over there and let's get into it.
(01:18):
Hi, I am just going to pause the podcast for a second to talk to you about some
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(01:42):
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(02:03):
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number one property website now Seamus
welcome to the crazy house prices podcast you get annoyed when people call you
Seamus absolutely hate it I'm not gonna lie the only the only people who will
let get away with it really are my parents and I suppose my siblings because
they don't call me Seamus outside of that and in fairness anyone who really really
(02:26):
knows me i suppose will say it's sort of like a term of affection but
um i remember i was out with a friend once in a cafe and
i just happened to bump into a guy i used to work with years ago and like that
he agreed to be shameless but the way he said it it was like a term of affection
so it's very difficult to get annoyed with someone like that i just do it to
wind you up to be honest because i know you don't like it i know i know like
(02:48):
people purposely calling me kieran yeah.
But uh anyway welcome welcome to crazy podcast
we we've been meaning to do this for a
long time and i know our uh our
millions and millions of fans will be eagerly waiting
listening to this so we'll have a little chat and then i have some questions
then from the listeners or from followers or whatever to run through you know
(03:12):
bill costs all that kind of stuff your services and bits like that yeah how's
that sound sounds great how are you getting on anyway yeah i'm really good really
good yeah enjoying it's a lovely day i'm actually going to a wedding now this
afternoon so i thought i was being really organized by
committing to doing this this morning and the best of intentions but
uh having a bit of a disaster of a morning but sure we'll get
(03:33):
there well a wedding on a wednesday and you've got i don't know you're running
three four five six businesses how many businesses have you got two just two
yeah well not really like because the instagram is the instagram is i mine is
a business well it's a limited company but it's uh you have that, then you have the.
(03:53):
Construction stuff, then you have the painting and music skill.
Yeah, I boxed painting and construction in under the one thing,
to be completely honest.
That's one entity, if you like, even though it's two very different services.
And then the music school, yeah.
But I'm very lucky. I have a great team that runs the music school for me.
I'm actually blessed, and that's actually who's getting married today,
(04:16):
Claire, who runs the music school for me.
So I'm really, really lucky there you know to have that so it does give me the
time to do things i guess but as well as if you count um i was gonna say if
you count crazy house prices if you if you count houses to restore i suppose
it is three things yeah i like to just fabricate and you know sounds better
when you say you're four jobs i think people think they look at you as if to say are you mad.
(04:39):
Yeah, I get that a lot as well. Or how do you find the time?
That's the one I get the most, you know? And I actually don't know how I find the time.
You know what, though? I think when you're busy, like you obviously sent me
an email there at about 6am, and I think when you're busy and you've loads of
it on, you are just better with your time. You're more productive.
And I'm sure like you kids now, so I'm sure like you have a window of opportunity
to do certain things and you just have to get stuck in and do them.
So yeah, it makes complete sense.
(05:01):
Yeah, I was up at half five sending that email, but that was, Milo was awake.
So he was in, woke us, and I was like, Oh, I meant to send those questions over to Shea.
So, you know, the hustle, the grind never stops. Isn't that what they say?
Yeah. And as I put up my Instagram the other day, I think when we first started
these pages, I think things were different for us.
(05:21):
I think we just kind of winged a little bit, didn't we?
And now you kind of feel a need because there's more people watching and more people listening.
You kind of feel the need to be maybe that bit more professional and maybe that
takes a little bit of the fun away sometimes.
So it's nice to get the questions out the other day or not to
put really any thought into them and just jump on and answer them
to the best of your ability sort of on the fly if it were yeah it's
interesting like i find like sometimes
(05:44):
i could spend a week creating a
post whether it's a reel or a video or whatever uh or
a podcast or whatever it is i need the content and then it'll do like they all
they all do kind of well you know but then i might just record something on
a whim take 30 seconds post it without even thinking about it don't worry about
(06:06):
the time of post or whatever and then the thing will go viral so it's just that's
murphy's laws and it just.
The way it goes 100 all the
time yeah yeah i i've uh i've a
whole list of things on my phone to do i have a list of different
ideas different reels different posts that
i think would really help people but it's it's just
(06:27):
getting it's getting the time it's tough but now maisie's in crash during the
day and uh my wife melissa has
milo now so i have a couple of hours i'm doing
this there with you and then i'm going over to the gym to my
brother's gym and he's going to do a session with
me over there i'm going to record that actually and uh that's
a that's a nice day i'm dropping my coffee machine off to get fixed so you know
(06:49):
the benefit being a teacher yeah one of one of my five jobs that the benefit
of that is i can uh get time off in the summer you know i won't say how much
time i make up yeah you get a lot of time off to be fair it's not enough not enough,
You know loads of teachers, don't you, Shay? I do. I know a lot, yeah. Do you know any?
(07:10):
Well, I used to know a lot, let's just say. But you do your mobile music skills
and in-skills as well, isn't it?
Yeah, that's all we do. So with that business, we basically teach music skills,
and that's what I'm set up to do.
I set it up in 2011. I set it up. I'd made the decision.
I used to play. A lot of people notice I used to play percussion at the RT Concert
(07:30):
Orchestra, and I used to freelance as a percussionist.
I just always kind of had quantity surveying in
the back of my head so i made a decision to go back to ball street and then
i realized like my income would disappear by
going back to college and i wasn't really that old going back i
was probably maybe 22 or something but i was just
used to making a lot of money and uh i kind of felt like oh
my god i got fired so i had an idea for that business and i set it
(07:53):
up you never really expected it to i suppose turn out
the way it did like the plan wasn't to still have it in 2024
if you know what i mean um but it
just kind of latched on and i realized then it was just
too good a thing to let go you know but as you say uh
teach music and skills and i think i
don't know probably around 150 years a year we teach you
(08:15):
know uh aim primary skills and a
lot of the programs will be kind of 6 12 18 24.
Week some will be 30 week just depends on the school and
what they put in so yeah it's busy you know um but
it's something i actually i really love and it's something i always do and it's
something that'll always be a part of me to be completely honest regardless of
what else i'm doing with my life and do you get any
(08:35):
time now to play any music yourself
no the trouble is it's like you know
you're big into the soccer and i know you still do a bit of five a side but let's
just say like you were playing at a serious level and then you just stop
playing your fitness level just completely drops us as
a footballer obviously you know so and even though your
skills are there somewhere it would just take you so long to get back into it
(08:56):
so i suppose for me my skills are there
but i'm just throwing fists essentially because i don't i
don't play i'll ever like really to be completely honest
so and the other thing is like playing percussion and playing drums and
stuff like all of the equipment is very big and cumbersome and
you'd like want to be buying like a country house and
outbuilding that you can literally just set up a load of equipment and.
(09:17):
That you can just walk into and you can just play and enjoy
and practice on um but i like
i don't have that literally right now anyway you know um and
it's also very it's also very time i'm consuming you know that was
the big thing i always felt playing percussion like you could put so much
regardless of gigging and practicing you had
to put so much time in practicing because you might be um playing
(09:37):
a particular percussion instrument like something random like a vibraphone that
you might have played for nine or twelve months and you just need to.
Kind of refresh yourself that was one of the reasons that actually just made
me think that but long term i just kind of didn't feel like i'd actually sustainably
keep at that level all of the time and put all those hours in between doing
self-practice rehearsing and gigging you know and that's actually the reason
(09:59):
that prompted me then to go down the u.s and route to be honest.
Well i guess the drums isn't the quietest instrument to
be playing for your neighbors no no no
definitely you can get the electric ones that you know the sound goes
through the through your headphones yeah they're brilliant
but they're a bit of a false economy you know because it's kind of
like an assistant bouncing a lot of them so it actually makes
(10:20):
you feel or sound better than you actually are so it feels like your
your wrists and your your fingers and everything are in better shape
than they really are so yeah they're great like
they're a bit of fun so if you just wanted a bit of fun absolutely but if
you wanted to get back playing yeah i think it's a bit of a false economy thinking
you're going to practice someone would be great you know i play a
bit of guitar uh in school oh yeah
(10:41):
yeah i'm not great like but it's i'm very much school
level you know but i can play yeah i can play a
few tunes and i do i do like you
know at friends weddings and stuff i'll bang out a few tunes in the afters
but uh the we my
my skill is quite music my principal was mad into music you could
play anything like we play uh we play some savage songs
(11:02):
we played uh we had our graduation there because i had sixth class
and we played um george michael
freedom all right and we you know we
did harmonies we did things with them and it just sounded unreal
but you get a real buzz off you know playing playing
the tune in front of a decent crowd like there's a
couple hundred people there and and uh but it's.
(11:23):
Good it's good for the head isn't it just to play and if you're we're
running 15 businesses as you were it could be nice
you know just to find everyone's every now and again yeah a little breakaway
we look i kind of have me on the door here like i'm living in port marne if
i'm planning to move and partly the reason i'm planning to move is that they
have a bit more space and that imagine if a bit more space i will buy an electric
joke i just don't really have to the space here for one right now you know um.
(11:47):
So that's actually part of me thinking about moving nothing it's not
just because i can have an electric drum kit but just to
give me a bit more space i guess you know yeah yeah yeah well there's
actually a few questions come in about that kind of stuff extensions and
all of that so i guess we should probably actually
start chatting a little bit about qs stuff and construction
bill costs and and all that stuff so i
(12:10):
got a lot of questions sent in as i said and with the
help of artificial intelligence i have whittled them down to five kind of normal
questions and then we'll do quick fire questions at the end then as well how's
that sound so great yeah okay right so the really common one coming in was obviously
going to be renovation costs and feasibility so,
(12:33):
i know myself from doing our own renovation it's it's really tough and i'm doing
a podcast on the vacant home thing at the moment it's really tough to predict
what prices are going to be like you get quotes and for the vacant home thing
you have to get quotes and then you go back and you send it it off to the council and whatever.
But prices will change and you will uncover.
(12:55):
Different things you uncover problems that you didn't kind of predict and this
is where i guess you come in as a quantity surveyor so i guess the first question
is with those renovation prices um,
staying high we know they went up during covid and like most things in ireland
once they go up they don't tend to come back down but can you give an overview
(13:16):
of maybe where the current costs are for renovating homes in ireland and do
you see these decreasing anytime soon.
Uh i'm gonna ask the second part first i can't see
them decreasing anytime soon it's simply because of just
a labor charge and that's a big big problem so this is simply too
much work and too few lives it's just too few people that's
(13:38):
just the way it is materials i think have simmered somewhat you know
to be fair but what's keeping the prices high is the labor issue and
i think if you look at the apprenticeship scheme obviously next four years
for someone to get trained as a as a kind of trades person but a
long long time if even if you know even if everyone who
did their leaving cert this year decided to go off and do a trade you're only
really going to benefit them in four years time so it's a very slow process
(13:59):
to get as well as operators and people in the business
so as a result i can see the prices uh dropping anytime soon
where's the price point that like that's it's a
question it probably goes commonly asked question i get in houses to restore
very very difficult answer for every single house
type you know like if you buy an apartment like you could renovate
a Cuban apartment for 50 or 60,000 if you're like
(14:20):
those tastes and desires are quite kind
of basic if you know what I mean and then if you have a house where like you
want to go high-end like you could spend anywhere between say a thousand euro
a square meter or you could spend two and a half thousand three and a half thousand
euro per square meter and all depends on the condition of the current house
what remedial work you have to do to it and then the extent of everything that
(14:41):
you want to put into it like the fittings,
the finishes you could spend a hundred pound in the kitchen you know,
yeah easily like i just know from doing it ourselves and.
You you can buy cheap materials or
like your finishes or you can go more high
end so i guess for people that are
looking at houses i'm always i'm a big fan of people buying a house where as
(15:06):
like like your page where they're going to restore it and fix it up and gut
it and and renovate it because if you sometimes depends who who renovated the
house previously let's say
you're looking at a turnkey house who renovated it
was it a family that were renovating it to live in it and did they
put money into it like our own or was it a builder who bought it and is now
(15:27):
flipping it because they might just put things in a lick of paint to make it
look good in the photos but the actual quality of it isn't great you know the
floors aren't great so i just know for ourselves like we like everything we
did and in the house is custom it's custom custom -made kitchen,
custom wardrobes in every room,
in the living room, custom alcove units.
(15:50):
Everything is custom. So it's a floor, it's a hardwood floor.
So we just knew, like, look, we're going to hopefully live in this house forever.
So we're going to, you know, go really high-end on the finishes.
But if we were just planning on being here for a couple of years,
you know, we may have gone a
lot cheaper, and that would have brought the renovation costs down a lot.
Yeah yeah those things only really start to
(16:12):
show up then the cheap kind of stuff after a few years wear
and tear where it starts to look
a bit look a bit shoddy so i would just
say to people if they're looking at houses and they're
already renovated and turnkey just really inspect the finishes have a look like
are they going to last or were they just made to look like this to increase
(16:32):
the value of the home as much as possible for selling yeah it's an interesting
one but as you said i just know from back then and things are even worse now
the the cost of things can vary.
Wildly like yeah it's if i think
i'm actually a good example myself and even aside from houses to restore
when i bought my place like i didn't have houses to restore and i
(16:53):
bought it in port marnock and i bought it you're gonna hate this but
i bought it with the intentions of hanging on to it and renting it and kind of having it
as a as a pension pot and it's going to change
my mind and act as it's appreciated and my everyone out into the specifics
of that but when i renovated of the place i kind of talked to myself look
i'll be here for no more than five years and seven years later i'm still
here and put exactly like you're saying karen like
(17:13):
not that i screamed i put in some nice things like i
put in a really nice floor that i think made the place i redid the ensuite i
redid the bathroom because i'm using the ensuite every day you can see the wear
and tear you can see the cheap percentage you wear beginning to get a bit faded
looking being realistic when i go to sell it i actually had the plumber who
does work for me come in to have a a look at it because I'm going to spruce
(17:34):
it up prior to selling it.
So that's definitely one factor
and that's definitely one thing that I've even seen in my own en suite.
The bathroom still looks very
clean because guests only use it when they come over for a couple hours.
So that still looks immaculate to be completely honest. And then the.
Back the kitchen rod like all i did in the kitchen was put floor tiles
in it and say i painted it and if i spent 40 000
(17:56):
euro it's even i think 30 000 euro is what i spent at this apartment and like
in fairness i did a lot of the strip out work myself i just changed the plates
on the sockets and switches uh i kept it really basic i just kind of i would
say live within my means because i could have spent more on it but i was very
conscious this is a two-bed apartment it has a particular ceiling price and
i'm not going to be staying here forever.
Ever so did a bit of cycling so totally totally totally
(18:19):
agree with you and then the other side like we do some
work for investors and some of the things that usually that investors do
like is exactly as you say they'll replace all
the floor coverings they'll put in a new kitchen they'll likely put
in a decent new kitchen in fairness to some of them they'll put
in an ensuite bathroom and stuff like that that looks
like a new ensuite bathroom but not necessarily capitalizing on
(18:39):
what they could do with their own room to be completely fair and then
they don't tend to say to you things like maybe replace windows
if they can get away with it and they don't necessarily say insulate walls
and do that sort of thing so the be or might still be
that low on these houses but when you walk in it
actually looks great um but as
you say then when you go looking at it really is it really
(18:59):
all that great because chances are it's to a very kind of
particular look like that kind of landlord look
but as you say that kind of house split look and uh
most people don't want to live in that to to be completely fair you
know yeah and then if if you're going in and
ripping all that out it's just a bit of a waste but anyway yeah next
next question next question i actually get this one a lot
(19:21):
i guess because of where we are in dublin um and the type of types of homes
and when they were built but asbestos is something that comes in all the time
so what are the best practices for handling asbestos removal and making sure
structural safety especially in older homes.
And who should homeowners consult for
(19:43):
these issues i get this ask this all the time i've no
idea thankfully we didn't have asbestos but is there you
know what's the kind of best practice for that yeah we actually
had it in a house around the corner from where you are at a before christmas
and we ended up using a guy from kilkenny who came up and he's just like basically
an asbestos specialist i think he charged in the region 750 or 800 quid he did
(20:06):
a report and an interest in Interestingly enough,
he actually saved us thousands and thousands and thousands of euros.
The building survey came back and
said there was asbestos in these ceiling tiles and stairs in the house.
And interestingly enough, after he did his inspection, he found there wasn't
any asbestos in those tiles.
The only place where the asbestos was was a small section of lino underneath the stairs.
(20:29):
So I had that report. I got onto a few different asbestos removal companies
and the difference in costs to remove that item were just crazy.
I think the highest that got voted was.
3 000 euro and i think the person who did it for
me did it for 500 euro and like everything about
the four or five hundred euro person was completely legit he gave
(20:49):
us the certificate he was totally compliant and he was
actually a pleasure to deal with i have to say it just appeared to
be him and his father small business and dublin guys
so that's how we went about you know so i know
sometimes people are reluctant to spend the money on
on the expertise but i think the expertise actually
in the long one can save you a lot of money yeah and the
(21:09):
health implications i know my uncle has asbestosis
from working for aircom or whatever the telecom airing back in the day and she
was just going in drilling into ceilings with no safety you know it just wasn't
known and it's a can be a really really really big serious issue but then a
lot of the time it can be on say say,
(21:30):
outbuildings on the roof of a shed out the back.
It's not absolutely necessary to remove them, is it, straight away,
if it's not going to be disturbed?
Yeah, you're correct. If it's not going to be disturbed, as fast as they say,
it's fine if it's left in situ.
Essentially, I guess in the house that was being renovated, everything kind
(21:51):
of had to come out of it, so we needed to make sure that the materials in that
particular house were handled correctly.
But you're right, if you were doing nothing to the shed, it's fine.
Cool. Okay. And if people want to get that person's number, maybe they could
just pop you a DM on Instagram and you can put them in there.
Yeah, that's fine. You probably don't know the name off the top of your head.
I don't. They were actually a great crowd to be with. It was a family business
(22:15):
and they're actually lovely.
It was a daughter, a son and the father. Lovely people. So I happily recommend them.
(23:22):
Right. So next question. How common is it for banks to withhold mortgage funds
due to compliance issues?
And what steps can be taken to address these?
I think the big thing is you're trying to get mortgage out with a property that
might necessarily fit the bill of a property.
So, for example, I looked at a property for a client. I think of there,
the downstairs of it was like a hairdresser's and the upstairs of it was an apartment.
(23:45):
It wasn't fit out. You couldn't move into it. I think the banks really.
Really panicked about it.
It um i think to get around that you need to do due
diligence you need to get a building surveyor in you need
to go to the extent to get a structural surveyor in you need to
get a quantity surveyor in and you need to really assess all of
the different parts of the puzzle and basically put the case
together to say this is current condition this is
(24:07):
what we need to do this is how much what we need
to do with that cost and these are the funds that we have
available to us right now and we need a mortgage down basically quick balance
and essentially that's the way around it's very much
due diligence and i think us irish people i
don't think we really understand the importance of due diligence
or we get a bit wary of giving people like quantities to buyers and
(24:27):
structural engineers but money because we just feel it's unnecessary in
that situation you just have no choice you have to
go and you just have to do it properly okay deadly okay
very good now this one i know
you are very clued into this i
did a bit of it in our house as well when it comes to energy efficiency and insulation
so let's say someone is owns a
(24:49):
home or is looking to buy a home and they want to improve the energy
efficiency what are the pros and cons of internal
versus external insulation and how should they decide between the different
ventilation and heating systems so i know a bit about this because we tackled
it but for us the external insulation wasn't an option because we have red bricks
(25:10):
on the outside and obviously didn't want to cover them so we did it internally.
The problem with that is we lose about 10 centimetres off the external walls,
so the rooms are a little bit smaller.
But I don't know in terms of what's more efficient or what's a better insulator. Is it the same?
And then, yeah, the different ventilation and the different heating systems.
(25:32):
Yeah, with the walls, I think the external insulation system really is better
if it's an option because if you like them where your joists are,
the insulation board runs up to the joists and then you
have that gap where the joists are and that section isn't being insulated so
essentially you have cold bridging in the house then if not if
the full wall isn't insulated so the external if it's available to
you it is a better option obviously loads of houses in Dublin
(25:54):
red brick not an option unfortunately the other
challenge then is with ventilation and it's a big thing that
loads of people would have missed when we first started to retrofit houses.
And having adequate ventilation is absolutely
essential because if there isn't um ventilation you'll
end up with a build up of mold and rooms and spaces
will just get moldy and they'll just be manky so you need good airflow
(26:15):
regardless of the fact that you are insulating um
your house heating systems very interesting one
i had uh fergal on the
instagram page i think fergal might have been
your house if i'm not mistaken um and i was
chatting through uh heat pumps for fergal you know and just
the opinion on heat pumps and heat systems is so so 50 50
(26:37):
some people think they're right other people are very wary of
them other people feel like something else is going to
come along to supersede them i guess a little bit like the way the attitude
is when it comes to electric vehicles and so as
a result even though some people are putting a lot of work into insulate insulating
their attic putting in new windows doors insulating their wall they're still
going with things like combi boilers interestingly enough you know and
(26:58):
so i think with the air heat systems divided opinion between
the combi boilers and the heat
pumps so it just seems to
very much be personal practice and those and which way you want
to go from what i can see the heat pumps are actually amazing you know
if if your house is suitable for a heat pump great i
do think they're brilliant to be completely honest yeah i
(27:19):
have one so i have a bit of experience with it
so i originally wanted to just do
a combi boiler because it's a lot cheaper um and i
wasn't sure where we'd get the house up to in terms of be.
All right and so we started with a g it was the lowest possible now.
It turns out the the previous owners had got the walls pumped um so that wasn't
(27:40):
factored in i didn't know that so i saved a couple a couple of grand there but
the we insulated the internal walls um blocked up all the fireplaces we put in the ventilation the.
They're like, I'm looking at them here in the wall. When I first saw them,
I was like, Jesus, they're very big. They kind of look like a modem on the wall.
(28:00):
But I think they're called Valdez or something. But they're basically supposed
to open and close, depending on the moisture level in the air to some sort of
moisture strip in them. They're supposed to open and close automatically.
Now, I don't think they do. I think they're just open all the time.
But that's grand. You know, you need a bit of ventilation because especially
when the chimneys are blocked up,
(28:21):
like i always see do you know you see loads of mold and ads when i'm looking
at ads on daft whatever and you can see where somebody's blocked up the chimneys
and haven't put insulate i haven't put ventilation in now i know if people are
getting the house up to a really high.
Standard uh in terms of br rating say a3
to a2 to a1 i think a
(28:43):
heat pump is an absolute no-brainer and i actually don't know if you can get
to an a3 without a heat pump uh yeah i
wouldn't put a combi boiler and then i know a
lot of the retrofit companies will only deal with heat pumps uh
they won't put in a combi boiler and i guess that's where we're
moving in terms of government policy as well and and
all that we're trying to get away from those fossil fuels and
(29:05):
using the heat pump so i know the heat
pump thing i've i've researched heat pump loads
i did a post on them and i'm doing a bit
of work with dyke and i think next month on with our heat
pump um like an information piece and i've researched the
laws and it's still the only way i could describe it is it's
magic because air comes in and there's
(29:25):
some sort of like magical thing that happens
and it turns and it makes your heart your your water
hot that's it's that's yeah kind of it right there's you need an engineer to
go through the ins and outs in it but there's like a ratio four to one three
to one whatever it is but basically for ourselves we got the house up to an
A3 with the inclusion of the heat pump and solar panels,
(29:48):
which is pretty good going for a 100-year-old house. And our heating bills.
Basically like the heating's only on maybe
in the winter and it's a really different type of
heat with a heat pump it's not like even the
radiators are different it's not like uh your combi boiler
or your immersion um and you're
heating up the hot water you know when you go into a house in the winter say an
(30:11):
older house and the heating's been on you're just kind of hit
with this wave of heat when you feel yeah yeah it
makes you tired and your skin is dry yeah yeah it's it's a different heat in
this house it's like because it's a constant temperature it's always at say
20 degrees but they're also low heat radiators the radiators never get hot they're
just kind of warm so they're actually different radiators so people are looking
(30:35):
at changing their heating system.
You can't just switch from a a boiler to
a heat pump you'll have to basically get as
far as i know anyway all new radiators because they're
different types of radios they don't work off the same temperature so
like if i put my hands on the radiator it's never boiling hot whereas i know
if i go over to my mom's and the heating's on you can't touch the radio so because
(30:56):
you burn the hands off yourself yeah yeah it's it is a totally different system
but i just know our our costs to heat the house and heat the water and all are
are pretty low like the the solar panels.
What they generate and i have a really small setup i have three on the back of the house three on the
front of the house so they're not all byron at
(31:16):
all times because of the way the orientation of the house and
we've achieved two chimneys there that we share
with the neighbors so we can't remove them that block um a
bit of that block a bit of sunlight from it
but i'll just show you now just this year alone i'm just
looking at my phone here so we're at we're on the 17th of july uh
so just this year alone i've gotten
(31:38):
over 700 kilowatt hours so that
will obviously increase as you
get through july and august and september is usually decent but
it basically pays to run our
our hot water and our heating all year and then
really we're just paying our electricity bill then is really just paying for
(31:59):
the dryer which is on like three four times a day with kids clothes and gym
clothes and all that it's it's and towels and bibs and all the rest so it's
just anyone listening with young kids will understand like the dryer is on all the time.
And um the dishwasher is on all the time the microwave's
on all the time and then we're cooking the induction hob you
(32:19):
know that saps a lot of electricity so basically our
electricity bills is kind of just paying for that and the hot water uh which
is constant by the way it's constant hot water all the time and the heating
during the covered by the solar so there's the there will be a long enough payback
period for the solar panels but,
(32:40):
I just think it's a no-brainer in terms of your emissions, your own carbon footprint.
That was my main motivation to do it rather than monetary.
But it does mean our monthly bills are quite low.
So I'm a big fan of the heat pumps, to be honest, but you do need to have the
house up to a really high standard and really well insulated.
(33:02):
It doesn't have to be airtight, but definitely
I wouldn't be contemplating it if your
house is a c maybe even a b yeah i
have yeah improve it i have
a post up on um the page up on that
i did fergal gave me a few pointers about it so we did an instagram
live that i mentioned and then i just kind of summarized it all in a post about
(33:24):
heat pumps and it's quite interesting and it does outline exactly what you need
and all the rest of it so that's actually worth checking out if someone is still
wearing a heat pump like a lot of people have reached out to me to say that
was actually really informative for thinking of getting heat pump tanks and
sort of thing and it's quite educational in fairness to fergali is quite informative so uh.
Yeah and it covered off what you were saying there but you know what just listen
(33:44):
to you it sounds like your house is actually nicer to live in now because you've actually put in the,
the heat pump and that sort of thing and because of the way you're out there
so it's not just a case of okay it saved me a few quid or whatever it's actually
a nicer place to live done as you say if you had a setup say like your mom's
and the rads are piping off for a particular period
of time you know and as i say you walk in and you just get baked
(34:05):
and your skin is just totally dry and once
the central heating begins to kick in like the way we all
would have experienced growing up i suppose yeah in september october
time so i think that's the big thing so i know we all talk about bers and savings
but it does actually make the house more comfortable to live in you know and
i think that's a huge thing deadly yeah i it is it's lovely it is nice more
(34:25):
but it's also i understand it's extremely expensive and not an option for a
lot of people so it's it's always going to come down to your budget and what you're able for.
Speaking of budgets, I'm figuring out how much things are going to cost because
that's going to be the biggest and most important thing.
As a quantity surveyor yourself, how can people find out and evaluate a good quantity surveyor?
(34:49):
So what kind of specific questions should they ask to make sure they're hiring
the right person for their project?
I think the big thing is right there's a lot of QSs that are more into commercial
stuff you know and if you're more into commercial stuff it's a different thing.
So you want someone that actually is predominantly spending their time working
(35:09):
on houses you know and if you look at But, you know, the QS that most people
are familiar with are the people who are on, say, you know, with Dermabandon and Rooms to Improve.
I think that's a good example because I think it's kind of highlighted,
I suppose, the role of a QS and the career you have as a QS.
But all of those people, and they've been predominantly female,
for instance, like Patricia Power, Lisa O'Brien and Clare Earwin.
(35:32):
They're all, you know, professionals who would appear to predominantly deal
with domestic properties. So I'd say that's the first thing,
make sure that they deal with domestic properties, because if someone is doing
commercial stuff, commercial is very, very different.
And when you get into commercial, you know, people have particular specialisms,
maybe in mechanical and electrical, for example, or maybe they might just specialize
(35:52):
in partition systems and drylining. That's a huge area as well.
That'd be the biggest thing here, I guess, like someone who has that domestic experience, you know.
Okay make sure that's where they're working and yeah
okay perfect and then we have some
quick fire questions right you're not allowed to take
10 minutes it's answer these as short as
(36:13):
you can right so first one is
what adds more value to a home a high
spec landscape garden or a new a
nice kitchen i'm gonna say garden because
i think it gives you a good a good first
impression pressure i think people vastly
underestimate how expensive a landscape garden
(36:34):
is 100 like it is
insane how expensive they are i see
there's this crowd i follow on instagram and they do they
do amazing jobs uh on gardens and their content
is really good they make really cool videos and all and i
was looking at one and i was like i just had to it
was like a house in finglas and i just had to reach out and i was
(36:54):
like out of interest because i'm just after doing this myself
and a garden a quarter of that size how much did that cost and they were like
120 grand that's colossal yeah for a standard garden and things yeah insane
whereas like you get a really nice kitchen for 12 15 grand really yes yeah so.
(37:16):
I think people underestimate. Here's me telling you not to spend 10 minutes
answering the things, but there's me.
Right, next question. Does converting an attic typically require planning permission?
It does if you need a dormer window. And in many cases, people do need a dormer
window to make it compliant in terms of the head height.
So yes and no is the answer there.
(37:38):
No dormer window. Sorry, yes, if you need a dormer window.
No, if you don't need a dormer window. but imagine to do it properly most people
do need a door window a lot of people have attic rooms,
and when you look at them in an advert it might appear that there's four bedrooms
but you'll often then see it's a three bed house and then they'll refer to
the attic as like storage space yeah or they might just say it's a converted
(37:59):
attic suitable for you know a home gym or a home office or something it's not
a habitable proper space you know yeah because there's no there's no fire exit
this out look don't get me started on that the dodgy ads where they list it
as a bedroom when and it's not legally allowed to be listed as a bedroom.
That's another podcast.
What is, speaking of attics then, what would be a rough cost?
(38:20):
I know you're going to say long-speed string.
What's a rough cost estimate for converting an attic space?
Let's say the standard three-bed semi-D.
I'd say around 40,000 euro. Jesus. Okay, very good. Next question.
Is it worth holding off on building projects in hopes that material costs will
decrease significantly?
(38:43):
Um it's a gamble it's like hoping property prices are going to decrease it's
very difficult to predict that um and it depends on your circumstances so you
can afford to get the work done you're planning to live in the house long term
and you need to do the work i just say fire ahead and do it because it's so
difficult to say when things will bottom out for want of a better word um
(39:03):
that's where i'd be on that yeah it's like nearly everything in ireland prices
never come down and And when they do, it's at the cost of a giant global recession
where nobody has a job. So it's not really something to be wishing for.
Right, last question. What's the first thing you should do when you find asbestos in your home?
(39:24):
If you think you're going to be asbestos, I'd be getting a servo done in the property.
That's where I'd be starting. So if you're buying an old house,
like a house near where you live in Dublin,
I'd be factoring that into your bucket and saying,
like look we're going to do work here let's pre-empt this and
let's get um somebody to do an
especial survey and as i say if people want that person's name
(39:47):
by all means um send me a dm but that's
what i'd be doing there i'd be kind of putting it kind of i'd be
pre-empting it rather than saying how to fix it
when you reach the problem okay i'm gonna i'm
gonna trump your answer and say talk to
the neighbors because they have the same house that's what we did they have
the same house and find someone who's renovated the house and be like did you
(40:11):
find asbestos when you're renovating and they might say yes then you know you're
gonna find it but they might say no we actually gotta test it and there wasn't
but i guess you won't know for sure.
That would be the first thing i'd do and then maybe i'd look into a
bit more yeah i suppose but like our wife and
like local knowledge is absolutely king and i know my sister
(40:31):
bought a place you know probably around where you
grew up and that's exactly what she did like and that helped
her out you know but it's both then like people do do things to
their house like the one of these fast thoughts was found in the example
i gave earlier on it was in a bit of lino like it was basically i know
essentially you know so the house itself the neighbor
might say no we didn't actually but then the house
(40:52):
that you've got it might be in the floors of something because of what
was laid at some point 50 or 60 years ago but it's
very hard to tell you know it's it's just one of those things that's
a very good point you're right actually yeah and when you buy an
old house like it is just kind of like pandora's box
you just don't know what you're going to get and it comes back to something you said about
how other people have renovated and modified and
(41:12):
personalized the house and that's also a factory you know so it
would just factor in like it's 750 quid and i think if
you're buying an old house do you think it's working you know yeah definitely
yeah good answer i forgot about that it's not always in the ceilings and whatever
it can be in something that's been added in the 70s like lino in the floor so
very good very good you're right jay i'm wrong as usual that's all the questions
(41:39):
i really appreciate it thanks for.
Enlightening us with your wealth of knowledge you are looking well now for your wedding today,
day yeah not your wedding someone else's wedding your guest
i need to jump on the shower i haven't had a shower yet
i've got up and i i'm off for the day obviously and uh i
need to get my car cleaned but i've said i and i planned
to uh obviously don't have a combi boiler because there's no
(42:01):
hot water when i'm about to jump in the shower so didn't manage to have a shower
before the uh so yeah there you go there you go now if you had a heat pump you'd
have constant hot water you wouldn't have to remember that's it and i'd be i'd
be dressed and ready to go to the wedding yeah anyway thanks so much shay uh
really appreciate it yeah you're more than welcome.
(42:22):
I'll get Shane a la high on episode show of the crazy house prices podcast.
I hope you found the episode helpful and Shay's tips really helpful.
I think it's a really good episode. I think you'll get a lot from it and hopefully
it helps you navigate any kind of renovations or anything like that.
So if you're enjoying the podcast and my Instagram and you want to show your
(42:44):
support, head over to patreon.com forward slash crazy house prices.
Is your support doesn't just keep this podcast going
on the instagram page going but it also gives you exclusive
access to bonus content like detailed q
a's where i answer every single question that's sent in plus you'll
get the unique opportunity to engage with my community of
over a hundred thousand followers asking them questions that
(43:06):
google could never answer so don't miss out on those really exclusive perks
and also my book how to buy a home in ireland is available nationwide wide if
you can't get it in a bookshop just google it you'll find it somewhere online
eSense I think you usually have it and also check your local library and I will chat you all very.
(43:28):
Music.
Music.
(00:13):
Falter rash to the crazy house prices podcast with me
carol mcqueen and today i'm chatting with
a good friend of mine shay lally from houses to restore on instagram i'm sure
a lot of you know the page i know shay and he's good crack and he is also has
a lot of experience with all things quantity surveying so in this episode we
(00:35):
are going to talk about well basically i'm going to post
five questions to Shay that you guys sent in five kind of bigger questions.
And then we'll finish up with five quick fire questions as well.
Touching on everything from asbestos to cost per square meter to renovate a
home to retrofitting and heat pumps and all the rest. So it's a really good chat.
(00:58):
So you're going to hear a little ad before we do that.
And then we're going to have a chat. There'll be a little ad in the middle and
then we finish strong at the end again.
So So make sure you're following me on Instagram at Crazy House Prices for updates
and tips on all things housing market in Ireland.
I have an outrageous amount of content over there and let's get into it.
(01:18):
Hi, I am just going to pause the podcast for a second to talk to you about some
sponsors of the Crazy House Prices podcast.
This episode is sponsored by Daft.ie. Daft is Ireland's number one property portal.
Daft has the most properties available for sale and rent and is the preferred
national property website amongst consumers in Ireland.
So DAFT.ie's core vision is to make buying, selling and renting property better
(01:42):
for everyone in Ireland.
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the Irish market to make buying, selling and renting in Ireland simple.
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(02:03):
chances of finding your dream home by visiting daft.ie ireland's
number one property website now Seamus
welcome to the crazy house prices podcast you get annoyed when people call you
Seamus absolutely hate it I'm not gonna lie the only the only people who will
let get away with it really are my parents and I suppose my siblings because
they don't call me Seamus outside of that and in fairness anyone who really really
(02:26):
knows me i suppose will say it's sort of like a term of affection but
um i remember i was out with a friend once in a cafe and
i just happened to bump into a guy i used to work with years ago and like that
he agreed to be shameless but the way he said it it was like a term of affection
so it's very difficult to get annoyed with someone like that i just do it to
wind you up to be honest because i know you don't like it i know i know like
(02:48):
people purposely calling me kieran yeah.
But uh anyway welcome welcome to crazy podcast
we we've been meaning to do this for a
long time and i know our uh our
millions and millions of fans will be eagerly waiting
listening to this so we'll have a little chat and then i have some questions
then from the listeners or from followers or whatever to run through you know
(03:12):
bill costs all that kind of stuff your services and bits like that yeah how's
that sound sounds great how are you getting on anyway yeah i'm really good really
good yeah enjoying it's a lovely day i'm actually going to a wedding now this
afternoon so i thought i was being really organized by
committing to doing this this morning and the best of intentions but
uh having a bit of a disaster of a morning but sure we'll get
(03:33):
there well a wedding on a wednesday and you've got i don't know you're running
three four five six businesses how many businesses have you got two just two
yeah well not really like because the instagram is the instagram is i mine is
a business well it's a limited company but it's uh you have that, then you have the.
(03:53):
Construction stuff, then you have the painting and music skill.
Yeah, I boxed painting and construction in under the one thing,
to be completely honest.
That's one entity, if you like, even though it's two very different services.
And then the music school, yeah.
But I'm very lucky. I have a great team that runs the music school for me.
I'm actually blessed, and that's actually who's getting married today,
(04:16):
Claire, who runs the music school for me.
So I'm really, really lucky there you know to have that so it does give me the
time to do things i guess but as well as if you count um i was gonna say if
you count crazy house prices if you if you count houses to restore i suppose
it is three things yeah i like to just fabricate and you know sounds better
when you say you're four jobs i think people think they look at you as if to say are you mad.
(04:39):
Yeah, I get that a lot as well. Or how do you find the time?
That's the one I get the most, you know? And I actually don't know how I find the time.
You know what, though? I think when you're busy, like you obviously sent me
an email there at about 6am, and I think when you're busy and you've loads of
it on, you are just better with your time. You're more productive.
And I'm sure like you kids now, so I'm sure like you have a window of opportunity
to do certain things and you just have to get stuck in and do them.
So yeah, it makes complete sense.
(05:01):
Yeah, I was up at half five sending that email, but that was, Milo was awake.
So he was in, woke us, and I was like, Oh, I meant to send those questions over to Shea.
So, you know, the hustle, the grind never stops. Isn't that what they say?
Yeah. And as I put up my Instagram the other day, I think when we first started
these pages, I think things were different for us.
(05:21):
I think we just kind of winged a little bit, didn't we?
And now you kind of feel a need because there's more people watching and more people listening.
You kind of feel the need to be maybe that bit more professional and maybe that
takes a little bit of the fun away sometimes.
So it's nice to get the questions out the other day or not to
put really any thought into them and just jump on and answer them
to the best of your ability sort of on the fly if it were yeah it's
interesting like i find like sometimes
(05:44):
i could spend a week creating a
post whether it's a reel or a video or whatever uh or
a podcast or whatever it is i need the content and then it'll do like they all
they all do kind of well you know but then i might just record something on
a whim take 30 seconds post it without even thinking about it don't worry about
(06:06):
the time of post or whatever and then the thing will go viral so it's just that's
murphy's laws and it just.
The way it goes 100 all the
time yeah yeah i i've uh i've a
whole list of things on my phone to do i have a list of different
ideas different reels different posts that
i think would really help people but it's it's just
(06:27):
getting it's getting the time it's tough but now maisie's in crash during the
day and uh my wife melissa has
milo now so i have a couple of hours i'm doing
this there with you and then i'm going over to the gym to my
brother's gym and he's going to do a session with
me over there i'm going to record that actually and uh that's
a that's a nice day i'm dropping my coffee machine off to get fixed so you know
(06:49):
the benefit being a teacher yeah one of one of my five jobs that the benefit
of that is i can uh get time off in the summer you know i won't say how much
time i make up yeah you get a lot of time off to be fair it's not enough not enough,
You know loads of teachers, don't you, Shay? I do. I know a lot, yeah. Do you know any?
(07:10):
Well, I used to know a lot, let's just say. But you do your mobile music skills
and in-skills as well, isn't it?
Yeah, that's all we do. So with that business, we basically teach music skills,
and that's what I'm set up to do.
I set it up in 2011. I set it up. I'd made the decision.
I used to play. A lot of people notice I used to play percussion at the RT Concert
(07:30):
Orchestra, and I used to freelance as a percussionist.
I just always kind of had quantity surveying in
the back of my head so i made a decision to go back to ball street and then
i realized like my income would disappear by
going back to college and i wasn't really that old going back i
was probably maybe 22 or something but i was just
used to making a lot of money and uh i kind of felt like oh
my god i got fired so i had an idea for that business and i set it
(07:53):
up you never really expected it to i suppose turn out
the way it did like the plan wasn't to still have it in 2024
if you know what i mean um but it
just kind of latched on and i realized then it was just
too good a thing to let go you know but as you say uh
teach music and skills and i think i
don't know probably around 150 years a year we teach you
(08:15):
know uh aim primary skills and a
lot of the programs will be kind of 6 12 18 24.
Week some will be 30 week just depends on the school and
what they put in so yeah it's busy you know um but
it's something i actually i really love and it's something i always do and it's
something that'll always be a part of me to be completely honest regardless of
what else i'm doing with my life and do you get any
(08:35):
time now to play any music yourself
no the trouble is it's like you know
you're big into the soccer and i know you still do a bit of five a side but let's
just say like you were playing at a serious level and then you just stop
playing your fitness level just completely drops us as
a footballer obviously you know so and even though your
skills are there somewhere it would just take you so long to get back into it
(08:56):
so i suppose for me my skills are there
but i'm just throwing fists essentially because i don't i
don't play i'll ever like really to be completely honest
so and the other thing is like playing percussion and playing drums and
stuff like all of the equipment is very big and cumbersome and
you'd like want to be buying like a country house and
outbuilding that you can literally just set up a load of equipment and.
(09:17):
That you can just walk into and you can just play and enjoy
and practice on um but i like
i don't have that literally right now anyway you know um and
it's also very it's also very time i'm consuming you know that was
the big thing i always felt playing percussion like you could put so much
regardless of gigging and practicing you had
to put so much time in practicing because you might be um playing
(09:37):
a particular percussion instrument like something random like a vibraphone that
you might have played for nine or twelve months and you just need to.
Kind of refresh yourself that was one of the reasons that actually just made
me think that but long term i just kind of didn't feel like i'd actually sustainably
keep at that level all of the time and put all those hours in between doing
self-practice rehearsing and gigging you know and that's actually the reason
(09:59):
that prompted me then to go down the u.s and route to be honest.
Well i guess the drums isn't the quietest instrument to
be playing for your neighbors no no no
definitely you can get the electric ones that you know the sound goes
through the through your headphones yeah they're brilliant
but they're a bit of a false economy you know because it's kind of
like an assistant bouncing a lot of them so it actually makes
(10:20):
you feel or sound better than you actually are so it feels like your
your wrists and your your fingers and everything are in better shape
than they really are so yeah they're great like
they're a bit of fun so if you just wanted a bit of fun absolutely but if
you wanted to get back playing yeah i think it's a bit of a false economy thinking
you're going to practice someone would be great you know i play a
bit of guitar uh in school oh yeah
(10:41):
yeah i'm not great like but it's i'm very much school
level you know but i can play yeah i can play a
few tunes and i do i do like you
know at friends weddings and stuff i'll bang out a few tunes in the afters
but uh the we my
my skill is quite music my principal was mad into music you could
play anything like we play uh we play some savage songs
(11:02):
we played uh we had our graduation there because i had sixth class
and we played um george michael
freedom all right and we you know we
did harmonies we did things with them and it just sounded unreal
but you get a real buzz off you know playing playing
the tune in front of a decent crowd like there's a
couple hundred people there and and uh but it's.
(11:23):
Good it's good for the head isn't it just to play and if you're we're
running 15 businesses as you were it could be nice
you know just to find everyone's every now and again yeah a little breakaway
we look i kind of have me on the door here like i'm living in port marne if
i'm planning to move and partly the reason i'm planning to move is that they
have a bit more space and that imagine if a bit more space i will buy an electric
joke i just don't really have to the space here for one right now you know um.
(11:47):
So that's actually part of me thinking about moving nothing it's not
just because i can have an electric drum kit but just to
give me a bit more space i guess you know yeah yeah yeah well there's
actually a few questions come in about that kind of stuff extensions and
all of that so i guess we should probably actually
start chatting a little bit about qs stuff and construction
bill costs and and all that stuff so i
(12:10):
got a lot of questions sent in as i said and with the
help of artificial intelligence i have whittled them down to five kind of normal
questions and then we'll do quick fire questions at the end then as well how's
that sound so great yeah okay right so the really common one coming in was obviously
going to be renovation costs and feasibility so,
(12:33):
i know myself from doing our own renovation it's it's really tough and i'm doing
a podcast on the vacant home thing at the moment it's really tough to predict
what prices are going to be like you get quotes and for the vacant home thing
you have to get quotes and then you go back and you send it it off to the council and whatever.
But prices will change and you will uncover.
(12:55):
Different things you uncover problems that you didn't kind of predict and this
is where i guess you come in as a quantity surveyor so i guess the first question
is with those renovation prices um,
staying high we know they went up during covid and like most things in ireland
once they go up they don't tend to come back down but can you give an overview
(13:16):
of maybe where the current costs are for renovating homes in ireland and do
you see these decreasing anytime soon.
Uh i'm gonna ask the second part first i can't see
them decreasing anytime soon it's simply because of just
a labor charge and that's a big big problem so this is simply too
much work and too few lives it's just too few people that's
(13:38):
just the way it is materials i think have simmered somewhat you know
to be fair but what's keeping the prices high is the labor issue and
i think if you look at the apprenticeship scheme obviously next four years
for someone to get trained as a as a kind of trades person but a
long long time if even if you know even if everyone who
did their leaving cert this year decided to go off and do a trade you're only
really going to benefit them in four years time so it's a very slow process
(13:59):
to get as well as operators and people in the business
so as a result i can see the prices uh dropping anytime soon
where's the price point that like that's it's a
question it probably goes commonly asked question i get in houses to restore
very very difficult answer for every single house
type you know like if you buy an apartment like you could renovate
a Cuban apartment for 50 or 60,000 if you're like
(14:20):
those tastes and desires are quite kind
of basic if you know what I mean and then if you have a house where like you
want to go high-end like you could spend anywhere between say a thousand euro
a square meter or you could spend two and a half thousand three and a half thousand
euro per square meter and all depends on the condition of the current house
what remedial work you have to do to it and then the extent of everything that
(14:41):
you want to put into it like the fittings,
the finishes you could spend a hundred pound in the kitchen you know,
yeah easily like i just know from doing it ourselves and.
You you can buy cheap materials or
like your finishes or you can go more high
end so i guess for people that are
looking at houses i'm always i'm a big fan of people buying a house where as
(15:06):
like like your page where they're going to restore it and fix it up and gut
it and and renovate it because if you sometimes depends who who renovated the
house previously let's say
you're looking at a turnkey house who renovated it
was it a family that were renovating it to live in it and did they
put money into it like our own or was it a builder who bought it and is now
(15:27):
flipping it because they might just put things in a lick of paint to make it
look good in the photos but the actual quality of it isn't great you know the
floors aren't great so i just know for ourselves like we like everything we
did and in the house is custom it's custom custom -made kitchen,
custom wardrobes in every room,
in the living room, custom alcove units.
(15:50):
Everything is custom. So it's a floor, it's a hardwood floor.
So we just knew, like, look, we're going to hopefully live in this house forever.
So we're going to, you know, go really high-end on the finishes.
But if we were just planning on being here for a couple of years,
you know, we may have gone a
lot cheaper, and that would have brought the renovation costs down a lot.
Yeah yeah those things only really start to
(16:12):
show up then the cheap kind of stuff after a few years wear
and tear where it starts to look
a bit look a bit shoddy so i would just
say to people if they're looking at houses and they're
already renovated and turnkey just really inspect the finishes have a look like
are they going to last or were they just made to look like this to increase
(16:32):
the value of the home as much as possible for selling yeah it's an interesting
one but as you said i just know from back then and things are even worse now
the the cost of things can vary.
Wildly like yeah it's if i think
i'm actually a good example myself and even aside from houses to restore
when i bought my place like i didn't have houses to restore and i
(16:53):
bought it in port marnock and i bought it you're gonna hate this but
i bought it with the intentions of hanging on to it and renting it and kind of having it
as a as a pension pot and it's going to change
my mind and act as it's appreciated and my everyone out into the specifics
of that but when i renovated of the place i kind of talked to myself look
i'll be here for no more than five years and seven years later i'm still
here and put exactly like you're saying karen like
(17:13):
not that i screamed i put in some nice things like i
put in a really nice floor that i think made the place i redid the ensuite i
redid the bathroom because i'm using the ensuite every day you can see the wear
and tear you can see the cheap percentage you wear beginning to get a bit faded
looking being realistic when i go to sell it i actually had the plumber who
does work for me come in to have a a look at it because I'm going to spruce
(17:34):
it up prior to selling it.
So that's definitely one factor
and that's definitely one thing that I've even seen in my own en suite.
The bathroom still looks very
clean because guests only use it when they come over for a couple hours.
So that still looks immaculate to be completely honest. And then the.
Back the kitchen rod like all i did in the kitchen was put floor tiles
in it and say i painted it and if i spent 40 000
(17:56):
euro it's even i think 30 000 euro is what i spent at this apartment and like
in fairness i did a lot of the strip out work myself i just changed the plates
on the sockets and switches uh i kept it really basic i just kind of i would
say live within my means because i could have spent more on it but i was very
conscious this is a two-bed apartment it has a particular ceiling price and
i'm not going to be staying here forever.
Ever so did a bit of cycling so totally totally totally
(18:19):
agree with you and then the other side like we do some
work for investors and some of the things that usually that investors do
like is exactly as you say they'll replace all
the floor coverings they'll put in a new kitchen they'll likely put
in a decent new kitchen in fairness to some of them they'll put
in an ensuite bathroom and stuff like that that looks
like a new ensuite bathroom but not necessarily capitalizing on
(18:39):
what they could do with their own room to be completely fair and then
they don't tend to say to you things like maybe replace windows
if they can get away with it and they don't necessarily say insulate walls
and do that sort of thing so the be or might still be
that low on these houses but when you walk in it
actually looks great um but as
you say then when you go looking at it really is it really
(18:59):
all that great because chances are it's to a very kind of
particular look like that kind of landlord look
but as you say that kind of house split look and uh
most people don't want to live in that to to be completely fair you
know yeah and then if if you're going in and
ripping all that out it's just a bit of a waste but anyway yeah next
next question next question i actually get this one a lot
(19:21):
i guess because of where we are in dublin um and the type of types of homes
and when they were built but asbestos is something that comes in all the time
so what are the best practices for handling asbestos removal and making sure
structural safety especially in older homes.
And who should homeowners consult for
(19:43):
these issues i get this ask this all the time i've no
idea thankfully we didn't have asbestos but is there you
know what's the kind of best practice for that yeah we actually
had it in a house around the corner from where you are at a before christmas
and we ended up using a guy from kilkenny who came up and he's just like basically
an asbestos specialist i think he charged in the region 750 or 800 quid he did
(20:06):
a report and an interest in Interestingly enough,
he actually saved us thousands and thousands and thousands of euros.
The building survey came back and
said there was asbestos in these ceiling tiles and stairs in the house.
And interestingly enough, after he did his inspection, he found there wasn't
any asbestos in those tiles.
The only place where the asbestos was was a small section of lino underneath the stairs.
(20:29):
So I had that report. I got onto a few different asbestos removal companies
and the difference in costs to remove that item were just crazy.
I think the highest that got voted was.
3 000 euro and i think the person who did it for
me did it for 500 euro and like everything about
the four or five hundred euro person was completely legit he gave
(20:49):
us the certificate he was totally compliant and he was
actually a pleasure to deal with i have to say it just appeared to
be him and his father small business and dublin guys
so that's how we went about you know so i know
sometimes people are reluctant to spend the money on
on the expertise but i think the expertise actually
in the long one can save you a lot of money yeah and the
(21:09):
health implications i know my uncle has asbestosis
from working for aircom or whatever the telecom airing back in the day and she
was just going in drilling into ceilings with no safety you know it just wasn't
known and it's a can be a really really really big serious issue but then a
lot of the time it can be on say say,
(21:30):
outbuildings on the roof of a shed out the back.
It's not absolutely necessary to remove them, is it, straight away,
if it's not going to be disturbed?
Yeah, you're correct. If it's not going to be disturbed, as fast as they say,
it's fine if it's left in situ.
Essentially, I guess in the house that was being renovated, everything kind
(21:51):
of had to come out of it, so we needed to make sure that the materials in that
particular house were handled correctly.
But you're right, if you were doing nothing to the shed, it's fine.
Cool. Okay. And if people want to get that person's number, maybe they could
just pop you a DM on Instagram and you can put them in there.
Yeah, that's fine. You probably don't know the name off the top of your head.
I don't. They were actually a great crowd to be with. It was a family business
(22:15):
and they're actually lovely.
It was a daughter, a son and the father. Lovely people. So I happily recommend them.
(23:22):
Right. So next question. How common is it for banks to withhold mortgage funds
due to compliance issues?
And what steps can be taken to address these?
I think the big thing is you're trying to get mortgage out with a property that
might necessarily fit the bill of a property.
So, for example, I looked at a property for a client. I think of there,
the downstairs of it was like a hairdresser's and the upstairs of it was an apartment.
(23:45):
It wasn't fit out. You couldn't move into it. I think the banks really.
Really panicked about it.
It um i think to get around that you need to do due
diligence you need to get a building surveyor in you need
to go to the extent to get a structural surveyor in you need to
get a quantity surveyor in and you need to really assess all of
the different parts of the puzzle and basically put the case
together to say this is current condition this is
(24:07):
what we need to do this is how much what we need
to do with that cost and these are the funds that we have
available to us right now and we need a mortgage down basically quick balance
and essentially that's the way around it's very much
due diligence and i think us irish people i
don't think we really understand the importance of due diligence
or we get a bit wary of giving people like quantities to buyers and
(24:27):
structural engineers but money because we just feel it's unnecessary in
that situation you just have no choice you have to
go and you just have to do it properly okay deadly okay
very good now this one i know
you are very clued into this i
did a bit of it in our house as well when it comes to energy efficiency and insulation
so let's say someone is owns a
(24:49):
home or is looking to buy a home and they want to improve the energy
efficiency what are the pros and cons of internal
versus external insulation and how should they decide between the different
ventilation and heating systems so i know a bit about this because we tackled
it but for us the external insulation wasn't an option because we have red bricks
(25:10):
on the outside and obviously didn't want to cover them so we did it internally.
The problem with that is we lose about 10 centimetres off the external walls,
so the rooms are a little bit smaller.
But I don't know in terms of what's more efficient or what's a better insulator. Is it the same?
And then, yeah, the different ventilation and the different heating systems.
(25:32):
Yeah, with the walls, I think the external insulation system really is better
if it's an option because if you like them where your joists are,
the insulation board runs up to the joists and then you
have that gap where the joists are and that section isn't being insulated so
essentially you have cold bridging in the house then if not if
the full wall isn't insulated so the external if it's available to
you it is a better option obviously loads of houses in Dublin
(25:54):
red brick not an option unfortunately the other
challenge then is with ventilation and it's a big thing that
loads of people would have missed when we first started to retrofit houses.
And having adequate ventilation is absolutely
essential because if there isn't um ventilation you'll
end up with a build up of mold and rooms and spaces
will just get moldy and they'll just be manky so you need good airflow
(26:15):
regardless of the fact that you are insulating um
your house heating systems very interesting one
i had uh fergal on the
instagram page i think fergal might have been
your house if i'm not mistaken um and i was
chatting through uh heat pumps for fergal you know and just
the opinion on heat pumps and heat systems is so so 50 50
(26:37):
some people think they're right other people are very wary of
them other people feel like something else is going to
come along to supersede them i guess a little bit like the way the attitude
is when it comes to electric vehicles and so as
a result even though some people are putting a lot of work into insulate insulating
their attic putting in new windows doors insulating their wall they're still
going with things like combi boilers interestingly enough you know and
(26:58):
so i think with the air heat systems divided opinion between
the combi boilers and the heat
pumps so it just seems to
very much be personal practice and those and which way you want
to go from what i can see the heat pumps are actually amazing you know
if if your house is suitable for a heat pump great i
do think they're brilliant to be completely honest yeah i
(27:19):
have one so i have a bit of experience with it
so i originally wanted to just do
a combi boiler because it's a lot cheaper um and i
wasn't sure where we'd get the house up to in terms of be.
All right and so we started with a g it was the lowest possible now.
It turns out the the previous owners had got the walls pumped um so that wasn't
(27:40):
factored in i didn't know that so i saved a couple a couple of grand there but
the we insulated the internal walls um blocked up all the fireplaces we put in the ventilation the.
They're like, I'm looking at them here in the wall. When I first saw them,
I was like, Jesus, they're very big. They kind of look like a modem on the wall.
(28:00):
But I think they're called Valdez or something. But they're basically supposed
to open and close, depending on the moisture level in the air to some sort of
moisture strip in them. They're supposed to open and close automatically.
Now, I don't think they do. I think they're just open all the time.
But that's grand. You know, you need a bit of ventilation because especially
when the chimneys are blocked up,
(28:21):
like i always see do you know you see loads of mold and ads when i'm looking
at ads on daft whatever and you can see where somebody's blocked up the chimneys
and haven't put insulate i haven't put ventilation in now i know if people are
getting the house up to a really high.
Standard uh in terms of br rating say a3
to a2 to a1 i think a
(28:43):
heat pump is an absolute no-brainer and i actually don't know if you can get
to an a3 without a heat pump uh yeah i
wouldn't put a combi boiler and then i know a
lot of the retrofit companies will only deal with heat pumps uh
they won't put in a combi boiler and i guess that's where we're
moving in terms of government policy as well and and
all that we're trying to get away from those fossil fuels and
(29:05):
using the heat pump so i know the heat
pump thing i've i've researched heat pump loads
i did a post on them and i'm doing a bit
of work with dyke and i think next month on with our heat
pump um like an information piece and i've researched the
laws and it's still the only way i could describe it is it's
magic because air comes in and there's
(29:25):
some sort of like magical thing that happens
and it turns and it makes your heart your your water
hot that's it's that's yeah kind of it right there's you need an engineer to
go through the ins and outs in it but there's like a ratio four to one three
to one whatever it is but basically for ourselves we got the house up to an
A3 with the inclusion of the heat pump and solar panels,
(29:48):
which is pretty good going for a 100-year-old house. And our heating bills.
Basically like the heating's only on maybe
in the winter and it's a really different type of
heat with a heat pump it's not like even the
radiators are different it's not like uh your combi boiler
or your immersion um and you're
heating up the hot water you know when you go into a house in the winter say an
(30:11):
older house and the heating's been on you're just kind of hit
with this wave of heat when you feel yeah yeah it
makes you tired and your skin is dry yeah yeah it's it's a different heat in
this house it's like because it's a constant temperature it's always at say
20 degrees but they're also low heat radiators the radiators never get hot they're
just kind of warm so they're actually different radiators so people are looking
(30:35):
at changing their heating system.
You can't just switch from a a boiler to
a heat pump you'll have to basically get as
far as i know anyway all new radiators because they're
different types of radios they don't work off the same temperature so
like if i put my hands on the radiator it's never boiling hot whereas i know
if i go over to my mom's and the heating's on you can't touch the radio so because
(30:56):
you burn the hands off yourself yeah yeah it's it is a totally different system
but i just know our our costs to heat the house and heat the water and all are
are pretty low like the the solar panels.
What they generate and i have a really small setup i have three on the back of the house three on the
front of the house so they're not all byron at
(31:16):
all times because of the way the orientation of the house and
we've achieved two chimneys there that we share
with the neighbors so we can't remove them that block um a
bit of that block a bit of sunlight from it
but i'll just show you now just this year alone i'm just
looking at my phone here so we're at we're on the 17th of july uh
so just this year alone i've gotten
(31:38):
over 700 kilowatt hours so that
will obviously increase as you
get through july and august and september is usually decent but
it basically pays to run our
our hot water and our heating all year and then
really we're just paying our electricity bill then is really just paying for
(31:59):
the dryer which is on like three four times a day with kids clothes and gym
clothes and all that it's it's and towels and bibs and all the rest so it's
just anyone listening with young kids will understand like the dryer is on all the time.
And um the dishwasher is on all the time the microwave's
on all the time and then we're cooking the induction hob you
(32:19):
know that saps a lot of electricity so basically our
electricity bills is kind of just paying for that and the hot water uh which
is constant by the way it's constant hot water all the time and the heating
during the covered by the solar so there's the there will be a long enough payback
period for the solar panels but,
(32:40):
I just think it's a no-brainer in terms of your emissions, your own carbon footprint.
That was my main motivation to do it rather than monetary.
But it does mean our monthly bills are quite low.
So I'm a big fan of the heat pumps, to be honest, but you do need to have the
house up to a really high standard and really well insulated.
(33:02):
It doesn't have to be airtight, but definitely
I wouldn't be contemplating it if your
house is a c maybe even a b yeah i
have yeah improve it i have
a post up on um the page up on that
i did fergal gave me a few pointers about it so we did an instagram
live that i mentioned and then i just kind of summarized it all in a post about
(33:24):
heat pumps and it's quite interesting and it does outline exactly what you need
and all the rest of it so that's actually worth checking out if someone is still
wearing a heat pump like a lot of people have reached out to me to say that
was actually really informative for thinking of getting heat pump tanks and
sort of thing and it's quite educational in fairness to fergali is quite informative so uh.
Yeah and it covered off what you were saying there but you know what just listen
(33:44):
to you it sounds like your house is actually nicer to live in now because you've actually put in the,
the heat pump and that sort of thing and because of the way you're out there
so it's not just a case of okay it saved me a few quid or whatever it's actually
a nicer place to live done as you say if you had a setup say like your mom's
and the rads are piping off for a particular period
of time you know and as i say you walk in and you just get baked
(34:05):
and your skin is just totally dry and once
the central heating begins to kick in like the way we all
would have experienced growing up i suppose yeah in september october
time so i think that's the big thing so i know we all talk about bers and savings
but it does actually make the house more comfortable to live in you know and
i think that's a huge thing deadly yeah i it is it's lovely it is nice more
(34:25):
but it's also i understand it's extremely expensive and not an option for a
lot of people so it's it's always going to come down to your budget and what you're able for.
Speaking of budgets, I'm figuring out how much things are going to cost because
that's going to be the biggest and most important thing.
As a quantity surveyor yourself, how can people find out and evaluate a good quantity surveyor?
(34:49):
So what kind of specific questions should they ask to make sure they're hiring
the right person for their project?
I think the big thing is right there's a lot of QSs that are more into commercial
stuff you know and if you're more into commercial stuff it's a different thing.
So you want someone that actually is predominantly spending their time working
(35:09):
on houses you know and if you look at But, you know, the QS that most people
are familiar with are the people who are on, say, you know, with Dermabandon and Rooms to Improve.
I think that's a good example because I think it's kind of highlighted,
I suppose, the role of a QS and the career you have as a QS.
But all of those people, and they've been predominantly female,
for instance, like Patricia Power, Lisa O'Brien and Clare Earwin.
(35:32):
They're all, you know, professionals who would appear to predominantly deal
with domestic properties. So I'd say that's the first thing,
make sure that they deal with domestic properties, because if someone is doing
commercial stuff, commercial is very, very different.
And when you get into commercial, you know, people have particular specialisms,
maybe in mechanical and electrical, for example, or maybe they might just specialize
(35:52):
in partition systems and drylining. That's a huge area as well.
That'd be the biggest thing here, I guess, like someone who has that domestic experience, you know.
Okay make sure that's where they're working and yeah
okay perfect and then we have some
quick fire questions right you're not allowed to take
10 minutes it's answer these as short as
(36:13):
you can right so first one is
what adds more value to a home a high
spec landscape garden or a new a
nice kitchen i'm gonna say garden because
i think it gives you a good a good first
impression pressure i think people vastly
underestimate how expensive a landscape garden
(36:34):
is 100 like it is
insane how expensive they are i see
there's this crowd i follow on instagram and they do they
do amazing jobs uh on gardens and their content
is really good they make really cool videos and all and i
was looking at one and i was like i just had to it
was like a house in finglas and i just had to reach out and i was
(36:54):
like out of interest because i'm just after doing this myself
and a garden a quarter of that size how much did that cost and they were like
120 grand that's colossal yeah for a standard garden and things yeah insane
whereas like you get a really nice kitchen for 12 15 grand really yes yeah so.
(37:16):
I think people underestimate. Here's me telling you not to spend 10 minutes
answering the things, but there's me.
Right, next question. Does converting an attic typically require planning permission?
It does if you need a dormer window. And in many cases, people do need a dormer
window to make it compliant in terms of the head height.
So yes and no is the answer there.
(37:38):
No dormer window. Sorry, yes, if you need a dormer window.
No, if you don't need a dormer window. but imagine to do it properly most people
do need a door window a lot of people have attic rooms,
and when you look at them in an advert it might appear that there's four bedrooms
but you'll often then see it's a three bed house and then they'll refer to
the attic as like storage space yeah or they might just say it's a converted
(37:59):
attic suitable for you know a home gym or a home office or something it's not
a habitable proper space you know yeah because there's no there's no fire exit
this out look don't get me started on that the dodgy ads where they list it
as a bedroom when and it's not legally allowed to be listed as a bedroom.
That's another podcast.
What is, speaking of attics then, what would be a rough cost?
(38:20):
I know you're going to say long-speed string.
What's a rough cost estimate for converting an attic space?
Let's say the standard three-bed semi-D.
I'd say around 40,000 euro. Jesus. Okay, very good. Next question.
Is it worth holding off on building projects in hopes that material costs will
decrease significantly?
(38:43):
Um it's a gamble it's like hoping property prices are going to decrease it's
very difficult to predict that um and it depends on your circumstances so you
can afford to get the work done you're planning to live in the house long term
and you need to do the work i just say fire ahead and do it because it's so
difficult to say when things will bottom out for want of a better word um
(39:03):
that's where i'd be on that yeah it's like nearly everything in ireland prices
never come down and And when they do, it's at the cost of a giant global recession
where nobody has a job. So it's not really something to be wishing for.
Right, last question. What's the first thing you should do when you find asbestos in your home?
(39:24):
If you think you're going to be asbestos, I'd be getting a servo done in the property.
That's where I'd be starting. So if you're buying an old house,
like a house near where you live in Dublin,
I'd be factoring that into your bucket and saying,
like look we're going to do work here let's pre-empt this and
let's get um somebody to do an
especial survey and as i say if people want that person's name
(39:47):
by all means um send me a dm but that's
what i'd be doing there i'd be kind of putting it kind of i'd be
pre-empting it rather than saying how to fix it
when you reach the problem okay i'm gonna i'm
gonna trump your answer and say talk to
the neighbors because they have the same house that's what we did they have
the same house and find someone who's renovated the house and be like did you
(40:11):
find asbestos when you're renovating and they might say yes then you know you're
gonna find it but they might say no we actually gotta test it and there wasn't
but i guess you won't know for sure.
That would be the first thing i'd do and then maybe i'd look into a
bit more yeah i suppose but like our wife and
like local knowledge is absolutely king and i know my sister
(40:31):
bought a place you know probably around where you
grew up and that's exactly what she did like and that helped
her out you know but it's both then like people do do things to
their house like the one of these fast thoughts was found in the example
i gave earlier on it was in a bit of lino like it was basically i know
essentially you know so the house itself the neighbor
might say no we didn't actually but then the house
(40:52):
that you've got it might be in the floors of something because of what
was laid at some point 50 or 60 years ago but it's
very hard to tell you know it's it's just one of those things that's
a very good point you're right actually yeah and when you buy an
old house like it is just kind of like pandora's box
you just don't know what you're going to get and it comes back to something you said about
how other people have renovated and modified and
(41:12):
personalized the house and that's also a factory you know so it
would just factor in like it's 750 quid and i think if
you're buying an old house do you think it's working you know yeah definitely
yeah good answer i forgot about that it's not always in the ceilings and whatever
it can be in something that's been added in the 70s like lino in the floor so
very good very good you're right jay i'm wrong as usual that's all the questions
(41:39):
i really appreciate it thanks for.
Enlightening us with your wealth of knowledge you are looking well now for your wedding today,
day yeah not your wedding someone else's wedding your guest
i need to jump on the shower i haven't had a shower yet
i've got up and i i'm off for the day obviously and uh i
need to get my car cleaned but i've said i and i planned
to uh obviously don't have a combi boiler because there's no
(42:01):
hot water when i'm about to jump in the shower so didn't manage to have a shower
before the uh so yeah there you go there you go now if you had a heat pump you'd
have constant hot water you wouldn't have to remember that's it and i'd be i'd
be dressed and ready to go to the wedding yeah anyway thanks so much shay uh
really appreciate it yeah you're more than welcome.
(42:22):
I'll get Shane a la high on episode show of the crazy house prices podcast.
I hope you found the episode helpful and Shay's tips really helpful.
I think it's a really good episode. I think you'll get a lot from it and hopefully
it helps you navigate any kind of renovations or anything like that.
So if you're enjoying the podcast and my Instagram and you want to show your
(42:44):
support, head over to patreon.com forward slash crazy house prices.
Is your support doesn't just keep this podcast going
on the instagram page going but it also gives you exclusive
access to bonus content like detailed q
a's where i answer every single question that's sent in plus you'll
get the unique opportunity to engage with my community of
over a hundred thousand followers asking them questions that
(43:06):
google could never answer so don't miss out on those really exclusive perks
and also my book how to buy a home in ireland is available nationwide wide if
you can't get it in a bookshop just google it you'll find it somewhere online
eSense I think you usually have it and also check your local library and I will chat you all very.
(43:28):
Music.
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