The right order for a home renovation in Ireland is: sort planning and compliance first, then strip out, then structural work, then first fix services (rewire, replumb, heating), then insulation and plastering, then second fix, then kitchen and bathrooms, then flooring, then decoration. That sequence is not arbitrary. Each stage creates the conditions the next one needs. Get it wrong and you end up ripping out finished work to fix something underneath it, which is where renovation budgets go seriously over.
This guide breaks down every stage, explains why the sequence matters, and flags the Irish-specific compliance steps that catch people off guard.
The Sequence at a Glance
| Stage | What Happens |
|---|---|
| 1 – Planning and compliance | Building survey, planning permission if needed, Commencement Notice, appoint contractor |
| 2 – Strip-out and structure | Demolition, skip hire, knock walls, insert steels, structural engineer sign-off |
| 3 – First fix | Rewire, replumb, heating pipework, ventilation, data cabling – all before plastering |
| 4 – Windows and doors | Install before insulation and plastering; order early to avoid delays |
| 5 – Insulation and plastering | Close walls, insulate, walk-through check with trades before boards go on |
| 6 – Second fix | Fit sockets, switches, radiators, commission heating system |
| 7 – Kitchen and bathrooms | Fit out after second fix; waterproof before tiling bathrooms |
| 8 – Flooring | Hard floors before skirting; carpet last |
| 9 – Decoration | Ceilings first, walls, then woodwork; mist coat on new plaster |
Stage 1: Planning, Compliance and Building Surveys
Before a single wall comes down, you need to know what you are dealing with legally and structurally. This stage costs money, but skipping it costs more.
Get a building survey done first. If you have not already had a full structural survey carried out on the property, do it now before you finalise your budget or scope. A surveyor will identify damp, structural issues, the condition of the roof, and anything else hidden behind walls and floors. In Dublin’s older housing stock, pre-1960s terraces in particular, these surprises are common. An energy consultant can also assess your home’s current BER rating and tell you what upgrades are needed to meet current Part L building regulations, which apply to renovation work.
Sort your planning permission early. If your renovation includes a house extension, a dormer, or any change to the external appearance of the property, you need to confirm whether planning permission is required before you do anything else. Rear extensions under 40m2 may qualify as exempted development under Irish planning rules, but the specific conditions are easy to get wrong, particularly in estates where previous owners may have already used part of the permitted allowance. Contact your local authority if there is any doubt.
Submit a Commencement Notice if required. This is the step that surprises most Irish homeowners. A Commencement Notice is a legal notification to your local Building Control Authority that works are about to begin. It is required for new builds, extensions, and material alterations to a building, and must be submitted 14 to 28 days before work starts on site. It is filed online through the Building Control Management System. The fee is €30 per dwelling. Dublin City Council has a clear breakdown of when a notice is required and how to submit one. Starting work without it is a breach of the Building Control Act and can create serious problems when you come to sell.
Appoint your contractor. Get at least three written quotes from contractors who have visited the property. A quote without a site visit is not a quote. Once you have appointed a contractor, confirm they hold public liability insurance, and check that your plumber is RGI-registered and your electrician is RECI-registered. Both are legal requirements for their respective trades in Ireland.
Stage 2: Strip-Out and Demolition
Once compliance is sorted and your contractor is in place, the physical work begins with clearing out everything that is going.
Strip-out is the messiest part of any renovation and the part most people underestimate. Old kitchens, bathroom suites, plasterboard, floor coverings, fireplaces, partition walls — everything that is coming out needs to come out now, before any new work begins. This is also when you hire a skip. In central Dublin, skip hire and placement requires a permit from Dublin City Council, which your contractor should handle. Expect to pay €250 to €400 for skip hire in the Dublin area.
Work from the top down. Start with the roof if it needs attention, then attic, then upper floors, then ground floor. Water damage from a leaking roof or blocked gutters will undo any interior work below it. If the roof needs attention, it must be sorted before anything inside is touched.
Structural work happens at this stage. Knocking walls, removing chimney breasts, inserting steel beams to create open-plan layouts, forming new door or window openings — all of this happens after strip-out and before any services go in. Structural changes require a structural engineer’s sign-off. Do not cut corners here. A steel beam incorrectly specified or installed is not a cosmetic problem.
Stage 3: First Fix – Rewire, Replumb and Heating
This is the most critical sequencing rule in any renovation, and the most commonly violated one.
All electrical, plumbing and heating work must go in before the walls are plastered. Not after. Not at the same time. Before.
First fix means running all the cabling, pipework, and ductwork through the open wall cavities and under the floors while they are still accessible. This includes:
- All new electrical circuits, consumer unit, and cabling routes
- All new plumbing pipework, including waste runs and water supply
- New heating pipework and manifolds if underfloor heating is being installed
- Mechanical ventilation ductwork if required under Part F building regulations
- Any structured cabling for data points, television aerials, or smart home systems
If you plaster before first fix is complete, you are committing yourself to chasing channels into new plaster later to run cables and pipes. It happens constantly on renovation jobs where trades are not properly sequenced. It costs money, adds time, and damages finished surfaces.
Rewiring and replumbing in older Dublin homes. A complete rewire for a standard three-bed semi in Ireland costs between €7,000 and €12,000 depending on the size and age of the property (House and Home, 2024). A full replumb runs €6,000 to €12,000. Both are substantially cheaper to complete when walls and floors are already open. The moment you close walls up, access becomes expensive.
Heat pump installation goes at first fix too. If your renovation is part of a wider energy upgrade and you are installing a heat pump, the pipework, cylinder location, and electrical supply all need to be planned and first-fixed at this stage. SEAI grants of up to €6,500 are available for heat pump systems under the Better Energy Homes scheme, and coordinating the heat pump installation with the renovation saves significant additional disruption and cost later.
Stage 4: Windows and Doors
New windows and external doors go in after first fix but before insulation and plastering. This matters for two reasons.
First, fitting windows into a house that is still being gutted and has trades moving through it constantly risks damage to the frames and glass. Second, the reveal depths, window board positions, and junction details between the window frame and the wall insulation all need to be correct before the plasterboard or internal insulation goes on.
Lead times are a common cause of delays. Order windows and external doors early, before work begins if possible. Lead times from Irish window suppliers typically run four to eight weeks for standard specification and longer for bespoke or triple-glazed units. A renovation timeline that goes off track because windows have not arrived is one of the most avoidable delays we see.
Part L of the Irish Building Regulations sets minimum thermal performance standards for replacement windows in dwellings. Your window supplier should be specifying to these standards as a matter of course, but confirm it before you order.
Stage 5: Insulation and Plastering
With first fix complete and windows in, the walls can close. This is when insulation goes in and plastering begins.
Insulation sequence. Attic insulation, wall insulation (whether internal dry lining or external wall insulation), and floor insulation where applicable all go in at this stage. If you are doing a full energy retrofit alongside the renovation, SEAI grants under the Better Energy Homes scheme cover attic insulation (up to €1,500), cavity wall insulation (up to €1,700), and external wall insulation up to €8,000 for a detached house. Read our guide to SEAI grants for home renovation before you finalise the scope of insulation works, as grants must be applied for before work starts.
Before the plasterer closes up any wall or ceiling, walk through with your electrician and plumber and check every first fix element. This is your last chance to add a socket, move a light position, or adjust a pipe route without breaking into finished plaster later. Spend an hour doing this walkthrough. It is worth it every time.
Plastering takes longer than people expect. A typical three-bed semi can take two to three weeks to plaster fully, and plaster needs to dry before decoration can begin. Trying to rush this stage causes problems with paint adhesion and cracking later. Build drying time into your programme.
Stage 6: Second Fix – Fitting Out the Services
Once plastering is complete and walls are dry, the trades return to complete the second fix. This means:
- Electrician fits all sockets, switches, light fittings, consumer unit connections, and carries out the full electrical test
- Plumber fits radiators or underfloor heating manifolds, connects the boiler or heat pump, fits sanitary ware positions in bathrooms
- Heating engineer commissions the heating system
Second fix trades typically take a week to ten days in a standard three-bed semi, working sequentially. The electrician generally goes first, followed by the plumber, followed by heating commissioning.
Stage 7: Kitchen and Bathroom Fit-Out
Kitchens and bathrooms go in after second fix, not before. This is because the kitchen fitter works around the second fix electrical and plumbing connections, and the bathroom requires the plumber to second-fix the sanitaryware in a finished, waterproofed room.
Bathroom tiling and waterproofing. Waterproofing, or tanking, of the shower enclosure and wet areas goes in before tiling begins. This is not optional. Failed waterproofing behind tiles is the most common cause of bathroom callbacks we see across Dublin. See our bathroom renovation guide for Dublin for a full breakdown of what is involved and what it costs.
Kitchen lead times. Like windows, kitchens need to be ordered well ahead of the point when they will be fitted. A bespoke or semi-custom kitchen from a trade supplier typically takes four to eight weeks to arrive. Flat-pack kitchens from a trade supplier can be available within a week or two. Have the kitchen on site before the kitchen fitter is booked, not after.
Trade tip: The kitchen fitter and tiler need to work in a specific sequence. Kitchen units go in first, then the worktop is templated and fabricated (allow one to two weeks for a quartz or granite worktop), then the splashback tiles go in around the fitted worktop. Getting this sequence wrong is a very common and expensive mistake.
Stage 8: Flooring
Hard flooring, such as tiles, engineered timber, and solid wood, goes in after kitchens and bathrooms are fitted but before skirting boards, architraves, and final decoration.
Why flooring before skirting? Skirting boards sit on top of the finished floor. If you fit skirting first and then lay the floor, you have to cut the floor tight to the skirting, which is fiddly, time-consuming, and creates a poor result. Lay the floor, leave an expansion gap at the perimeter, then fit skirting to cover it.
Screed and underfloor heating floors need more time. If you have a liquid screed floor with underfloor heating, the screed needs a minimum of 28 days to cure before any hard flooring can go on top of it. Factor this into your programme early.
Carpet and soft flooring go in last, after painting and decorating are complete. Laying carpet before painting guarantees you will damage it.
Stage 9: Decoration
Painting and decorating is the final stage of the structural renovation before furniture and fittings go in. The sequence within decoration matters too.
Ceilings first, then walls, then woodwork (skirting, architraves, door frames, doors). Paint ceilings and walls before skirting boards are fitted, then paint the skirting after it is installed. If you paint skirting before fitting it, every nail hole and joint needs to be touched up anyway.
Allow walls that have been freshly plastered to cure fully before applying a mist coat (heavily diluted emulsion), followed by two full coats of paint. Rushing this causes the paint to lift and flake, which means doing it again.
The Most Common Sequencing Mistakes We See in Dublin
In 16 years of renovations, the same mistakes come up again and again. These are the ones that cost the most to fix.
Plastering before first fix is complete. Every time. Someone wants to move things along quickly, the plasterer comes in before the electrician has finished, and six months later there are chases cut back into the new plaster to run a cable that was missed. First fix must be signed off by both the electrician and plumber before any wall is boarded or plastered.
Ordering kitchens and windows too late. The kitchen is due to be fitted in week eight. The kitchen was ordered in week six. It is not ready. The kitchen fitter, who had a four-week window, is now unavailable. The programme slips by three weeks. Order long lead-time items on the day your contractor starts, not when you think you need them.
Fitting bathrooms before the screed is dry. A liquid screed floor needs 28 days. Fitting the bathroom suite on day 14 traps moisture and causes problems with the floor covering later.
Starting structural work without an engineer. Removing what appears to be a non-load-bearing wall without getting a structural engineer to confirm it first. This has resulted in some very expensive remedial work across Dublin over the years.
Skipping the Commencement Notice. People start work, the project goes well, and then they try to sell two years later. The solicitor asks for the Certificate of Compliance on Completion. The architect cannot certify it because there is no Commencement Notice on record. The sale stalls. The Commencement Notice costs €30 and takes fifteen minutes to submit. File it.
If you are planning a renovation in Dublin and want to go through the scope and sequence with someone who has done this many times, our home renovation service covers projects of all sizes across Dublin and the surrounding counties. We will walk through your house, tell you exactly what order we would tackle it in, and give you a fixed-price quote before anything is agreed.