Easy home improvements that don't require planning permission

Irish Examiner

31-05-2025

Recent cases covered by major media outlets in Ireland have highlighted the deeply stressful experience of homeowners who have found themselves at the pointy end of a curious planning permission stipulation. These unexpected incidents of broken planning rules, failed retention bombshells and complex cases in play might make you feel that without furnishing a letter to the local authority, you can't swing a flower basket from a bracket.
Even if we escape notice during a questionable development, overlooking planning requirements can potentially create future issues when we come to sell, and the buyer's solicitor notices something in their searches. What can we do outside and inside our homes without running foul of regulations?
The government consumer portal, Planning Permission Ireland, states: 'The good news is that certain types of developments related to houses, including renovations, extensions, and the construction of ancillary buildings like sheds or garages, may be exempt from planning permission under specific conditions.'
Here are a few things you can crack on with this summer, together with caveats to look out for so that you don't find yourself pouting in a press picture.
Indoors
Indoors, you can do just about anything you like without planning. This includes reconfiguring rooms, renovating, decorating, taking down walls (do get a structural engineer onboard) and performing most energy upgrades, including dry-lining.
Indoors, you can do just about anything during a renovation including adding a doorway. You must meet current building regulations and would be wise to engage a structural engineer. Picture: Dulux
Your primary concern for the serious stuff is compliance with the current building regulations, needed and keeping certification where possible for changes you make. Going DIY, this can be tricky, and if and when you have a BER performed, some improvements will not nudge your rating as they don't have a full professional stamp to them. If your home is a protected structure deemed of architectural importance, there may be interior detailing that falls under that protection. If in doubt, talk to the conservation officer for your local authority.
Windows
The walls, windows, roof and doors of your home are part of what is termed its exterior envelope. As the outside of your home is visible in a public setting, it influences its surroundings, and it can impact your neighbours in unexpected ways.
Changing out windows like-for-like, you do not require planning permission unless the house is listed, or you are in a designated conservation area of special interest. If you open the wall and put in a completely new window (unless it's part of an exempted 40 square metre extension), you most likely will need permission.
Velux-style windows (flush with the roof) on the rear roof of a house are usually considered exempt because they don't affect the appearance of the building from public viewpoints. Converting the roof space, the windows cannot sit up like a dormer. New protruding windows on existing walls, like bay windows, are considered an extension and are not permitted development. You're more likely to get permission to the side or back of the house than to the front.
Sheds/garden rooms
If you don't live in it, you can have an aggregated non-habitable addition of up to 25 square metres of outbuildings in your garden (detached). You cannot set up a business in it or keep livestock or poultry in it. If the garage was built when the house was built, this might be excluded from your 25 square metres rider, but check with planning before going ahead. Just ensure you leave at least 25 square meters of outdoor room remaining.
The roof can be a single pitch of three metres or a standard pitch of four metres. It's always a good idea (for the sake of good relations) to confer with your neighbours if the building is at the top of a steep hill and likely to overlook their garden or will be placed right on the boundary.
The exemption does not include any window within one metre of the neighbour's boundary, by the way. Building to the side of the property, ensure you shield the building from view with planting or fencing, or the planners may question the exemption. Keep in mind, it's your responsibility to meet the planning requirements. The supplier/installer has nothing to do with it, but a reputable company should offer advice based on established exemptions. Be wary of dismissive language about 'temporary structures'.
Conservatories/sun rooms
You can put a conservatory up without permission when it is within certain limitations, and in most cases, you should treat it just as you would a standard extension in terms of exemptions. It is regarded as a permanent structure. If you have no other attached extensions, and none were put on the building, you have 40 square metres allowed to the rear of the building (leaving 25 square metres of outdoor space). Going to the side of the building, planning permission is required. Don't just assume that the "front door" is positioned to the front of the house; it's the aspect of the house facing the road in most cases.
For standard extensions and these sun-catchers, the expectations are the same. A common misconception, balconies and roof gardens are not exempt from development, and as a common issue reported by outraged, overlooked neighbours, be warned. You can convert a garage attached to the back or side of your house to domestic use as long as it has a floor area of less than 40 square metres. Get an architect to put their eyes over the plans if you're adding exterior doors and windows facing into a boundary, for example.
Outdoor painting/rendering
Whereas painting your house is not generally an issue (unless it's an extensive mural), changing its appearance with new finishes like render or stone certainly can. If you're lucky enough to be having external insulation or 'the wrap' carried out through the SEAI grant scheme, you might assume this is exempt from planning. Think again.
If, for example, the house is brick or stone-faced and the houses in your estate or on a terrace are largely in the same style, the alteration to a finish will interest the local planning office. Just keep in mind, if anything changes the visual character of your property significantly, ask for a meeting with your local authority before going ahead.
The legalise is that changes are exempt if they are 'constituted works which do not materially affect the external appearance of the structure so as to render the appearance inconsistent with the character of the structure or of neighbouring structures'. The SEAI and your supplier are not liable for this. You are.
Fencing, walls and gates
Fencing and walling is a fertile area of change, and within parameters, there's a lot you can do to enhance protection and character. The fence/wall must be no more than two metres high to the rear and 1.2 metres to the front or forward of the front of the house.
A front gate can be up to two meters in height (don't use industrial palisade styles — local authorities despise them). You can put in a pond, walkways and features to the rear and side of the house, provided that the ground level is not altered by more than one metre above or below the level of the adjoining ground, so lots to play with there.
Porches
Finally, and this is something often overlooked, you can add a porch of up to two square metres to your home without planning permission.
These tiny structures are not only extremely practical for boots, coats, mail and more, but can act as a thermal break between the outdoors and indoor space. This may well influence your BER rating. Ensure your porch is not less than two metres from any public path/roadway and check the maximum height requirement for your choice of porch roof pitch, which will fall between three and four metres.