30 September 2026 · 6 min read · Oscar Markham
Answer the planning question properly
Before anybody rings a builder about a garage conversion they search one thing: whether they need planning permission. It is the single most-searched aspect of this work in Ireland, and nearly every specialist website handles it with a vague sentence and a contact form. That is a wasted opportunity and it is also why so many of these projects stall before they start.
Explain what determines the answer
Not a yes or a no — it depends on the property, what is being created and what has already been done to the house. But the factors that decide it can be set out plainly, and almost nobody does.
A reader who finishes that page understanding why it depends is far better disposed to you than one who finishes it being told to get in touch.
Do not use it as bait
'Contact us to find out if you need planning' is transparently a lead-capture trick and readers recognise it. It also attracts people who then discover their project is not straightforward, which wastes everyone's time.
Answer the general question, then offer to look at their specific case. The enquiries you get will be better qualified and considerably warmer.
Cover the questions that come immediately after
Once planning is settled, people ask about ceiling height, floor levels, damp, insulation, where the boiler and the meters go, and what happens to the garage door opening.
Each is searched, each is answered badly elsewhere, and each is an opportunity to demonstrate that you do this constantly rather than occasionally.
Be straight about when it will not work
Some garages are not suitable, and saying so publicly costs you nothing and earns a great deal. It signals that your advice is not simply whatever produces a sale.
It also saves the survey visits that were never going to become jobs, which in this trade is a meaningful amount of time.
Keep it current
Anything to do with planning changes, and a page that has clearly not been looked at in four years undermines the expertise it is meant to demonstrate.
Date it, review it, and say when it was last checked. That alone puts you ahead of most of the category.
Written by Oscar Markham, founder of Dublin Growth Digital. We run lead generation for Irish estate agents and trades, reported every Friday in enquiries and booked work.