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ROOM TO IMPROVE ***NEW SERIES***

Room To Improve - Patricia 1 Image Name: Room To Improve - Patricia 1
Room To Improve - Dermot 1 Image Name: Room To Improve - Dermot 1
Room To Improve - Dermot and Patricia 1 Image Name: Room To Improve - Dermot and Patricia 1
Room To Improve Dermot and Patricia 3 Image Name: Room To Improve Dermot and Patricia 3
Room To Improve Nenagh Site 5 Image Name: Room To Improve Nenagh Site 5
Room To Improve Nenagh Site 4 Image Name: Room To Improve Nenagh Site 4
Room To Improve Nenagh Site 3 Image Name: Room To Improve Nenagh Site 3
Room To Improve Nenagh Site 2 Image Name: Room To Improve Nenagh Site 2
Room To Improve Nenagh Site 1 Image Name: Room To Improve Nenagh Site 1
Room To Improve Image Name: Room To Improve
Room To Improve Image Name: Room To Improve

Series 9

Architect Dermot Bannon is back with a brand new series of Room To Improve featuring challenging and innovative new design projects.

Featuring a diverse mix of renovations, rescues and extensions, the series includes the creation of an ergonomic and welcoming ultra modern upside down home in Baldoyle; the rescue of a 170 year old house in Maynooth on the verge of collapse; the renovation of a 1960s bungalow in Puckaun, Co. Tippeary; the addition of a radical modern living extension built around a concrete wall to a 1920s Victorian house in Drogheda; and for the first time ever Dermot revisits some of the unique houses and home-owners from previous series.

As always, each build is fraught with human and financial drama: overstressed budgets, last minute changes of heart, unexpected disasters, unpredictable weather and the vagaries of an architect desperately, sometimes unsuccessfully, trying to convince his clients that he knows what’s best for them.

This year, with a range of budgets and demanding clients, Dermot Bannon balances his role as designer with that of diplomat, mediator and project manager as he fights his corner with feisty contractors and has his diplomacy skills tested by clients who know exactly what they want.

Quantity surveyor Patricia Power returns as Dermot’s budget-wrangling project manager and financial advisor: reigning in the designer’s more ambitious plans, cutting deals and adding a layer of sober fiscal practicality to the proceedings.

Exposed power lines, extensions built without foundations, unstable roofs, parasitic fungus, spiralling budgets, design dilemmas, slipping schedules, necessary compromise, unnecessary delays, absent home-owners, flights of fancy and frayed nerves – this series has it all.

Five unique and diverse episodes – one headstrong architect. Still – there’s always Room To Improve.

Episode One 

At the village of Puckaun in north Tipperary, teachers Darragh Egan, his partner Sarah Lovett and their three month old son Donagh are moving home.

What could be simpler or more straightforward? Well, as it turns out, quite a lot.

Home is the 1960s bungalow where Darragh grew up – built on the site of the old village school by his late father Jim and currently occupied by his 70 year old mother, Mary, herself a retired schoolteacher.

Architect Dermot Bannon’s challenge is to split the house into two private, self-contained wings – one for Mary, the other for Darragh and Sarah. But it’s easier said than done.

Extended in the early 80s, the bungalow’s construction is idiosyncratic to say the least. Built to last from recycled site supplies with foot thick floors and walls filled with hidden surprises, a seemingly endless demolition process takes a costly toll on local contractor Brendan Cormican and his crew.

Delays on site aren’t helped as Dermot makes last minute design changes, leaving QS Patricia Power struggling to square his vision with their 200K budget.

As if this wasn’t enough, Dermot’s vision of natural materials and contrasting colours fails to impress the school board. With every decision queried and corrected by three headstrong teachers, the architect will do well to improve his dismal grades.

Can a naughty schoolboy ever hope to become the teachers’ pet?

Watch Room to Improve on the 7th February 9.30pm on RTÉ ONE.