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‘DIY SOS – The Big Build’ will see a deserving family facing hugely difficult personal circumstances get a significant home makeover to help improve their quality of life. Irish viewers will be familiar with the hit show from the UK, where the DIY SOS team there have been helping families & communities for the past 20 years.
Now ‘DIY SOS – The Big Build’ is coming to help families in Ireland – the very first time the show will be filmed outside of the UK!
Produced by Motive Television for RTÉ, the team now want to hear from deserving families across the country struggling to cope with a devastating illness, disability or life-changing event or condition, who desperately need help to rebuild their homes & hopefully transform their lives in the process. Whatever their situation, the house they live in is not suitable for the circumstances they or their family members face.
Producers also want to hear from Volunteers and Suppliers to come forward who can offer their services, materials and anything else that might be able to help transform these homes!
Presenter Baz Ashmawy (From 50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy and as seen in CIF Construction Safety Week videos 2017) and his team of experts set out to renovate the homes of deserving families, changing their lives forever – but with only 9 days to transform each home, the pressure will be truly on!
As a Series, DIY SOS is famous for bringing out the very best in people – in each & every episode an army of volunteer builders, labourers, trades, suppliers, friends & neighbours come together giving their time, labour and materials to help a local family whose lives have been impacted by a significant loss or misfortune.
While emotional and totally heartfelt, DIY SOS is full of warmth and humour. It’s also the perfect platform to showcase Ireland’s unbelievable community spirit – the generosity, dedication and spirit of the big-hearted volunteers & suppliers who will work tirelessly to help change someone’s life in a really tangible way – by making their house a home again.
The Barry Family, Tipperary 
The first family are from Tipperary and the CIF are encouraging both CIF Member companies and non-members to get involved to help the Barry family.
Sinéad and Michael Barry were like any other Irish family, a young married couple in their 30’s with 3 young children, Nicole (13), Rowan (6) and Keeva (1) and self building their home. Not wanting to burden themselves with a mortgage, they used any savings or extra money at the end of each month to chip away at each job that needed to be done. Michael was the breadwinner and worked locally as steel erector, but as a talented wood turner and craftsman he undertook much of the work in the house himself, sacrificing his evenings and weekend. As a family, all their time, hopes and dreams were pumped into the house.
After complaining of vision problems in his eye over Christmas 2018, Michael was admitted to hospital in January this year. He was diagnosed with a brain tumour and further tests diagnosed it as Stage 4 Metastatic Melanoma. Subsequent scan revealed the disease had spread to his back, liver and lungs. In a matter of weeks Michael’s health deteriorated rapidly. He slipped into a coma on March 23rd and passed away surrounded by Sinéad and family. He was 34-years-old.
The family home has lain idle since the New Year when Michael first fell ill. It’s more than half built, almost ready to be lived in and now Sinéad and the children are in desperate need of goodwill and support to help finish the family home that Michael was building for them.
Michael was the sole income earner in the house and with no life insurance, Sinéad has no way to fund finishing the construction, fit-out and landscaping of the site. It was Sinéad’s sister-in-law Catriona who reached out to DIY SOS asking us to help them at the very lowest point in their lives, and finally get them moved into the family home that Michael and Sinéad worked so hard for over many years.
If you are a contractor, trades person, volunteer, material supplier or can help this Tipperary family in anyway, please do get in touch with the DIY SOS Team at [email protected]