Richard Donelan was 23 and studying for his college finals in the Regency family home in Blackrock when the ceiling in a spare bedroom collapsed due to a perished galvanised water tank. It was 2006 and all quotes to fix the problem were exorbitant. It was only when he was alerted on Facebook to a series of Conserving Your Dublin Period House talks hosted by the Irish Georgian Society (IGS) that a world of specialist home improvement opened up for him.

Donelan has since become an advocate for the programme which inspired him to go on to the UK to complete a building conservation diploma at West Dean College in West Sussex.

Now Dublin City Council and the IGS have assembled a team of conservation experts to present a series of talks offering practical advice to period home owners. The talks take place over 12 weeks and the experts will include Jacqui Donnelly, architectural conservation advisor at the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs who will decipher the term "protected structure"; Nicola Matthews, architectural conservation officer at Dublin City Council who will be offering advice on sensitively extending a period house; and Lisa Edden, consultant structural engineer, who will advise on how to keep water out and, more crucially, what to do when the water gets in.

“These courses will equip you with the ability to ask builders, architects and engineers the right questions so that they don’t make inappropriate repairs. It will open up a network of contacts that possess a body of knowledge that will ultimately save you money,” Donelan says.

The talks, also aimed at building professionals and practitioners, will start on Tuesday, February 21st and continue for 12 weeks between 1pm and 2pm, at the Helen Roe Theatre, RSAI, 63 Merrion Square, Dublin 2. The cost is €15 per individual talk, and €125 for the series of 12. Igs.ie