Situated in Rathgar, Co Dublin, Robert Doyle Eco Build Ltd provides its clients in the private, public and commercial sectors with high-quality construction services. Building Ireland caught up with founder and Managing Director Robert Doyle to discuss the ins and outs of this business, its projects and overall hopes going forward.
It’s 25 years since Robert Doyle first set-up his own construction firm and business has seldom been better for the Dublin-based company.
Having become a limited venture in 2010, Robert Doyle Eco Build Ltd currently employs 30 full-time staff from its location at 58 Kenilworth Square, Rathgar, Dublin 6.
It’s a company which prides itself on its attention to detail and timely delivery of projects to a consistently high standard of quality workmanship and service.
Building Ireland touched base with Robert himself recently to hear more about the history behind this successful business and what he feels separates it from the competition.
“I suppose, we were trading in the year 1999/2000 as Robert Doyle Construction and then changed the name in 2010 with the direction we thought things were going in relation to eco-build, in terms of construction of housing and extensions and refurbs,” the Managing Director outlined.
“It looked like the market was going down that direction, but that obviously very much changed when the recession hit. No one really cared about eco-build.
“So, yeah, we were probably ahead of our time in that regard, in terms of changing and rebranding and aiming for retrofits and that type of thing. That’s basically what we do; extensions, refurbishments, but with a particular emphasis on energy improvement and retrofit in houses, which includes heat pumps, solar panels, insulation, air tightness, and all of those sorts of modern measures.
“That sector sort of took off in recent years, but, for a while there when the recession was around, no one was too bothered about heat pumps or anything of that nature. They just didn’t have the money, so it’s all changed.
“In the last number of years, we’ve been doing a lot of retrofits around South Dublin. We really only cover the South County Dublin area and the south of the city to keep us going, doing large-scale extensions, refurbishments, some new houses with two new build houses on the go at the moment.
“We tend to do fairly high-end new houses around Ballsbridge and Blackrock. We’re building one at the moment that would be very bespoke and architecturally designed, as opposed to your three-bed semi-type thing.”
It’s 30 years since Robert graduated with an Honours Bachelor Degree in Civil Engineer & Construction Management from London South Bank University.
His journey from there saw him working in both the UK and Ireland on large-scale projects before deciding to go out on his own with Robert Doyle Construction, which would ultimately become Robert Doyle Eco Build Ltd.
“I started off life as a builder,” he pointed out, “but the intention was always to attain the professional end of things in terms of large-scale projects. I’m trying to bring that professionalism and experience into smaller-scale extensions, refurbishments and the one-off new house sector that our clients were availing of in the higher-end corporate market.
“That was what we set out to achieve in terms of attention to detail, time, cost, quality management systems for our clients and delivering a high-end finished product.
“We were trying to deliver that from ‘Day One’. That was the starting point of it, to try and bring a bit of what I learned across the water to the Irish market in the residential sector.”
Today, Robert Doyle ECO Build Ltd is a dynamic and focused company delivering high quality, efficient and environmentally friendly construction solutions to its clients.
The company’s primary focus is on deep energy retrofits to private residential dwellings in the Dublin area.
Right now, business is booming, according to Robert, with the project books full up well into next year.
“Yeah, it’s very busy. Extremely busy. We do about eight to ten live jobs at any one time,” he said.
“In the last few years, we’ve generally had about five or six waiting to start, so we’ve got a bit of a backlog.”
“Most of our jobs are on a negotiated basis as opposed to a tender basis. They’re usually for architects and clients that know us and we work with regularly over the last number of years. So it’s mainly down to reputation, I suppose, and they’re willing to wait for us to come free to take on their projects.”
At Robert Doyle Eco Build, they believe that “quality never goes out of style”, and its Managing Director was good enough to shed some light on the projects in which his company is currently immersed in and, ultimately, looking to deliver more quality homes for their clients.
“There’s currently a new house in Blackrock that we’re building,” said Robert. “A lovely job we just finished there in Farney Park. That was a 1950s house, wraparound extension, heat pump, which was upgraded to an A-rated standard.
“We’re also doing a listed building refit in Monkstown at the moment. That’s a two-storey over basement, big period style house which will be a family home. But again, they’re trying to get that up to an A-rating with heat pump, underfloor heating and extra insulation, which is far more complicated because it’s a very old building and it’s a listed building with a lot of covings and R&A joinery and plaster work and stuff like that.
“So we’re having to try and work around that as best we can, that one we’re halfway through.
“There was another extension in Monkstown which is just literally finished, and that was completed to an A2 rated standard, again, a 1930s house with a two-storey extension and similar value, €700-800,000.
“We’ve another one in Dundrum at the moment beside the shopping centre, a 1950s house. Which is a retrofit of the existing house.
“We’re SEAI registered, and we do a lot of one-stop shop energy upgrades. We work with a couple of different one-stop shop companies to deliver maximum grants to our clients and we’re used to all the paperwork involved, which is quite laborious, but that’s part of the system.”
So, all of that considered, the clear question is what has been the secret behind the success of Robert Doyle Eco Build to date?
How has a small construction start up grown into what is now very much a thriving company which holds an excellent reputation amongst its clientele?
“It’s down to reputation,” Robert stated. “We aim for high quality, we’re working in areas of Dublin and South Dublin that obviously expect fairly high quality, and we try to deliver that on every project.
“That’s been our ethos all along – high quality construction – and it’s paid off, even when the crash happened, we continued to be busy. That was down to our reputation and our standing in the industry around South Dublin.”
Indeed, a reputation for high quality work goes a long way in the building industry, like so many others.
Looking towards the coming months for the business, Robert is keen for things to carry on in the same direction business-wise and, of course, to continue delivering excellent projects for clients in the process.
“We’d like to continue as we are, I guess. We have a backlog of stuff coming through, and I want the jobs to keep coming. We’ll continue delivering them and working our way through them one by one. It’s all about quality over quantity. That would be the plan for the next year,” he concluded.
Robert Doyle Eco Build Ltd.
58 Kenilworth Square,
Rathgar,
Dublin 6.
Tel: 01 497 5087
Mob: 087 629 4466
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.robertdoyleecobuild.ie
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, October 2025, Vol 11 No 11
featured, Robert Doyle Eco Build
