How a 70-year-old Irish builder keeps 50 people on the same page with Lumin

McDonald's Builders has been trading for over 70 years. The current managing director, Richard McDonald, is the third generation of the family to run the business and the grandson of the original founder. It’s a company with deep roots, and a construction site that moves fast.

Eamonn Doyle manages day-to-day operations for Middlethird Estates, a residential development of one-off and semi-detached houses in the south of Ireland. At any given time, he's coordinating 10 direct employees and a rotating crew of 40 subcontractors, each trade needing to know exactly what to do, where, and when.

The problem is that architectural drawings aren't built for the site. They’re detailed, technical, and full of information that's irrelevant to the person installing a window or laying a foundation. When a subcontractor needs specific information, handing them a full drawing set creates more confusion than clarity. And in construction, confusion costs time – and time costs money.

"Lumin is very helpful when I need to mark up drawings to liaise with our office or subcontractors for required information."

The solution: Mark it up, send it out, get back to work

Eamonn uses Lumin to cut through the noise. When a subcontractor needs construction details on site, he pulls up the relevant drawing, marks up exactly what he needs to see and sends it to the team, the office and Richard. No printing, no scanning, no sitting down with a full plan set to find one detail.

The appeal isn't feature depth. It's speed and simplicity. Eamonn uses Lumin for three to four hours a month, not every day, but when he needs it, it needs to work without friction.

"Lumin is very easy to use, and helps me get my tasks done quickly"

That ease of use matters in a high-pressure environment where a project manager's attention is constantly being pulled in different directions. A tool that requires any kind of learning curve doesn't get used. Lumin gets used.

Despite only opening Lumin a few times a month, Eamonn estimates it saves him two to three hours every week. Time that would otherwise go into manual markup processes, back-and-forth clarification, and chasing subcontractors who received the wrong information.

With 50 people on site across two locations, the cost of a miscommunication isn't just inconvenience – it's rework, delays, and materials. Lumin keeps the right information flowing between the site, the head office, and the trades without adding admin burden to the people who are supposed to be building.

"In a world where time is limited, every little bit helps. Lumin works efficiently for me."

For a third-generation family business that's been doing things a certain way for seven decades, there's no appetite for tools that need constant maintenance or support. Lumin just works, and that's exactly what Eamonn needs.