Chris Smith Email & Phone Number

I had experience working within the trade from a young age. My Uncle is a carpenter and joiner, Dad is a painter and decorator and I worked with both of them straight after leaving school and even worked with my uncle during the holidays whilst I was still at school.I continued with this for a year after school and then decided that I wanted to go to college to follow another of my passions which is cooking. I stayed at college for 2 years and completed NVQ levels 1&2 in hospitality & catering and spent 3 years working in various restaurants and a hotel.I then decided I wanted to get back into the building industry and got a job with a large building firm as a site labourer. I quickly realised this was a good move and instantly found myself wanting to learn as much as I could from all of the tradesmen working on-site. Multi-trading back then was not a massive thing and I knew I wanted to learn as many aspects of the trade as possible.I found myself drawn to plastering, I found it mesmerising and wanted to learn this tricky skill. I then worked for a plastering firm for 2 years where I learnt various techniques and was very grateful to be given the opportunity.A lettings agency then offered me a job renovating properties in between tenancies. Initially it was Painting & Decorating that was needed, but this spiralled upwards as I met numerous landlords that offered more work to me. I loved the idea of setting up my own company and decided to go for it. It started as just myself, then I took on a friend of mine and put him into a college course in Carpentry whilst working for me which helped the company grow. We soon started taking on bigger projects and recruiting people I had met in the trade previously to come in as my contracting team and deliver these projects.There were plenty of tough learning curves along the way with managing contractors, clients, time frames and quality controlling of works etc. The hardest thing I found was the admin work which was carried out after the working day ended in the back room of my house. I remember times where I wondered if I was doing the right thing but I’m glad I persevered as looking back now it was all about educating myself, being pragmatic and non complacent. All of this experience has helped me turn the company into what it is now.

Listed skills include Renovation, Construction, Contractors, Contract Management, and 9 others.