I was called to go and ‘sort out' a job in 2011. The property was a significant Georgian building on Ramsgate seafront.The prospective client was pulling his hair out, he had let the builder have a ‘free hand’ with the project; there was no onsite supervision and a complete lack of coordination with the trades.It was the usual story, the building had been striped back to brick, the lath and plaster ripped down, only to be replaced with cement based plasters, plasterboards with gypsum as the finishing plasters. All the original doors had gone.I handed back my set of keys back along with a finished project about 8 weeks later. I said to myself while working on the job ‘I need to get in at the beginning of these projects to help the building owners make the right decisions and to save unnecessary and inappropriate works being carried out'. I was tired of seeing old buildings being stripped out,when a well considered repair strategy would provide the best approach in budget terms and historic building fabric retention.I decided to do something about this; I enrolled and started an HNC in Building Surveying in September 2011.After years of focused study, training and practice mostly in the historic built environment gaining a professional qualification with the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors , I decided to set up my own RICS regulated building surveying practice.This was done so that I could deliver a high level of professional service as standard heritage practice in my local areas. I have now gained the Professional Development Diploma; Historic building conservation & repair to compliment all of this.I am now preparing a submission for associate membership of the Institute Historic Building Conservation (Intervention).All in all making this experience an nine year journey when passing the next waypoint; all underpinned with decades of practical on-site experience.

Completed an HNC in Building Surveying in 2013 (2011 - 2013). Joined Heritage House Consulting in September 2014 while still carrying out some site work as a carpenter to fund my training. By 2015 I was ‘off the tools’ completely as I wanted to concentrate on becoming a building surveyor, operating in the historic built environment. Started off by shadowing and assisting the company’s surveyors while carrying out professional duties on a wide variety of old buildings ranging from mediaeval timber framed halls to Edwardian terraced houses and everything inbetween.The main focus of my training, study and practice was building pathology, specialising in ‘robust’ timber and damp surveys; diagnosing and remedying dampness in old buildings . After finding the moisture source(s), typically the remedies involved reversing inappropriate building practices and re-introducing the materials the building was built with, along with returning the building back to its original design as far as possible and introducing environmental control. I carried on shadowing and assisting senior surveyors to fulfil the mandatory and technical competencies to gain the AssocRICS qualification.In March 2017 after more than two years of relevant experience, I presented my submission and was duly elected an associate of the RICS. The AssocRICS qualification takes at least four years of a combination of study, training and professional practice before submitting.Other duties carried out at Heritage House:• Writing specifications - Including preparing bespoke site specific ' workmanship and materials clauses'. • Lime mortar analysis and design• Assistant Contract Administrator• CDM• Building Surveys• Preparing listed building applications

Started out on the bench as a bench joiner in a small work shop in Ramsgate, Kent, measuring up jobs, making & fitting purpose made joinery for the local traditional building stock.From there I moved onto the shop fitting industry, starting out on the bench and then out on site as a fixer, fitting out ; shops, bars, building societies, offices, hotels, schools, steel frame construction and major construction projects. At the same time keeping my 'hand in' on works on traditional buildings, ranging from 16c timber frame to Georgian and Victorian town houses.In the 25 years I had on the tools I also worked in the boat building industry, wooden boats in particular, sometimes managing projects. Other general duties included; facility maintenance, conversion & adaptation, 1st & 2nd fix,hardwood fixer, conservation work, site supervision and craft training.In:London & the South East, the Midlands.France, Germany,Spain.Australia, British West Indies (BWI).