Projects

This beautiful cottage on the Island Wall, Whitstable, was one I owned. I completely refurbished it before before selling. This kitchen has clay floor tiles and a boarded ceiling, giving it the feel of a fisherman's cottage.

This new kitchen was installed after first replacing the ceiling and plastering it then tiling the walls and floor.

Water had been leaking into this roof for may years, making the rafters weak and sagging.

Laminate flooring is a more economical way to re-floor, than hardwood boards and with the right choice can look very attractive.

Where there is a will there is a way. It was far to expensive to scaffold this building. My job was to add extra brackets to the rain water down pipes, because the original developer has skimped and fitted the brackets too far apart. This caused the pipes to twist out of shape and come apart at the joints.

This was a complete kitchen refurbishment, including the floor, ceiling, kitchen units and tiling.

These tiles with the white kitchen unit give a dramatic feeling. One of the most important aspects of tiling is the positioning stage, ensuring the finished project has a balanced look .

Sometimes a lot of support is required. I was installing a flitch beam on this occasion.

Fitting kitchen work surfaces can be very tricky. Especially when you only have a few MM to spare    

Most of the ceilings that I plaster now I do on my plastering stilts…it can be a bit scary when the ceilings are very high…the stilts adjust for various hight ceilings!

Large floor tiles with smooth regular shape can be tricky to lay as they will show lifted edges if they are not perfect flat

Hip rafter which has been chamfered. A cut and pitched roof, built on an extension of a country cottage in Ash, Kent.

It is suprising how much work goes in before the finsihed project. This is the development of two ensuites, one with just a shower, the other to the master bedroom had a beautiful period cast iron roll top bath.

Work can look a bit daunting when the customer first see's what has happened to their homes.

Another happy customer, practicing pole dancing !!. Here, I divided an area to form a downstairs cloakroom and a kitchen dinning area. A flitch beam was used to support the upper floor.

This is the starting point of a new project. Major work was carried out on this small bungalow in Grasmere Road, developing it into a beautiful house

Once uncovered, its not unusual to find rot and bad workmanship. This roof had both and needed replacement rafters and a new perlin. We used a multi layer blanket originally designed for survival suits.

Ready to start the plastering of the new ceiling.

Decking fame was built using treated !00mm x50m timber and stainless steel large headed screws. Under the frame I cast four concrete beams.

I made this fireplace using a reclaimed cast iron insert. The surround was created from old floorboards. The floors were sanded and stained.

The tree an Acer palmatum ‘Senkaki’(Coral Bark Maple) was designed into the decking and planted before the footings were cast.

This newel post was created using a purpose made jig and a router.

The rafters have been set at 300mm centres to give adequate support because the decking was laid at an angle. Laying the decking at 90 degrees would have only needed rafters to be at 400mm centres.

This is how I layout a block of wood to form a half turn, when making a continuos hand rail for period stairs

This bathroom extension was added to Island Wall, being a small cottage meant that to preserve three bedrooms upstairs, the compromise was a downstairs bathroom.

Me building block work…replacing a structural support that had been remove at sometime!

One month earlier this garden was just a big pile of muddy dirt. Planting now well under way.

Lots of pipes, to fit into tight spaces. I like to keep them all tidy even though they will not be visable when the walls are finished.

After the initial stages of digging out the floor base and then reinstating, things start to look a more homely. The kitchen was then ready for me to fit the underfloor heating.

Cut & Pitch. Creative work that in the summer is very enjoyable, winter time can be hell!!!!

Progression on the development of the Grasmere Road property. This shows the shell with two new extensions and the start of a new roof that I designed and built.

After cutting the rough shape of the stair wreath, i have attached a section of hand rail to guide me in the shaping of the wreath turn which is three-dimensional.

Now I have the roof cover in, the next job is the installation of floor joist and stairs.

This en-suite was built by another builder but the owners of this home was so disappointed with the result that they employed me to completely demolish the room. Including walls and floor and rebuild it. This is the result.

When tiling it is important to spend time laying out your room to ensure that the tiles look good at important key points and that they are level all the way around the room.

Support work reinstated…just needs plastering now

Boards mostly down. Just a few more hundred stainless steel screws to go…every hole first had a pilot hole. Then counter sunk…ALL 1200 OF THEM!

The near finished half turn stair wreath. A little sanding and final shaping when the whole handrails are connected should give a very pleasing look.

One of my favorite jobs is building a cut & pitch roof in the sunshine. This roof will also have four dorma windows built on to it.

This new Ashlar wall is a structural support for the roof rafters.

Another photograph of the Johns Wood en-suite.

Tom working away lengthening rafters that were not long enough to support into the back wall

Looking like a deck now!

French doors were instaled in place of the box sash window, to give the livingroom a feel of the outside. A reclaimed fireplace and purpose made surround finished off this beautiful cotage, located of the sought after location of Island Wall, Whitstable.

A rear extension was added, which now contains the bathroom. Decking from the French door, leads to the garden.

First coat of plaster applied…needs a little smoothing out but I quite like the artistic look!

Setting the boards on an angle involved a lot more work. But I think it gives the decking a lot more character:

French doors let plenty of light into this room. Before there was a lovely old box sash window, which had to be sacrificed for the pleasure of the doors. The window was recycled.

Insulation is a wise investment when doing any new work to the inside of buildings,.This is a special multi-layered blanket quilt which gives very effective insulation.

Always lots of making good after alterations have been completed

Inserting trees of sculpture into the decking will add interest.

Its a shame to cover up all my lovely pipe work with floorboards.

As I was saying lots of making good…sometimes walls filled look better in an old property than ones skimmed with plaster…filling still leaved a feel of originality to the walls!

Changes in levels can also add interest to the eye. The top step has boards going in one direction…changing direction on the main deck then back again on the last step.

To provide lighting to an internal landing area at Fleetwood Avenue, Herne Bay, I made and instaled this window frame, which completely transformed the space, making it a much brighter area.

This was part of an unconverted loft space at Sunbeam Avenue, Herne Bay. Before the refit, it housed just a boiler and many pipes!. Now it is converted into a walk in wardrobe, with the boiler housed in a cupboard. A great improvement!

New fascias and soffits were fitted here. The fascias were clad in plastic as requested by the home owner. On the roof I use a breathable membrane.

Kim enjoying fitting new doors to a property in Fleetwood Avenue.

Its important to support modern baths when installing. so often when called out to have a look at leaking baths the problem is lack of support.

Inside view of the new cut and pitch roof that I built on our Grasmere Road development

This is a fitted wardrobe. I built the framework and plastered it. Then fitted sliding doors. The interior of the wardrobes, which were off the shelf units, comprising of drawers and shelves, did not fit the space available, I adapted them to fit perfectly.

Another kitchen fitted by me. This one is in a holiday home in Ramsgate. Previously I have created an en-suite to the master bedroom and converted the family bathroom from a separate toilet/bathroom into one room.

Re-wire under way…originally wires had all be surface mounted as this house had previously been a rented property!

LED lights have been let into both steps to give light after dark.

Where there is a will there is a way…the stairs were to narrow to take the plasterboard up so it went up onto the rear extension roof and through the bedroom window!

The deck is now complete… it was sanded all over to smooth out any marks and rough wood from production.

Making a custom door lining using my Festool Domino…This tool forms floating tenions which make a very strong joint!

Sanding finished. The boards were treated with two coats of decking oil. The boards were supplied by Wingham Timber.

This project is in Whitstable a beautiful seaside town. So I designed this jetty into the decking which I feels works well.

A Hardwood threshold for a custom door lining using my Festool router and domino's strong and durable!

Glueing up of a door lining made by me!

Decking…Jetty and planting all finished. I feel very happy with the overall design…

Hand crafted box sash frames. The new box sash windows were made on site.

Boiler Cupboard. The finished product, decorated and awaiting new carpets.

This room was originally a dingy storage area with badly built storage shelves and a hot water cylinder. After relocating the hot water cylinder, I converted the room into a very usable office for the owner.

Curved top dormer window, which was eventually lead clad and had a purpose made aluminium double glazes structural window inserted. This was one of my design projects on a loft and roof refurbishment that the owner just gave me free rain to come up with a finished product.

My Son-In-law working at Grasmere Road. I often get help from the family on our major renovations. Bill had just finished uni and was about to start his new job.

Here I am plastering, a small downstairs cloakroom at Beltinge. It is often more time consuming to do small rooms with many shaped areas, than large easy accessible walls.

This window is a structural part of the dormer window.

This bathroom was refurbished and finished off with a lovely new bamboo floor.

This was the start point. I supported the wall above the window & door with acro props, then removed everything.

This loft area had a large velux window installed, which gave veiws for the owner all over Hampton Bay. The walls were also plastered and decorated with Farrow & Ball (string) paint.

This was the end product of a two floor extension in a period cottage in the village of Ash, near Canterbury. The bathroom is an en-suit to the master bedroom.

This is a spacious en-suite bathroom to the master bedroom in a Farmhouse at Upstreet.

New flight of stairs, just before i installed them into Grasmere Road.

With all the decayed frames removed, you can now see where the new French doors will fit.

These doors were fitted to replace a single door and window.

New family bathroom, with tiled floor and wall. The bath also had a power shower fitted.

The finished project !! a brilliant feeling after all the hours of work that goes into it. This property started as a two bedroom bungalow that I bought at Chestfield. Two extensions were added to each side. The roof replaced and totally refurbished. The final development was a lovely four bedroomed house.

The finished product always make me feel happy. As its the time the owners get their homes back and can enjoy my work.

En-suite shower room that I built, in a period farmhouse. The large mirror, with mosaic tiles, makes the room feel much more spacious.

Beautiful hand painted roll top bath, sits in a room of its own.

The main bath is in a room of its own. This is a second, adjoining room with the shower, toilet and basin.

Easel made for a present.

Decorated and ready for carpets. The colour on the walls is Farrow & Ball (String)

Completed family bathroom at Fleetwood Avenue, showing the new tiling, and the purpose made internal window.