Testimonials
David & Elizabeth Weeks, Victoria Road:
We hired Chris Rawlinson at Building and Landscape Services to renovate our existing Kitchen and Dining Room. Our aim was to create and open kitchen/dining space with the kitchen/dining areas being swapped to opposite ends of the room. Essentially the work involved knocking through the supporting wall that separated the two areas, bricking up the existing back door, creating a new space for and installing patio doors in the back wall, removing another supporting wall that essentially held up the stairway landing and installation of various services including, water, drainage and electrics.
Our experience has been a positive one and we would recommend Chris without hesitation (as indeed he was recommended to us). As clients we really appreciate that Chris was polite at all times and listened carefully as we explained what we wanted done. It was important to us that we maximise the space we had available and we feared that we wouldn’t be able to provide support to our stairway landing without a pillar or some bulky steelwork which previous builders we had contacted led us to believe.
Chris however, went away, thought about the problem and provided an elegant, practical and effective solution. The quote he gave for the work was competitive and we feel was real value for money. Whenever problems arose, as they do in any building project, Chris consulted us and resolved the issues to our satisfaction – if there was to be any increase in cost he discussed it with us, explaining everything clearly before proceeding.
We were also impressed with his attention to detail, for example the old back door was removed and the brickwork undertaken to fill the gap was properly incorporated into the existing wall with bricks that matched the existing ones. Part of our patio also had to be dug up for new drainage to be installed and where paving was damaged it was replaced like-for-like.
The steel joist which replaced the supporting wall between the kitchen and dining areas was incorporated without the need for supporting pillars either end leaving opposite walls flush which helped immensely when it came to installing the kitchen. We were also impressed by the standard of work carried out by specialists he contracted in to undertake, electrics, plumbing and plastering. They too were professional and courteous throughout.
As a family with two small children we had to live in the house as the building work was carried out. Chris took full account of this, listened to our needs and kept us informed at all times and as a result disruption to our normal life was kept to a minimum. He also left the house tidy at the end of the days work and we felt we could trust him with keys to the property and to work on the premises without us having to be there. He honoured that trust and we never had cause for concern. The work finished pretty much on time and on budget so we were very happy. We had one or two problems with the patio doors settling in after the work was completed but Chris came back promptly to adjust them, promptly and without making us feel that we were imposing upon him.
We are really satisfied with the new space that he has created from the old one – it almost feels like we are living in a new house without the hassle of having to move!
We would recommend, and have recommended Chris and Building and Landscape services and if we needed any work done in the future he would be our first port of call.
Jonathan Gwyer, HDG Networks for Whitstable Computer Repair:
BLS did a great job on our patio – prompt, tidy and efficient, everything you hope for in a builder but rarely expect.
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