THE PROJECT GALLERY

We needed an entire re-roof on our very old cottage. It had previously been done in Delabole slate, which we loved and wanted to re-use if possible. A previous company had told us that it would be almost impossible to save the tiles because of the way they were fixed.

We contacted Pete on the recommendation of a neighbour whose roof work we had admired. He turned up exactly when he said he would (rare these days!), and spent good time looking at the roof and discussing the options with us, one of which was to re-use our slates. To reassure us that they could definitely do so, he came back a few days later and tested slates on every face of the roof (there are several), which was great and gave us real confidence.

He gave us two quotes based on different materials, both of which were very reasonable and clear, and he uses premium materials. When it came to doing the work, he gave us an approximate date in advance and stuck to it. Our slates were in fact very well fixed in many areas and so extremely time-consuming and challenging to remove. It would have been by far the easier option to work faster and damage more tiles,  but what really impressed us is that Pete and his team painstakingly removed each one with care, and managed to save the vast majority of them - more even than we had budgeted for in the quote.

The 'new' reclaimed slates he added in were mixed seamlessly with the original ones. In addition, our roof has numerous faces, and all of them are crooked and wonky, which was a challenge generally and more specifically for adding Velux windows where we wanted them.  Pete's attention to detail and genuine care about his work means that the final product is a masterpiece. I was worried that we might lose some of the character with a 'perfect' roof, but the job has been so sensitively done that it looks smart but simultaneously just as it should, and we are delighted.

The team are very easy to have around - polite, professional, tidy and just plain nice! Pete takes the time to keep you informed as the work progresses, and to discuss options - we were able to save money in some areas by doing some things slightly differently, and so the final price was in fact a bit lower than the quote - even though the team had taken all that extra time to remove the slates. Pete is what I would call 'old school' - no spivvy sales talk, no blag, no rip-off.

He's a lovely bloke and a skilled and experienced craftsman who enjoys his work and cares as much about the finished product as you do. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him.