Dear Sirs,

As we hear so much about the ‘vandalism’ committed by ‘rogue builders’ and the damage they have then done to the reputation of more competent and honest builders, so I would like to highlight the professionalism and high quality work of one of your members, Martin Silcock of Tricklebank who has very recently completed the management of a successful project for me. It is people like Martin who through their openness, tenacity, passion, ‘client-focus’, attention to detail and hard work, are a shining example and a role model for how the industry should operate.

With previous builders I had got a long way into the major renovation and extension of my beautiful 17th century farm house in the Lake District when the financial crises hit. They were good technical builders in many ways and things progressed ok at first with demolishing and building work, but they were certainly not ‘sympathetic’ to the ancient building and they clearly did not have the competence to finish with quality and finesse. This first company became seriously delayed, spent all my funds and still left my house uninhabitable. Just before they stopped they were focusing energy on high cost non-priority digging work instead of completing my home. They then left the house insecure with no door and all the windows open. They also left the land in a shocking state with huge craters as if bombs had exploded everywhere.

I worked hard for two years to raise funding to start building again but then discovered it was impossible to find other builders willing to take over the project to completion. I looked at your site without much hope – but was lucky to find Martin Silcock and Tricklebank!

Martin was willing to spend time listening and discussing with me by phone and then drove hours to visit me on site. Right from the start, Martin was positive, open and full of ideas to create a quality authentic finish AND save me money. Even though he was hours away, he stepped up to the challenge to complete my home when no one else would. His passion, enthusiasm and attention to detail were infectious and he managed all the specialists with this great spirit. All the guys he employed were client-focused, polite and highly competent. This was important in re-building my trust and confidence as the previous crew had done so much shoddy work that had to be done over again. There were many unexpected and often difficult problems to solve but Martin and his team were creative and tenacious and really determined to succeed. I was not often home in UK but at every stage Martin proactively communicated; emailing me with photos to discuss decisions and progress. I always felt that he had my best interests in mind and he found many ways to save me money whilst maintaining high quality.

Inevitably with a large and complex renovation project there were many surprises and consequently costs increased. But I never once felt taken advantage of when this was easily possible. I highly commend Martin and the Tricklebank team for all their care and great work on finalising this project. I am delighted with how it has turned out and must say that it is far beyond my expectations. I thank Martin in particular for committing to it and me with such passion and energy.

In Martin, you have a member to be proud of.

Best wishes and sincere thanks,

Mark