The first thing you think on meeting builders Seb Walsh and Matt Willacy is ‘what pleasant lads’. Chat to them and you get a sense of their enthusiasm and pride in their building work. Carry on talking and you discover they do quite a bit of work at the homes of other builders, including the former manager of one of Preston’s biggest builders’ merchants. You begin to realise … they’re good at what they do.
The two friends, both 35, served their time as bricklayers for McNeela Construction. Both have bricklaying qualifications and Matt has an HNC in Building Studies. They set up on their own nine years ago – a dream they first had as pupils at Broughton High School together. They made sure they were competitively priced, worked to a high standard … and the jobs came. “We don’t advertise and tend to get work through word-of-mouth recommendation,” says Seb. “We’re good at what we do, we’re honest and punctual and we try to turn up on time. And we’ve learned not to take too much on and say if we cannot do a job for a month.”
The pair do new-builds, extensions, structural alterations, driveways, landscaping and walls. Working with architects and structural engineers, they can help with drawing up architectural plans and planning permission. They have expanded in recent years and now have six staff and three sub-contractors. They also use trusted subcontractors for electrics, joinery, plumbing, plastering, gas work and roofing. and refer clients to kitchen and bathroom installers.
The Process
Give Matt and Seb a ring and they’ll come and talk to you, using their experience to point customers in the right direction to realise their plans. After extensive discussion, they email a detailed quote which they always honour unless a client wants changes. Seb says they are always polite and end every job on good terms with the customer. They often get repeat business from friends and family members. “We’re doing an extension at the moment for a man after we did one for his daughter two years ago.”
