Roger’s comes back to the rescue with our weekly Ask Skill Builder show and Episode 6. We take a look through your emails, Facebook messages and YouTube comments and Roger does his best to steer you in the right direction.
John Collins is considering buying a ‘doer upper’ that needs an epic effort to turn around. He asks “Just wondering if these images give an insight into the extent of work required to repair. Is it removal and replacement of render or am I looking at deeper structural issues?”.
Tom Dalgliesh has water coming through his bathroom wall. Tom says “Our house was built in 1936, we moved in last year and re-painted the bathroom to refresh it, and it shortly after developed a damp problem. I have filmed the external side of the wall with the damp as well as a rear view of the house with the upper dormer windows visible”.
Alan Forder asks is it best to pack out the wall where the coving is fitted or to fit it after tiling so that it sits on top of the tiles.
Stu has noisy creaking plastic cladding on his ceiling. He asks “It’s now looking shabby and I need to renew the bathroom as a whole. Please what paint, preparation or cladding would you recommend for a steamy bathroom ceiling?”.
Robin is back with Roger to discuss the all-important issue of getting paid and taking every measure in avoiding bad debts so you’ll escape being knocked by cowboy customers.
Roger and Robin really enjoyed creating our step-by-step guide to installing a Roof Maker Slimline Roof Lantern.
The English language can be confusing especially when you throw in some building terms. We have skylights, roof windows and roof lanterns. A roof lantern is not actually a lantern but a glass structure with pitched sides.
Its purpose is to provide light. They have become very popular because they throw light back into parts of the building that have been made darker by the addition of an extension.
Even with a large patio door across the whole back elevation, it’s surprising how much the daylight falls away as you move back into the original building.
A roof window gives more daylight than a vertical window and a roof lantern being multi-aspect gives more than that. It’s due to the combination of light that comes directly down from the sky and sunlight which comes in at an angle dependent on the time of the year.
The striking thing about Roof Maker roof lanterns is the minimalist design. When you look up you see the sky and not a whole bunch of bulky glazing bars.
This is the thing that delights the customer but what delights the installer/builder/DIYer is just how easy they are to fit. Even if you have never done this kind of job before you will be amazed how easy it is.
Fitting the Window
The first thing you need to know is that all Roof Maker roof lanterns are made to measure but before you construct your opening and build your kerb you need to look at the size chart because there are certain principles of geometry and structural strength that come into play.
The pitch is 46 degrees which happens to be the optimum for self-cleaning glass, this means that the wider you go the higher the lantern. This might not be a consideration but if you are building an extension you might not want the roof lantern obscuring the view out of the bedroom windows, you might also find that the planning consent stipulates a maximum height.
This is often easy enough to overcome if you have two or more lanterns. The chart shows how you need to narrow the width of the window as you increase the length. This is purely so the weight of the glass is supported.
The next consideration is heat loss. Under Building Regulations, you may be restricted on the amount of glazed area you can have. The good news is that the energy efficiency (U value) of the sealed units and structure is so good that you may be able to have a larger size than you would with some other units.
The lower the U value the better. If you can’t quite achieve the figure you need you can choose the option of triple glazed sealed units which dramatically lower the U Value and also cut out noise from aircraft and traffic.
In most cases, the base perimeter frame comes ready assembled. This is only possible because the company uses its own transport. The other benefit of this is that your lovely new lantern does not have to run the gauntlet of couriers who tend to throw things around.
I can’t begin to count the number of jobs I have done that have been delayed by goods damaged in transit.
Somewhat unusually the Roof Maker frame is fitted before the roof membrane or fibreglass. This means that you don’t have to fit in with somebody else’s schedule. Once the frame is screwed to your built up-stand (kerb) the minimalist frame is constructed and held together with machine screws.
It is hard to imagine how anybody could get this part wrong but the bit you could get wrong is putting in the glass. All I can say about fitting glass, in general, is that it is essential to have a plan.
Before you carry the glass onto the roof you need to work out the route, check for hazards, decide on the method, who is doing what and who is in charge. The last thing you want is a variation on the Chuckle Brothers “To me, to you, to me”.
I would also recommend a pair of professional-grade glass lifting suckers for lowering the last panes onto the frame. These can be bought or hired if you are a DIYer just doing a one-off job.
There are a few bits of siliconing to do to complete the job. If you are not experienced with silicone grab a tub of wipes so you can remove any unwanted smears straight away.
The final bit of siliconing around the bottom edge of the frame must be done before the roof covering is applied and when this is done the glass structure is watertight and draught-proofed.
Conclusion
Whether you do the job yourself or use professionals the end result is a window that gives you superb insulation and the most daylight you can possibly achieve. The question I get asked a lot regarding roof windows is “Will it leak?”.
I can put my hand on my heart and answer that, fitted properly, it will never leak and fitting it properly is amazingly straightforward.
The kind of problems people experience with older style PVC roof lanterns which depend on gazing gaskets can’t happen because the glass is on the outside of the structure not in it.
It’s almost time for the tiler to start work, so Roger has to get the bath connected, the tray down, underfloor heating hooked up and the elements board down onto the KST adhesive which will give us a level bathroom floor.
This is a brilliant little life hack that will remove shower mould and kill ugly black marks.
Taking Control of the Problem
We’ve been asked how to remove black mould from the silicone around shower trays many times and the solution is almost too easy to believe because it doesn’t involve any scrubbing or elbow grease.
You will need some bleach, toilet or kitchen roll, gloves, eye protection and a few hours where you don’t need to use the shower.
This is something that affects so many people and it’s mould around the shower. Now, it’s a bit of an academic point but the mould exists because of the stuff we wash off our bodies; the skin, all that junk that’s washed away every time we have a shower ends up on that silicone seal.
Now, silicone seal is mould resistant, mildew resistant, forever why it’s one of the ones I use. And although they have these additives in that stop the mould biting into the silicone, it still doesn’t stop it and solve the problem and I heard somebody say the other day, “You’ll never get rid of that mould”.
The example in this video isn’t horrendous, but it’s had a fair amount of work and the customer is telling me that they spend a long time scrubbing and rubbing down to try and get rid of this mould.
Remove Shower Mould
This is actually a ceramic shower tray so it’s absolutely brilliant for resistance to bleach, and you’ve got to be careful that whatever you use doesn’t attack the shower tray; so check that out before you use any treatments.
Get yourself a nice strong bleach and some toilet or kitchen roll. This is a really useful thing to do when you go away on holiday or just away for the weekend, just before you leave and you’ve had your last shower, give it a cleanout. Remember what’s happening here, the mould really loves moisture and warmth and will thrive in most showers or baths.
Now, twist some strips of toilet paper into a poultice (a twisted tight braid if you like). Next, pour the bleach gently down the back behind our poultice; this prevents the bleach from evaporating.
Stay Safe
And now what you’ve got is constant contact with that mould. Make sure (unlike Roger) that you use gloves and eye protection. Get rid of this mould here by using this technique, and then use that daily shower cleaning spray and you will stop it appearing in the first place.
So that’s all there is to it, a very simple tip. Make yourself up a bleach poultice, make sure that your shower tray is not going to be affected by bleach, in other words, check the manufacturer’s instructions. And if it is, then use something else. You can use any kind of mould inhibitor, do the same thing; so long as you’ve got some kind of loo roll around there to hold it.
• How to remove mould from shower caulking?
• How to get rid of mould in shower silicone?
• How do you get rid of black mould in the shower?
• How do I clean black mould in shower silicone?
Ask Skill Builder is becoming one of our most popular shows, which is great because we get to help you directly and you can take the pictures for a change!
In this episode we have.
Jon Curtis – Has a shower tray leaking and decided to do a full remodel job and fit all-new, larger shower, but has a leak on the floor and the wood has seriously rotted away.
Ian Sta – Looking to convert a single brick outhouse into an internal space, looking at insulation options for external walls, floor and roof.
Biker Chris – Like Ian Sta is looking to build an office in the back garden and wants to make it as warm as possible.
Graham Hine – Tried to fit a McAlpine 40mm multi-fit compression fitting but the central pipe is too large for his waste pipe.
With the Elements board in place, it’s time to work out the best fixing solution for the Abacus Multi-Design Tileable Bath Surround Kit, which is made from the same material as the Elements tile backer board.
Roger’s house cheat sheet comes into play with Ask Skill Builder Episode 4. We take a look through your emails, Facebook messages and YouTube comments and Roger does his best to steer you in the right direction.
Jacob Ashton has good cold water pressure but as soon as he turns it to hot, the pressure drops and the shower is unusable.
Vinny Surti has a concealed thermostatic shower valve doesn’t get hot enough.
Jono Walsh is camera shy and would like to install solid wood flooring onto an asphalt floor.
Lee Henderson has cracked mortar and a few cracked bricks.
Noah Lott asks us about brick repointing but we suspect this one’s a prank but we loved it anyway!
Brickie Keith Bryden shows us some of his fine arched brickwork.
Roger and Robin discuss going self-employed in the second episode of the new Skill Builder podcast. It takes some courage to make the leap from the security and comfort of your job, but the fact that you’re here tells us that you’re thinking of making the leap into the world of being the master of your own destiny, but what do you have to consider in your new self employed life?
Have you got the courage to quit your job and find the motivation needed to build a new happier and more fulfilling life?
Our thanks go to the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel at Milton Keynes Dons F.C. for allowing us to record our podcast in their matchday bar.
Transcript
Roger: Hello, this is Roger Bisby and Robin Clevett with our second podcast, Skill Builder podcast coming to you, from where are we? Robin: Well, the pub was a bit noisy by all accounts, so we fought, where can you go where it’s really quiet? Well, an empty football stadium, of course.
Roger: Yeah. Don’t ask us why we are at the MK Dons Football Stadium. Now, the first one we did, basically Robin was telling us how he priced, conditioned people and how he gets the right money for the job, and that really struck a chord. People are saying to us that, oh well, you should tell me this 30 years ago. I could use this information. So with this podcast, what are we going to be doing is, we are going to be talking about taking that plunge, becoming self-employed.
Robin: We are.
Roger: We’ve never been self-employed before. It’s taken away the safety net, really isn’t it?
Robin: The way this one came about. It’s obvious we looked at the comments and everything else and there’s a generic line that runs all the way through these comments. And that’s about anxiety, about becoming self-employed or being your own boss and so on and so forth.
Roger: Yeah. The other thing I picked up on from the comments of the first podcast was that people were saying, look, I’ve been self-employed for two or three years, and it’s not really working out. I’m thinking I’m going to have to take a part-time job stacking shelves at Sainsbury’s or whatever they’re doing. Somebody said they’re going to go work evenings at Screwfix. If it’s not working for you, then don’t give up, but just think tomorrow is the first day for the rest of your life. In other words, the fact that you’ve had two years of hardship and so on. It doesn’t contaminate the future. If you take on board maybe some of the things we’re going to say, and then start from, not start from scratch, but just push yourself forward from that point rather than being tied down, weighed down by your failures. Look at your success and potential.
Robin: Because the thing is, nowadays, what we call the gig economy and everything else, whether you like it or not, most industry wants to go towards people who are self-employed because it’s easier for people to hire and fire. There’s less liability involved. Because generally, if you’re self-employed, you’ve got to cover your own insurances and all that sort of stuff. So, this is probably why this subject is going to get a lot of interest. Now, tell us about you, Roger, tell us how you became self-employed?
Roger: Yeah. Okay. Well, I mean my things very slightly different to a lot of other people, and as much as I left school and started an apprenticeship and then that didn’t work out for me particularly well. I left out. It was a bit of a footloose. I went traveling and did all kinds of, did the hippie thing really. It was all about the hippies in those days. So I did all that, sleeping on the beaches, tossing around, having a great time, and the sex and drugs, and rock and roll scene. And then I came out, I thought I really want to do is something, what I did an apprenticeship with plumbing and so on. Because it gives me the opportunity to be independent to do what I want, and just go to work when I want to go to work rather than working for somebody else. At that time, I’d actually caught myself in a position where I got a mortgage, couple of kids, and I was just sort of starting out married life, and I thought I missed the boat. I wanted to be self-employed and I wanted to do something. Suddenly, I’m working for somebody and I’m trapped in this golden goose. And then everybody, I spoke to, I said, look, I want to give this job up. It’s reasonably paid. It was a very easy job to do. I said I want to give it up with two kids and the mortgage. I want to throw all that away and I want to become self-employed. And almost every single person that I spoke to said, big risk, don’t do it.
Robin: So why did you do it?
Roger: Well, there was one person that encouraged me. One single person said to me, I think that’s a great idea, go for it, and that person was my wife.
Robin: I mean that’s amazing.
Roger: Yeah. It is because she had the most to lose from it. We’ve got the two kids and it’s –
Robin: But she could see your potential and the potential to go out there, name your price effectively, and do the work. Because you’re a hard-working guy, Roger, so she could probably see that you do better on your own.
Roger: I’ve always loved work. I’ve never been really scared of work, but I think the thing that she thought is, if you stay here, if you stay in the safe lane, just carrying on, that’s the potential is dead there, isn’t it? Whereas, if we hold the cards up in the air and see where they land, at least we’ve got a chance we’re going to do something else. And so, it’s a bit like when people immigrated. I mean loads and loads of people did it, and they just set off for America. People left the island with nothing because, obviously they didn’t all make it. They weren’t all success stories, but it gives you the chance to do it, so that’s me anyways. So it’s hard, it’s hard, in the beginning when you’ve got 300 quid in the bank and you’re thinking, I’ve got one more wish, I’ve got kids. You’re going to meltdown on it, or you could start crying, but the great thing is, there is no plan B, isn’t it? You just got to go for it.
Robin: You have to…
Roger: You can’t sack yourself when you’re self-employed.
Robin: No.
Roger: So what about you anyway?
Robin: Similar. Well, it wasn’t a similar story. I went to college, I did my carpentry and joinery craft certificate. And I had a company who was kind of like my sponsor. So through the CITB (The Construction Industry Training Board), they were able to get a like a little bit of a grant to train me up. I went to them saying, you don’t have to pay me, I just need the experience, just please be kind enough to take me on. And they did take me on, and I stayed with them, did my apprenticeship. They were really kind to me, put me on the road of a van, and the rest of it. And I was kind of like an employee, but I wasn’t really an employee, I was an apprentice. The company was quite young, a sole trader effectively with me as his apprentice, and he was bringing other people in as he got busier and busier. And then when I’ve got to about 18 or 19, I finished my time. I pretty much went self-employed straight away because I wanted to do price work because I knew that I could do lots of work in the time I was there for 40 hours a week or whatever. I just thought it’s better for me to be on a price. And also, he wanted to me to be self-employed because it was a lot easier from taxation and running a business point of view. So that’s how I got into it and that was – so I’ve never really been employed. I’ve always been self-employed. It’s been tricky. There’s been lots of pitfalls, lots of ups and downs. It’s not been plain sailing. In fact, sometimes you just think to yourself, why am I doing this? Because you know you might’ve had a bad couple of weeks and just not banked any money. And you still got the bills to pay, and it gets rolling up, rolling up and you just think, how am I going to get out of this? But you kind of just do it, you’re under pressure. I personally worked quite well under pressure. I don’t remember anyone else out there.
Roger: Yeah. You do, you give yourself a lot of pressure, I know that. I know your wife says that around about lunchtime on a Sunday, she loses you to the dark side. And that’s when his head thickened and he started thinking about the week ahead, and about planning, and about putting all those things into place. Getting the guys out on site and everything else. On the plus side mate, I don’t know, I suppose if you hadn’t become self-employed, you carried to working for somebody. You would have three fewer houses you’ve got today.
Robin: Well, I mean I think –
Roger: Seriously though, you’ve done okay.
Robin: I think the thing is, for my personality, I don’t think I’m a good employee. I wouldn’t be a good employee.
Roger: You know what I think exactly the same.
Robin: I was a class clown in school. I was always wanting to make, we’ll have a laugh. I was more interested in doing something to go and earn a few quid and that was basically what drove me. And I was from a big family and there weren’t masses of money to go around. Mum and dad were brilliant, but there wasn’t massive money to go around. Dad was a plumber too. And so, it was kind of times were hard. And so my goal was to earn enough money to buy a car, get to work. I had no idea I’d ever owned a house in my life, certainly not going long holidays. But it was all based around the flexibility of being self-employed, even though it was a bit sort of struggle. Because I thought to myself, I’m self-employed, but I’m not a business. What’s the business? I had no idea what a business was. Let’s take for example, you’re a carpenter for example, and you want to do side work. There are companies that employ carpenters, but the majority of them are subcontract companies. And they build their workforce up from self-employed people. You might do a couple of months with them, going to a couple of months, which is how you should operate as well. Because any more than a couple of months with the same person, you could be classed as an employee.
Roger: Absolutely.
Robin: So you need to rotate and move it around. Don’t keep all your eggs in one basket of course. But that is basically how the industry works. I mean, when I’m managing a project for a client for example. So I’ll be managing that project, and I will be introducing them to tradespeople say, a brickwork contractor. Now, I don’t want that brickwork contractor coming through me. It’s onerous. I can introduce them to my client. My client can deal with them directly. If it’s just a one-man band, they’re not even charging VAT because they weren’t hit the threshold. So it works nicely for the client as well. And it doesn’t mean I’ve got to interfere with their tax affairs. They’re there as a subcontractor working directly for the client. So that’s how a lot of the industry, people will agree with this. If you’re in the small building arena, you don’t employ your own plumber, you don’t employ your own electrician; everyone is self-employed.
Roger: Yeah. You just meet and you just phone each other up and get ahold of each other, when and where you want each other, and you all let each other down. Let’s just focus back upon the fact that you’ve taken the plunge of becoming self-employed, you set up a business. What I’d say really first of all, from my point of view is define what your business is because, plumbing for example, you can be fitting bathroom, central heating system to gas work, gas boiler, you can do even lead work. It came under the umbrella of plumbing. And of course, if you do all that, you’ve got a massive fan load at all. You’ve learned here, there and everywhere, you never become an expert, and people don’t know what you do. So for me, it was about just saying, right, which bits of this do I enjoy, and which bits do I really not, and which bits of my making money, which bits am I good at.
Robin: Yeah. So what was it for you?
Roger: Well, oddly enough, I did all kinds of general plumbing, but I kind of fell into a trench one day. Well, funnily enough, for the first job I ever did as an apprentice plumber was laying a lead water main in a trench for a church and has kind of where I went back because I saw all these water mains, the water companies were doing and they were charging a fortune for doing it.
Robin: Yeah. Replacements.
Roger: Replacements, repairs, anything. And there was a lot of money in it because it was underground because it was a bit of a drama and so on so I got into that. I’ve got referrals from guys on the water company, so that was quite nice. I was giving them a little drink. They were passing jobs onto me. So my phone was off the hook. It was ringing all the time in a burst pipes. I even started doing them for the county council. I started doing it for farmers. I became known as the guy that would fix your underground burst. And they would do it for half the price of the water companies, which are never hard. In fact, I did one a couple of weeks ago. They wanted four and a half thousand pounds to do it. Quite honestly, it was a day’s work. It took me a day’s, worth, 25 quids’ worth of Polypipe.
Robin: Yeah. A lead lock.
Roger: Yeah. Well, it wasn’t a lead lock two connections and digging a trench. So for me it was a combination of skills. It was about doing the groundwork and putting the pipes in higher money, hand over fist of doing that because nobody else was doing it. I couldn’t understand why nobody wanted to do it either, this is great. So what about you?
Robin: Well, I mean, as I said, it was a bit of an accident. I became self-employed because there wasn’t a job, which was anything that I knew about. And it was 1989, 1990 and if you remember back that far, there was a bit of a recession. So the building trade fell off the cliff. And so talking about finding something that you were good at. I particularly liked at the time, fit in locks, and I thought well, it was a recession, so people where houses were getting broken in a lot. So I thought I could do a locksmith, so I could do just about afford, a little advert in the local Guardian Newspaper. And it just said, locksmith 24-hour and a phone number. That was it, that was my marketing. That was my whole effects. But it just tied me over, I’ve got the odd call, and for a while I thought I might go in that direction. But three or four calls a week used to be enough to just keep my rent going to my mum.
Roger: So quite low value job.
Robin: Low value job. Then again, I might be able to go back two weeks later, for a new front door once the insurance company had agreed it. So it could lead to other things. So for me that was at that time and then roof construction was the thing that I actually decided that I would focus on. And exactly, the same as that little one line at the time, way before the Internet and you sort of marketing on the Internet and everything else. I did a line saying, top-quality roof construction and that was it. I had a mobile phone from the age of about 19.
Roger: Big brick, wasn’t it?
Robin: Yeah, it was so big Ericsson thing and it worked out really well for me. I just get one or two calls a week from Germany builders who saw it because they advertised alongside me. It was in the classified section –
Roger: Okay. So they’re looking at there and they saw yours.
Robin: Yes. And I’d get a phone call and I still know quite a lot of those people now. And I used to only run the advert for as long as I needed to.
Roger: I reckon the reason that was happening, unless it’s just me, I don’t know, but it is just a guess of it. The reason you were getting that is because a lot of carpenters were coming out of college and all they knew how to do was truss roofs.
Robin: Truss roofs—
Roger: Actually pitch or done in a cut roof as we say.
Robin: They hadn’t. Going back to my apprenticeship because it was a loft conversion company. And the guy, Brian, his name is, really fabulous guy, entrepreneur. He said to me, you were the apprentice, there’s a dormer here with a pitch roof, you should know, you go and get on with that. And so I was given the opportunity, it was literally textbook out. I was learning at college, textbook out and I think I spent three days building this little hip dormer, which I could do in the morning now. But again, I didn’t realize it at the time, I was anxious, can I really do it? But that guy, I don’t think he believed in me, he just wanted to get the job done –
Roger: Sure, yeah.
Robin: And he’s just sort of letting me get on with it.
Roger: Before you’re in there, he threw you in there – you can do it.
Robin: But it was kind of slow. So let’s go back of becoming self-employed. Sometimes it is a bit accidental. Sometimes there is a series of circumstances that puts you into a place or makes you meet someone. You might walk on a job to do five minutes work, bumping at someone and go, oh are you busy tomorrow? I need someone to go to. And that’s how it is. So you might not be nowhere, you’re going to go next week, but you’re always busy. How does that work? You know what I mean? So it’s a little bit unpredictable, but I think that’s part of the appeal of it being self-employed.
Roger: No. It’s an adventure all the time, isn’t it? And funnily enough, my water business, which was going really, really well all the time. The water companies were not privatized. Once they privatized them, they took all that work in-house, and so it dried up overnight, it disappeared.
Robin: So your experience of being self-employed was the fact that you kept your eggs in one basket effectively?
Roger: No, no. What it was is I found something right. Because I went back and did my training, so the apprenticeship wasn’t good. But when I went back and did my training, I did everything, guess what a lot, so I could do all that stuff. It’s just that I didn’t like rubbing around under floor walls, where I could be out there in the sunshine or even in the rain just doing a simple job load. But that’s what I enjoyed doing, that’s what I made money at. But once that went away, if you like the rug got pulled from under, it was just a question saying, right? So what else is there out there that I can do that I like doing? And then just moving into those other things. So for a while it is about doing central heating system. I hate the idea of competing with everybody. That’s the thing that really used to get to me is that you just go in, and they’re putting a price in there with five other people in the pricing. And you are only ever going to get it if you were to achieve this. So that’s again, another story and we touched on that the other week. I think you’ve got to be adaptable. You’ve got to realize, if you start out in business, what you’re doing now. I mean, a classic example of that, my dad always said to me, go into the print.
Robin: Yeah, my dad did.
Roger: Because I knew they were the richest, best paid workers in the country, but it all that went, didn’t it? And all the rest of it and the computer.
Robin: When we chatted earlier, when you kind of drove me here, you were talking about making small steps, and I think that’s really important.
Roger: Yeah. Stepping stone. So you want to cross a river and rather than looking at the river and going, right? If I take a real good run up at it, and I’m going to jump on that river, and basically, initially, I don’t know Olympic, you’re not going to do it anyway. Realistically, you’ve got to take stepping stones. You’re going to find the stages that are going to get you across that river. They’re the objectives. They’re the things that you can take it, month by month or year by year, whatever you do. So right, so where I want to get to is the other side of that river. That’s what I want to be doing in five years’ time or ten years’ time or whatever. How am I going to get there? I’m going to get there by establishing small stages that I can make things up and tick off and say, right, I’ve done that. So if you’re employed and you want to become self-employed. First of all, you’re going to work out being self-employed at. It’s obvious that you’ve got to make those little stage. So what do I want to do now? Do I need capital? Do I need to get this business plan? And all those things, incidentally just as an aside. When you become self-employed, you then at some point, you needed a mortgage. How did that go for you?
Robin: It was really difficult and that was the first mortgage I took out was roughly 1992. I was about 22. That was just after the recession, so the house prices were low, but my earnings were equally low as well. And the banks were very strict at the time, obviously coming out back of a recession. The banks were strict, but fortunately, because I, and this is a bit of a tip, I don’t know, whether it’s loyalty that counts now, but it was then. So my mum and dad never had much money. They were just very humble people, but they banked with a branch of a major high-street bank. It was NatWest.
Roger: NatWest.
Robin: I got introduced to them because I had a piggy bank and I had a bit of the account. My YTS money (my youth training scheme money) went into the account. I had to have an account for that. Then when I started doing my own work and I started putting a bit of money in, and then the conversation about you must have a business account. I took the business account out. Then I needed a loan for a van and I went to get a loan for a van. And he said to me, Mr. Buchanan, his name was, and he’d been at the branch in the village, literally all his life. He said to me, how much you want to borrow? And I said, well, I need a van, it’s 3,000, the one I said. He said, well, you only pay money in here, sometimes here, just come and see me in six months’ time. And I want to see that you’ve paid a little bit in every single week. So that’s what he did for me. So I went off and I was all disappointed. I need that van, all the rest of it. I still got tools in the back of my old car. And I knew if I have the van, I’ve to do more, get materials, but I couldn’t borrow any money. Mum and dad said, they couldn’t afford to help me. So I had to go back in six months’ time so that was the lesson. I’ve done it and there this rubber stamp history in half hours.
Roger: Okay. So it was good to his words.
Robin: But it taught me the lesson that I trusted him and he trusted me. And then so, fortunately, by the time I was 22, I was working seven days a week. I was passionate about what I was doing and everything else. And that only grew from people being complimentary about the fact that I was okay at what I did. I suppose the passion came from the kindness of people –
Roger: Succeeding.
Robin: I love my craft. I really loved what I did at college, I love timber work. I love carpentry and joinery. Self-employment was just a mistake of all that, but the passion was growing. Every time someone really liked what I did, I felt inspired to do a bit more, and it kind of, that helped the self-employment. It was the self –
Roger: That’s really just almost like an aphrodisiac because of that phrase –
Robin: It is.
Roger: But it’s funnily enough, that’s why we’re back here doing a second podcast because people said the first one was good. It’s really the same process, isn’t it? People will tell you good, it encourages you.
Robin: I didn’t answer the question about the mortgage, but it was exactly the same sort of situation. I was able to— he had my records. He saw that I was regularly paying in. He also spoke to my bookkeeper, my accountant at the time. They did between them a calculation and it was kind of like the most they can give you is three and a half times earnings. And my wife, then girlfriend, she was just out of college, so she had started her own. She was self-employed, straight self-employed as well. We’ve both been self-employed. So she was staying out, so she couldn’t really be involved in the calculation. I did focus on finding a property we could afford, and then negotiating the price down as much as we can negotiate it down, until it’s under stamp duty of all the rest of it. So that was just looking back, it was a big commitment, but actually, it was in terms of timing, I was very lucky ,and I owe my success to that unfortunate –
Roger: That first one. Yeah. No, because you’ve got a few houses now. I’ve got to say that. It’s hard to say that.
Robin: I really don’t think that helps anybody or anything. I think it should be edited out.
Dylan: You could be a role model.
Roger: So you’ve got a few houses now, Robin. So obviously that first one was –
Robin: Lego houses.
Roger: So I would say that I would never advise anybody to become self-employed. Nobody advised me. They all advised me against it and I did it anyway. And I think if you were to kind of person who needs advice to become self-employed, in other words, do you need somebody like us? Let’s face it, you don’t even know us telling you, yeah, go on, go out there, burn your bridges, become self-employed. Maybe if that’s what you need, then it’s not for you. But if you know, if you’re a risk taker, you’re going to be a risk taker. You’ve got to be one of those people that just says, right, I don’t care, I’m going to do it because I don’t have a plan B. Take away the safety net, and if you’re that kind of person that will take away the safety net and fly and you look at it. Because I read a lot of autobiographies and you see all these people have got one thing in common, they’ve all gone to hell with it. Let’s throw it all up in the air.
Robin: Equally though, Roger. If you do find yourself in a position, and you’ve got an opportunity to go and do some work because someone said, oh yeah, you’ve got a lovely job over here for you. Its three months’ work and you said, okay, what the terms? And they said, we’ve got to be self-employed. That’s unfortunately in our industry, in the construction industry, that’s the way you tend to get pushed.
Roger: So just summing up, I’d say define what you want to do. Make sure you do want to do it, that you enjoy it, and work seven days a week. You must work seven days a week. Don’t give yourself that lapses say, no, I have a day off. Because when I starting out, I never ever turned the job down when I started out. It didn’t matter what time, Sunday lunchtime or whatever. In fact, I remember once saying, there was a woman, I’m not coming tomorrow because it’s my son’s birthday. I’ve been working 7 days a week, I want a day off, it’s his birthday. And she’s, oh, I want my job done. And I said, well, you’d have to go elsewhere. And then she came back to me, and then when I came around, she said, well, done you for sticking to your principles.
Robin: How nice is that.
Roger: My goodness, she pressured me like that in the end. So let’s say, thanks to everybody that has commented on our first podcast. And hopefully, on our second podcast, we get more comments, hopefully good ones as well. Suggestions of what you want us to talk about, what you want us to cover. We will tighten this up. Don’t forget the Skill Builder website still going strong. And hopefully, we will be back with another podcast. So listen out for us, how about that?
Robin: Yeah, absolutely.
Roger: It’s not match days, is it?
Robin: No. I mean I could get out on the pitch, but I’m about as useless at playing football as I am at making cakes.
Roger: Oh really?
Robin: Yeah.
Roger: Pretty good then.
Dylan: Can you guys tell me what league the MK Dons are in?
Robin: I couldn’t tell you what league –
Roger: A league of their own –
Robin: I’d imagine they’re one down from Premiership.
Now the bathroom is starting to take shape and with the Elements board covering up the stud work, plumbing and wiring, a real sense of progress is hitting the team.
Jubi is back to help Roger with the Abacus Elements board which he loves working with.
Ask Skill Builder is back with episode 3. We take a look through the emails that you’ve sent into us and Roger does his best to steer you in the right direction.
Roy Hanson asks about hanging joists on the first floor of his major house extension.
Luke Oliver shows us his handy work on some nice cabinets.
Kasian Capatina shows us the problems he’s having with his recently decorated bathroom including some cracked travertine.
Mark Hull has some problems with cracks appearing all over the wall of his living room.
Travers Rudd wants to change his radiators over but the existing one is in a right rotten mess.
Shane Saunders sent in the plans for his upcoming extension project and wants to know where he can save some money on the project.
Episode #5 of our bathroom renovation series, piping up and plumbing tips, in association with Abacus bathrooms. Over the course of this video series, we will show you how to renovate a bathroom from start to finish.
Roger gets to flex his plumbing muscles in this fifth instalment of our how to install a bathroom series.
To help meet the demand from local building contractors and installers looking for quick and reliable access to tools and equipment on a hire basis, CCF has made the service a permanent fixture in Newcastle.
The Hire-It service, which was first introduced on a trial basis last year, has been well received by building professionals who can now get specialist equipment – from smaller hand tools to larger items like scissor lifts and guardrail systems – on a weekly or daily hire basis.
The leading insulation and building products distributor are now exploring the possibility of expanding the Hire-It service to other areas around Newcastle and the North East.
Leighton Davies, Hire Director, said: “The decision to hire out specialist equipment isn’t a new concept, but it can be difficult for customers to find trusted suppliers like CCF who can offer a huge choice of well maintained, safety assured and top name equipment on a regular basis.
We’ve received excellent feedback from Newcastle and thanks to the area being a hub for construction projects in the UK, we are keen to expand here in the future”.
Jack Best, Tool Hire Manager at CCF Newcastle, said: “The Hire-It service has proven to be really popular with local customers who want to make savings, especially when working on projects which require large or specialist tools that would be impractical or expensive to purchase outright”.
Popular equipment, such as laser level precision instruments for site surveying, dehumidifiers for quick and efficient building drying, to light and heavy-duty breaker equipment, and more, are all available to hire to use across a range of building projects.
For more information about CCF Newcastle and the Hire-It service, visit Team Valley Trading Estate, Gateshead, NE11 0JH or call 0191 491 4992 or visit www.ccfltd.co.uk.
In the first episode of the new Skill Builder podcast, Roger and Robin talk about the best approach, how to price-up building work and how to make the financial side of your business thrive.
The tips and techniques developed by Roger and Robin during the course of their long careers will help you avoid the misery of pricing yourself out of, or into certain projects.
Robin also goes over the all-important ‘price conditioning’ which is a powerful and useful technique that he’s used to great effect for twenty years.
Episode #4 of our bathroom renovation series in association with Abacus bathrooms. Over the course of this video series, we will show you how to renovate a bathroom from start to finish.
The pre-wall build starts here. This area is where all of the plumbing and mountings and things that need to be hidden go so that the finished room looks sleek and clean.
Roger is battling away at this mammoth job and feeling the pain of a job that could do with several more hands.
