We got to hear of John Rae through a recommendation. We had always had bad experiences whenever we had previously been involved with builders. Therefore we were understandably nervous when looking to engage a builder to convert our loft.
We engaged John because it was clear from the start that he was in control of matters and that he knew what he was doing. We were not to be disappointed. The conversion was finished to a high standard and we are totally happy with everything from the finish itself to how things went.
The following will give a flavour of our experience:
1 John was utterly focussed from the outset. Throughout the job he had a timeline and ensured that his team (and us, his clients) kept to it. When a member of his team didn't turn up one day, trying to fit in another job, John found him and brought him back. He acted like a sergeant major with everyone but it got things done and in the end that is what we wanted.
2 John worked with us to obtain the best solutions as we wanted them, irrespective of whether it made life more difficult for him and his team. (We were treated a bit like a parent would treat trying children when we did this). By way of example, John said that it was best to wait until the loft space was fully cleared before working out how to construct the bathroom, with a bath or shower. However, it was essential that when cleared we make a quick decision so as not to slow down the works. When the space had been cleared we worked out that a bath wouldn't fit although that was what we had wanted, so settled for a shower. A few days later, after the bathroom shell had been constructed John contacted me to tell me that he had found a bit of extra space and that a bath may be able to fit. He ended up changing the shell. I suspect many builders would have kept that thought to themselves. Most point out the problems, difficulties and as they consider them impossibilities only, John looks for solutions and that is invaluable. A similar thing happened when the sink unit was constructed as we had instructed but it looked awful. We all sat around and redesigned it. This took an extra day of work but (apart from the naughty children syndrome) everyone just got on and did it, in a positive manner. The result was spectacular.
3 We wanted the conversion and access to appear to be part of the original house. John achieved this. The old to new transition was seamless. The stairs look part of the original.
4 John needed to get our job finished to move on to his next one. Due to the conversion looking so good we decided to update other elements of the house in terms of decoration, electrics etc to fit. All this extended the time to complete the job, which put John and his team under greater pressure. When they left, it was not a case of "We will come back next week to finish it off", everything had been done. We had a small leak sometime later and one call to John and it was dealt with. John came back a few months later as promised to check over everything and to touch up as necessary. There wasn't much to do.
5 Most people move out whilst works of this nature are done. We didn't want to and John worked to minimize our inconvenience. He even managed to replace the stairs during the day so we could use the upstairs at night. This was despite telling us beforehand that this could not be done.
So all in all our experience of using John was a good one. We would certainly recommend John to others,
J. Berman
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