Old House Renovations

Customer reference for Drumrose Construction as told to pickapro by Simon Dunne from Waterford on 01-Nov-2011

When was the work done?
Paul has done work for me on several occasions. The first job was a house in Waterford City in 2009 and the most recent was in 2011.

What was involved?
The jobs involved full gut out renovations of two houses in Waterford City. Both homes would have been eighty to ninety years old and Paul had to strip them down to the bone. Everything inside needed to be redone and upgraded to new. One of the houses needed a new roof as well.

How did you choose Drumrose Construction?
Paul was recommended to me by a neighbour of mine. I've had experiences over the years with a few builders who weren't the the most pleasant to deal with but Paul was different. He comes across as a very nice fellow and very pleasant to have around. I'm in England working a good bit and I want the builder on site to interact with people checking on the work in a friendly manner.

Had you definite ideas in mind before you talked to Paul McCauley?
I did pretty much have a style in mind and knew what I wanted. The nice thing for me was that by completely gutting it, we had a blank canvass I could work with.

Did Paul introduce new ideas?
Paul came up with very good suggestions epecially with regards to maximising space. In one of the houses, Paul was able to reconfigure things in a way to get me an extra bedroom. It's a rental house in a student market so that helped me to achieve additional rental income.

How did the project run?
To be honest I can't fault Paul on anything and that's why I gave him the second job this year. He's an exceptional person to deal with, very personable, approachable and easy to talk to. One characteristic of Paul's I really appreciate is the fact that he works clean and runs a clean site. I like things neat myself and when on site it was important for me to be able move around. In the early days I used to drop in sometimes unannounced to see if he was on site and if the progress was what Paul had said it was. Since I work in England Paul would send me weekly reports to let me know how things were going. Whenever I dropped in, Paul was there working and the progress was just what he said it was.

What was the biggest benefit to you of using Drumrose Construction?
Paul's ideas. He'll do what you want but if he thinks there's another way of doing something that will save you money or make it better, he'll tell you. There were one or two occasions where I told Paul that he was doing himself out of a bit of work but he just told me that he wants to do the job to a certain standard in order to get additional work in the future. Paul looks at the big picture and that benefits both of us. Had Paul done it my way he would have made more money for himself but the job wouldn't have been as good. By listening to Paul and with his suggestions I got a better job done for less money.

What's your favourite part now?
Paul did an angled roof for me on the job this year that turned out very well. I had been thinking of ways to save building time and money and thought that a flat roof would be the best way to achieve that. Paul went away and did a feasibility and cost study comparing the flat roof to the angled one I prefered and determined that the angled roof would only cost €300.00 more. It was done and not only does it look spectacular, it's a job for life. The angled roof also allowed me to get vaulted ceilings with six to eight spotlights in the rafters.

Would you recommend Drumrose Construction to others?
I've recommended Paul to a couple of my buddies in Dublin already and all I've heard back is good things.