Reference for Simon Daniels Renovations

One of the best decisions I have ever made was to engage Simon Daniels Renovations to carry out the renovation work on my house.

About a year ago I bought a house which was, in polite terms, a 'doer-upper', or, in more realistic terms, a complete wreck. It needed re-wiring, re-plumbing, some of the ceilings and floors needed repairing, and was generally in a state of complete disrepair and neglect. I obtained four quotes from building firms before, ranging in price from £17,000 to £65,000. I decided on Simon's firm (the second to lowest quote) because, unlike the other contractors who came to see the place, he made meticulous notes while viewing the house, paid attention to what I said, and gave me a detailed, itemised quote showing exactly what the money would be used for. The other firms I had contacted gave me only vague quotes, and did not specify where the money would be going.

I could have been an easy target to cowboy builders. A young, single woman, inexperienced with this sort of work, my parents living abroad, I freely admit that if a builder had spun me a line about expensive work needing to be done, I probably would have believed him and stumped up the cash. Simon did not do this, however, and fully justified the instinct I had that he and the firm would be honest with me. Indeed, knowing that I did not have a lot of money at my disposal, he kept costs down as much as possible.

This, however, does not mean that the work was second-rate. My father, who has himself renovated a number of houses and is nobody's fool, was so impressed at the standard of the work that he still talks about it to this day. He maintains that the plastering which was done in my house is superior to that in my parents' house, and was amazed in the amount and quality of work done in the short time it took Simon and his team to complete the job (I was quoted 10 weeks for the job. They were finished in just over 6).

This even after discovering a good deal of urgent work that was hidden when the house was first surveyed (the water tank had been leaking in the loft, resulting in a bedroom ceiling, previously hidden by cupboards, and some of the joists in the attic needing to be replaced; the kitchen floor was rotten underneath the linoleum that covered it and part of the kitchen ceiling collapsed, the result of a long-running leak from the bathroom). I was shown every instance of rot and damp, was asked myself if I wanted it to be repaired, and was given an exact figure for the repairs as we went along. There was no stereotypical tutting builder, puffing out his cheeks and warning me 'it would be pricey'. The work was always done at the lowest price possible, and very well done at that. My neighbour has told me that since my kitchen floor was replaced, his kitchen cabinets, which had been visibly and alarmingly moving away from each other, have miraculously come back together again. A lucky escape for both of us, it seems!

In brief, therefore, I would recommend Simon Daniels Renovations in the strongest possible terms to anybody needing building work done and I do so whenever the opportunity arises. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have come across them, and know that my renovation and subsequent move could have been extremely stressful if carried out by a lesser firm, rather than the easy and painless transition it turned out to be.

Helena Stroud