A small builder, doing a small number of jobs at a time.

I started JAG after fifteen years working for other builders. Most of the time the work was good. Some of the time it wasn’t, and you can usually tell which jobs are which by the second week. The ones that were going to go wrong always had the same things in common — too many projects on at once, not enough of the same faces on site week to week, and a habit of telling the client what they wanted to hear rather than what was actually true.

I wanted to do it differently. So I do.

We’re a small team. We work on a small number of projects at a time. The same faces are on your site from the first day to the last. If you call me on a Sunday because you’ve changed your mind about the kitchen island, I’ll pick up. If the plasterer needs another morning because the skim isn’t right yet, I’ll tell you, and we’ll wait the morning.

Most of our work is in Walthamstow and the postcodes around it. A lot of it is in Victorian and Edwardian terraces — the same kind of house I live in myself. I know where these houses fall down, what hides behind the lath and plaster, which corners the previous owner cut. I know the joiners who can match a Victorian cornice without making it look like a mould kit, and I know the brick merchants who’ll sell you a pallet of London stocks that actually look like London stocks.

Most of the people who call us have been let down somewhere before. A bathroom that leaked. An extension that didn’t match the brick. A builder who took the deposit and started missing days. We get it. The first call is usually nervous, and that’s fine. We’d rather you ask the awkward questions early than find out later we weren’t a good fit.

If we’re not the right team for your project, we’ll say so. There are jobs we turn down — usually because we’re not the best people for them, or because the timeline doesn’t suit a small team, or because the budget won’t get the work to the standard it needs. Saying no early saves everyone six months of regret.

What we are good at is what we focus on: home renovations, bathrooms, kitchens, internal remodelling, period restoration. Done properly. Finished completely. Snagged before you have to.

That’s it. That’s the business.