Based in Castlejordan, Co Meath, Rays Roofing & Home Renovations specialises in all aspects of construction, including new builds, extensions, home renovations, bathroom refurbishments and, of course, roofing. Building Ireland spoke with Managing Director Ray Kelly to learn all about the ins and outs of this company and its nomination at this year’s Irish Construction Excellence Awards.
These are busy times at Rays Roofing & Home Renovations and the plan for Ray Kelly and his experienced team in Castlejordan is to try and keep things that way right through to next year.
Established four years now, the company has enjoyed a relatively quick rise to the point where it now employs a dozen direct staff and is currently immersed in numerous projects out east.
It had been the vision for Ray Kelly when he first set-up his venture alongside his wife Anne who works him in the business.
Building Ireland touched base with Ray recently to hear more about the origins of Rays Roofing & Home Renovations along with its current projects and hopes moving forward.
“I started out on my own on and off since I was 17 and that’s going on 25 years now,” the Managing Director outlined.
“I’m a carpenter and roofer by trade and, when I started out, we were mainly doing roofing but we filtered into the building end of things. It kind of happened by chance, because people were looking for us to do extension work for them.
“We were doing a roof for a chap that was kind of out in the middle of nowhere and he was looking for someone to do an extension for him. He had been let down loads of times and he kept asking me, so we eventually did it for him and it snowballed from there really.
“I wasn’t planning on going down the route, but it just ended up happening and we got very busy at it. The name started to spread and we got more and more phone calls about extensions and really now the business is specialising in roofing, extensions and renovations – that type of work. I haven’t really had a quiet day since I went out on my own.”
Born in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company has since grown from strength to strength to the point now where its project books are filling up and it finds itself shortlisted for awards on a national scale.
It offers its customers workmanship of the highest quality and always strives to provide the best customer service through the work that it carries out.
To that end, it’s not a surprise to hear that business is thriving for Rays Roofing & Home Renovations at the moment.
“It’s very busy at the minute there,” Ray stated. “We’re after getting in with Kildare County Council doing renovations for them, so we’re busy with that. We’ve a lot of extensions on-going and, with the roofing end of things as well, when the summer comes everybody wants to do those type of jobs.
“We’re very lucky and sometimes it can be very hectic when you’re trying to juggle everything. You don’t want to let people down and you want to get to everyone but, unfortunately, you can’t get to everyone because there’s such a lack of tradesmen out there. You have to try and keep your own thing going and not be letting people down.
“In that regard, we’re very busy. Sometimes too busy, if you could say that.”
At the time of writing, Ray and his team had just finished converting a chemist in Edenderry, Co Offaly into an apartment for a private client and there are plenty more projects on the books along with it.
“That project in Edenderry is just wrapping up for us and then we’ve another for Kildare County Council in Newbridge that involved turning around a property,” he said. “So, it’s literally going in and gutting the whole premises and there’s asbestos to come out of it and we’ll be getting it ready for the client then.
“We’ve an extension starting in Enfield, Co Meath as well, along with another extension and attic conversion in Enfield as well.
“It’s all coming pretty fast but we have the team for it and we’re lucky enough that we have good people working here. What was very important to me over the last few years was getting the right team in place and that doesn’t happen overnight.
“It was probably my biggest challenge and it’s something that we’ve been focused on from the beginning. I’m at a place now where I can say I have a team that I’m happy with and take on these projects with confidence because of that.”
Earlier this year, the company received the exciting news that it had been shortlisted at the prestigious Irish Construction Excellence (ICE) Awards in its ‘Residential: Up to €5m’ category.
The nomination was for a project for a private client just outside of Edenderry that involved the conversion of an existing garage space to an apartment for a client, comprising of two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen/living area and a utility room.
Client Derek Dunne had some physical impairments which we needed to address in the conversion. Ray and his team worked in collaboration with Derek from the beginning to ensure that they delivered a project that met his needs and that he was happy with.
The homeowners were very happy with the outcome of the conversion/renovation as this led to Rays Roofing & Home Renovations receiving the contract to do a full strip out and renovation of another property for the client, which they were more than happy to accept and completed in full this past February.
“There was a lot of unforeseens within the project itself to get it where Derek needed it to be comfortable with bathrooms, bedrooms and all that,” Ray explained.
“We worked with him on that project and it went great. When we had it finished then, as I say, we must’ve done something right because we ended up getting the renovation of the house the. We finished that recently but the garage was the stepping stone to it and it all went to plan in the end.”
So, all of that considered, the burning question is what has been the secret to the success of Rays Roofing & Home Renovations to date?
How has a small start-up grown into what is today very much a thriving construction business with an excellent reputation among its clients?
For Ray, it’s down to a combination of factors but he sees customer satisfaction as being paramount above all else.
“I treat everyone the way I’d want to be treated,” he stated plainly. “The most important thing is that they’re 100% happy when we’re walking away when that job is finished. If there’s ever a time that anyone rings me to say that they’re not happy with something, that’s fine and we’ll be back and make sure that you’re happy with it.
“Without the customers, there is no business. It’s a simple as that. They’re the most important part of the whole thing and that’s my motto and I live by it.”
As for the months ahead for the business, Rays Roofing & Home Renovations’ founder and MD is as optimistic as ever.
“We hope to keep growing and see where it leads us. We want to stay successful and keep the growth of the business going. I’m always looking to open new doors and I’m always looking to expand and grow. I can’t ask for any more than that really,” he concluded.
Rays Roofing & Home Renovations
Castlejordan,
Co Meath
Mobile: 085 277 9722
Web: raysroofing.ie
Email: [email protected]
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, July 2024, Vol 10 No 7
