Custom Built Homes Ltd. specialises in new builds and also offers services in extensions and renovations. Building Ireland touched base with Managing Director Seamus Murphy to learn more about this thriving business, its history and the projects it has on-going at the moment.
Business is good at Custom Built Homes Ltd. based in Curragraigue, Co Wexford and the plan for owner and founder Seamus Murphy and his team is to try and keep things that way. Operating within a 50km radius of Enniscorthy, with four full-time staff, along with a team of sub-contractors, the company has been in business since 2005. Managing Director Seamus Murphy has been in the construction industry all of his working life, even back to when he was a child helping out on the building sites with his father.
Building Ireland spoke with Seamus recently to hear all about the ins and outs of Custom Built Homes Ltd. and his hopes for the business going forward.
“I started the company in 2005 and back then it was all new houses for us. But when the recession hit we started doing extensions, renovations and smaller jobs. There was just myself and maybe one or two others working with me.
“Thankfully the company kept going and has gone from strength to strength since then. In the last year Custom Built Homes Ltd. has mainly completed new builds but are still happy to take on any project.
“With big renovations there’s a lot of challenges and decisions to be made, so it takes a lot more time consulting with the customer when it comes to a renovation, but we always learn a lot,” Seamus states.
“New houses are usually a bit more straightforward,” he said and this means his team can typically take on four or five new houses a year, ranging in size and complexity.
The commitment to delivering quality houses and renovations with a very high standard of finish throughout has ensured that the company continues to secure work.
“A lot of my business is through word of mouth,” Seamus says. “People are aware of, or have seen, the work Custom Built Homes Ltd. has done on other projects and they contact me as a result. They like the work we do and they are eager for us to build the home of their dreams.”
Seamus, as Managing Director and hands-on project manager, takes time with clients to talk them through the stages of a build, the design elements and the changes or tweaks that might need to be made to their plans, the pricing and the timeframe. These discussions are essential to ensure that everyone is clear about what is involved in the process. Seamus believes that it’s vitally important to have a good relationship with the people you are building a house for and to listen to the needs of every client.
“It’s a very serious thing because a lot of people only do it (build a house) once in their lives. It can be a very stressful time for them and I’m their best friend for a year basically, and I do everything I can to take the stress out of it.”
The original roots of Custom Built Homes Ltd date all the way back to the time when he first started working alongside his father.
“I’m on building sites since I was five years old. I remember being up helping out on roofs when I was 10 or 11,” said Seamus.
With an interest in horses, he originally studied Equine Science in University of Limerick and went to America to work with horses for a time. However, he returned to the building industry when he lived in Australia. While there, he worked on a vast number of timber frame houses and did a lot of timber work. He perfected his craft and spent his time concentrating on upskilling and learning the trade.
The Co. Wexford native returned to Ireland in 2005 and the work of Custom Built Homes Ltd. began. Seamus has seen and been involved in all kinds of projects and it seems that no job is too big or too small for him and his team when it comes to building houses.
The Covid-19 pandemic impacted businesses nationwide and Custom Built Homes Ltd. certainly felt the effects during the initial lockdown.
“The first six weeks of the lockdown we shut up altogether” Seamus says. “We had a bit of a break and, since we’ve reopened, it has been busy ever since, thankfully.”
Now, with somewhat of a return to normality, 2022 has been a busy year thus far, with a number of projects currently on-going for the company and a plan to keep delivering excellent homes for clients.
The Managing Director was able to fill us in on the details of what his company is currently occupied with.
“We have four new houses on at the minute and two more awaiting commencement” he stated. “One, we’re getting ready to start second-fix wiring and then we’ll get the heating going, so those people will be moving in, in approximately two months.”
Seamus states that new-build houses take about 11 months to complete and bigger or more complex houses may take a bit longer. He has one such project on at the moment. “We’re plastering that right now, it’s a 300 sq m house with intricate roofing, glass facades, split levels and underground garages as just some of the features.”
The team are starting to roof another project and then starting another new build two weeks after that.
“We try staggering the houses as we go along” Seamus states.
This time management ensures that no client is left waiting too long for any stage of their build to be completed. It is essential that every aspect of a project is started and finished with precision in order to deliver the high standard expected by the client from a Custom Built Homes Ltd. build. This also means that the top-class, trusted sub-contractors that Seamus works with have time to finish their part of each project before the team move on to the next job.
So, all of that considered, the burning question is what has been the secret to the success of Custom Built Homes Ltd down through the years? How has a small start-up grown into a thriving building venture which has an excellent reputation for delivering top class projects?
For Seamus, a lot of it comes down to the finishing touches that they provide on each project and the ability to keep clients at ease throughout its cycle.
“I think people have a great respect and admiration for the finishes we can put on a house,” he said. “People are very proud of their home when we have completed their job and we take great pride in our work.”
He also believes that it is essential to keep up-to-date with new and innovative advancements in building.
“Every build brings new challenges and we learn from these challenges each time. I think that’s essential in the building trade. I can’t just sit back. I don’t want Custom Built Homes Ltd. to just be best practice, we have to be next practice.”
Looking towards the months ahead, Custom Built Homes Ltd’s founder believes the economy is in a fairly strong position and is optimistic going forward, despite the fact that there are challenges for the building industry and other factors that are making it very difficult for people to build houses at present.
“We’ll be working away anyway and we’ll be grand,” he concluded.
Custom Built Homes Ltd
Curragraigue,
Enniscorthy,
Wexford
Mobile: 087 230 8867
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, September 2022, Vol 8 No 9
