Five years ago Tommy Carroll and Brian Fitzharris joined forces to set up County Kildare based BF Construction & Creative Developments Ltd and they haven’t looked back since.
BF Construction & Creative Developments Ltd is a professional building and roofing company that provides the highest service and quality standards in design and construction for your property. They provide a range of building and roofing services, from minor building repairs, complete property renovations and new builds.
Well-known for their first-class workmanship and customer satisfaction, they pride themselves on the superior service they offer to their clients. Much of their work comes by referral from previous customers.
“I’m a Quantity Surveyor while my business partner Brian (Fitzharris) is a roofer/carpenter by trade,” explained Tommy Carroll when asked to trace the roots of the company.
“We started off procuring social housing works for Kildare County Council. We got on to their panel for carrying out full refurbs on any vacant houses around Kildare. We did well out of that and we subsequently got on to the Wicklow County Council panel three years ago.
“We then branched out to the private sector two and a half years ago. Basically, we reached out to architects who we already had built a rapport with and who were operating around the County Kildare area. We got on to their tender panels and started securing jobs. The company has really grown from there.”
BF Construction & Creative Development specialise in new build dwellings, extensions and full renovations.
They offer a complete service at competitive prices, from design and build, first fixing, second fixing, insulation, plumbing, painting and decorating, removals and storage, industrial cleaning, exterior works including Paving, Tar mac, Cobbleblock, Gates and fencing etc.
“Our projects would range from €10,000 up to €600,000- €700,000 at any one time,” Tommy revealed.
“We have 26 jobs live at the minute between the private and social housing sectors. The value of those jobs combined is just touching €3m. Four of those are private full refurbishments and four are private new builds while another one is for Oliver Plunketts GAA club in Dublin, we are refurbishing the dressing rooms up there. We are also refurbishing the Kildare Youth Centre in Naas while the rest are social housing projects.
“On the social housing section, we cover Blessington, Dunlavin and Baltinglass in Wicklow. On the Kildare County Council Social Housing section we cover all of Kildare, north to south, east to west. In the private sector we cover all of Kildare too but we also touch on south Dublin. We do a small bit in the midlands, in Laois and Carlow for example, if it’s within a reasonable distance.”
It’s fair to say that business is going well at the moment? “It’s going very well but it’s challenging enough,” Tommy – who graduated as a QS from WIT back in 2004 – answered.
“Covid has been a big hurdle to get over and it led to a continuous increase in the price of materials since the start of the year plus a major shortage on a lot of materials such as timber, insulation etc.
“To add to this, trying to lock down sub-contractors to execute works has been a major struggle, this is simply due to a back log. I can’t really see it iron itself out until early 2022.”
With 10 direct employees on the weekly payroll, experience and knowledge are key ingredients in the Clane headquartered company’s successful formula and they have one ace up their sleeve which sets them apart from their competitors.
“The biggest advantage we have is that I’m a QS and I would do all our own in-house quantity surveying. We can turn tenders around very quickly and variations costs on any of our live jobs to an anxious client. That’s a big benefit of dealing with us from a client point of view.
“When the job is live, we pride ourselves on our top quality workmanship. We hire a lot of the top sub-contractors in Kildare and we churn out good work. We’re knowledgeable, Brian is a carpenter/roofer and he has good building technical back-up as well so between the two of us it has worked very well to date.”
Switching his focus to the future, Tommy doesn’t envisage further expansion as part of their plans. He and Brian aim to consolidate what they have as they continue to capitalise on the current buoyancy in the building sector.
“We’re happy the way we are now. We are going steady enough.
“After I graduated from college in 2004 I was working for a lot of the main contractors in Dublin. I served my time as a QS at the end of the boom stage but I personally have never seen it as busy as it is now. I’m fairly confident that there is a five-year run on private sector work. I hope it lasts longer but I can see it receding like it always does.”
BF Construction & Creative Developments Ltd.
Head Office
Clane
Co Kildare
Tel: 087 7693654
Website: www.bfconstruction.ie
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, January 2022, Vol 8 No 1
BF Construction & Creative Developments
