For 40 years, W Gore Construction has been building houses to the very highest standard across County Meath. Building Ireland travelled to historic Tara and touched base with director / project manager Liam Gore to get an update on this outstanding, industry-leading family business.
During the four decades since its inception, W Gore Construction has earned an unrivalled reputation across the Royal County for delivering workmanship of the very highest calibre. From one-off residential new builds to extensions, renovations, refurbishments, restorations and even commercial projects, the company is renowned for not only matching but exceeding customer expectations time and time again.
A concerted, painstaking investment of due diligence, professionalism and attention to the smallest details on every project undertaken – whether large or small – has enabled the long-established family-run operation to consistently achieve exceptional results, their breath-taking buildings garnering rave reviews and positive appraisal, generations of satisfied customers making W Gore Construction the residential building contractor of choice in Meath and sometimes surrounding counties.
“Primarily, most of our work is residential new builds, which we do on a request basis,” notes Liam Gore, son of company founder, William. “We’re now building houses for sons and daughters of people my father would have built for. A lot of our business comes from word of mouth and recommendations.”
Indeed, when you work to the level of excellence invariably delivered by W Gore Construction – befitting the tag line ‘A Higher Standard’ – it’s a natural follow-on that your reputation for quality will prevail across the generations.
Offering a comprehensive, bespoke construction service on every project from start to finish, W Gore Construction provides customers with long-term cost-effective solutions by implementing the most stringent levels of quality workmanship through every facet of the build. Such is their track record for pursuing and adhering to quality that the business is also increasingly sought after to carry out restoration works.
“We’ve done quite a bit of restoration work on prestigious, old, historic buildings and we have some big jobs coming up in that area,” Liam confirms. “We’re moving into commercial sites, too, and, for example, we’re working with our clients Thesaurus Software on their new HQ in Duleek. So, we’re expanding into different areas and have grown quite a bit over the past four or five years.”
Direct, gainful, employment is generated for a close-knit, vastly-experienced and highly-skilled crew of eight while – between slabbers, carpenters, blocklayers, etc. – W Gore Construction keep more than 100 tried ad trusted subcontractors in regular employment. In terms of manpower, this model is ideal to meet exact customer requirements at any given time, with the management team always on hand and on site to monitor all work and see to it that the highest standards are maintained.
As has been the case since Day One, private residential construction accounts for the majority of work carried out. Moreover, W Gore’s services are in such high demand that they can handpick which projects they’d like to be involved in: “We do a lot of private residential work and we’re fortunate enough to have put ourselves in a position where we can more or less take what we want and what we need.
“We take in dozens of requests every week through clients and architects and the reality is that some of these we simply can’t do. We keep all our subcontractors busy but we’re not prepared to overstretch ourselves and make compromises on quality.
“We select the projects not just on value but we also try to pick out jobs that are challenging and interesting and that will help us stand out from the crowd. For example, a beautiful Georgian new build with a lot of attention to the finer details, with features such as high ceilings and a circular staircase, is something that we’d pride ourselves on. We’ve done some stunning new builds and always welcome jobs that contain unique and different designs and styles.”
In July, Liam took on the period-style renovation, extension and overhaul of a beautiful three-storey heritage dwelling in Bellewstown, a high-end renovation project that will continue for around 16 months. “If you’ve got the tradesmen that can complete such specialist work, you might as well put them to good use,” he notes. “Those are exciting projects but we only take on one every year because they are very labour-intensive. But, definitely, it’s work that we take a lot of pride in – as we do with all our projects.
“Around 90% of our work is in Meath, but if something challenging comes up elsewhere we might take it on. We really value those detailed projects. I have three projects going on nearby at the moment on the Hill of Tara and they are real intricate jobs. They are highly specialised and stand-out projects and I suppose it’s fair to say we like to show off. I like to do work that showcases what we are capable of and we have it off to a tee at this stage, down to the very last detail.”
One thing that becomes quickly evident when conversing with Liam Gore is the boundless passion, energy and enthusiasm the company possesses for building – a key driver behind the emergence of W Gore Construction as the building contractor of choice.
“That’s what has brought it so far,” he concedes. “The passion and enthusiasm are certainly there and I inherited that from the previous generations. My father’s father and my father were building contractors and I spent my formative years sitting at the kitchen table looking at plans. I developed a huge interest in building and then you come up with your own ideas on how to take the business forward…”
A project manager who likes to keep the creative juices flowing whilst offering a personal touch, Liam goes out of his way to accommodate clients in any way possible, lending the expertise and knowledge accumulated over a lifetime to any facet of the project required or requested, often assisting with design & build or internal design elements to elevate the project to another level.
“We’ve worked with architects on design & build and clients have looked to us for internal design,” he comments. “We’ve changed staircases and are prepared to recommend appropriate changes to suit the theme of the house. We always talk at length with the client. We’ll ask them what is their feel for the house and what their thoughts are on the project as a whole as well as the individual elements. I try to get an understanding of what they would like and 99% of the time they are happy with our suggestions.”
The whole W Gore Construction business model is based on being better and Liam is constantly striving to improve the already high standards inherent in the company. “Our motto is ‘A Higher Standard’ and that applies not just to construction techniques but also to service. We always set out to be better and, as a family business, we take a very conscientious approach to our clients’ buildings and we work with them financially as well.”
W Gore Construction is widely regarded as the premier construction company in Meath and this is a status that Liam is not prepared to relinquish: “A bad comment is the worst thing that could happen. We have never had anything bad said about us and that’s because we always leave quality work behind us,” he concludes.
“We’re a good construction company that does good work and treats people well. We give a good service to our clients and we also look after all the guys who work for us and see to it that they have all the best tools and systems available to them so that they always work in a safe and healthy environment.”
W Gore Construction,
Rathfeigh,
Tara,
County Meath.
Tel: 041 9825489
Mobile: 086 3502155 / 087 2515192
Email: [email protected]
Web: wgoreconstruction.ie
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, December 2019/January 2020, Vol 5 No 11
