Lesters Builders - Tunbridge Wells

Nigel T.

I cant fault Lesters at all, They came to Blackpool in February 2019 and totally transformed my Hotel. The quality of workmanship has been admired by other hotel owners in the street, Glenn and his teams are first class in what they do and carried out all works to the highest standards. His office staff where also helpful, friendly, and kept me informed at all times and nothing was too much trouble.
In August 2019, I contacted Glenn to ask if he would carry out some roof repairs, I gave details over the phone and via email and he was here doing the job within a week.
I am happy to highly recommend Glenn and Lesters Builders ( my hotel website does this. ),
This building firm with Glenn at the helm is FIRST CLASS

Brian H.

Lesters undertook a 7 month project to extend, reconfigure and renovate our 1940’s house.

Glenn provided valuable expertise and vision to help us throughout the project, including the provision of architectural options and building plans via Pump House Designs to support our planning application.

We took the decision not to move out during the works, so Lesters sourced a large secure container in which to store the majority of our furniture and possessions on-site. This was a very cost-effective solution to our storage issues, providing easy access to our belongings at all times.

Use of a JCT Contract provided a straightforward process to oversee the project, and provided detailed information in plain English for us to understand. Sarah and Jacquie were very efficient and always available in the office to answer or forward questions as required.

Lesters’ flexible approach enabled us to vary our requirements as the project progressed, including the addition of pocket doors to an existing room, together with enlarging our hallway, whilst managing to complete the works on schedule. Unforeseen problems are inevitable in a project of this size but were always dealt with promptly, ensuring a satisfactory resolution.

We now have an additional bedroom, 2 en-suites, new bathroom, utility room, open plan kitchen diner and all rooms were completely redecorated. A new porch, beautifully crafted from oak, together with a solid wood front door has added to the kerb appeal and generates many positive comments from passers-by.

The house also has a new heating system, was rewired, LED lighting was added and our badly worn external hanging tiles were replaced. The level of thermal insulation was improved throughout to reduce our carbon footprint.

Glenn, Steve and the team were professional, polite, tidy and friendly at all times and all work was finished to a high standard.

We are delighted with the end result and it feels like we are living in a different house. We would highly recommend Lesters and their team of expert support professionals.

EcoStar E.

Glenn, Sarah and the team at Lesters Builders completed our office refurbishment which we are over the moon with.

All I had was a basic sketch on my iPad and from that Glenn's team completely transformed an old warehouse into a fully functioning office with kitchen, toilets, upper level storage, new radiators, electrics, eco lighting and insulation.

Then their decorators came and gave it the perfect finish.

Their electricians also installed WIFI controls for the heating, lighting and alarms for us.

This was completed to a tight deadline (we had given notice on our previous rented office) and came in on budget. The access was not ideal and it was outside of their normal location but they did a sterling job.

Thank you Lesters Builders!

Gareth D.

Choosing a builder is an important decision, as the workforce will share your house for a number of months, and how they deal with you and respect your property is important.

For two years prior to commissioning a builder, I watched with interest the many conversion that were taking place in my street and the surrounding area. What become clear to me as I watched progress and speaking to the owners is that a number of builders did not respect the property and left a mess in the front of the house that the owners had to navigate every day. One of the local builders that carried out work at four of the houses locally left the jobs incomplete for many months and left a mess in the front garden that was there for all to be seen. They were too busy chasing the next commission to finish the job, snag it and tidy up.

I asked three builders to provide a quote and it was informative how they went through the process and how slow or fast that they responded to requests for clarification.

Lesters is small/medium builder, owned by Glen and Sarah who gave me excellent service, a great finished product at a competitive price.

The works which comprised structural changes to the ground floor with the walls being knocked down and new openings for doors and windows being created. They created a huge kitchen/diner and new utility room and toilet out of the former garage re-configuring the rooms , creating space and light into a part of the house that previously was not pleasant to spend time apart from cooking. The new kitchen is now at the heart of the house where we spend a lot of time and the bi-fold doors have created a new space into the garden. The rooms have the wow factor.

These changes were brought about by the tradesmen and craftspeople that worked for Lesters. They were brilliant not only because of the high quality of their work, which is what you are hopping for, but more importantly they were a pleasure to have in the house. This sounds bizarre to say where they are knocking walls down and creating dust and mess. But it is how they controlled the mess with dust sheets and other measures, the fact that the cleaned up every day making sure that the house and the front of the garden was felt tidy at the end of the day.

All of the craftsmen were polite and helpful: not a surely or rude individual amongst them. Chris, Tommy, Alan, Des and Max all offered the benefit of their experience by suggesting changes that enhanced the build and its look. The result is a kitchen that is just great.

The other issue is that the project management and control of the trades was excellent. Each trade followed on , one after another without unnecessary delays. My friends who had similar work carried out by a different builder experienced long delays where no activity was taking place and no continuity of work due to poor planning and the lack of trades.

The credit for the smooth running must go to Steve, their project manager, and Glen who manged the project and kept us informed throughout the build, always ringing back and answering queries. They also anticipated issues and by taking positive action the build process went very smoothly.

Finally the team were supported at their office by Sarah and Jacquie who provided great backup by passing on message and getting issues resolved before they become problems.

I got a great build at a good price where the end product is a quality kitchen extension that is just great. There were few or no complications and the house and garden was always left clean and tidy. The tradesmen were all good.

Thanks you Lesters.

Would I recommend them? Yes without doubt

A M.

Very friendly owner as expected, however we were very much let down by this company. They told us to give them a couple of days after having met twice and had a quote. We waited in good faith only to learn two weeks later that they forgot that we were waiting for them and we had now lost out on the discussed start date. The secretary was quite rude and dismissive via email. A real let down as we felt we were close to agreeing with them and were just waiting for final terms, we lost three weeks of looking for a builder. It's a shame as my wife and I liked Glenn a lot but we both felt let down without any genuine apology from this company.

Updated: Thanks for the reply Glenn, however you have not once admitted to the fact that you left our property asking me to give you a 'couple of days' only to then disappear and reappear to let me know you were not available. I don't think that's a decent way to treat potential customers, especially as we had made it clear we were keen to work with you. You were aware of the planning stage from the start and not once had you suggested it was an issue for the start date you quoted twice.

henry P.

Good builders

Alan C.

Adam L.