Life in flooring is anything but dull. In fact, in six years of writing contractor profiles, if there’s one thing that’s caught Adam Bernstein’s attention, it’s the interesting stories and the contractors he’s come across

IT’s all too easy to set up a business in a blaze of glory with the intention of taking on the world. However, making it a long-lasting proposition is much more difficult; keeping the plates spinning long enough to both run and grow it is more complex than most imagine.

LIFE in the flooring industry is far from boring. Over the past six years of writing contractor profiles, one thing has stood out to me above all else—the fascinating stories and remarkable contractors I’ve had the chance to meet.

A prince calls
Take Ben Poole of Benjamin Poole Carpets (formerly First Impression Carpets), based in Carmarthen. He detailed how a spurious call led to work from an unexpected quarter.

In this instance, Poole took an enquiry from someone claiming to be calling on behalf of an Arab prince after seeing an advert in a local paper. ‘I thought it was a total wind up but then [the caller] later told me that I had fitted carpets for him – from that same advert.’ The caller, it turns out, was senior at a well-known carpet manufacturer.

So, Poole went to London, to the 16th floor of an address on the Strand, to find a property set out in marble and gold with carpets needing to be inset into marble. ‘The biggest challenge,’ said Poole, ‘was that I had to measure the property to produce a schematic to send abroad by fax.’ Poole only had one copy of those measurements.

But where the story took a twist is that a window was opened and Poole watched in horror as his only copy flew out – never to be seen again. He added that the job was stressful as it had to completed quickly and the carpets – handmade and the heaviest pile he’d ever seen – were stuck in customs.

But from this one job he received more from embassies and mansion houses including one for a president and his wife.

He’s also worked in care homes ‘where the client has burst in and eaten the underlay’ and has been to a job ‘where the customer had three bags of offcuts left by another shop – she cried when I told her they wouldn’t fit her hall, stairs and landing.’

Bad weather
And then there is Matt Stephens of Welshpool-based Matt Stephens Flooring who experienced what others, no doubt, will have come across – a combination of customer requests, product and bad weather.

As Stephens tells, he had a domestic sheet vinyl wood plank that was 12m long that he had to run through three rooms with standard size doorways. No joins along the length had been requested by the client. ‘Along with an undulating chipboard subfloor with underfloor heating, and a snowstorm to prevent us rerolling the vinyl lengthways on delivery to site, it all made for it being a ‘fun task’, especially with just two of us fitting.’

He’s also fitted carpet to the floors and walls of a local cinema, and a request to fit LVT to eaves cupboards – ‘it was a strange request and a tight squeeze’.

Sheep sh*t and carpet
Another contractor who stands out is Rory MacGillivray of MacGillivrays Floor Furnishings, run from Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides. As with anyone that’s spent more than 30 years in the trade, MacGillivray has some stories to tell.

One that he recounts proves that money can’t buy everything: ‘I was at Domotex, a trade show in Germany, along with a floorlayer from Kent solving a problem for a sheik by demonstrating how he should have the bull nose sewn on his concrete stairs in his various palaces and homes. We were offered the opportunity to move there permanently and work purely for the sheik. He offered us a house by the sea, anything we wanted, even bring the wife if we wanted to… I volunteered that the floorlayer should take up the offer.’

Given the multitude of islands in the Outer Hebrides, logistics is a natural issue for MacGillivray: ‘We’ve had some challenges along the way… we regularly have had to work in very remote locations – transport has at times been by boat, or by quad bike and trailer, when tide was out, argocat over moorland.’

And he had some odd jobs. One specification he received was for an army base where he had to helicopter in all materials 40 miles out to sea to a rocky outcrop. ‘The colour specification of the carpet was listed as ‘colour – as close as possible to sheep dung.’ There was a breed of sheep on this rock that was allowed to roam freely.’

He’s a fluent Gaelic speaker and converses with most of his customers in his native language. His relaxing manner comes over amply and clearly rubs off on his clientele: ‘A customer once asked me for a bag of underlay, I said ‘no problem, you know where the store is, help yourself.’ The following day a huge bag of freshly caught prawns hung on my door when I got home – payment for the underlay.’

An inside job
Rob Scott, managing director of London-based commercial flooring specialist, Piper Hales Flooring, also like many in the trade, has many stories to tell.

Taking his work in the prisons, he says that ‘as I’m sure you can imagine, I found it strange to work nights in a prison when you hear the front gates lock at Holloway or Pentonville and then know that you couldn’t leave until the cells were opened the following morning.’ As a youngster he says that he would always pray that the cell door system didn’t malfunction during the night and that he would find an inmate joining him.

And in referring to his work for the late Queen’s birthday parades, he says he enjoyed taking part. ‘It was always an early start at Horseguards Parade installing the red carpet. The area was always buzzing early on with many VIPs arriving and the police doing their final checks.

‘While all of this was happening, we were trying to keep the area clean – that was always somewhat challenging, especially when trying to keep the police dogs off my red carpet.’

Trouble in paradise
Finally, there are the tales from David Cheshire. He’s worked all over the world, but one story stands out – an installation in Qatar, readying the Emir’s palace for the feast of Eid.

A company he was working for was also responsible for the installation of the drapes and luxury wall coverings, with silk shipped in especially from China, and suede brought from the UK.

But as soon as Cheshire arrived, the upholsterer who was installing the fabrics to the walls received a message to say his wife had been taken seriously ill; both the upholsterer and his son had to return to the UK. This left Cheshire and two of his carpet fitters to become luxury fabric installers ‘having never done anything like it before.’

He says they worked up to 18 hours a day to complete the job.

‘We did have a visit one day from an official from the palace. He complimented us on our productivity and enquired if we would be finished on time.’

But as if to reinforce the message, another morning Cheshire and his colleagues arrived to find a row of tanks lined up along the front of the palace. ‘We were directed to the entrance at the back where a soldier armed with a rifle was on duty. He pointed the rifle at me and shouted something in Arabic.’ It turned out that all he wanted was their passports. But all Cheshire saw was ‘a rifle pointed about two inches from my head’.

Summary
Life in flooring, as noted at the top of this story, is anything but dull. While at the time the situations may have been stressful, in hindsight they’re grist to the mill and serve to add humour to a trade that sees plenty of hard work.

Adam Bernstein is an independent columnist