Tommee O’Hara, MD of Bridge Flooring
How do you make sure installation quality stays consistent across different projects and sites?
We’ve got an inhouse management team consisting of myself and project managers Gareth Guerrieri and Mitchell Thompson. We visit sites on a day-to-day basis depending on the size of the project – sometimes that’s once a week, sometimes it’s every day. It could be for a couple of hours or a full few days at a time.
We make sure all contractors’ works are completed properly before we move to the next areas, and we try to check everything before it gets covered or protected.
That said, it’s not always straightforward. Many of these projects, particularly in healthcare, are extremely time pressured. There’s a real push from main contractors to hit deadlines, and often they just want material down on the floor. That means there isn’t always enough time for proper completion, snagging and handover.
As a business, that’s where we want to be – completing our own work properly, snagging it ourselves and handing it back to the client in the right condition.
How do you keep up to date with standards, specifications and manufacturer guidance?
A lot of that comes through Mandy Selick, who handles estimating and deals with manufacturers day in, day out. She’s constantly on top of product changes and updates. We also make a point of attending industry events and shows. For example, The Flooring Show at Sandown Park, and Domotex in Germany, which one of the team attended recently. Those events are important for staying close to what’s coming into the market.
On top of that, we’ve got regular visits from manufacturer representatives. Because we have a high street showroom and warehouse, they tend to come in every month or couple of months to update us on new products and changes, and to make sure we’re fully informed.
We also work with an external health and safety consultant on a retained basis. He’s available to us whenever needed – if there’s an issue onsite, we can send a photo or call him straight away, and he’ll advise on exactly how things should be done. That’s a really valuable support for the business.
Internally, we also have strong office support covering HR, procurement, accounts and project management to keep everything running smoothly day to day.
Mandy handles estimating; Lorna Bristow oversees HR and procurement; Oliver Wilson manages accounts, including cash flow and credit control; while Gareth works alongside me as a project manager. Mitchell also supports across the business and manages the residential side.
What do you look for at tender stage to avoid problems later onsite?
At what you might call tender stage, we’re really looking at suitability of the client and the project rather than pricing absolutely everything that comes through. We don’t price every enquiry we receive – there are many companies that use contractors purely as a pricing exercise.
So we tend to be selective. We focus on clients we already work with or have a relationship with, rather than responding to every cold enquiry that comes in. If someone contacts us out of the blue with a project, particularly something like a school, that immediately raises questions for us.
We also carry out credit checks on every client before we tender. Oliver Wilson produces a full credit report, gives them a rating, and we agree that internally before we commit to pricing. That way, if a client only has a £10,000 credit limit but is asking us to deliver a £500,000 project, we go into that with clear expectations – including the need for upfront payments.
It’s about protecting the business financially and working with clients we trust, rather than spreading ourselves too thin or chasing every opportunity that comes in. We have strong, established relationships with QS firms and main contractors, and we prefer to build on those rather than constantly starting from scratch.
Much of this also feeds into our pre-start process, which we try to carry out before we go live onsite wherever possible.
What do you do if a specification isn’t right for the conditions or use of the space?
If we’re onsite and we identify that something isn’t correct – for example a subfloor or smoothing compound that’s been specified incorrectly – we won’t install over it. We’ll raise it immediately.
For larger projects, typically anything over about £20,000, we carry out a pre-start survey. That means attending site, assessing conditions, and feeding back to the estimator to make sure everything specified by Mandy Selick is appropriate – whether that’s smoothing compounds, plywood, adhesives, or suitability for conditions such as high temperatures or healthcare environments.
If something needs to be changed, we re-specify at that stage before work begins.
If it’s only picked up once the installers are already onsite, we’ll stop work until we get clearance from the contractor. We won’t proceed until we have the green light. It’s about protecting the installation quality and making sure the system is right before anything goes down.
How do you plan labour to balance reliability, skills and workload?
We work with a core pool of subcontractors who we know and trust, and who we regularly call on. We monitor and check their work, and as the business grows we do bring new subcontractors into the mix.
When we do that, we usually pair a new operative with an existing one. That established installer effectively becomes our eyes and ears onsite. They’ll flag things like whether someone has the right tools, or if they’re borrowing equipment like a trowel – small things that can quickly become warning signs. Even things like the condition of a van can tell you a lot.
As the job progresses, we’re able to assess quality properly. If the work is good, they’ll be given further opportunities with us. It’s a gradual filtering process based on performance and reliability.
How do you ensure subfloor preparation is done properly on every project?
Again, it comes back to the importance of a pre-start survey. We try to go onto site before installers arrive so we can assess conditions properly.
It’s very difficult to rely solely on a subcontractor arriving onsite and expecting them to challenge incorrect materials. In reality, if they don’t install what’s in front of them, they often don’t get paid – so the incentive to question things isn’t always there.
To manage that, we remove as much risk as possible by attending site ourselves, either as a management team or through a pre-start visit. If that isn’t possible, myself, Gareth or Mitchell will usually be there on day one with the subcontractor to make sure everything is correct and they’re comfortable before work begins.
Because we have our own transport team and operate locally around London, we can react quickly. If something needs changing – for example switching to a low-stress smoothing compound instead of a water-based system – we can usually get materials changed and delivered within an hour.
How do you respond when programmes are shortened or changed at short notice?
Honestly? We’re quite direct about it. If a programme is unrealistic, we’ll say so.
We won’t be dictated to by main contractors. Instead, we’ll be clear from the outset about how long each stage of the work will take and what is achievable. If something comes through that requires an accelerated programme or out-of-hours working and it’s not viable, we’ll say straight away that it cannot be done.
Of course, we always try to support the client and meet their needs, but there’s a limit to over-promising. We prefer to be honest upfront rather than commit to something that risks quality or delivery later on.
What is your process for dealing with defects or issues after completion?
If someone comes back to us with an issue after a job has been completed – say six months down the line – we have a system that allows us to identify exactly which subcontractor installed that particular project.
The first thing we do is go to site before acting. We usually request photos from the project manager or site manager who has raised the issue, then send one of our commercial managers to inspect it in person.
Their job is to assess the situation objectively and confirm whether it is genuinely an installation issue.
We had a recent example in a Gaucho restaurant where concerns were raised that the floor was failing. Based on the photos, it initially looked like the screed may have blown. However, when our commercial manager attended site, it turned out the cleaner had been using excessive water on the floor during maintenance.
Our team recorded video evidence, fed it back to the office, and we explained the situation clearly to the client. We also advised them on how maintenance practices needed to change. In that case, because they were a valued client, we carried out the repair free of charge there and then, but made it clear the issue would likely reoccur if cleaning methods didn’t change.
In summary, our process is simple: we gather evidence, attend site, assess properly, and then, if necessary, send the original installer back to rectify the issue. If installers fail to respond or support the process, they won’t continue working with us.
How do you approach sustainability and material reuse on projects?
We try to recycle wherever possible. Any materials brought back from site are separated and processed. We’ve dedicated space at our facility with compacting and baling machines, which allow us to manage waste efficiently.
The introduction of Eco Waste Clear has also strengthened this side of the business significantly, giving us a more structured way of handling recycling and waste recovery.
In terms of site management, we do try to control material usage by allocating set quantities of adhesive, weld rod, plywood and protection materials such as Corex to each job.
If we notice that usage is significantly higher than expected partway through a project, we’ll question it with the subcontractors onsite. However, it’s difficult to monitor every element physically on a daily basis, so much of this comes down to trust and the experience of our site teams and commercial managers.
Ultimately, it relies heavily on our people being present onsite and keeping an eye on standards as work progresses.
Can you give a shout-out to any suppliers you’ve worked particularly well with?
From a distribution point of view, Planners is a big supporter of ours. We do a lot of work with them, and Anthony Dalton and Martin Finn have been massively supportive of the business over the years. They’ve really helped us grow and develop key relationships.
On the technical side, the team at F Ball & Co has also been excellent. Paul Truebridge and Michael Giles in particular have always been very supportive when we’ve needed technical input or site guidance. We tend to rely heavily on their products – the ‘yellow bucket’ is very much our go-to adhesive system. It’s reliable, consistent, and backed up by strong technical support, which makes a big difference onsite.
We’ve also started doing more with cork flooring recently. A great example is Callum Hopkirk from Granorte/Commfloor who worked very closely with us on a project in Walthamstow last year. It involved interlocking cork tiles with a bespoke design that had never been done before. He really collaborated with us to get the installation and design exactly right.
That project won at the CFJ Awards this year, which we’re really proud of. Callum didn’t just supply materials – he was involved in the design process and worked closely with us throughout. Even now, we stay in touch regularly, and there’s a good level of mutual support when it comes to installation advice and client work. Ultimately, a lot of what we do in this industry is about relationships. The suppliers we’ve mentioned are the ones we work closely with day in, day out, and that collaboration really helps us deliver better results onsite.
www.bridgeflooring.com
