Master Builder - 2008

FMB builders are the best!

500 guests made up of FMB members, regional award winning builders and their clients, and FMB partners raised the roof when the 2008 Master Builder of the Year was announced at a dazzling ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London last month.

This year the Master Builder of the Year is Kevin Ellis of Ellis & Hughes of Leicester for the project he worked on for Elaine and Patrick Mulvihill...

The Master Builder of the Year 2008 and his delighted clients
 
Builders virtually live in your home for months on end and as such become part of family life, so the bond of trust between a builder and a client is vital to the success of the project.

The Master Builder of the Year 2008 is a wonderful example of a builder who not only excels at building that trust, but also retains it for years after...

Ron Storer, National President

The FMB was established 67 years ago, and every two years, a new National President is elected. Master Builder's Nicky Rogers spoke to the new president, Ron Storer just before he took up his new role.

Ron left Bebington Secondary Modern School (on the Wirral) in 1960 to begin a five year apprenticeship as a bricklayer with Sir Robert Lloyd Ltd Builders (again on the Wirral). His two older brothers were already working for the company having completed their apprenticeships there...

Fast, efficient, quality bricklaying

Spotted a gap in the market? Appropriately named Mick Gapper did, and he plugged it with his own invention – Lauren’s Ladder. It makes soldiers stand to attention!

Twelve years ago, FMB MasterBond member Mick Gapper, of Lauren Builders in Peterborough, was called in to rectify work started by another contractor on a school. Mick could see at first glance that the soldier courses above and below window openings had been built with little care...

MPs deliver 10,000 'Cut The VAT' postcards to 11 Downing Street

Members of the "Cut the VAT" Coalition, including Brian Berry of the FMB, delivered a 10,000 signature strong petition calling on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to cut VAT from 17.5 percent to five percent for building repair and maintenance work...

Divine inspiration

The restoration of ecclesiastical buildings is not for the faint-hearted owner or contractor. FMB member, Trevor Hyatt of Linley Developments won the 'Medium Renovation' category in the 2007 Master Builder of the Year Awards, for turning a derelict church into a stunning family home...

Restoration drama of  a Glamorgan Farmhouse
 

Llanilid Farm in Thomastown, Mid Glamorgan was once a manor house, built in the mid-1600s. When the last inhabitants moved out, it was left empty and became derelict, its current owners bought it in May 2007, and the crumbling house is now being restored by FMB member, Leonard Wood of L. Wood Construction Limited...

Master Builder of the Year 2008

The search is on already and the overall winner this year will win the Nissan LCV of their choice, worth up to £20,000...