DIY SOS

In November 2010 we received a phone call out of the blue
from the BBC asking if we would be interested in taking part in their programme
‘DIY SOS’

We are a small roofing company based in Newcastle under Lyme; it’s not something you expect!

If you’re not familiar with the programme its ‘celebrity’ is Nick Knowles and he travels around the country helping people with their DIY problems or disasters.

The programme had arranged to help a local family from Meir that had purchased a property at auction in order to renovate but ill health had struck and the lack of money had prevented him from continuing

We agreed to take part, in fact we were rather excited to think we might be on TV if truth be known!

The actual work was carried out in January 2011.

We fitted a skylight that one of our suppliers, Capital Roofing centre generously donated, replaced some lead flashing, rebedded a few ridge tiles back onto the roof and replaced a few missing tiles for them

Our team of lads came away from the project amazed at the amount of contractors on site, it was absolutely manic!

But the actual handover of the project back to the Bright family took place a few weeks later and Mick and a few of the team went along to see the finished results and to take part in a bit more filming, turned out to be a very emotional day, not many dry eyes when the family came out to personally thank them, even the cameraman was in tears!

They all had to walk along the street with Nick Knowles appearing amongst them, it’s the opening shot on the programme if you have seen it!

Mick overheard the production team commenting how many people had offered to help or donate materials; they had been inundated with offers and could not believe the generosity of the people of Stoke on Trent

The programme was aired on TV in April 2011, I watched it whilst ‘tweeting’ and the response was brilliant, everyone enjoyed the programme and got a bit emotional at the end!

We were proud to be a part of it even though we received no publicity from the programme in the end, we were proud of Stoke on Trent and its generous community!