Proficiency

Reviews

If I could give Proficiency 7 stars I would. They managed an end to end design & build renovation project for us faultlessly. Problems that inevitably crop up in building projects were swiftly and pragmatically dealt with. They took care to try to manage the budget and took real pride in making sure the finish I wanted was the finish I got. When you both work, having a Project Manager you can trust is so important and quite rare. Jimmy was brilliant as were his entire team. We’ve ended up with a home to love and could not have done it without them. I’d not hesitate to recommend Proficiency and especially Jimmy and would use them again in a heartbeat. Thank you.
over 3 years ago
We wanted a complete house renovation including a side return with extension and an attic conversion.  The downstairs extension was to include a bigger more family friendly kitchen, a downstairs shower room and a separate utility room.  The plan for the attic conversion was 2 bedrooms and a bathroom.  After initial architectural drawings (which really only  acted as a rough template) and a successful planing application we spoke to a number of builders.  I’d met Jimmy (from Proficiency) to discuss the project about a year before the architect had been instructed and he’d been instrumental in helping visualise what could be done with the space. This initial meet with him was the foundation of the drawings and planning.  The architect recommended I go with another builder which  I almost did but something right at the last minute was tugging away inside telling me to go with my gut and go with Proficiency.  Like any adventure worth embarking upon it’s been a slightly terrifying voyage into the unknown. It’s riddled with complication, challenge and potential risk not to mention an almost infinite amount of decisions.  From party wall surveyors, to structural engineers, from the boiler placement to block and beam flooring, from manhole moving to searching for the allusive clay bedrock. Toby (from Proficiency) was our project manager and was across everything, including my neurotic fears.   He was completely dedicated and dutiful and offered inventive solutions to more than one major design cul-de-sac. He also took over the architectural responsibilities so after the initial drawings we no longer required the architects services. Jimmy was also very preset offering an experienced and reassuring hand where necessary.  The team on the ground were equally impressive and a proper unit that knew each other. They worked solely for Proficiency, which was another very solid tick.  Throughout the duration of the job there was not a single day when the team was not on site.  One of my big fears was turning up and finding no one present and having to chase workers, this was never the case. There were often 8 people working and never less than 4 or 5.  Jimmy and Toby were also very much across and able to work in tandem with the other suppliers/tradespeople. From kitchen fitters to window manufacturers to bathroom suppliers. It was immensely relieving having someone to manage delivery’s and 3rd party involvement. The results really do reflect Proficiency’s work ethic and dedication. The house is lovely and the works have sympathetically turned a tired 1930s semi into beautifully characterful modern family home. I am profoundly happy I listened to that instinctual feeling and went on this journey with Proficiency at my side. I cannot recommend them highly enough.
over 3 years ago
We wanted a complete house renovation including a side return with extension and an attic conversion.  The downstairs extension was to include a bigger more family friendly kitchen, a downstairs shower room and a separate utility room.  The plan for the attic conversion was 2 bedrooms and a bathroom.  After initial architectural drawings (which really only  acted as a rough template) and a successful planing application we spoke to a number of builders.  I’d met Jimmy (from Proficiency) to discuss the project about a year before the architect had been instructed and he’d been instrumental in helping visualise what could be done with the space. This initial meet with him was the foundation of the drawings and planning.  The architect recommended I go with another builder which  I almost did but something right at the last minute was tugging away inside telling me to go with my gut and go with Proficiency.  Like any adventure worth embarking upon it’s been a slightly terrifying voyage into the unknown. It’s riddled with complication, challenge and potential risk not to mention an almost infinite amount of decisions.  From party wall surveyors, to structural engineers, from the boiler placement to block and beam flooring, from manhole moving to searching for the allusive clay bedrock. Toby (from Proficiency) was our project manager and was across everything, including my neurotic fears.   He was completely dedicated and dutiful and offered inventive solutions to more than one major design cul-de-sac. He also took over the architectural responsibilities so after the initial drawings we no longer required the architects services. Jimmy was also very preset offering an experienced and reassuring hand where necessary.  The team on the ground were equally impressive and a proper unit that knew each other. They worked solely for Proficiency, which was another very solid tick.  Throughout the duration of the job there was not a single day when the team was not on site.  One of my big fears was turning up and finding no one present and having to chase workers, this was never the case. There were often 8 people working and never less than 4 or 5.  Jimmy and Toby were also very much across and able to work in tandem with the other suppliers/tradespeople. From kitchen fitters to window manufacturers to bathroom suppliers. It was immensely relieving having someone to manage delivery’s and 3rd party involvement. The results really do reflect Proficiency’s work ethic and dedication. The house is lovely and the works have sympathetically turned a tired 1930s semi into beautifully characterful modern family home. I am profoundly happy I listened to that instinctual feeling and went on this journey with Proficiency at my side. I cannot recommend them highly enough and if you want to know anything more specific please do get in touch (ask Toby for contact details).
over 3 years ago
We recently engaged the services of Proficiency for a major renovation of our family home, and we couldn't be more thrilled with the outcome. From the initial consultation to the final touches, their expertise and attention to detail were evident. The project involved a complete overhaul of our home with a new kitchen extension, and Proficiency managed every aspect with remarkable skill and professionalism. Our project manager was a standout, providing regular updates and being readily available to address any of our concerns or questions. This level of communication was particularly reassuring, given the scale of the renovation. The team's ability to navigate through the complexities of design, structural changes, and aesthetic enhancements was truly impressive. In conclusion, Proficiency exceeded our expectations in every way. We wholeheartedly recommend them to anyone looking for a reliable and skilled building partner for their home renovation projects.
4 months ago
Proficiency is one of the best design and build companies out there today. We recently worked with them on a large renovation/new build from foundation to complete finish for over 12 months and they were professional, on-time and on-budget the whole way through—which is very rare in this industry. Their pricing is competitive and the quality of work is excellent. Toby was our project manager and did an fantastic job of managing day-to-day schedules and oversight. Besi was our site manager throughout and worked tirelessly to make sure the standard of work was always the highest. Luli oversaw the plumbing and electrical work and brought a lot of smart thinking to improve our plans and carry out a completely professional job. The whole team is exceptional to work with - I would definitely work with them again and I highly recommend asking for them to oversee your project.
about 1 year ago
Reliability - Time management - Quality The most important thing when you are trying to find a company to do your renovation project is trust, & Proficiency managed to gain our trust from the very first meeting. The project: Renovation of our 3 floor / 3 bedroom mews house Phil: The first person you meet, personable, knowledgeable, calm & most importantly patient & never pushy. He was able to provide a very detailed quote and had an answer for everything raised. Super responsive & helpful for the entire pre contact sign process. Will: Our project manager, albeit young, determined to deliver. Great manners & follow up skills. He was able to co-ordinate & assist with additional requirements (windows, doors, mirrors) & did a stellar job in making sure all third parties were on site at the right time in order to ensure the project stays on track. Sarah: Patience of a saint. Probably the best person to deal with if you need inspiration, ideas & you don’t want to do the research. A joy to work with & able to listen to your needs. Herself & Ric were able to provide some amazing renders & help us visualise the end product. I highly recommend considering the full design package & trust their expertise & connections in the industry. Besi: Our site manager & the star of the show; we consider ourselves lucky to have him onsite. Communicative, knowledgeable, straight to the point and most importantly a perfectionist! I never expected someone to be more attention to detail than the people owning the property. Every meeting was productive, detailed & always able to offer a solution to any little obstacle along the way. Everything is possible…at a price or if you have the right skillset on site (or both :-) Ben: Responsible for the day to day running of the site, first impressions are not always correct. Once you get to know him better & start trusting him, you’ll understand he has your best interest in mind at all times. Luli: The best electrician in London, he did an excellent job with everything he touched. He goes out of his way to ensure your needs are met & you are fully satisfied while in parallel he is solution driven and makes sure the end result is nothing short of perfect. Everyone that stepped through the door was a true professional & a master in their trade. Politeness, cleanliness, attention to detail & proud of what they do. The project was supposed to last 16 weeks, despite running a few weeks over, the time management was great. Delays were predominately due to us changing our mind but also adding quite a few extra side projects to the list. Our intention was to postpone some of the extra jobs for a later day, but when you find people you can trust & you know they will deliver way above expectations, you find a way to make it work. It was our one stop shop & it couldn’t have gone smoother. I would highly recommend on all fronts, Reliability, Quality & Customer focused. Most importantly, the aftercare so far has been rather impressive, we moved back into our property in Dec 22 & the team has been able to attend to every need and question we had. Our final snagging is due in the next couple of months & judging by how we’ve been treated so far, I’m sure we won’t even have to follow up. THANK YOU Team Proficiency. Leo & Graeme.
about 1 year ago
We did a loft conversion plus refurbishment of a floor and bathroom with proficiency. We had Toby and Bessi as our main contacts. They were very responsive to our requests and held frequent meetings with us to follow the work. Work was completed on time and high quality even if the supply situation was not ideal. In general very happy.
about 1 year ago
Fantastic skilled team that deliver a high quality service.
about 2 years ago
I have to start by saying I’ve never left a review before for a business, however Proficiencey have been truly amazing in every way, so felt this was deserved and necessary. We started our design and build with them in July 2021 and in an incredible 8 months of hard work they have completely restored our 5 bed Edwardian house in North London, including a rear extension and a large loft conversion with double dormer. Toby was our project manager and Viktor our site manager and together they made our journey so pleasurable from start to finish. Also Ric was a brilliant architect, listening to our ideas and always willing to help and give his much needed advice. Toby has been everything and more we could have ever wished for in a project manager. He’s been organised, responsive, patient, calm and always willing to give us his time. He’s got a great eye for design and quality, ensuring precise detail where’s needed. His communication has been faultless, always replying to messages and emails immediately or returning our calls. He’s run the project smoothly and helped us visualise and adapt our ideas along the way, creating the amazing house that we have today. All round lovely person and we can’t thank him enough! We found Viktor a pleasure to work with and an extremely skilled site manager that we could trust and depend on everyday. Such a hard worker and always doing his best to please us. The quality of work is outstanding and speed of the project has been thanks to Viktor and his workers. We’d like to mention Mark (the roofer) stood out to us as a great and very skilled worker. We’ve ended up with a house even better than we could have ever imagined and this wouldn’t have been possible without all their hard work and dedication to our project. I have to agree with other reviews when they say they have never experienced service of this quality from builders before! I’d highly recommend using Proficiencey and we certainly will for all future projects. A BIG thank you to all the Proficiencey team!
about 2 years ago
We hired Proficiency Design and Build in January this year to build our extension. They were absolutely amazing. January was not a great month in the UK weather wise and also with Covid but these guys were always upbeat, professional, and they worked tirelessly to get the job done. Toby the project manager was always there to answer any questions and give advice and he came around to check the project every few days which we have never had from any other building company. Besi was the site manager and he worked incredible hard throughout the whole project talking us through it all step by step. We have lived in London 17 years and over that period of time we have hired quite a few builders, plumbers, painters etc. Proficiency Design and Build exceeded our expectations! I would highly recommend this company.
over 2 years ago
Proficiency has just completed the renovation of our flat. We are extremely pleased with their work. It was a multi-trade project , and all elements were carried out with the utmost professionalism. Problems were anticipated and resolved in a timely fashion. As a result we have a high quality finish, completed in time , and within the anticipated budget. There are excellent personnel employed to smooth the process. Thoroughly recommended.
over 2 years ago
Delivered on time and we got the specification we asked for. Professional and responsive to our needs. Builders on site were always professional, neat on the job and enjoyed what they did.
over 2 years ago
After lot of thinking we selected Proficiency for our new build. Nearly in a week it was clear that we have selected the good builders. House was built in time with professionalism. Jimmy, Besi and Luli are the best team together. They understand clients very well. We thank them to deliver the fantastic job. Highly recommended with full confidence.
over 2 years ago
We undertook a big project – demolition of an old extension, double floor extension, garage conversion, internal remodelling and full refurbishment including re-plaster, re-wire and re-plumb. We were complete novices so spoke to 6+ different building firms to get quotes, and Proficiency were the most impressive from the start. Their dedicated contract manager Phil worked with us in detail which is what we wanted, always giving quick responses and never pushing us to just get started and worry about the details later, which is what we experienced with some other firms. Having Phil manage the quoting stage is a real bonus. Our project started just as the first Covid national lockdown began (to the day!) which was hugely stressful. Proficiency were amazing during this period. The site shut down for just a couple of days while we all figured out what was going on, but after that things carried on as normal and Proficiency progressed the project at a speedy pace despite the obvious difficulties. We had a mixture of management from Jimmy (managing some of it through the lockdown), Viktor (our site manager) and Toby (our project manager). Jimmy is great at picking things up and it was reassuring to have the owner across things during the difficult lockdown period. He was happy to meet us on site on Saturdays to talk through the progress. We mainly dealt with Viktor and Toby after that who we really liked and developed a good relationship with over the course of the build. We really valued their input and ideas. They were happy to have site meetings in the evenings after our working day, and took time to go over everything. They are just very nice people who are easy to get along with and work with and who you feel you can trust, and that’s who you want to be working with doing something like this. They also both have a great sense of humour which is important in a stressful project like ours. There were inevitably frustrations and disagreements at points along the way, as is to be expected in a big and complicated project, but we were always able to sort these out with Proficiency and come to a reasonable solution whereas we could see that with the wrong building firm disagreements could escalate quite easily. Proficiency really care about the final result – they want it to look amazing too, and that really comes across in the detail they go into and the advice they offered as we worked through the project. They are also really great about coming back to sort anything that isn’t quite right – they are not the sort of firm to just do the job and never be in touch again. On doing a big project generally, I would say do not underestimate how time-consuming and stressful juggling the finances and your job/other commitments all at the same time can be. When you’re opening up a house in the way we did there will be things that come up that have to be dealt with that you didn’t budget for. The more you’re opening up, the more problems there are likely to be, so you really need to have a healthy contingency, plus another contingency for ‘optional extras’ that will come along the way and at the time won’t feel optional when you’re pouring your heart and soul (and all your savings!) into it. In summary, we would absolutely recommend Proficiency to everyone and we hope to use them again in the future. Our home has been beautifully done and we love it. Many people who have come round, including tradespeople, have commented on the high standard of the work. Every day we are still being wowed by it and we can see that if you choose the wrong builders that could easily not be the case. Having worked with Proficiency for over a year we very much trust them and we also know they would always do a wonderful job. Highly recommend – five stars!
almost 3 years ago
Proficiency was recommended to me by friends who were incredibly happy with their work. As a result, I worked with Proficiency on the refurbishment of my flat, including design for an extension, strip out, reinstating the old flooring, complete rewiring, moving & installing new radiators, remodeling the bathroom which included new plumbing, tiling, installing underfloor heating and turning a cupboard into a walk-in shower, as well as decoration of several rooms. This was the first time for me to take on such a project, and I found Proficiency incredibly helpful, reassuring and transparent on both, timelines and costs. Shout out to the best team Besi, Toby and Phil who were a dream to work with, providing regular updates, patient hand holding and generally went the extra mile wherever possible to ensure work was delivered at its best standard and to my ever changing mind. Furthermore, all their teams were trustworthy and incredibly friendly, which I found very important as I already lived in the flat throughout part of the work. I can highly recommend Proficiency and once the extension plans are approved I will not hesitate to continue working with Proficiency.
almost 3 years ago
We worked with Proficiency for a full conversion of our apartment, including glass extension, garden remodelling, reorienting of floorplan to create two bedrooms, full refurbishment and redecoration. Proficiency also supported with elements of design and re-drawing given we were unhappy with the services of our architect. In particular, I would call out their transparency on cost throughout, providing regular updates and itemisations to ensure there were no surprises at the end of the job. I would not hesitate to recommend this company - at all times they were responsive, professional and went out of their way on many occasions to ensure the job was completed to our satisfaction. The team (in particular Toby, Besi & Phil) who led our work were brilliant, and we have recommended to several close friends (2 of whom are using Proficiency for their own work right now).
about 3 years ago
After experiencing bad builders (both work wise and attitude wise), Proficiency was a relief to find and work with. They were recommended by our friends who's flat they had renovated. The proof was in the pudding, our friends were extremely happy and we could see the difference in finishing. The team from proficiency is extremely professional, honest and upfront right from the start. They can seem pricy but the quality of work, service, finishing on time and their overall attitude makes the experience extremely stress free and absolutely worth it. I had renovated my bath a year ago (which is now going to be redone by Proficiency) and it was extremely stressful for a small bathroom and had lot of hidden cost. They were in constant touch throughout the project and also after the project. Their work comes with warranty and they stick along to fix anything required. For us, apart from the overall experience, the things that stand out is project management, time management and the service provided (being provided) by the entire team (including the electrician). I highly recommend this team and will very happily use them for all my future projects
about 3 years ago
I am so happy I came across Proficiency after dreadful few months dealing with unprofessional construction company and architect! Besi and Toby were working on my project of completely refurbishing my apartment, everything has been done with good quality and good value. Even after my project has finished whenever I had questions to ask Toby and Besi always are very responsive, which I appreciate. I can not recommend this company enough! Definitely will get back if I have projects in future.
over 3 years ago
Besi , Toby and and the team were so helpful. I wish I had started my job with their architect who helped me sort out the mess that my original architect had left me in. And so it continued, they were always helpful, offering up creative solutions, going above and beyond and provided such a high quality of work. And fast too! Just amazing. I will definitely use them again for anything I need doing and can't recommend them enough.
over 3 years ago
I just wanted to commend Proficiency for excellent communication and sharing information about one of their projects, which was extremely heplful to us. Thank you.
over 3 years ago
Our extension and refurbishment by Proficiency is now complete and we are delighted with the outcome. We were pleased with the initial designs and ideas, the quality of the work and the good service throughout, especially as we lived at the property with a young child. We were impressed with initial designs and business planning with Phil, the support and guidance from project manager Toby who kept the project within agreed costs, the careful attention of Viktor in managing a complex work flow and the many talents of key workman Kristan. Many thanks guys.
almost 4 years ago
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