Specialist repair company Stone Technical Services has worked on British treasures such as St Paul’s Cathedral, in London, and the Bowes Museum, near Barnard Castle.

As part of this month’s Success feature, in conjunction with the North-East Chamber of Commerce, co-founder David Stone tells Lindsay Parker how its solid reputation is fuelling expansion plans.

DAVID STONE is a man who likes to get his hands dirty – but today you would never know it.

The managing director of Stone Technical Services is sitting in his newly-refurbished offices in Kellaw Road, Darlington, wearing an immaculate pin-striped suit and polished shoes.

He looks every inch the professional businessman, at the helm of a company that is about to employ its 23rd employee, expand in the South and North-West, and post a turnover of £2m.

“But I was up a spire on Monday,”

he says, amicably. “So I definitely wasn’t in a suit then.

“During the early days of the business I used to get up on a morning, get in the van and work on a spire or chimney somewhere beautiful, and that was one of the happiest times of my life. I still enjoy getting really involved with the work that we do.”

That work takes David and his team across the country and has included the restoration and conservation of some of Britain’s most famous landmarks, such as St Paul’s Cathedral, in London, and a range of churches and historic buildings. Clients have included English Heritage, The National Trust, British Aerospace and HM Prison Service.

David set up the company with his brother, Grahame, just over ten years ago after working as a steeplejack and contract manager in Darlington.

He launched the business with a van and £500 from Darlington Business Venture (DBV) and built up work across the world after being sub-contracted by other firms.

The business took off and the company was named Business of the Year in DBV’s annual awards ceremony – all within the first 12 months of trading.

“I always believed in quality and giving more than the job was worth,” says David. “If a job had to be done then it had to be done right and I soon realised that our competitors, particularly in the south, didn’t necessarily have that attitude.

“The majority of our work now is based on recommendation.”

After carrying out subcontracting work while they got established, David set about targeting local authorities, architects and preservation trusts to drum up their direct clients. It paid off.

One of their first contracts was at St Paul’s Cathedral after David was introduced to the clerk of works, Martin Fletcher, via a fellow steeplejack, who had subcontracted him.

“Over nine years, our work for them has been more on the lightning protection side and we’ve carried out dome and spire inspections for them, to keep on top of any work that needs doing,” he says.

“It was through that contract that we started to be more involved with architects, which led to work for The National Trust and English Heritage.”

Before each project, the company carries out an assessment about the building’s needs and garners photographic and video evidence along with any core sampling and corrosion analysis.

Sometimes the company is hired by clients, such as engineers and architects, for its survey work because it has the specialist access skills needed to reach high and high-risk areas and report in situ.

TYPICAL jobs on historic buildings include removing woody vegetation, repointing and masonry works and clearing gutters. Another major part of the company’s work is in lightning protection. Often old lightning conductors are found to be ineffective because of a lack of earthing, and Stone offers a design and fitting service for new lightning conductor projects.

While there are those who consult them after lightning has struck, both literally and metaphorically, most clients find a little and often approach helps to keep the buildings in good shape – which is great for David’s business.

Contracts have included general maintenance at Fountains and Rievaulx abbeys, in North Yorkshire, and Lindisfarne Castle, on Holy Island, in Northumberland; upgrading of lightning protection at Bishopthorpe Palace, home to the Bishop of York, and recently detailed masonry repair work to the rosettes around the Selfridges building, in London.

A £400,000 contract for Wainhouse Tower, in Halifax, West Yorkshire, included the refurbishment of the tower, rebuilding an upper viewing platform and renewing the traditional window guards.

“Because of their age, many of the buildings need sympathetic works – a bit of TLC,” says David.

“The idea with the heritage field is you take out what you put back or refurbish to its original state.”

The company uses various lime mortar or lime-based products, which they mix on their Darlington premises by hand, with lime from local quarries. The mixture is used in historic buildings because it erodes at the same time as the building’s stonework.

“If you use sand and cement the cement is harder than the masonry and so the masonry will erode much quicker,” explains David.

BUT the heritage field accounts for only 40 per cent of the company’s business. A growing part is industrial contracts, such as at INEOS Plant Utilities, in Seal Sands, near Billingham. The industrial work often involves putting up gantries on chimney stacks to allow inspections and samples to be taken. Concrete structures exposed to aggressive atmospheric conditions can end up with shrinkage, fissures and cracks.

“When people think of steeplejacks they tend to think of the famous steeplejack Fred Dibnah, but modern day steeplejacking is about so much more today,” says David.

“We can be inspecting and maintaining a factory chimney one minute, and conducting a survey on a historical building the next. But that’s what makes the work so interesting.”

Staff members at Stone are trained to CITB (Construction Industry Training Board) and NVQ standards in areas such as lime mortar and stone masonry and David has found that the company’s traditional repair skills are more in demand than ever.

“These days, traditional skills are often overlooked but, in a time of recession when jobs are scarce, being skilled in a trade can be a huge advantage,” he says. “We spend a lot of money on training.

The workforce has to be more than just ‘okay’ because it’s such a highrisk industry.”

Three years ago, the company bought out EP Steeplejacks in Crook, County Durham, which was fully integrated into Stone Technical Services in June last year. During the past three years, the workforce at Stone has more than doubled from nine to 22; the turnover has tripled and David has opened another office in Pinner, Middlesex, to cater for the growing market in the South.

“We’ve got a contract manager and two squads working from the South now and we’re looking at opening another office in the North- West,” he says. “We’ve got a healthy order book at the moment and, while these are times of uncertainty, we have to push on. But we don’t want to sacrifice our quality.

“Our success has come from hard work and perseverance. We’ll make sure that we carry out work to the very best of our ability.” And, of course, it helps having the boss on site. Each one of the company’s directors is heavily involved with on-site project management; ensuring the work is of a high standard and generally getting their hands dirty. “I’ll always love that side of it and I don’t plan on giving it up,” laughs David. “But I tend to leave my nice suit in the office on those days.”