About us
A bricklayer who ended up building the whole thing
S E Barrett & Son is a family-run building contractor based in Poole. 30 years, one name on the sign, and a trade learned properly before anything else was added to it.
Starting with a trowel
Steve started out as a bricklayer. Not a business owner who picked up a trade along the way – a time-served brickie, laying other people's walls on other people's sites, in Dorset weather, for years before any of this had a name.
That matters more than it might sound. Bricklaying teaches you the parts of a building that everything else hangs off: how a wall carries load, where water goes, why a joint fails, what a foundation is actually doing. Learn that first and every other trade on site makes sense. Skip it and you spend a career trusting other people's answers.
Then everything else
Over three decades the work grew outwards from the brickwork. Groundworks and foundations, because you cannot control the wall if you do not control what it sits on. Extensions, because customers kept asking. Renovations and period repair, because Dorset is full of buildings that need lime and patience rather than cement and speed. New builds, because eventually somebody asks you to do the lot.
Today the business takes on complete projects – from a garden wall to a one-off house – with the same two accredited firms handling the electrics and the gas that have been on our sites for years.
And Son
The name on the sign is not decoration. This is a family business, which in practice means the reputation is not an abstraction – it is the surname, in the town where we live and shop and get our kids' bikes fixed.
It is a strong incentive to leave good work behind, and it is the reason most of what we do still comes from people who were recommended by somebody we built for years ago.
How we work
We take on one substantial job at a time rather than running four half-manned sites. It means you sometimes wait a few months to start, and it means that once we do start, the site is actually being worked on. We think that is the better trade.
How we do things
Four things we will not compromise on
The person quoting is the person building
Steve prices the job, and Steve is on site while it is built. That is why the quotes are realistic and why problems get flagged in week one rather than week ten.
Nothing gets hidden in the bill
If we open something up and find rot, a failed lintel or an old unsupported alteration, we stop, show you, and price the fix in writing before carrying on.
The right materials, even when it costs us
Lime where a building needs lime. Reclaimed brick where a match matters. Proper drainage behind a retaining wall. We would rather lose a job on price than build it wrong.
We are still here in five years
This is a family business in the town where we live. If something needs looking at a year later, we come back. That is the whole advantage of using a local builder.
The trades on site
Who else you will meet
Electrical and gas work is carried out by two firms we have worked alongside for years. Both are named on our works sign, which is not something a builder does lightly.
30 years on the tools
A time-served bricklayer running the site, not a project manager who has never laid a course.
Fully insured
Public liability cover, certificate available before we start. NICEIC and Gas Safe partners.
Written fixed quotes
Itemised, in writing, with what is excluded stated plainly. No day-rate surprises.
40-mile radius of Poole
Local enough to come back if something needs looking at a year later.
Free, no-obligation quote
Thinking about a project?
Tell us what you have in mind. We will come out, take a proper look, and send you a written quote with no obligation and no sales call afterwards.