Welcome to ‘The Tradesman’s Entrance’ section of NetStyle which is a collection of articles and web project reviews, not an online or trade magazine. Here I seek to interlink a number of projects for demonstration and the education of current and future clients as to the significance of some elements of my services. This page is the first specialist section and this one is solely dedicated to the design hosting and management of websites on a specific theme as they arise and to aggregate the performance of all inclusions. It will be obvious that this page deals with the principles connected to developing success from a web presence in the highly contested sector of local building and general home improvement tradesmen where business is sought in their more local area rather than from a national perspective.

The significance of this approach is too complex to deal with here and a reader will most likely be reading these articles upon my direction to this spot but, should you happen to have stumbled upon this here I hope you find it an interesting read too while I explore this concept for my own website and my clients involved in this sector.

A follow on page will be entitled “Arts of Performing” once this section has been completed. ©2015 Copyright Paul Allen-Scudder pp, NetStyle (part of the Paul Allen Leisure Group)

Bespoke Installations Co. is a specialist high-end bespoke kitchen, bathroom and bedroom fitters based in Dartford, north west Kent who supply and install luxury and quality components including all units, worktops and can even prepare the planning on computer aided design software (c.a.d.) For ease of customer visualization before fitting.

Bespoke Installations use the finest and most luxurious materials and whether a new build or full refurbishment project they can take care of all the specialist trades when managing the project to all budgets which are catered for. This covers all plastering, electrics, lighting, gas and plumbing fittings, in fact the whole project can be managed by them and their highly skilled and trained contractors. All walling and flooring requirements are covered from construction to final finish whether wooden flooring, ceramic tiling or any other style of floor finish. All aspects of private or commercial property refurbishment are covered by their services.

Specialist skills arranged for luxury kitchens are Corian™, granite and even glass worktops and splashbacks which can be supplied in any colour from the Dulux™ colour range to match the kitchen colour scheme or theme.

Finished projects include a full guarantee and free estimates and quotes are offered without obligation.

Website design brief: More emphasis was to be placed on the desktop and tablet usability than mobile with extensive use of ‘lightbox’ to make the home page remain in the background. Web assets were and still are limited, some future placed elements are currently still inactive, but the client wanted “a clean and uncluttered look with precise alignment.” It was also decided the general colour palette should match that of the brand new company vehicle.

The currently centred section is planned to also be shifted to the left as more assets become available in the future as has happened already with ‘SW Landscaping and Groundworks’ below once the mobile version was in place. ©2015 Copyright Paul Allen-Scudder pp, NetStyle (part of the Paul Allen Leisure Group)

SW Landscaping & Groundworks Co. is a longstanding business based in Dartford, north west Kent. Proprietor Steve specializes in private and commercial outdoor and garden construction particularly pathways, paving and driveways, this naturally covers all concrete and slab work including patio laying, block paving and such work as construction of shed bases prior to shed or portable building erection.

Bricklaying is expertly undertaken for brick walling, block walling along with other materials and boundary work features quite heavily in past projects on the website. This includes much work done with fencing of all kinds. Fences can be erected with traditional wooden fence panels of all sizes with posts of wood or concrete and the panels will usually sit on concrete gravel boards or panels can of course be made of wire or trellis sections.

SW Landscaping and Groundworks are highly recommended contractors on ratedpeople where his reviews can be read and he prides himself on the quality of his workmanship indeed this is reflected in the tag line of his website “quality workmanship at affordable prices.” Steve also offers free no obligation estimates.

Landscaping and all garden groundwork is undertaken including the construction of special features and structures. Garden clearance is a common task as is complete garden makeovers with all patio work, decking, lawn or turf laying, steps and paths. All tree work or tree surgery is taken care of and again either for private property or commercial premises clients.

Website design brief:  Web assets were minimal apart from a vast amount of images which some of were fortunately ‘before and after’ so much use is made of image galleries to tell the story using ‘lightbox’ for special features. There was not much of a brief at all really just that following some previous failures by poor designers linked to directory listings Steve just wanted to gain more enquiries for work to quote for.

The design uses a general green and yellow theme to match the colours of the lawn mower pictured and I decided to use a striped lawn for the background.

Now the mobile friendly version is in place space has been made down the right hand side for future projects to be featured to be placed as they arise. ©2015 Copyright Paul Allen-Scudder pp, NetStyle (part of the Paul Allen Leisure Group)

C. Rutherford Builders is a construction business based in the Gravesend area of North West Kent owned by builder Craig Rutherford.

Craig and his team of builders have been in the building and construction industry for well over thirty years and are builders with a vast amount of skills to build everything from full ground-up new builds as well as general property refurbishment and maintenance including building loft conversions, kitchen fitting and luxury bathroom installations or en-suite and wet room construction.

All aspects of roofing are dealt with and a new speciality is fibreglass flat roofing and all associated lead work, rendering and any re pointing

C. Rutherford Builders are expert plasterers and specialist services are plastering, brick laying and other brick and block work, major structural alterations. Driveways feature quite heavily in their portfolio as does block paving projects and all types of garden building including fencing, ground works and landscaping with all associated electrics, drainage and plumbing.

Free estimates are given and all work is fully insured and guaranteed. Clients can also view completed projects and work in progress to see for themselves the high standard of workmanship. I addition Craig can prepare the structural drawings for local authority submission and he’s very experienced with building control liason.

As an extension builder and luxury kitchen fitters a comprehensive photo gallery of a major extension, ground floor and kitchen refurbishment can be viewed as a walk through on their website.

Website design brief: A website for a local general builder would, on the face of it seem a straight forward task but, this was to be made on a ska music theme!

Fortunately the ground work was done by the vehicle graphic company who personalised the customer’s vehicle and so the theme was generally followed using the graphics and a two-tone black and white feel with the Jamaican flag colours. The tricky bit was aligning the chequered section perfectly to gain the scroll effect. Craig’s image is an amalgamation of two images with his best smile grafted onto his best pointy pose.