Access to The Boat House development was restricted, so the only way to get heavy-duty building materials to the bottom of the garden was to gain access from the other side of the river.

We then had the challenge of transporting the materials from one side of the river to the other, within a 2 hour time-slot. We organised 7 lorries to arrive at the same time, along with 2 barges carrying cranes, which meant our timings needed to be perfect. We began with the lorries off-loading onto the quay, once this had been safely completed we loaded the materials onto the boats which then travelled across the river, finally unloading the materials onto the bank.

The value of this particular project was around £100,000 – it cost so much because of the logistics involved. Unlike most projects, we were unable to park on a road and easily transport tools and materials by hand. The scale and location of The Boat House all had a big impact on pricing and timing; it took the staff around 45 minutes to get from the house to the bottom of the garden where the build was taking place!

We had to utilise our exceptional organisational skills to ensure that all the 7 merchants arrived on time within our 2 hour time slot, emphasising to them that we had to be their first delivery of the day with no exceptions.

It’s all in the communication. We emphasised to the merchants in this particular project that “This has to happen, or there will be big issues; whatever other deliveries you’ve got, these materials have to be here at the specified time.” If there was a delivery issue, we may have had to organise another boat to come down the river (which isn’t easy as we had to gain permits from the river authority). The costs can quickly run into tens of thousands should there be a hiccup, so as long as you’re clear in your initial communication, everything should go to plan.

All 7 lorries turned up, the gates were unlocked and we were allowed access to our slots – it was a job well done!