I’m a big advocate for trades, especially when a job gets some publicity.
Say a project you worked on gets featured in a glossy magazine, the kind I used to write for. Nearly always, the architect or interior designer gets the credit. The fitter gets paid and leaves.
The sad fact is that I’ve written about a lot of beautiful buildings, and I can name almost none of the people who actually put them together.
The people with the most skill get the least credit
On high-end jobs, the glass, steel and joinery are what people photograph. They’re usually fitted by a specialist team brought in by someone else. And that team solves the hardest problems on the job:
- a fixing nobody drew
- a pane of glass far bigger than anything on the drawings
- a wall that’s out of true by more than the tolerance allows
- a sequence that only works if three trades get on site in exactly the right order
We almost never hear about any of it. The people with the most skill on the job have the least to show for it.
Why it matters for winning work
If you’re a specialist, your best work is probably sitting in someone else’s portfolio. That matters because the next main contractor or client choosing a specialist wants evidence that you can handle difficult, high-value work. A gallery of photos with no story doesn’t give them that. It shows the finished product, not your part in it.
What does give them evidence is a write-up explaining what was hard and how you solved it, in your own name.
What to write about
A specialist case study doesn’t need to cover the whole building. Focus on your package and the problems you solved:
- The brief: what the designer wanted and why it was difficult.
- The constraints: tolerances, access, programme, the condition of the existing structure.
- Your solution: the detail, the method, the bit of engineering or craft that made it work.
- The result: what the client got, and anything measurable.
- A quote: from the main contractor, the designer or the client.
Start small
You don’t need a marketing department. Even a proper caption on a LinkedIn photo, saying what was hard and how you solved it, does more than the photo alone.
From there, the best projects deserve a full write-up for your website and your bids. Ask the main contractor or designer for a comment while the job is fresh. Most are happy to give one to a specialist who made their life easier.
Check what you’re allowed to say
Some projects come with confidentiality clauses, especially high-end residential work. Check before you name the building or the client. If you can’t, an anonymised write-up (“a Grade II listed townhouse in Kensington”) can still show what you can do.
Tell me your story
If you fitted something you’re proud of and someone else got the credit, I’d love to hear about it. And for the full process of turning a project into a case study, see How to Write Construction Case Studies That Win Work.
Get your projects written up properly
Takooba turns completed projects and happy customers into case studies that win the next job. See how it works or get in touch.
Michael Willoughby