We spoke to Gary McIntyre and Conor Farmer from Artisan Roofing about their new community project ahead of Remembrance Day.
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00:00 So can you tell us who you are and why we're here today?
00:02 Well I'm Gary McIntyre and this is my partner Connor Farmer.
00:06 We own Artisan Roofing and we're on this job here for the Free Scots and Wimberley Way
00:17 Community Centre. We came up with the idea to put a poppy into the roof and where Connor,
00:23 who was 13 years in the Black Watch, approached Major Paddy Marshall to ask if they would be
00:31 interested and they were more than interested. So far we've had over £26,000 worth of materials
00:39 donated by all these local businesses which are signposted here and we're giving our time up and
00:48 the design for nothing. It's a 100% charitable event for what it is, the poppy. It's such a
00:57 poignant symbol. So yeah it's something that the both of us have been really keen to put in
01:07 somewhere and to have the opportunity to put it here so it can be more ideally situated.
01:13 Fantastic and you were in the news a wee while ago for your works with the fishermen and the
01:18 girl with the red balloon appearing in Bernice. So I'm wondering how does it compare to your
01:25 previous work? This by far is the biggest project we've undertook. We started this on the 3rd of
01:34 October and it will be ready for the 9th of November in preparation for Remembrance Day.
01:40 But the fishermen panel in comparison took 50 hours, you know five days. But the size of this
01:47 job, we had to strip all the old slates off and all the new slates were donated by SSQ.
01:55 They're riverstone heavy slates which are a very nice slate. They come from Argentina
02:01 and all the other businesses, McLeod Roofing, they've donated quite a few thousand pounds worth
02:08 of materials, nails and fixtures and roofing paper and gave us a lot of help along the way.
02:14 Balfour Property Maintenance, they gave us all the wood and gave us a couple of labourers to
02:21 help us strip the old tiles off. Allan Care Scaffolding, he erected the scaffolding. He's
02:28 a very small business but seeing a project like this, you couldn't say no because it's such a
02:36 nice project. Safe Access, they donated all the scaffolding for us. Last Plant gave us all the
02:44 fencing. Duesen's in Aberdeen actually delivered all the slates and as I said SSQ donated these
02:54 slates which come from Argentina. So yeah, without all these businesses, we wouldn't be able to do
03:01 what we're doing. So yeah, it's been a very great project to be part of. It's fantastic and a great
03:08 community effort to bring everything together. The community have showed so much positive interest.
03:14 The kids are out all the time and the families are out and every day when they come in for the
03:20 community centre is used quite a lot by the families and at any time anybody's coming in,
03:26 they're complimenting us on how good it's looking and how excited they are to see it finished like
03:33 ourselves. Absolutely, especially working in this weather I guess. Yeah, it's not the nicest today.
03:39 The weather hasn't been too kind to us but we're getting there. We're still on track for completion
03:47 day which is the main thing. Brilliant and you've had to withhold Storm Babbitt.
03:52 Connor was 13 years in the Black Watch and Connor's house is only 30 metres over to my left
04:05 there. So when Storm Babbitt was here, Connor was up at three o'clock in the morning panicking,
04:13 listening to the wind howl. But thankfully we've got through the storms so it's just plain sailing
04:24 from this point on. Brilliant and when are you planning to finish it off? We hope to have it
04:30 finished for next Friday. Friday, I think it's the 10th. So yeah, it's full steam ahead to get it.
04:40 We're past the worst of it now. The rest of it is quite plain sailing. So we were panicking for the
04:48 last couple of weeks just with the weather but the stage that we're at now, we're quite confident
04:53 we'll have it completed for next Friday. Fantastic and just thinking if you have any other works,
05:00 similar works or anything else that you have in the pipeline? We've got a few in the pipeline
05:04 that we're looking at, a few future projects coming up. Yeah. Excited for it at the moment,
05:08 this is just our main concern. Get this finished, maybe take some time to reflect on what we've
05:13 done and then we'll move forward with the rest of our projects. So the attention that it's receiving
05:21 from all the local press and the national press is crazy. We couldn't have asked for any more
05:33 positive attention. Good luck with the rest of the work and hopefully drier weather. Thank you.