Seven engineers, two welders, one phone that we still answer ourselves.

How a single garage in Hackney became a road bench of nine

Eilan Brogan spent the early part of his trade life fitting glass shopfronts for a contractor that handled the big West End rollouts. After a decade of pulling apart someone else's standards, he ran out of patience and rented a garage on Greenwood Mews in 2014, intending to do exactly two things: fix sliding doors properly, and never sub-contract a job out again. The first invoice was for a stuck patio door in De Beauvoir Town. It was £140, paid in cash, and the customer phoned back six months later to say the door still ran sweetly. He's still on the books.

By 2017 we were two engineers and a Vauxhall Combo. By 2020 we'd added two more and a welder. The pandemic taught us, like everyone else, that a small bench can flex faster than a big one — we kept all of our staff and added a fire-door specialism the autumn the Building Safety Act consultation went out. Today there are seven fitters, two mobile welders, and one office manager who has the patience of a saint and the diary of a junior consultant.

The four ground rules

We are not a franchise, we are not a directory, and we are not interested in being the biggest. We are interested in turning up when we say we will. Four rules keep us honest:

1. One quote, in writing, before we start. If the scope changes mid-job we stop, ring you, and re-quote. Nobody likes the variation that turns up on the invoice unannounced.
2. The engineer who quoted is the engineer who fits. Continuity matters more than scheduling efficiency. We'd rather wait a day than send someone different in.
3. Original equipment, traced. Every part code is on the receipt. If a Roto roller fails in 2031 you will know exactly what your replacement should be.
4. Twelve months on the workmanship. If something we touched fails inside a year — even our fault on a hinge weld — we come back without a fee, full stop.

What we will and won't take on

We are not the right firm for new-build glazing programmes, large multi-site rollouts, or shopfitting that touches structural steel. We do not handle door manufacture, glazing supply contracts, or anything that needs a CDM principal contractor. We do excellent work on:

• Single-property door and window repair across every domestic and small commercial setting in London;
• Fire-door inspection and remedial work for HMOs, blocks, and managing agents;
• Mobile aluminium and steel welding for security grilles, gates, balustrades and shopfront damage;
• Casement and sash window servicing — with a soft spot for Edwardian timber.

We were founded on the idea that fixing a door should not feel like buying a car. Eleven years in, that's still the standard we measure ourselves against — every quote, every visit, every callback.

Where you'll find us, and when

The workshop sits on Greenwood Mews, E8 — close enough to the A12 that we can swing a van east or west without much ceremony. Office hours are 7:30 to 21:00, Monday to Saturday. Out-of-hours emergencies are covered by our duty engineer for a flat call-out fee; we don't pretend to run a 24/7 desk that we don't actually staff.

If you're a managing agent or letting agency interested in setting up a recurring inspection rota, please phone the office directly on +44 20 7946 0312. We can usually offer a discounted block rate for portfolios of more than ten units.