Welcome To The Blog!

Apparently, it is customary to introduce yourself when starting one of these. Who came up with this rule? Surely you only start your blog once!

So that’s the question of the day out of the way! For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Martyn. I started planning what has become SavvySpaces quite a while ago now.

I have always had a strong interest in how things work (or don’t). Apparently, this all started as a 4-year-old nightmare kid sticking his fingers in a lamp without a bulb!

Well, I grew up, now I know bulbs only grow in your garden and the lamp was the thing missing from that table lamp!

Fast forward a few years and I was rewiring the house (11) Mum was not very happy, not sure why. I lived and the house did not burn down! Still, I was banned from the loft and given a dodgy plastic tool kit.

Well, I continued messing about with everything I could. The house did get rewired when I was 18, my 11-year-old self didn’t do too bad in the loft.

I was not really one for education as a kid, school was not for me. I’m fairly sure most people knew I really was not interested in 1066 or the 742 times table. Ironic now as history and architectural history fascinate me.

Toward the end of School, I managed to get my work experience at an Electrical firm in Burnley, SBS Electrical.

That was far more fun than actually going to school, Must have been a nightmare looking back for the company, having a kid wandering around sites with tools and live wires not too far away.

College

I eventually left school and sure enough, I wanted to be an Electrician. I signed up for Accrington & Rosendale College full-time. Me and educational institutes were still not friends!

The first year there drew to a close and lost my head in the final exams. I had moved out of home and had a room in a shared house by this point.

I was and still am very much of the opinion no one can help you unless you are willing to help yourself.

After about a year out working in various jobs, working out what I was going to do, and pulled myself together a bit.

I went for an interview at Burnley College and met a chap called Peter Wright. He was the tutor for Electrical Installation, a thoroughly decent chap who had an amazing way with people. I was once again inspired to train to be an Electrician.

Burnley College was basically home until around 2001 and I credit Peter Wright with this, some tutors just know how to reach students! Unlike School. I left College with Distinction and Merit grades and was in the top 5%, I enjoyed the subject and still do, if a bit geeky at times.

Whilst still at college I had a temporary job with AMF Bowling repairing the 10 pin bowling machines on shifts. I really enjoyed this job, it was very different from basic electrical work and spurred me on to learn more about machinery, controls, motors, drives, etc.

Real Work Time

From there me and a mate jumped in the very deep end and went self-employed. I was 19, We had been offered work wiring up new Pubs and Clubs, the first job was ‘BB11’ in Burnley. The old post office was being converted into a mini nightclub/bar, we were both still at college but no one was bothered if you could do the work.

We worked for the same companies for a good few jobs, I ended up in Skegness on my own rewiring a pub with flats above. At 19 I had well and truly landed out of my comfort zone. The job got finished and I was actually quite pleased, albeit I had lost half my body weight, I was about 8 stone after 6 weeks of 20 hour days. You can do these crazy things as a teenager.

That work soon dried up and I found myself wanting a regular job with regular hours. It wasn’t long after leaving college I was out and about working for Thompson Wills. Pete & Dave (RIP fella) were thoroughly decent guys, an Electrical contractor in Lancashire. They took me on as an improver, I was fresh out of college and learned quite a lot there, I was involved in quite a few commercial and industrial jobs.

After a while there I was offered a job at Rolls Royce over in Barnoldswick I made the move. Another job I enjoyed. There were a few of us there on maintenance, it was a good little team. We had a whole array of tasks from repairing the electrical systems of the aging machinery to installing/moving new machines. Rewiring the factory along the way, some of the installation was 60 – 70 Years old, which was fun if a tad dangerous!

Self-employed for the win

Sadly redundancies followed there and I was moved to a redacted redacted redacted place with a serious amount of security. I did not much enjoy it or the guys with semi-auto’s!

I was soon back to self-employment and traveling the country for a facilities management company. Working on heavy electrical infrastructure in the likes of PC World and Argos Stores, 16 hour ‘nights’. I was replacing the guts of switch-rooms and sleeping in hotels! I really knew how to find the jobs.

That company went bust, me and a college mate went on to work for our own clients, I took on some huge industrial projects of over 100k and some maintenance contracts for private engineering companies. Machinery repairs, etc. I had built a bit of a reputation for being able to fix the older machinery and work on the modern PLC controlled machines alike.

I had managed to get in with a company that had a Tesco build contract in the north at the time. The new Burnley store was to be some of my last work in the north before moving to London in 2003.

The London Move!

That was a big move and a huge change. South London was nothing like the north, or North London as it turns out.

There was no chance I was going to find private commercial clients quickly in the big smoke as a 23-year-old.

Agencies were my first call and looking back it was a good one!

From Met facilities to Waterboard projects I got some great work and experience. The Waterboard works actually got me in with Siemens. I was back to doing 50k jobs on my own for private clients. Pumping stations, Chlorination plants, Boreholes, controls, and panels it was exactly the kind of work I wanted. I even retrained and diversified to doing Gasworks.

The World Crashes

The financial crash of 2008, the world was no fun at all, my other half was involved with the Lehmans Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. A lot of my clients were drastically scaling back their operations.

A move was on the cards. we sold up to move to Chesham, just North West of London.

Another new start but armed with experience and knowledge that set me apart from a lot of domestic electricians.

Enter Loxone. And a bit more diversification. Loxone is not greatly different from the PLC and BMS stuff I had been doing for a good chunk of my career. Just more visually pleasing and at that time firmly aimed at the domestic home automation and custom install markets.

For a good few years now my work has been a mixture of controls and complex systems mixed with some of the more basic electrical and commercial gas projects.

I enjoy nothing more than getting stuck into AutoCAD to plan and design panels, controls, and smart installations.

The World Crashes… Again

Recently I have taken to custom work. It’s good fun designing products, having them made, and then selling them.

With the closure of Loxone’s web-shop to non-partners, a facility where past present, and future clients can access products without necessarily having to pay us to install them.

Have a read through some of my blogs on here, hopefully they will inspire you on current projects and technology for your properties!

Always happy to help drop me a line and let’s chat!

Thanks for reading! Brew time!