Boatbreakers On The Move
Over the last few months our team have been busy working to get our headquarters up and running. As Boatbreakers has grown we have become aware of the need to have more space to store all the bits we sell. They were ending up filling our Portsmouth office.
For the last few years we have had our eye on potential locations for a new base. Ideally in the Portsmouth/Gosport area as that’s where our team live.
Former Chandlery Warehouse
Finally after many non-starters the perfect building became available. It was originally a gas works before later being used by an engineering firm. More recently it was a warehouse building for a chandlery business.
When we first got the keys for the building there was still a lot of marine items left over. This means that we will have plenty of items to list for sale. The negative side of this was that we’ve spent hours trying to move and sort the items that were leftover before we could begin renovating the building.
It wasn’t just the boat bits we had to try and shift around. There was also lots of rubbish and waste that needed clearing. Including the paint which was flaking from the walls.
Challenging Exterior
The interior wasn’t the only thing that needed sorting. Outside under the overgrown bushes and broken fence there was a large yard area. Getting it to the large area it is now was big effort. It took a lot of digging, cutting, breaking and lifting. Then there was the mammoth task of digging the 16 holes for the new fence posts.
We hadn’t quite anticipated what was going to be underground once we started digging. The front section meant digging through 9 layers of underground brickwork. It was thirsty work digging during a heatwave using a concrete breaker.
Before and After
The team are now close to getting the new office up and running. We will soon have some before and after pictures to show the work that’s gone on over the last few months.
Written By: Luke Edney
Luke completed a journalism degree in Brighton University and fortunately for us uses this in his communications, Facebook posts, Tweets and emails to tell all our enquirers and followers what we are up to. Without Luke we would be lost, he runs the office, keeps us organised and is like a terrier and never lets a tricky boat disposal job go un-photographed or Tweeted about.
He also manages all of our enquiries passing them to whoever in the team is the best suited to deal with it. We are teaching Luke how to drive a motorboat or sail a yacht so while he’s learning we suggest you keep out of the Solent!
When he’s not at work he’s a massive football fan (his Dad used to play for Portsmouth FC years ago) and seems to know everything there is to know about any player, anywhere. Next time you ring and he answers, think of a tricky football trivia question and ask him
Date Published: July 29, 2019
Last Modified: June 28, 2022
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