About us
Marine discipline on site, trade qualifications on the tools
Devon Build and Carpentry is owner-run by Adam Harrison, an ex-Royal Marine, qualified bricklayer, roughly twenty years in the trade. You get one point of contact who prices the job, runs the job and finishes the job.
- Established 2020Team of five, owner on site
- £5m public liabilityPlus £10m employers' liability
- 12-month guaranteeNo-quibble workmanship cover
- 10-year warrantyStructural cover on new builds
- Private clients onlyWe don't work for developers
Our story
Built for private clients who want the job done once
We work for homeowners, not developers. That single decision shapes everything: fewer jobs at a time, the owner on site, and a standard nobody is trying to value-engineer out of the build.
Two-storey extension · North DevonAdam started a bricklaying apprenticeship at sixteen and served two years before joining the military at nineteen. The Royal Marines habits carried over: turn up when you said you would, prepare properly, finish what you started. He is a qualified bricklayer by trade with Level 2 Trowel Occupations and around twenty years standing, and he has built his own house from the ground up with the help of his team, Lewis and Macca, so nothing on a domestic project is theoretical to him.
After being discharged from the military he bought a digger and worked alongside another contractor before going out on his own in 2020. The business has grown steadily since and now runs as a team of five: Adam, full-time carpenter Lewis, full-time labourer Macca, and Adam's partner, who handles the admin. Because the core trades sit in-house (brickwork, carpentry, plastering, tiling, kitchens and bathrooms), nobody can pass the blame between trades and nothing stalls waiting for the next contractor to be free.
Adam handles his own plumbing work and brings in a trusted range of subcontractors he uses regularly for anything requiring certification: Part-P registered electricians and gas-registered engineers, plus a structural engineer he has an established relationship with for steels and openings. Adam project-manages all of it from first estimate to the final snag, so you deal with one person throughout.
Who we help
Private homeowners across North Devon: families extending to buy another ten years in the house, self-builders taking on a plot, and owners of period and listed cottages who need work done sympathetically rather than ripped out.
What we specialise in
New builds, extensions and full renovations, finished in-house by our own team, including kitchens and bathrooms delivered as a single package rather than a string of separate trades.
Where we work
Great Torrington, Bideford, Barnstaple, Holsworthy, Hatherleigh, Winkleigh, Braunton, Langtree, Shebbear, Buckland Brewer, Northam & Westward Ho!, Appledore and the surrounding villages, based in Langtree, Devon.
The team
Five people, one standard
Small on purpose. The core trades sit in-house, and the owner is on site.
Adam Harrison
Owner · bricklayer · project manager
Ex-Royal Marine, Level 2 Trowel Occupations, ~20 years in the trade. Prices, runs and finishes every job.
Lewis
Full-time carpenter
City & Guilds qualified. First and second fix, staircases, cladding and structural carpentry.
Macca
Full-time labourer
Keeps the site moving, tidy and safe, and helped Adam build his own house.
The office
Admin and accounts
Adam's partner handles the paperwork, so Adam can stay on the tools.
Mission and standards
One standard, whether it shows or not
The parts of a build you never see again once it is closed up decide how the house behaves in ten years. That is where the standard has to hold.
Quality standards
Set out properly, built by qualified trades, checked by the owner. Notifiable work goes through building control: either a private building control company or your council, whichever suits the job.
Honest pricing
Prices are given as estimates rather than fixed figures, because material costs move and older properties hide surprises. A contingency is built in and explained up front, before you commit.
One point of contact
Adam prices the work, runs the programme and answers the phone. There is no office layer between you and the person responsible for the build.
Fully insured
£5 million public liability and £10 million employers' liability cover in place on every job.
12-month workmanship guarantee
No-quibble cover on our workmanship. If something is not right, we come back and put it right.
10-year structural warranty
New builds carry a 10-year structural warranty plus a 12-month snagging process after handover.
Measurable proof
The numbers behind the name
Every figure below comes from the business itself: no borrowed statistics.
Next step
Talk to the man who will run your build
Free initial estimate, no obligation and no sales pitch: just a straight conversation about what your project involves.
£5m public liability · £10m employers' liability · 12-month no-quibble workmanship guarantee