About
Experience that shows in the decisions, not the sales pitch
Dartside Building & Refurbishment is led by Mike Stapleton, who has worked in the construction industry since 1984 — over 41 years, including around twenty-five years of hard landscaping.
Mike Stapleton
Mike began in the trade in 1984 and served his time as a carpenter. Carpentry remains the foundation of how he works: it is a trade that teaches you to read a building, to understand how loads travel, how timber behaves over decades and why a defect has appeared where it has.
Over four decades that experience has broadened into general building work, alterations, refurbishment and around twenty-five years of hard landscaping — patios, terraces, retaining walls and steps on the kind of steep, awkward South Devon plots that punish guesswork about levels and drainage.
The value of that combination is judgement. Knowing which walls can be opened up and which need engineering input. Knowing when an old sash window can be repaired rather than replaced. Knowing how long a job will actually take once access, weather and approvals are accounted for. That is what long experience buys, and it is the reason clients tend to come back and to recommend us.
How we operate
A small business, run deliberately that way
We take on a limited number of projects at once. The person who assesses your property is the person accountable for the work, and specialist trades are brought in and coordinated as part of one programme rather than left to arrange themselves.
Every project starts with a written scope. Assumptions, exclusions and payment stages are agreed before work begins, and any items requiring further investigation are stated plainly rather than buried. If something unforeseen appears once work is underway — and in older buildings it sometimes does — you hear about it immediately, with the options and cost implications set out.
What we value
Six things we hold to
Honest assessment
We would rather lose an enquiry than take on work we cannot do well, or price something we have not properly understood.
Realistic timescales
Programmes are set against what the work actually requires, including approvals, lead times and the weather this coast reliably supplies.
Clear communication
You are told what is happening, what has changed and what it means, in plain terms, while there is still time to make decisions.
Quality over speed
Work is done in the right order, using appropriate materials and methods, rather than rushed to clear a site.
Proper preparation
Investigation, protection and sequencing happen before the visible work starts, because that is what determines the finish.
Respect for the property
Buildings, gardens, neighbours and belongings are treated carefully, and sites are left in a fit state at the end of each day.
Husband 4 Hire
A separate digital brand, not a handyman service
Husband 4 Hire continues as a digital brand publishing downloadable DIY instruction guides written from site experience. It is a publishing brand only: no labour is supplied under that name, and it is entirely separate from the contracting work carried out by Dartside Building & Refurbishment.
Discuss your project
Send us the details and we will tell you honestly whether the work suits us and what the sensible next step would be.