ABOUT US
Established in April 2022, Direct Works delivers professional repairs and maintenance services to tenants of Cunninghame Housing Association.
Our service is built around four key objectives:
Streamlined Service Delivery: Direct Works offers multi-trade expertise, enabling us to complete more tasks on the first visit and reduce turnaround times.
Enhanced Communication: We prioritise keeping tenants informed about the status and progress of their repairs or improvements.
Trust and Reliability: Most repairs and maintenance are handled by our trusted team of operatives, ensuring familiarity and confidence for tenants.
Convenient Appointments: Our improved scheduling system allows tenants to select repair appointments that suit their needs.
The Direct Works Team is based at our dedicated facility in Bute Place, Ardrossan. This facility features office space and a purpose-built store, ensuring the efficient management of repairs and maintenance for our Ayrshire housing portfolio.
SERVICES WE OFFER
At Direct Works, we take pride in our strong performance, exceptional customer service, and, above all, our high standard of workmanship. Currently, we deliver approximately £4 million worth of services annually for the Association. The services we provide include:
Smoke alarm install upgrades and repairs
Cyclical maintenance
Void property maintenance and repairs
Aids and adaptations
Responsive repairs
EICR programme
STAFFING & RESOURCES
All our staff are employed on permanent contracts with Cunninghame Housing Association, following a rigorous recruitment process. This approach ensures a stable and dedicated workforce, with exceptionally low staff turnover. As a result, we have full confidence in their ability to consistently meet the high standards expected by both our organization and our clients. Our team includes:
- 1 Operational Supervisor
- 5 Supervisors
- 11 Joiners
- 4 Plumbers
- 5 Electricians
- 2 Painters/Plasterers
- 1 Floor Layer
- 5 Labourers
- 4 Apprentices (3 Trade)
- 1 Office Manager
- 4 Admin Workers
Staff Training
We provide our staff with the following training courses:
- Induction
- Driver training
- Asbestos Awareness
- Child Protection
- Adult Protection
- Safe use of power tools
- Ladder Safety
- sharps, blood and bodily fluids
- manual handling
- Dynamic risk assesssment / operatives manual
- working at height
- COSHH
- Scaffolding (PASMA)
- CSCS/ECS Tests
We are also proud members of :
Our Fleet
We operate a fleet of 32 mobile vehicles, each clearly branded with the Cunninghame and Direct Works logos and maintained to a high standard. To ensure maximum efficiency and meet our key performance targets, we use an advanced operating system combined with a vehicle tracking system, enabling us to deliver optimal service to our clients.
Each vehicle is equipped with an extensive stock of materials, enabling us to complete repairs efficiently and get it right the first time!
Plant and Equipment Resources
We take pride in our partnership with HILTI, which equips our operatives with top-of-the-line tools. This collaboration provides the advantages outlined below, ensuring a smooth process with no disruption to our clients.
On top of this we have several local supplier accounts where we can access the correct tools or equipment to carry out any task required.
All repairs, both proactive and reactive, are provided free of charge. This includes coverage for wear and tear, PAT testing, calibration, pistons, filters, and more. Our average repair turnaround time is just three days.
If tools are stolen at any point during the contract, HILTI will cover 80% of the remaining contract value, leaving the customer responsible for only 20%.
Should any battery or charger go down during the contract, it will be replaced free of charge.
While HILTI repairs your tools, we provide a loan tool delivered to the job site the next day, completely free of charge.
There are no hidden tool fees—just a fixed monthly payment for access to the latest and most efficient tools in the industry.
If a tool is accidentally dropped or damaged, HILTI will repair or replace it.
Tools are upgraded to newer models every 3–4 years, depending on the tool type.
Freight for repaired tools to and from the job site is provided free of charge across Great Britain.
STAFFING & RESOURCES
At Direct Works, we have partnered with Simpro to implement their contractor operating system. This innovative solution is a valuable tool that enhances efficiency and transparency for both our team and our clients.
The following features can be provided to ensure full visibility for you, the client, on all works you have requested:
You can access the following features:
- View and print quotes.
- View, print, accept, or reject outstanding quotes.
- Request new quotes.
- Depending on your settings, select from available assets and pre-builds.
You can:
- View and print all job stages.
- Book a new job.
- Depending on your settings, select from available assets and pre-builds.
You can:
- View, print, and pay unpaid invoices.
- Access a summary page of all outstanding invoices.
- View and print paid invoices.
- View, print, and save a PDF statement of invoices and payments applied, filtered by a specified date range.
You can:
- View a basic summary of tasks the customer is associated with
You can:
- View and edit sites associated with their customer card file
- Add new site contacts
You can:
- View assets by site or asset type
- View assets service and transfer history
- Search and add assets to be serviced when requesting a quote or booking a job
You can:
- View asset reports for planned preventative maintenance, defects and test history by site and year
You can:
- View and edit their own company details
- View, edit and add company contacts and give portal login credentials to additional people
- View assigned labour rates and response times
- View contracts and prepaid time purchased