Who we are

After years of working in the building and glazing industry for large firms that adopt a cash first customer second approach the current directors of K and M installs Ltd decided there must be a better way. We took our wealth of experience, hard working ethics and attention to detail and set up our own home improvements company, K and M Installs Ltd!

In the first couple of years K and M Installs Ltd was set up we were going through the solar panel boom. We were well practised in solar panel installation so were fitting solar panels as an MCS registered firm along side completing window and door installations as a Fensa registered firm with a few full re roof jobs thrown in for good measure. At the time the demand for solar panels was huge so roughly 70% of work was fitting solar panels in all weathers around the Northwest of England.

The Government pulled the rug on the large solar panel feed in tariffs that were being offered, overnight there was a big slump in demand for solar panel installations. This was fine for us as the demand for our window and door fitting services was really taking off through commonly used building sites like Rated people. We were still regularly asked to take on roofing work including full re roofs but the only solar panel jobs we did at this time were large commercial solar installations as they were still receiving better tariffs.

The success we had in 2013 with window and door installations made us focus more on what we enjoyed and were good at. The feedback we were getting from customers was inspiring and the recommendations just kept coming. We were fine tuning our craft and trying to improve things where ever and when ever we could be that through suppliers or process.

We like all firms had a few hickups along the way with the occasional van breaking down, member of staff moving on etc but we were still gaining in popularity in and around Manchester and our customer base kept growing. We were busy enough full time on window and door installations now that we decided not to take on any more roofing work which was good because our knees had seen better days.

Work was steady and were out constantly through out the year fully focused on new windows and door installations. Peoples feed back was all being logged online and our 5 start reviews kept coming in which help other customers fine us.

Word of mouth was still a big thing and we were certainly getting plenty of it, people were mainly price driven but also having seen jobs we had done and hearing reports of the way we conducted ourselves made most people we priced jobs for happy to use our services.

Happy customers and more reviews kept us busy again all year with more people searching us out and using our services. with a few years trading behind us now (thousands of windows and doors fitted) we had the odd few bits of remedial work here and there to do like change a broken handle, adjust a door after it settled etc but every customer was looked after and left happy showing we kept our guarantees and put customers first.

AAAHHH COVID like most people covid came as a shock to us, we spent time in lock down like everybody else and wondered if this was the end for us, who would want workers in their house when you were meant to socially distance? well as it turned out after the first lock down quite a few people did, trades people were aloud to work and this started a shift in the uk of people staying at home and spending time and money on their property. This was a very strange and unusual year but also a good year for business.

The rush for home improvements continued and we could not have been busier, we put an extra van on the road and more staff but still couldn’t meet the demand we were seeing, lead times were up to 12 to 14 weeks and all was well, then the shortages hit and inflation began. Although we had a full order book we had a hard time getting materials and a harder time keeping up with the increase in prices we were seeing across the board. These prices seemed high to us but we were still coming in more competitive that other firms and winning the majority of jobs that we were asked to price

More of the same for this year, lots of work going on, lots of people doing up their houses, lots of shortages and lots of price increases from suppliers. Energy prices also started jumping up so there were extra costs coming in from all angles, we covered as much as we could and kept our pricing fair so while we knew of a few firms that had to close down we kept busy, kept committed to doing a good job at a good price and kept our heads above water.

This year started off very busy with it still being in trend to renovate your property but inflation was creeping in everywhere, peoples pockets were being stretched and the price increases everyone had to deal with across the board started to slow down the economy. There was uncertainty in the UK with a War starting between Russia and Ukraine straight after the Covid shock, lucky for our business we had a large number of existing customers, repeat work and word of mouth being very frequent now so we had a steady flow jobs through the year. The supply chain seemed to get back to normal but the prices stayed high and it seemed inflation was here to stay.

Unusual requests came to us in 2023, it seemed to us people had jumped on the bandwagon over the last couple of years while the volume of work in the Uk was at an unusually high level. Firms had set up fitting windows and doors locally that people had used, only to find that a year or so later they were no longer around when problems started. As such we were asked to do a lot of local remedial work on other peoples jobs. Apart from that inflation was still a big part bringing in more price increases but our reputation and reviews helped us through the year with covid now becoming a distant memory.

This year seemed like a normal year to us (almost like pre covid times but with everything in the UK more expensive) the year started off fairly slow, picked up in spring and stayed steady until Christmas. We had our Fensa accreditation to renew (tests and paperwork compliance) amongst the general running of the firm but everything seemed to settle down and life was finding a new norm with inflation easing off, supply chains returning to usual capacity and we were out every day working.

Reports of fly by night firms are high in the area this year with a few big firms closing down it seems cowboys are looking to fill the vacuum, I hope not too many people fall for this as the guarantee is gone when you can no longer see their van break light on their van. We keep going out doing what we do best and keeping our customers happy with a PB on good reviews coming in this year and weekly facebook post starting. We are fortunate to have a strong customer base now that doesn’t hesitate to recommend us and hundreds of online reviews that are a credit to all the hard work we have put in over the last 15 years of running K and M Installs.