Thomas Riddell Builders

Thomas Riddell Builders Trusted Family business working throughout the Scottish Borders since 1950. Contact us for all your building and stonemasonry needs

Well, what can we say about this one... Client returned to us to discuss options for a well he had found in the corner...
31/07/2026

Well, what can we say about this one...
Client returned to us to discuss options for a well he had found in the corner of his garden, well...... he had already got some concrete rings so we stabilised the head of the original dry stone well, cast a concrete pad around the well head and fitted the concrete rings, but he wanted it to have a rustic look so we fitted multiple tie straps and stone clad the concrete rings, half way through he also decided he wanted us to make a seat/step for clearing it out, all before finishing it with finger pointing to match the rest of the stonework on his property and coped it with Indian sandstone, in keeping with the other works we have done, we also made a mesh grill and fitted it to stop any future grandkids from having any accidents. We appreciate the repeat work from this client and as a client/customer relationship we get on exceedingly ......well 😂.
When asked for his opinion he responded as you'd expect ....."it looks .....WELL". The puns went constantly on this jobs so was only fair to share a few.
The lads definitely did well with this one, and nobody got wet during the course of works, though it was a close call for me at one point for a few too many well jokes.
Well, we hope you liked this post and hopefully back to less childish jokes for the next one.

We were contacted about this one by a mother who we have previously worked for to ask if we could help her daughter rede...
07/07/2026

We were contacted about this one by a mother who we have previously worked for to ask if we could help her daughter redesign and refresh the garden in her new house, as well as make it more functional, unfortunately the weather on the day we went to take a look wasn't the best with some snow and a lot of rain, so the only thing for it was back into the dry to work out the costing, sent through and client accepted, we arranged a suitable date once the weather brightened up and allowed the garden to dry up, this was a must as even after a fortnight of dry weather the original slabs were still floating due to no sub base, so we lifted the slabs, removed the wall, dug back the bank, new founds, block backing wall faced with dry stone d**e style facing as per clients request, then onto the patio.....sub base, relief drain and more sub base, followed by cost effective Indian sandstone slabbing, pointing and final tidy up, we also repaired the drains and slabs in the driveway which had started to move with years of use, fortunately the weather while doing the work was far better than the weather the day we went to take our first look, down side is, it was too hot for some of the lads, us builders are never happy.

This one was different....roughcast castle detail chimney head...... Original chimney on 110 year old house which had be...
03/06/2026

This one was different....roughcast castle detail chimney head...... Original chimney on 110 year old house which had been re rendered approx 45 years ago, unfortunately the water had gotten in from the top due to deteriorated haunching so required some repairs, with a new roof getting fitted to the house it was the perfect time for the works, unfortunately when the render was partially stripped it became apparent that the original mortar had turned to powder, so to ensure we didn't hold up the roofer we got to work, took down the chimney, rebuilt in 6"block, first coated and wet dash chip coated, before installing new chimney cans and cowls, all finished with a day spare before the roofer was ready for the front elevation, it was handy the weather held up well for us on this one and now the chimney and roof are all finished the house has a new lease of life for the next 110 years.

Well the past couple of weeks have been very changeable weather as well as work types. We've built stone gate pillars fo...
15/05/2026

Well the past couple of weeks have been very changeable weather as well as work types. We've built stone gate pillars for another return client in Jedburgh with pyramid caps made from slabs to get the look he wanted without the cost of solid sandstone, the lads have done some repairs to an old wall in redpath for another return customer and raked out and repointed the frontage of a cottage in Bowden for a new customer to freshen up the look as well as extend the life of the property, early basic maintenance can save a lot of cost in the long term, especially in the very changeable Scottish weather, frost in may, we've had enough of that for this winter.....
This was alongside a current ongoing contract and some other small jobs in between, and even after this we still managed some quality time with the families at the weekends feeding lambs at Jackson's farm.

The lads have been hard at it at a return customers house doing a large 2 tier Sahara mix multi size Indian sandstone pa...
22/04/2026

The lads have been hard at it at a return customers house doing a large 2 tier Sahara mix multi size Indian sandstone patio, path, steps and stepping stones, brick edging, rehanging the gate to new posts and leveling a large area of Thier hillside banking for a future lawn, all to clients specs, a lot of machine work on this one and due to the area being on quite a steep hillside a lot of hidden works under the ground forming hidden retaining walls and hardcore to get this over the line but always worth it to see it shine in the sun at the end, we can certainly see why the client wanted this design in this area, we hope they enjoy a lot of dinner parties on this patio this summer. And to top it off, a nice message from the client tonight to say how much they love the end result and that they are very impressed with how the lads have worked and the effort they have put in overcoming the challenges thrown in along the way. And all in time for the pre-arranged timeframe for the next job starting.
The pictures do not do this one justice (and my camera wide lens was not quite big enough).

Address

4 Goslaw Green
Selkirk
TD74EJ

Telephone

+44175021832

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