King's Lynn barn conversion
A traditional joist set installed to create a first floor inside a tight barn, plus a full carpentry contract on seven apartments at South Lynn.
Long Sutton, Lincolnshire
Long Sutton: a 69-unit estate and the full external carpentry package
All exterior carpentry across a 69-unit housing development in Long Sutton, Lincolnshire: joists, roofs and attic roofs, run plot by plot to programme. Six attic roofs completed in a single day.
The brief
Sixty nine units, one external carpentry team
In August 2023 AJB Group carpenters stepped up to take on a housing contract of 69 units in the town of Long Sutton, Lincolnshire. By the time the exterior works began in November it was being described as a 70 unit housing estate. Either way it was, at that point, the largest volume housing contract the company had held.
The scope was all exterior works: the structural floor, the roof and everything that has to be in place before a plot can go watertight. On a development that size the job is not technically difficult on any single plot. It is a logistics problem. Sixty nine plots at different stages, deliveries landing continuously, and a programme where the roof carpenter is the gate on the roofer, the scaffolder and every internal trade behind them.
AJB Group had already been working in Long Sutton since 2021 on domestic jobs across the town, so the site was familiar ground.
What we did
Joists and roofs, plot by plot
Deliveries of joists and roof timber started landing in November 2023 for a busy month ahead for the external carpenters. The joist sets and the roofs then ran continuously across the site, with the external team pushing plots through to watertight rather than working the site in one linear sweep.
Six attic roofs in a day
The estate used attic roofs, and in September 2024 the site was full steam ahead with six attic roofs completed in a single day. Attic trusses are the reason a developer can sell a three storey house on a two storey footprint: the roof space becomes a habitable room rather than a void. They are also heavier, deeper and less forgiving to set out than a standard fink truss, and they have to be braced correctly before anyone can work off them.
Programme, not heroics
By March 2024 the team was sticking to programme and pushing on to get phase one watertight. That is the sentence a main contractor actually wants to read. Volume housing carpentry is won and lost on whether the roofs land in the week they were promised, and having employed carpenters rather than a gang assembled per job is what makes that possible.
The rest of Long Sutton
Alongside the estate, AJB Group has worked steadily through the town on domestic jobs since 2021:
- A hand cut roof on an extension using a 4.2 metre glulam beam as a ridge with ceiling ties to cap the ceiling off
- A solid oak balustrade set, ripped out, supplied and fitted on a domestic property
- An extension finished in cement board cladding
- Five doors hung on a hot tub shed, with the double sets made into bifolds to open the front up
- Under stair seating with cubby boxes, and a feature wall in a master bedroom with a custom built in wardrobe and doors
- A full rip and fit of new uPVC windows and doors on a bungalow ahead of a single storey rear extension
- A complete turnkey job: full strip back and demo to footings, rebuild in matching brickwork, a 2m x 2m dog room extension, a raised tie trussed roof with new plastics, bifold doors with a submarine gable window and full decoration
At a glance
- Location
- Long Sutton, Lincolnshire
- Sector
- New build housing, plus domestic work across the town
- Size
- 69 units, later described as a 70 unit estate
- Scope
- All exterior works: joist sets, roofs, attic roofs, external carpentry package to watertight
- Peak output
- 6 attic roofs completed in one day
- Dates
- Contract announced August 2023, exterior works from November 2023
- Status
- Phase 1 watertight, work continuing in the town
Services proven here
- Roofs
- Attic trusses
- Trusses
- Roof trusses
- Floors
- Floor joists
- Domestic
- Extensions and renovations
On site
Long Sutton, Lincolnshire
The result
Phase one watertight, and a town AJB knows plot by plot
Phase one went watertight on programme, six attic roofs went on in one day at peak, and the external package ran plot by plot across the estate rather than stalling in a queue. Drone footage of the estate posted during the build remains one of the most viewed things AJB Group has published, which says something about what a site looks like when a single carpentry team has held the whole external package across it.
Long Sutton also marked a turning point for the business. The contract was taken on while the company was actively recruiting subcontractors to keep up with growth, and the team has since gone from seven full-time carpenters to fourteen. The capacity to hold multiple plots at once, rather than working through them in sequence, is the direct result.
The company has kept working in the town ever since, from oak balustrades and bifold sets to a full turnkey strip back and rebuild, and in 2026 acquired a property and land in Long Sutton for its own first self build.
Common questions
About this project
How many units did AJB Group cover at Long Sutton?
The contract was announced in August 2023 as 69 units and later described as a 70 unit housing estate. Our carpenters took on all exterior works across the site, including joists and roofs.
What is an attic roof and why use one on a housing estate?
An attic roof, usually built with attic trusses, creates a habitable room inside the roof space instead of a void. It gives a developer an extra floor of saleable area within the same footprint. At Long Sutton we completed six attic roofs in a single day.
Can you keep to programme on a large housing development?
That is the point of employing carpenters rather than sourcing them job by job. At Long Sutton the team stuck to programme and pushed on to get phase 1 watertight, with multiple plots running at once. We now run 14 full-time carpenters plus a vetted supply chain.
Do you work on domestic jobs in Long Sutton as well?
Yes, and we have since 2021. Domestic work in the town has included a hand cut extension roof using a 4.2 metre glulam ridge beam with ceiling ties, a solid oak balustrade set, cement board cladding, bifold door sets, fitted wardrobes and under stair joinery, and a full turnkey strip back and rebuild with a raised tie trussed roof.
Related project
More structural first fix
Got plots that need roofs on them?
We hold external carpentry packages across whole developments. Send the programme and we will price it.