Twenty-two people on payroll, six to eight projects a year, and a bench we grow rather than hire in a hurry. Six roles are open in Bermondsey and across London.
Ironwood has never used an agency and has never run a day-rate bench. Every carpenter, machinist and site manager here is employed, on PAYE, with the same holiday, pension and sick pay as the people in the studio. That decision costs us money in a quiet February and earns it back every time a wall gets opened by the person who closed it.
The average tenure across the firm is nine and a half years. About a third of the crew came to us with no construction background at all — a chef, a scaffolder, two apprentices straight out of a Southwark sixth form — and were trained here, on our sites, by people who were told plainly that training is part of the job and is paid as such.
01Sites start at 7:30 and stop at 16:00, Monday to Friday. We work the occasional Saturday morning on a crane week and it is paid at time and a half, agreed a fortnight ahead, never sprung on you on a Thursday. Nobody here is expected to lose a weekend to a programme we got wrong.
02Between four and nine people on a site, one site manager, and a job that lasts eleven to eighteen months — so you are not meeting a new gaffer every fortnight. Welfare on every site from week one: heated cabin, drying room, hot water, proper toilets.
03Most carpenters spend part of the year in the Bermondsey shop cutting and pre-assembling cassettes. It is dry, it is warm, it is where the fiddly joinery gets done properly, and it is the reason our winters are less miserable than most.
We run Level 2 Carpentry & Joinery apprenticeships with a South London further education college a bus ride from the shop, with a route straight through to Level 3 for anyone who wants it. One day a week at college, four with us, three years end to end, and a full City & Guilds qualification at the end of it that belongs to you and not to us.
Every apprentice is assigned to one named carpenter who is accountable for their training — it is written into that carpenter’s own review, so nobody gets left sweeping up for a year. Pay starts at £18,500 and reaches £26,000 in the third year, well above the apprentice minimum, because we would rather pay properly than lose someone to a firm that pays properly.
Intakes open in June for a September start, in step with the college year. You do not need experience, a driving licence or a family in the trade. You need to turn up, and you need to be interested in how things are put together.
Run one project end to end — from the first pour to the twelve-month return visit. You hold the programme, the site diary, the weekly client report and the RAMS, and you are the name the client has in their phone. SMSTS, first aid at work and a CSCS Black card, or close enough that we can book the rest.
Frame, sheathe, hang and finish. Half your year is timber frame and CLT erection, half is second fix and joinery in houses people are about to live in. Everyone here is on payroll with holiday and pension — we do not run a day-rate bench that goes home when it rains.
The person who makes sure the glulam, the crane and the road closure all arrive on the same Tuesday. Procurement schedules, delivery sequencing, subcontract paperwork, and the weekly report that goes out to every client on a Friday morning. Construction experience helps; being relentlessly organised helps more.
We price from a finished 3D model rather than a hopeful sketch, which means our estimates are measured, not guessed. You will take off quantities, build the bill, chase subcontract quotes and sit in the meeting where we explain the number to the client — because the person who priced it should be the person who defends it.
Cut, drill and number timber in the shop so the frame goes up in days on site. You will work from Tom’s shop drawings on a 5-axis machine, run the sequencing labels, and be quietly responsible for the fact that a wall panel arrives in Essex with every hole already in the right place.
Level 2 Carpentry & Joinery with a route straight into Level 3, one day a week at college and four on site or in the shop with a named carpenter who is responsible for you. No experience needed. We take two apprentices a year and we have kept every one of them.
All roles are based at Unit 4, 218 Drummond Road, Bermondsey, London SE16 4DH, or on our sites within the M25 and the Home Counties. This is a portfolio demonstration site — the roles above are illustrative.
A CV if you have one, or just an email telling us what you have built. Three questions we actually read: what you have worked on, what you want to be doing in three years, and when you could start. Everyone gets an answer, including a no.
Elena or Marcus, twenty minutes, usually before eight in the morning or after four so you are not taking it in a portaloo. We tell you the honest version of the role and the pay band up front — you should never have to ask us what it pays.
For site roles, come and work a day with the crew you would join. We pay it at the role’s full day rate whether or not either of us takes it further. For studio roles it is a half-day in Bermondsey with a real drawing set and a real problem.
Two references, a right-to-work check, and a look at your CSCS card. If a ticket has lapsed or you never had one, that is not a no — we book and pay for it before you start.
The offer comes in writing within 48 hours of the last conversation, with the salary or day rate, the pension, the holiday and the review date on one page. You get a named buddy for twelve weeks and a proper sit-down at week twelve — not a form, a conversation.
We open roles roughly four times a year and most of them are filled by someone who wrote to us months before the advert existed. Tell us what you have built, what you would like to be building, and roughly when you are free. Every email is read by Elena or Marcus and every one gets a reply, even when the answer is not yet.
Apprenticeship enquiries are welcome all year; the next intake opens in June for a September start.
Ironwood Contracting Ltd is an equal opportunities employer. We recruit on what you can do and what you are willing to learn. If you need an adjustment at any stage of the process — a written task instead of a call, a different start time, step-free access — say so in your first email and we will arrange it. See our privacy notice for how we handle application data.
Six to eight projects a year, twenty-two people, and a bench we grow rather than hire in a hurry.
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