Chris Ickemeyer, managing director of Technical Services Surrey, admits he gets excited at the prospect of a new engineering job but he is equally happy fixing a domestic boiler. Paul Braithwaite reports.
Chris Ickemeyer, managing director of Technical Services Surrey (TSS), admitted he only came into the business by accident. But he is hooked on the m&e scene.

His firm will do any m&e work from domestic boiler installation and repair to large commercial projects and maintenance. Ickemeyer and his secretary work from an office which is built in his back garden in Redhill.

It is easy to see what excites him - building management systems and sorting out projects which other firms have failed to finish. In fact, he likes nothing better than being down and dirty in a boiler suit or, alternatively, sitting behind a computer monitoring buildings from a remote site.

One school he monitors phoned him recently to tell him there was a fault with the boiler. When could it expect an engineer, the school asked?

The engineer should be coming through the gates now, Ickemeyer replied. He had received a remote alert about an hour before and had dispatched an engineer immediately.

Another client phoned him to say that his central heating was not working. Ickemeyer says he had been watching alert after alert come up on the monitor. He had already phoned the house to warn them but an electrician was working there and said he had not touched the BMS.

He went to the house and told the client exactly what was wrong.

'He did not believe me when I showed him the print-outs and even told him that the electrician has moved valve Y51. I took him to the cellar and turned the valve back to its original position.'

What the electrician had done was turn the valve which drained the system. It is the same with jobs which other companies had not been able to complete.

'I am getting a reputation for fixing projects which other companies have walked away from,' he beamed.

So how did he come to building services? He studied for his HND in Building Studies at the University of the West of England. And he applied for fantastic jobs with all the big construction companies.

But during one of the interviews he realised he would be just a number with a pat on the back if the job came in on time and on budget but a 'kick up the backside' if it didn't. Further, the HR person who interviewed him was unable to answer his questions about the company.

So he bided his time, working as a maintenance engineer for Bass, the brewer. His break came when a friend bought an old warehouse and wanted Ickemeyer to fit it out for him.

'I built him some very nice offices. For the services, I stuck to the rules. I put the boilers on the wall and piped everything up. But I was not Corgi-registered and so I asked a gas engineer who was working around the corner to commission the work.

'He said it was an excellent job and would I like to quote for a project for him.'

Ickemeyer says he went from a 24kW Worcester boiler in that office to working on massive 12,000lb/h atmospheric steam boilers for a laundry company. He worked for that company for a number of years, tendering for projects and doing the work, then on to the next project.
While he was doing this work, he went to night school and took his exams for building services.

In 2000, Ickemeyer realised he would have to formalise his business and TSS was born.
Until then he had continued to work for the brewer and do his other projects in the time he wasn't sleeping.

'For me it was a leap of faith. I had a steady income from a steady job and I had to give these up and work for myself. My biggest worry was: would there be enough work; would I earn enough money?'

As for working long hours, he reckons it is one of the reasons he does not have a partner or even a casual girlfriend.

'No woman would put up with the hours I work.'

He thinks nothing of driving down to a hotel in Cornwall, fixing something which has gone wrong, and driving back straight away - an 18 hour day.

A pet hate is being responsible for everything. 'Everyone looks to you for the answer, even to simple questions like, 'Shall I go on to the next job?''

His sub-contractors are tried and trusted, firms he has worked with in the past - and they have to be prepared to work when he says.

'Main contractors run rings around you if you let them. I have been telephoned in the past to say they are pouring the concrete next day and 'you need to get the pipes in today', so we have to be quick on our feet.

'The mechanical and electrical engineers are usually the last to be considered in many projects.' But Ickemeyer admits it is getting better.

There seems to be more thought going into the m&e side of projects. 'After all, m&e contractors can save a company shed-loads of money.'

He cited one project which TSS had recently completed. There were 18 warehouse units being refurbished on an industrial estate in Redhill. The installation was for condensing boilers. 'We had to make thermal calculations for the offices, solar gains for the windows etc and this was for a warehouse.'

So is the business becoming a bit boring?

'No, there are still some jobs to be excited about. It is good to be involved in a project and see it through to switch-on.'

He has also built up a reputation for a second part of the TSS business, that of supplying and installing commercial catering equipment and accompanying ductwork. He says that much of the business is in London. Here, TSS has to be flexible and willing to go the extra mile.

'Sometimes we have to work out of hours or overnight or at weekends and we have to be out of the restaurant or hotel kitchen when they say we have to leave and the equipment has to be working and the premises have to be spotless.'

He says that, when a restaurant orders a new range, TSS will turn up when agreed, the kitchen staff will mop down the kitchen as usual and leave and the next day they will come in as usual and there will be a new range fitted.

Ickemeyer says that often, when perhaps a fridge goes wrong, the mechanic turns up in the middle of the busy lunchtime, spreads his tools out over the floor and examines the equipment before deciding a new one is needed.

'We work differently. For the restaurants which we maintain, we have a history of the fridge - how old it is, how many times it had gone wrong, etc.

'We might say, 'The fridge is now nine years old, it probably needs replacing.' And, if we repair it, it will cost £x for replacing this part and £x if we replace this part and a new model will cost £x.'

If the restaurant orders a new fridge or part, we would supply the fridge or part and swap it overnight. We hold keys to all the premises where we work.'

Ickemeyer cites an example of one restaurateur who bought another premises, gave TSS the keys, a list of what he wanted and where he wanted it and how much he was prepared to pay - and 11 days to do the job.'

Ickemeyer beams as he added that it came in on time.
He uses a local firm as sub-contractors and 'they work when we work'.

Ickemeyer is half German - and speaks German fluently - and while at university he spent six months in Germany working with firms.

The Germans were and still are far more advanced on eco matters than here and he admits he learned a lot. This put him way ahead of the game and he is already installing biomass boilers in this country.

But Germans do not seem to understand that what is available in Germany is not always available in the UK.

He deals here with Buderus, Vaillant and Viessmann in HVAC and Baufritz, which manufactures eco-friendly houses.

Baufritz is so far advanced for the UK, he says. On the heating side, it installs heat pumps, solar thermal, or biomass or a condensing boiler if there is no other option. It wanted Buderus biomass pellet boilers installed in its homes and could not understand why they were not available in the UK.

And, while Ickemeyer could source them from Germany, the warranty would be null and void and the UK arm would not adopt either. And he reckons the equipment would be about a third cheaper too.

'I get a lot of work from companies which have used German equipment, sorting out the problems which arise.'

Ickemeyer does not think he will ever be a millionaire but that is not what he wants. There are very few jobs he has tackled which he couldn't finish. 'I like the nightmare jobs as long as the customer realises we are doing our best and if we do not find the fault the first time, we will try again.

Learning the job

Ickemeyer has his own views on apprenticeships and training. “These days, colleges can turn out plumbers in a few months. Pay £5,000 and become a plumber and in those few months you can read all the technical books available.

But these people will not have the experience that a full apprenticeship, working with a qualified engineer and making mistakes and learning from them.”

He learned his trade by working alongside an engineer at a firm near where he lives now. “It was the best apprenticeship I could have. This experienced engineer taught me all the tricks of the trade and I will pass those skills on.”

Who's who

Directly employed by TSS is John Bennion, who is a mechanical engineer and Sandra Lessie, who runs the office.

Mike Sheppard, the electrician, is a sub-contractor, who works only for TSS. There are two apprentices, Kieran Giles and Matt Forgham.

Other than that, he uses specialist sub-contractors with whom he has built up a relationship and who are willing to work his way and to his timetable.