Professional Builder talks to the tradesman behind the Bricky’s Buddy, a time-saving trowel holder that’s a friend at your side.
We’ve all been there; you put something down and – almost as soon as you have – you forget where. Experienced builder, Mike Clarke thinks he has the answer – a magnetic trowel holder that means you never have to part with your trusty tool in the first place, and it will always by your side, even when up and down scaffolding or moving around site.
“I made a rudimentary version to use myself and the result was many positive comments from other tradespeople on how useful it looked,” explains the North Yorkshire-based builder. “I don’t think even brickies themselves are aware of just how often they’ll put their trowel down in the course of a day. The feedback I get from people who’ve used it is that it’s a lifesaver.”
Mike, together with his business partner Terry Ashmore, a North Yorkshire based Joiner, set about producing a version that they could bring to the market as a solution for the trade, and the result is the Bricky’s Buddy. The benefits, as Mike explains, are multiple: “It’s not just saving you time because there’s also a safety consideration especially working at heights. The high-grade neodymium magnets means that the trowel will stay in place, it’s dual sided and is very easy to keep clean. The Bricky’s Buddy has a seat belt like material strap that hangs from a belt making it very durable. From my own experience of using it, I can say that it’s absolutely no encumbrance to your movement. It only weighs 180g, in fact, so you’ll barely notice it’s there.”
In the first instance, Mike used his own Marshalltown Philadelphia as a template for the design, but it will equally work with any trowel available today. The Bricky’s Buddy launched in April 2021 with Mike and Terry moving quickly to achieve a presence in tool shops and around the world via their website, the team are now keen to expand its retail availability still further.
“Whilst we both kept running our own successful businesses and trying to make a new product a reality has proved to be more challenging than we could have envisaged,” admits the North Yorkshire-based builder, “and there’s been a lot of working evenings and weekends on the idea. Now that we’ve got something that is genuinely useful to the industry, we would like to scale up the manufacturing and get it out there to more individuals, companies, and stores. I know it works because we’ve thoroughly tested it ourselves on our own jobs and I wouldn’t now be without it.”
For further information on the Bricky’s Buddy visit: www.brickysbuddy.co.uk
