DESPITE falling through a ceiling, Daniel Denton-Ridgewell has no regrets about becoming a roofer.

The 24-year-old laughs: “It set me back a few hundred pounds to put right, but it happened when I slipped off a roof beam. It’s not ideal, but it happens.”

The Walton-born businessman has launched LAD Roofing in Frinton, with business partners Lewis Parker and Adam Swinbourne, both 22, after the company they worked for closed.

Business is developing well and the partners are called in for a variety of jobs, from fully retiling roofs to mending and working on flat roofs.

Daniel says: “The job keeps you quite fit as you are up and down ladders and scaffolding, but it can get really hot in the summer.”

There was no other option for Daniel but to become a roofer, he says, as it was almost decided for him. Working as a labourer at weekends for his step-dad, who is also a roofer, Daniel enjoyed the experience so much, it is all he wanted to do.

He says: “It is much better than being cooped up in an office and you get to be outside all day and it keeps you fit.

“To be a roofer you have to be thickskinned too, because there is a lot of banter and if you can’t handle it you are not in the right job.”

Daniel explains gaining work experience first as a labourer and then as a roofer can be more beneficial than studying for an NVQ.

He says: “The only qualification you must have is your Construction Skills Certificate Scheme card, which qualifies you to work at heights and use scaffolding. It teaches you about the precautions to take, the angle to put up a ladder and what sort of clothes to wear.”