From teenage labourer to TikTok’s king of garden rooms
- Jordan went from teenage labourer to successful business owner after finding his niche in garden buildings
- More than a million people follow Jordan’s work on Instagram and YouTube
- He loves Steel Blue work boots for the zip and the all-day comfort.
When Jordan Turner was 16, his Mum’s then boyfriend gave him some work labouring in the building trade. Little did the teenager from Northampton in the English Midlands know, he was about to discover what was to be the ideal career for him—building kit-form garden buildings.
“My mother’s partner was building them and I just found I really enjoyed it,” he said. “Having ADHD, it’s hard to focus on things but this was something I could focus my attention on. If you were into Meccano or Lego as a kid, then it’s pretty much the perfect job for you as an adult because they come packaged on a pallet and you basically construct them as they’ve been designed.”
Building his own business
Within a few years, Jordan had struck out on his own, started his own business, and was constructing garden buildings and log cabins all over the United Kingdom. It was a good part of the construction industry to get into. The popularity of garden rooms has surged in the UK since the pandemic, with the rise in the number of people working from home.
No wonder Jordan’s skills are in such high demand. “Sometimes we’re up at four or five in the morning to get somewhere for seven or eight,” Jordan said.
Some garden rooms he constructs are traditional, smaller “office” or “summerhouse” sized buildings which can go up in a day or a week. Others are much grander, like the $300,000 log cabin he recently built for a client in York, which took three months and will be used as a permanent residence.
Becoming a social media star
A few years ago, Jordan decided to pick up his phone and start filming some of the interesting projects he was building and putting them on TikTok and then YouTube.
“I felt like a lot of people would enjoy watching it because back in my younger days, if I wanted to know something about one of these buildings, it was incredibly hard to find any information about it,” Jordan said.
He never anticipated his content would become as popular as it has—with over a million subscribers and followers across YouTube and Instagram.
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Why Jordan chooses Steel Blue work boots
Jordan bought his first pair of Steel Blue work boots two years after seeing another garden room builder wearing them.
“The appeal was the zip, which is a huge advantage for us because we’re going in and out of customers’ houses all the time and taking your boots off is such a chore,” he said. “I bought them with high expectations but then they outlasted every other pair of boots I’ve ever owned. Not only that, they look really good, so it was probably the easiest purchase I’ve ever made in terms of workwear. I didn’t have to wear them in at all, either; they were instantly comfortable. You literally put them on and away you go.”
Head to your local Steel Blue stockist to discover work boots that are a mark of true skill, or shop online
