Meet John, Element's Founder

I started out as a motor vehicle technician, which is where I picked up most of my practical problem-solving and diagnostic skills — a lot of what I do now still comes back to that grounding.

From there I moved into plumbing, training as a plumber before qualifying in domestic gas work. Somewhere along the way I found a niche most gas engineers don't go near: flues and chimneys. A lot of gas engineers simply don't understand how they operate, so I took on more and more of that work, which led me to become HETAS qualified and registered — chimney installation, fire installation across both wet and dry systems, and chimney sweeping. I built a good reputation doing this under my previous company, Insta-Heat.

A recurring tennis elbow injury forced me to step back from hands-on installation work for a while, waiting for surgery. During that time I worked with British Gas on service and repair, which gave me a huge amount of additional knowledge and training. I also trained in solar control film installation around this period — a genuinely useful product that pairs well with air conditioning for efficiency.

That combination of experience is what led me to found Element. I brought air conditioning, air source heat pumps, and minor electrical work under the same roof, specifically to remove a pain point I kept seeing customers deal with: managing multiple trades, coordinating between them, and the lack of accountability that creeps in when several different companies are all working on the same project. One team, one standard, no gaps to fall through.

I've since trained extensively in commercial gas, gaining qualifications in commercial heating, laundry, and catering equipment, alongside tightness testing and purging, so we can properly serve commercial clients too. Air conditioning qualifications completed the picture — genuinely all four elements, under one roof.

The name itself reflects that directly: a house needs its water, heating, air, and electrical systems working together to function, the same way the four elements need each other. The logo's four interconnecting pillars represent strength and reliability, as well as the need for all four elements to be conjoined in order to work — it's in the brand guidelines, not just a nice bit of design.

On a personal note: I have ADHD and autism, and by nature of that neurodivergence, I have a constant need and desire to learn something new and do it to the best of my ability — I strive for perfection. It's also why I'm acutely conscious of the legal and, more importantly, safety aspects of every job I take on. It's part of why I've picked up skills like CAD design along the way too — there's always something new worth learning properly, especially if it makes the customer experience a better one.