Builders of Exceptional, Eco-Focussed Spaces and Properties

Your project cost will be a direct result of its size and the specification of the work you require to be carried out. We work on projects from £50,000 to £2m in value. We’ll ask for stage payments at key points in the build or every four weeks to help you manage  and predict your spend as the project progresses.

There are two ways you can progress towards engaging us depending the size and scale of the project; you can employ us directly or through your architect’s tender process managed by them or a contract administrator. We’ve listed both routes and their stages below:

Direct Engagement Route (usually up to £500k in value):

• You employ an architect or architectural technician/technologist to gain local authority planning and building regulations approval
• Once you’ve gained local authority approval, we’ll meet with you at your property to discuss your preferences on the form, function and finish of your project with the view to submitting a written quotation
• We submit a written quotation to you for your approval
• Upon agreeing the scope and price of the project, we sign contracts and agree on the start date
• Throughout the project, we’ll meet and correspond with you at least every fortnight to give you feedback on progress, decisions and to receive your instructions
• We handle all necessary contact with sub-contractors and manage the whole process for you including local authority building control’s (LABC) visits and approval of the build and other consultants involvement, such as structural engineers, garden designers and even architects. Alternatively, if you relish dealing with other professionals on the project then we can agree bespoke contract terms with you to suit your preference.

Architect Engagement Route (usually from £250k to £2m in value):

• You employ an architect to design your scheme and gain local authority planning department (LAPD) and local authority building control (LABC) approval
• Once local authority approval has been granted, your architect will usually send the project drawings and specification out to four local building companies, of which we will be one, to invite tenders (or, in other words, formal quotations) to be submitted to the architect
• We’ll visit your property and meet with you to introduce ourselves before we submit our written tender to your architect
• We submit a written quotation for your and your architect’s consideration
• We trust that we’re successful in ‘winning’ the contract
• The project start date is agreed between us and, together, we’ll agree any bespoke differences to the contract
• Usually, in this route, the architect is retained as a design director and/or a contract administrator to manage the contractual obligations of both parties
• Throughout the project, we’ll meet and correspond with you and your architect at least every fortnight to give you feedback on progress, decisions and to receive your instructions
• The project will feature 4-weekly valuations where the value of the work completed will be assessed and agreed ahead of an invoice being raised for your consideration
• We handle LABC visits on site and your architect or contract administrator handles the formalities of the contract and figures

Yes. In addition to them providing us with testimonials for our marketing and recommendations to their friends and acquaintances, our previous clients are happy for us to show you what we’ve completed for them at their properties.

We have a compact directly employed key staff such as Site Management, Site Supervisors and skilled individuals. All other staff are chosen from our comprehensive team of external sub-contractors to suit the worker required. We’ve worked with most of our sub-contractors for years and we trust them as if they were our own employees.

We take the safety and health of our staff and anyone else on our sites very seriously. H&S is governed by law and rightly so. It’s vitally important that we and our larger team abide by all laws, guidelines and regulations to reduce the risk of injury and harm to a minimum. We complete RAMS (Risk Assessments and Method Statements) for all of our sites and expect all sub-contractors to do the same. We employ an external H&S Advisor to carry out monthly checks and advise us of areas for improvement. We expect our clients and their representatives to have the same ethos.

We’re of course answerable to the UK Building Regulations and, whether it’s the local authority building control (LABC) or a privately appointed officer, we work to the current Building Regulations as a minimum. It’s very common for us to exceed the requirements and deliver specifications that go much further than the Building Regulations demand.

We turn up. It’s extremely rare that our work will be exclusively externally-based and that the weather will be so bad that we can’t ‘get on’. In most projects, there’s usually an area that we can plan to work on that’s out of the weather, if it’s that bad.

‘You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs!’, a wise builder once said! Noise and dust is inevitable, it’s the management of it that’s key.

We’re used to working in finished properties and use many different forms of protection to ensure your finished surfaces and your home in general doesn’t suffer from the effects of the work you’ve asked us to undertake.

As much as is possible, we will reduce the amount of noise our work produces. If you’re resident as works progress, we’ll ask you before we listen to radios and keep the volume low. We’ll let you know ahead of when loud noises are produced if you’re working from home. In the case of most of our contracts where our clients are not resident in the property or on site, we’ll form good relationships with the neighbours to help us continue with the project without complication.

Yes. We’re very well insured for damages to your building and for public liability and contractors’ all risks. We have a £5m level of cover.

Some larger contracts will feature shared responsibility insurance policies where the risk is shared between us and the client. Either way, we’ll consult will you on this pre-contract.

It’s against the law to smoke on a building site. Very few of our team smoke and those that do, know to remove themselves from site.

Again, this depends on the scope of works. We’re used to accommodating some extras and variations within the project programme and, occasionally, the programme may be extended by our clients as they ask us to do more work than originally planned. This is normal for us and we’ll consult with you openly and honestly about any extension to the programme of works.