How we work
From A to Z, in the right order.
Nine stages, one contract, one site manager. The drawing and the site are the same company, so nothing is lost between them.
The nine stages
A typical flat, week by week.
The bar is drawn to scale on a sixteen-week programme. Houses and extensions run longer; the stages are the same.
- 01
- 02
- 03
- 04
- 05
- 06
- 07
- 08
- 09
16 weeks from survey to keys for a typical two-bedroom flat. Example programme.
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01
Survey
Forty minutes at the property, then a laser survey of every room. For period houses we come back after the strip-out and measure the shell.
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02
Layouts and design
Two or three plan options with what each costs. You choose, and the chosen one goes into the model.
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03
3D visualisation
The room in 3D with the real joinery, stone and lighting. Walk through it, change a finish, sign it off.
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04
Planning and consents
Householder application, permitted development certificate, licence to alter, party wall notices. Written with the drawings.
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05
Fixed price and contract
Every item in the drawings priced, a written contingency for the unknowns, a programme with dates. Then a signature.
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06
Strip-out
Protection, soft strip, structural openings and steels. The shell is measured again and the model is checked against it.
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07
Build
Services first, then plastering, floors, joinery, stone, tiling. The order is fixed in the programme and reported every Friday.
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08
Finishes and decoration
Kitchen and bathrooms fitted, brassware and lighting from the schedule, two coats of paint, deep clean.
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09
Snagging and keys
A walk through every room with you, a snagging list closed within two weeks, the manuals and certificates in one folder.
The principle
Why the designer and the builder should share a desk.
When the person who drew the wall is in the same company as the person who has to build it, the drawing gets built. When they are not, the drawing gets interpreted, and interpretation is where budgets go.
It also changes what gets drawn. Our designers know what the joiner can make and what the stone yard can cut, so the model is buildable before it is beautiful.
The price is fixed before demolition because the model is the estimate. Every cabinet, every metre of pipe and every tile is already counted.
Three things we do not negotiate
The rules of the site.
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A fixed price before demolition
With a written contingency for what old walls hide, agreed with you, and reported the week it is used.
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The site manager in the design meetings
The person who runs the site has heard why every decision was taken. Questions get answered on the spot.
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A report every Friday
Photographs, what happened, what happens next week, and any decision we need from you. One invoice a month.
Questions
Before you write.
Do you work with my own architect?
Yes. We build from other people's drawings as a contractor, and we survey and price them the same way. The fixed price still applies to what is drawn.
What is the contract?
A JCT Minor Works or Intermediate Building Contract, depending on the size, with our schedule of finishes and the programme attached. Your solicitor is welcome to read it.
How do payments work?
A deposit at signing, then one invoice a month against work completed on site, certified by the site manager's report. No large sums in advance.
Start here
Stage one takes forty minutes.
Book a survey in London or Manchester. You leave with a first price band and a date for the drawings.