How we build
Eleven questions a homeowner asks before signing a building contract, answered one page at a time. Who runs the job. What you get told and when. What the quote contains. Who is actually on your site. What happens to the steel. Written down here so you are not asking us to remember it later.
Project management, and the project manager whose name is on your contractMost build disputes are not disputes about building. They are disputes about who was supposed to tell whom, and when. This page is the answer to that, written down before you sign.Weekly reports, daily photos, and a video walkthrough every FridayThe most common complaint about builders is not price and it is not quality. It is not knowing. Here is exactly what arrives, and how often.Itemised quotations, line by line, from a full bill of quantitiesA single number on a page is not a quote, it is a guess with a font. This is what ours contains and how to read it.Remote and overseas owners: a build you can run from off-siteA significant share of London renovation is commissioned by somebody who is not in London. That is a process problem, and it is solvable.An extension that matches the existing house, not a bolt-on beside itThe tell on a bad extension is never the plan. It is a mortar joint three millimetres too pale and a course line that does not run through.Period property restoration: original features retained, not replacedMost of what makes a Victorian house worth living in was made by hand and cannot be bought back. The whole job is deciding what to keep before anything is stripped.The workmanship standard: detailing, finish quality and how snagging worksQuality is not a claim you can make about yourself convincingly. It is a set of checks somebody can read, so here they are.Structural calculations, steel beams and the engineer behind themEvery open-plan ground floor and every loft conversion in London rests on a beam somebody calculated. This is who, and how it is checked.Main contractor and principal contractor: one contract, one companyA surprising amount of London renovation is sold by companies that will not be building it. It is worth knowing which kind you are talking to.Our own trades, and the teams on site day to dayThe honest version of this question is more useful than the flattering one, so here is the honest version.Sixteen years of London building, and what the record actually showsEvery builder's site claims experience and none of them show the arithmetic. Here is ours, with the number that is smaller than we would like included.
Next step
Start with the range, not the sales call.
The estimator gives you a band in a couple of minutes and tells you how wide it is and why. Nothing here needs a phone call first.