Process

For all our clients we are happy to have an initial call free of charge to discuss your project, in many cases we can also come to have a meeting at your property to discuss what you are hoping to achieve and how we can help you. We don’t require payment until a formal fee proposal is agreed with yourself.

Additionally, we have helped a number of our clients with their home purchasing journey. If you have not yet purchased the property or land but are after some informal advise we offer a pre-purchase service to give you some inspiration and ideas as to what might be possible including sketch schemes and plan layouts. 

Following the measured building surveys, we review your brief in detail and in conjunction with the existing plans.  We look at various options for architectural design and plan layouts at this stage until there is a scheme you are happy with.

Most projects we work on are extensions or new builds and so require planning permission. We always recommend submitting any required planning applications as soon as possible, especially on any contentious or large projects.

We have very good experience with planning application across the London Boroughs as well as throughout the UK, including applications for works to listed buildings, working in a conservation area.

How long this stage will take varies between projects and will be impacted by the nature of the project and the time needed to review the various masterplan options. Previously this stage has taken anywhere from 3 – 7 weeks, but we can advise and agree on a target project programme upon appointment.

Following planning submission, detailed design is required to generate a set of working drawings to develop the design and create a set of tender drawings and later to build from.

This is the most detailed and time consuming stage of the project from a design point of view and includes design, detailing and specifications of all aspects of the build including the architecture and all interior design aspects that will go into the build. We like to work with you through this stage with detailed meetings to cover the design packages, we call these workshops and allow us to go through all the design drawings, products and samples and various iterations until you are happy to submit to tender.

This detailed design stage includes co-ordination with structural and civil engineering and ensuring the scheme is building regulations compliant. We produce detailed technical tender and then subsequently construction issue drawings, details and specifications (our record is 120 drawings).

Previously this stage has taken anywhere from 3 – 7 weeks with depending on project complexity and how long you may need to sign off the scheme.

Budgeting is always an important element of any design process, for smaller sized construction works we tend to recommend obtaining budgeting assistance from a local friendly builder on the proviso they will be added to the competitive tender list.

We can recommend build firms to submit tenders to and we are very willing to work with suitable contractors either yourselves or your friends / family have recommended.

The time period for tender returns does vary especially on the smaller projects with smaller builders. We usually estimate this to take 3-4 weeks for smaller projects and 4-5 for larger.

We can act as contract administrators during the build which means that we are able to act as the third party between yourself and the appointed contractor. This role includes assessing the work done against the build contract and certify the monies due at regular agreed intervals. This also means dealing with any variations during the build (be they unknowns/unforeseen which is a strong possibility when working with existing buildings, or design changes during the build – although we always recommend keeping these to a minimum and finalising design decisions during the detailed design stage!) 

This is the joy of the job, when you can move back in and live in your lovely new home. As part of the contract administration role we have a snagging and hand over meeting to make sure the project is finished to a high standard, warranties from the builder and suppliers are handed over and the building control certificate is issued.

As standard we ensure the build contract includes a defects period, which means after 6 months we return to check any defects and go through any issues that might have cropped up that the builder would need to rectify before a final payment is made.