Building projects, taken from site to completion

We develop principally for our own account. That changes the nature of the exercise: there is no purchaser to satisfy, and no sale to be optimised for. The building simply has to work, and keep working.

Appraisal

Whether the site can carry what is proposed: access, levels, ground conditions, drainage, daylight and overlooking, structural implications and the planning position. This is done before commitment, and it is the stage where a scheme is genuinely made or lost.

Planning

We assemble and direct the professional team through the application and the approvals that sit alongside it — highways, drainage, party wall matters, and building regulations. Pre-application engagement is nearly always worth what it costs.

Design

Co-ordinating architect, structural engineer and services engineer so the design that goes out to tender is one design rather than three that mostly agree. Most clashes discovered on site were visible on the drawings weeks before.

Construction

Procurement to suit the risk, then the contract administered properly: valuations on time, instructions in writing, and change controlled rather than absorbed and argued about later.

Completion

Because the building becomes ours to run, handover is not a hand-off. Commissioning is witnessed, the certification is assembled while people are still on site, and the defects period is worked through to its end.

What we are not

We are not a contractor, an estate agency, or a regulated adviser. We do not carry out valuations for lending purposes, and nothing on this site is an invitation to invest. Where a matter needs a regulated professional, one is appointed.