How we build

The whole arc of a contract, from the day you sign to the day it closes a year after you move back in — what you get asked for, what you get handed, and what you can see while it runs. Then eleven questions a homeowner asks before signing, answered one page at a time. Written down here so you are not asking us to remember it later.

The shape of a contract

Signature to final completion.

Eight steps, two of which are yours. The dates come from your programme and the amounts from your payment schedule — both are in the contract before you sign, not described to you afterwards.

  1. Contract signed

    Day 0

    A JCT Minor Works contract with the measured scope priced line by line, a written exclusions list, and a programme carrying your completion date. The date is the one the late-delivery guarantee is written against.

    10% to mobilise

  2. On site

    Your programme — the contract names the dates

    A named project manager, a daily photo report from the foreman, and a written weekly report. Every variation is priced AND dated before you approve it, so a change never arrives as a surprise on an invoice.

    Weekly, against work already done

  3. Practical Completion

    The day the work is usable

    You can live in it, and the building is handed back to you. We walk it with you rather than emailing you a form.

    You inspect and raise your snagging list2.5% released

  4. Snagging cleared

    After your list

    We work through your list and show you each item closed. Building control carries out its final inspection at this stage.

  5. Certificates issued

    At handover

    The statutory paperwork, submitted by us and issued in your name — not a promise to send it on later, when the trade has moved on.

  6. Handover pack

    At handover

    The record of what is behind your walls, and how to look after it: as-built drawings, the photographic record of services before they were covered, product warranties, appliance manuals and the maintenance schedule for anything that has one.

  7. Defects Liability Period

    The 12 months after Practical Completion

    You live in the house through a full cycle of weather and heating. Anything that moves, we come back for.

    2.5% still held

  8. Final Completion

    End of the 12 months

    The contract closes. Not when we leave site — a year after you moved back in.

    You raise a second snagging list2.5% released
What you are handed

The completion pack.

Reasonable to make a condition of the final payment, and we would rather you did. Chasing certificates two years later, when the trade has moved on, is the situation this prevents.

  • Building control completion certificate

    We submit the application, book and attend every notifiable inspection, and hand you the final certificate.

  • Electrical installation certificate

    Part P notification and the installation certificate for the work carried out.

    Any notifiable electrical work

  • Gas safety and commissioning records

    Gas Safe registered engineer's certificate and the commissioning record for the appliance.

    Any gas work

  • FENSA or equivalent

    Glazing compliance for replacement windows and external doors.

    Replacement glazing

  • Structural engineer's sign-off

    The design certificate and any inspection sign-off for steel and structural openings.

    Structural work

  • Party wall award and schedule of condition

    The award and the dated condition record of the neighbouring property.

    Where a party wall notice was served

  • As-built drawings and the photographic record

    Services, structural connections, insulation and drainage, photographed before they were covered — so somebody drilling that wall in 2033 knows what is behind it.

  • Warranties, manuals and finish schedules

    Registered product warranties, appliance manuals, the maintenance regime, and the paint and tile schedules with batch references.

While it is running

You watch it happen.

Every project gets a private dashboard with five panels. It is where your snagging list lives, where a variation gets priced before you approve it, and where the foreman’s photos land every working day.

YOUR PROJECTVariationsIssuesPaymentsReportsDaily photos
A diagram of the five panels, not a screenshot. Ask for a walkthrough of the real dashboard before you sign — we would rather show you what it does than describe it.

  • Variations

    Every change, priced and dated before you approve it. You accept or decline in the panel, and the decision is recorded with the date you made it.

  • Issues

    Anything open, who it is with, and what it is waiting on. Your snagging list lives here at Practical Completion rather than in an email thread.

  • Payments

    The schedule generated from your programme — what is due, when, and against which completed work. 5% of it sits past handover.

  • Reports

    The written weekly report from your project manager: what moved, what is next, and what we need a decision on.

  • Daily photos

    The foreman's photo report, every working day. It is also the record of what went in behind the plaster.

In detail

Eleven questions, answered in full.

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.

Get an estimateTalk to Vladimir