Guide
How a project runs, stage by stage.
A renovation or a rebuild is a big thing to hand over to someone. So here is the whole sequence in the open — what happens at each stage, what we do, and crucially what you have to decide and when. Most of the stress in a building project comes from decisions arriving later than the work that depends on them.
1
Stage 1
First visit and feasibility
We walk the property with you and talk about what you want from it. The useful output of this stage is usually a reduction in scope, not an increase: what is actually worth doing, what the constraints are, whether the budget and the ambition are in the same postcode, and what order things would have to happen in.
Your decision at this stage
You decide whether the project is worth doing at all, and whether you want it managed.
2
Stage 2
Design, consents and budget
Your architect develops the scheme — or we help you appoint one. In parallel we look at buildability, get a structural engineer involved where the structure is changing, and put the scheme through planning and building control as required. The design is costed as it develops rather than afterwards, which is the only way a budget survives contact with a drawing.
Your decision at this stage
You decide the scheme, the specification level and the budget it has to fit inside.
3
Stage 3
Procurement and programme
The drawings become a set of trade packages and a sequenced programme with real durations. Work goes out to price, trades are appointed, and long-lead items — steel, windows, bespoke joinery, stone, specialist glazing — are identified and ordered against the dates they are actually needed, rather than the week the site runs out of work.
Your decision at this stage
You decide who is appointed, and you get the list of choices you will need to make and when.
4
Stage 4
Construction
Trades arrive in sequence, site meetings happen on a rhythm, and building control inspections are booked at the stages that need them so nothing is covered up before it has been seen. Variations are priced and recorded when they arise. Valuations and invoices are checked against what has actually been built before they come to you.
Your decision at this stage
You make the decisions that were flagged in stage 3 — and otherwise get on with your life.
5
Stage 5
Handover and snagging
We walk the property and write the snagging list properly, which means finding things before you do. Then it gets chased until it is closed out, and the certificates, warranties and manuals are gathered into one place — the paperwork you will want on the day you come to sell.
Your decision at this stage
You sign off a finished home, with the documents that prove it was done properly.
The short version
The four stages you'll hear us refer to.
01 · A first conversation, on site
An honest read on the project, including whether it needs a project manager at all, and no charge for the conversation.
02 · Drawings, consents and a real programme
Drawings taken through consents, and a programme and cost plan you can actually read — with the decisions you will need to make flagged in advance.
03 · Trades appointed and managed
Trades priced, appointed and sequenced, then managed: site meetings, inspections, variations priced before they are built, and invoices checked before they reach you.
04 · Handover, snagging and a finished home
A snagging list written, chased and closed out, with certificates, manuals and warranties collected and handed over.
Ready for stage one?
The first conversation and the site visit are free. Call Will and describe the project.