Practical guidance on listed buildings, period properties, planning consents and what a proper quotation should contain — written to answer the question, not to fill a page.
Most of what is written about building work is either a sales pitch or a generality. These articles are the answers we give on the phone, written down — including the parts people would rather not hear, such as when consent is needed for work they assumed was unrestricted, or why a single-figure price is not something you can hold anyone to.
Where we illustrate a point with our own work, the project is named and linked so you can see it. Where a figure comes from someone else's research, the source is named at the foot of the article.
Planning permission is not permission to build. What still has to happen before work starts: conditions, Building Regulations, party walls and drains, in the order that avoids delays.
What listed building consent actually covers, what tends to get consented and what does not, why VAT is no longer zero-rated, and the things about Essex buildings that change the answer.
Why damp in an old house is usually a symptom rather than a problem, what happens when modern materials meet breathable construction, and the surveys worth doing before anyone quotes.
How to read a building quotation, what a single-figure price is hiding, the exclusions that turn into variations, and how to compare three quotes that are not quoting for the same job.
Ask us directly. We would rather have the conversation than have you guess — and we will tell you if your project is not one for us.
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