Design and build in Wandsworth

The properties we see in Wandsworth

The Tonsleys are 1850s–1870s two-up two-down cottages: solid-walled, almost no floor void, and with lath-and-plaster ceilings, which makes them the most difficult properties on our patch to run services through. Southfields is a large 1900s grid of substantial Edwardian houses, mostly intact as family homes, with generous voids and logical layouts — much easier to work in. Earlsfield is smaller Victorian terrace, heavily converted to flats. The riverside developments are post-2010 with three-phase supplies, heat networks and management companies.

Planning in Wandsworth

Wandsworth is a comparatively permissive authority, and much of the Southfields and Earlsfield stock retains permitted development rights. Conservation areas apply around Wandsworth Common and parts of the Tonsleys. Riverside apartment blocks bring lease and management-company consent into play, and several require a permit to work and out-of-hours restrictions that materially affect the programme.

What design & build involves

Design and build means one contract and one point of responsibility from first sketch to handover, typically 8–14 percent of project cost for the design and management element. It removes the most common cause of renovation disputes: an architect and a builder blaming each other while you pay for the gap.

Consider this if

• You do not want to manage an architect and a builder separately
• A previous project went wrong because nobody took responsibility
• You want a single fixed price for the whole thing
• The project needs planning permission and you would rather not deal with it
• You are overseas or too busy to run a site
• You want cost certainty before committing

What's included

• Measured survey and concept design
• Planning application prepared, submitted and managed
• Structural engineering and building regulations drawings
• Party wall notices and surveyor appointment
• A single fixed-price construction contract
• One project manager and one point of contact throughout

The standard we build to

Delivered under a JCT contract appropriate to the project value, with staged payments against certified progress and a defects liability period after completion.

For the full write-up on design & build — costs, timescales, certification and the questions people ask most — see our design and build page. The prices and standards are the same wherever we work.