How we work
How a job runs, and when you pay
From the first phone call to the final certificate, a typical permitted development loft takes six to seven months, and about ten weeks of that is building. A planning application adds two to three months. Here is every step, who does it, how long it takes and what it costs.
The programme
Choose the route to see the weeks. Bars show when each step happens, counted from the first call.
About 26 to 30 weeks from first call to final certificate
Step by step
- 01
First call
Ring the office or book a visit online. We ask about the house and what you want from it, then look up your address on the council's planning register: conservation area, Article 4 direction, earlier applications on the house and next door. If something rules out what you have in mind, we tell you then.
CAROL OR NIAMH · 10 TO 15 MINUTES · FREE
- 02
Survey visit
One of us comes to the house for an hour or so. We go up into the loft and measure the ridge height, look at the party walls, the purlins and the chimney breasts, check where the stair could go and where the soil stack is, and look at what the neighbours have built. Then we sit down with you and talk through the options. A written budget estimate follows within five working days.
NIAMH OR PAT · 60 TO 90 MINUTES · FREE
- 03
Design
If you want to go ahead, we start the design stage. Priya and Niamh do a full measured survey, then Niamh draws the existing and proposed plans, sections and elevations and builds a 3D model so you can see the room under the slope. You get two rounds of changes. Once the layout is agreed, the structural engineer does the calculations.
NIAMH AND PRIYA · 2 TO 4 WEEKS · £2,950 FOR A LOFT, £3,600 FOR AN EXTENSION: HALF ON INSTRUCTION, HALF WHEN THE DRAWINGS ARE ISSUED, DEDUCTED IN FULL FROM THE BUILD PRICE IF WE BUILD IT
- 04
Planning route
We submit the lawful development certificate application (six to ten weeks), the planning application (eight-week target; allow up to thirteen) or the prior approval (42 days). Niamh deals with the planning officer and tells you as soon as there's news.
NIAMH · 6 TO 13 WEEKS · COUNCIL FEE INCLUDED IN THE BUILD PRICE; IF YOU DON'T BUILD WITH US, WE RECHARGE IT AT COST
- 05
Party wall notices
As soon as the drawings are fixed, we meet your neighbours with them and then serve the notices on your behalf: two months for work to a party wall, such as steels bearing on it or raising it; one month for a new wall on the boundary or for foundations near their house. Neighbours have 14 days to reply. If they consent in writing, that's the end of it. If they don't reply or ask for a surveyor, surveyors agree a party wall award before work starts. The notices run alongside the council's decision, so they rarely hold up the start.
NIAMH · 2 MONTHS FOR MOST LOFTS · NOTICES FREE; SURVEYORS' FEES, IF ANY, PAID BY YOU DIRECTLY
- 06
Building regulations
We make a full plans application to the council's building control team, or to a registered building control approver if that's quicker, with the drawings and the engineer's calculations. A decision usually takes about five weeks. It runs at the same time as the planning route.
NIAMH · ABOUT 5 WEEKS · FEE INCLUDED IN THE BUILD PRICE
- 07
Fixed price and contract
Once the approvals are in or nearly in, you get a fixed price with a schedule of works, the drawings, a week-by-week programme and the payment stages below. The contract names Niamh as principal designer and the firm as principal contractor. We usually sign it at your kitchen table, which means you have 14 days to change your mind (see Your right to cancel, below). We're currently booking starts about ten weeks ahead.
PAT AND NIAMH · A WEEK TO PREPARE · BOOKING PAYMENT 10%, INVOICED AFTER THE 14-DAY CANCELLATION PERIOD
- 08
Build
Jonah runs the site every day. For a rear dormer it goes roughly like this: week 1, scaffold and temporary roof; week 2, steels and new floor; week 3, dormer frame; week 4, watertight with windows in; week 5, first fix electrics and plumbing and insulation; week 6, building control's pre-plaster inspection and plasterboard; week 7, we break through into the house and build the stair; week 8, plaster and second fix; week 9, shower room and decoration; week 10, snagging, scaffold down, clean. You get a short written note from Jonah every Friday.
JONAH AND THE TEAM · 6 TO 17 WEEKS DEPENDING ON THE LOFT · STAGE PAYMENTS, SEE BELOW
- 09
Sign-off
Building control carries out a final inspection and issues the completion certificate. Under the building regulations, you as the client, Niamh as principal designer and the firm as principal contractor each sign a statement that the work complies to the best of our knowledge, and we send them in with the completion notice. You get a folder with the drawings, the planning or lawful development decision, the party wall paperwork, the completion certificate, the electrical certificate, the alarm commissioning sheet and the product guarantees.
NIAMH AND CAROL · 1 TO 3 WEEKS AFTER WE FINISH · PRACTICAL COMPLETION PAYMENT
- 10
Aftercare
Six months after handover we come back for an hour, go round with you and fix anything that's ours to fix: a door that's dropped, a crack in the new plaster as the timber settles. Then we release the retention. For two years after that, small adjustments are free.
PAT OR JONAH · ONE VISIT AT 6 MONTHS · RETENTION RELEASED
When you pay
You pay for work after it's done, not before. The booking payment secures your start date and lets us order steel and windows; after that, each stage is invoiced once it's finished and you've seen it. Invoices are payable within seven days by bank transfer. We never take cash, and we never ask for money for materials up front.
Lofts
| Stage | When | Share of the build price |
|---|---|---|
| Booking payment | After the 14-day cancellation period | 10% |
| Steel in | Steels and new floor joists fitted, usually week 2 | 20% |
| Watertight | Dormer roofed, windows in, usually week 4 | 25% |
| Boarded | Pre-plaster inspection passed, usually week 6 | 20% |
| Second fix | Plastered, stair in, doors hung, usually week 8 | 15% |
| Practical completion | Scaffold down, snagging done, completion notice sent | 7.5% |
| Retention | Six-month defects visit done | 2.5% |
Extensions
| Stage | When | Share of the build price |
|---|---|---|
| Booking payment | After the 14-day cancellation period | 10% |
| Foundations and drainage | Inspected by building control | 20% |
| Walls and steel | Walls to roof level, steel beam in | 20% |
| Watertight | Roof on, glazing and doors in | 20% |
| First fix and plaster | Services in, plastered | 15% |
| Practical completion | Snagging done, completion notice sent | 12.5% |
| Retention | Six-month defects visit done | 2.5% |
The design stage fee is separate and deducted in full from the build price. Changes you ask for during the build are priced in writing before we do them.
Your right to cancel
When you sign a contract with us somewhere other than our office, usually at your home after a visit, the law gives you 14 days to cancel without giving a reason. We give you the cancellation information and a cancellation form with the contract. We don't start work or take the booking payment during those 14 days, unless you ask us in writing to start sooner; if you do and then cancel, you pay only for the work done up to that point. If you cancel, any money you've paid comes back within 14 days.
Who's responsible for what
Since 1 October 2023, the building regulations have given named people legal duties on every project. On a job with more than one contractor there must be a principal designer and a principal contractor, appointed in writing. As a homeowner you are a domestic client, and the law moves your duties onto the people you appoint: on our jobs, the firm as principal contractor carries them, unless you agree in writing that Niamh as principal designer should. In practice it means one firm is responsible for making sure the design and the build comply, and for checking that everyone working on your house is competent to do it. The same idea runs through the construction health and safety rules: we plan the job, keep the site safe and keep you and your neighbours away from the risks.
Living with a build
Staying at home
Almost everyone does, for a loft. Until we break through, all the work happens from the scaffold and the house is barely touched. The week the stair goes in is dusty; we seal the landing with a zip door and protect the stairs and floors.
Hours
We work 8:00 to 18:00 on weekdays and 8:00 to 13:00 on Saturdays, and never do noisy work on Sundays or bank holidays.
Neighbours
Before we start, we put a letter through the doors either side and opposite, with Jonah's number. We tell them before anything noisy, like cutting steel or breaking out a chimney breast.
The street
We apply to the council for the scaffold licence and any parking bay suspension for deliveries. Waste goes in bags collected by our own truck, which keeps skips off the road on most jobs.
Toilet and water
The team use a portable toilet on site or in the garden, not yours.
Changes
If you want to change something mid-build, we price it in writing and only do it once you've agreed.
Start with a survey visit
An hour in your loft with a tape and a torch, then a written budget estimate within five working days.