Extensions · Highworth · Swindon · Faringdon
One three-person family team from the first spadeful to the final finish. Groundworks, brickwork, roofing and plastering, all handled by the same faces: no dropped balls, no surprises.
40 years' experience · In-house team of 3 · Free site visits · £5m public liability insured
Overview
Most builders manage jobs from the office. We do it the other way round, we're on the tools. Dale, and both his sons, on your job, from digging the footings to sitting the ridge tile. The only trades we don't take on are gas and electrical: we can point you to trusted local specialists for both.
Single- and double-storey side, rear and wrap-around extensions. Kitchen extensions, garden-room extensions, over-garage extensions, and porch extensions. Everything between the strip footings and the plastered internal walls: groundworks, drainage adjustments, brickwork, blockwork, structural steels and lintels, pitched roofing, guttering and fascias, internal plastering and external render.
Homeowners in Swindon, Highworth, Faringdon and the villages who want to stay put and add space rather than move. Families adding a bigger kitchen. Households where the ground floor needs opening up and a proper extension out the back. Buyers taking on a smaller property and adding the extension straight away.
You've grown out of the space. You've had architects draw the plans. Planning is granted (or permitted development is confirmed). You need a building team who'll turn up, do it in the timescale they promised, and hand it back finished.
The build sequence on an extension is unforgiving. Groundworks affect drainage; drainage affects brickwork DPC; brickwork affects roofing pitches; roofing affects internal plaster starts. Every trade change is a handover risk. Doing it in-house removes those handovers: the same three people know exactly what the last trade left them, because it was them.
The cost of getting it wrong
We've picked up too many jobs half-finished. The pattern is always the same.
Brickwork finishes; the roofer is on another job for three weeks; the plasterer can't start because the roof isn't on. Extensions that should be four months take a year.
Weather doesn't wait. Extensions left open to the weather for weeks soak the blockwork and the internal walls: the damp shows up months later inside the finished plaster.
A poorly written estimate leaves room for surprise costs at every stage. Ours doesn't: you get an itemised written estimate up front, and we don't go over unless you change what you originally asked for.
When a job has passed through several different hands, snagging becomes a game of pass-the-parcel. With one three-person family team you know who to call: us.
Common mistake, The single biggest homeowner mistake is picking the cheapest quote without asking how the team is put together. A cheap price with a rotating cast of trades will cost you more, and take longer, than a fair price with one settled team.
Our process
Five clear phases from the first site visit to the day you move the furniture back in.
We walk the job with you and your plans. We flag anything that's likely to be tricky (drainage runs, tree roots, party walls) so it's priced in properly.
Itemised, phase-by-phase, so you can see labour and materials for groundworks, brickwork, roofing and finishes separately.
Strip out, footings, drainage, oversite, blockwork below DPC, brickwork above, steels and lintels in, cavity closed, weathered.
Roof timbers, felt, batten and tile. First-fix plumbing and joinery. Windows and doors in. Building watertight as fast as weather allows so second-fix trades can crack on.
Internal plaster and external render, gutter and fascia, final snagging. We walk the job with you and don't leave until it's right.
The benefits
Dale runs the job on site. When you have a question, you're not chasing an office: you're talking to the person laying the bricks.
Because the same three-person family team is on your job through every stage, it doesn't stall waiting on someone else's schedule.
Getting the extension weathered as quickly as possible protects the internal work: a huge factor in the finish quality.
You pay in stages as work progresses. Nothing before we start. Bank transfer or cash.
If there's something the design has missed (a services diversion, an awkward roof junction, a party-wall issue), we tell you before we start, not halfway through.
Family firm, based in Highworth. If anything ever needs looking at down the line, we're still here.
In detail
The technical scope and the honest caveats.
Single-storey rear extensions, side-return extensions, wrap-around extensions, kitchen-diner extensions with structural steel openings, two-storey side or rear extensions, over-garage first-floor extensions, garden-room extensions, porches, and open-plan through-lounge conversions.
Groundworks and footings, drainage adjustments and connections, brickwork and blockwork, structural steel and lintel installation to a structural engineer's specification, pitched roofing including timber, felt, batten and tile, internal plastering, external render, guttering and fascias. We don't take on gas or electrical works: we can recommend trusted local specialists for both.
Most of our clients come to us with architects and designers already engaged. Building control sign-off sits between you and building control directly; Dale assists and guides through the process on site but doesn't manage planning or building control administration on your behalf.
Brick sourced to match the existing property (facing, engineering below DPC, reclaimed where needed). Roof tile matched or specified with your architect. Windows and doors typically supplied by your chosen supplier and fitted as part of the build. External render is standard sand-and-cement or through-coloured monocouche depending on specification.
Extensions are almost entirely residential: domestic homeowners, self-builders and landlords. We take on small commercial extensions selectively where it's a fit.
Recent works
Straightforward single-storey rear extensions typically run 10–16 weeks. Bigger, more complex or two-storey work runs longer. Dale will give you a realistic build programme at the estimate stage.
Cost per square metre varies hugely with specification. We quote every extension individually with an itemised written estimate: no square-metre guesses.
No: we work alongside your architect or designer, who handles planning. We're happy to be involved in early conversations so the design is buildable.
Building control sign-off is between you and building control. We assist with the inspection stages on site and give building control what they need at each visit.
For most rear or side extensions, no, we work around you. For structural work that opens the existing house into the extension we'll agree with you when the noisy and dusty phases happen.
We don't issue formal guarantee certificates. Our commitment is to finish every job to a standard we'd want in our own homes: correct materials, careful setting out, and the same three faces on your job start to finish so nothing gets missed.
Only gas and electrical work. Everything else: groundworks, brickwork, roofing, plastering: is done by the three of us in-house.
Yes: Faringdon, Witney, Burford, Cirencester, Fairford, Lechlade, Shrivenham, plus Highworth and Swindon are our regular working area.
Related trades
Fair-faced brickwork, garden walls, arches and repairs: built by the family that's been doing it since 1988.
Read moreTiled and slated pitched roofs: repairs and full re-roofs. (We don't take on flat roofing.)
Read moreSmooth internal plastering and clean external render by the same three-person family team.
Read moreReady when you are
Free site visit at a time that suits. Written, itemised estimate in 3–5 working days. Staged payments, nothing due before we start.
