Services · NEW
New builds and garden buildings
Detached houses and garden buildings from foundations up, including sustainable build methods and off-grid heating.
Building a house from nothing is a different job from working on one that already exists. There is nothing to work around, which makes the build itself more straightforward, and everything has to be decided in advance, which makes the preparation matter far more.
Starting from a plot
Most of the plots around here are infill: a large garden with room for one house, a site where something has been demolished, or a paddock at the edge of a village. Two things are worth establishing before anything else.
Does it have planning, and for what? A plot sold with outline permission has agreed the principle of a house, not its design. Reserved matters still have to be approved. A plot with full permission is a much shorter road.
What is under it? Ground conditions set the foundation, and the foundation is the single biggest variable in a new build price. Trees, made ground, a high water table or a former quarry can all mean piling or a raft rather than trench fill. A site investigation before you commit is money well spent.
What we build
Individual houses, replacement dwellings, annexes and garden buildings, and outbuildings and garages. We work from the architect’s drawings and the structural engineer’s design, and take it from setting out through to handover: groundworks, drainage, substructure, superstructure, roof, envelope, first fix, plastering, second fix, kitchen and bathrooms, decoration and external works.
Nearly every trade is on our own books, which matters more on a new build than on anything else we do. A new house is a long programme with a lot of trades in sequence, and the usual reason those programmes slip is waiting on a subcontractor who has been pulled onto somebody else’s job.
Regulations on a new build
New builds are inspected against Building Regulations throughout, not just at the end, and the standards have moved significantly. Part L now drives the fabric specification and the heating strategy, and Part O means overheating has to be considered as well as heat loss. An air tightness test is required before completion.
New dwellings are zero-rated for VAT, which is worth knowing early because it changes the real cost against extending, and it affects how invoicing should be handled.
Garages and outbuildings
A good part of this work is smaller: detached garages, garden rooms, workshops and annexes. Detached outbuildings often fall under permitted development, but siting decides it more than size does, in particular how close to the boundary it sits and whether it falls forward of the principal elevation. Worth checking before you plan around it.
Verified reviews
What customers said about this work.
“Really friendly, attention to detail and good communication with costings and materials.”
Straight answers
New builds: common questions
Do you build from an architect's drawings?
Yes, and we are happy to be involved early. Getting a builder to price a design before it is finalised usually saves money, because we can flag the details that are expensive to build.
Do you build garden offices and studios?
Yes. Most garden buildings under 2.5 metres high fall within permitted development, but there are conditions about how close to the boundary they sit and how much of the garden they cover. We check before quoting.
Where we work
New builds across Mid Sussex.
Get started
Tell us what you’re thinking of building.
Send a couple of photos and a rough idea of what you want. We’ll tell you straight whether it’s realistic, and roughly what it costs, before anyone books a survey.