Plumb

Plumb

A pale facade with deep window reveals, seen from below.

One architect · four houses a year · no extensions

We take four, and we say why we said no to the rest

Survey · Drawings · Consent · On site · Survey · Drawings · Consent · On site · Survey · Drawings · Consent · On site ·
A long low house in a clearing, seen at dusk.

01 — finished 2024

House on a slope

Four rooms on three levels because the ground gave us no choice. The stair is the whole building; everything else hangs off it.

184 m² · timber frame · 14 months on site · budget met

A glass wall reflecting a grey sky.

02 — finished 2023

The north light

A painter who needed one wall of north glass and nothing else to be interesting. The rest of the house is deliberately dull and that took the longest.

96 m² · brick and steel · 9 months · one revision

An arcade of columns along a stone building.

03 — on site

Two cottages, one roof

Joining a pair of nineteenth-century cottages without pretending they were ever one house. The join is a glass slot you could walk past.

210 m² · listed · 18 months · consent took eleven

A modern facade with tall narrow windows.

04 — drawings

The one with no windows at the front

A street where every house faces the road and this one will not. The planning officer has been to see it twice and we are still talking.

142 m² · render and timber · consent submitted

An open stair rising through a white interior.

What it costs

First visit and a written opinion£350

Measured survey£1,200 — £2,400

Design and planning4.5% of works

Technical drawings3% of works

On site, monthly£900

Listed building workplus 1%

A second opinion on somebody else's drawings£350

Telephone advicefree, always

Percentages are of the builder's price, not of what you hoped it would be. The first visit is charged and it is deducted if we go on.

How to ask
Two towers seen from the street, one behind the other.

Before you write

Four a year
That is the whole capacity. If the list is full we will say so in the first reply rather than keep you warm for three months.
What we do not do
Extensions, loft conversions, and anything where the answer is already known and you want a drawing of it. Those are better and cheaper elsewhere.
Budget
Tell us the real number in the first email. Everybody halves it out of embarrassment and it wastes a month for both of us.
Planning
We have had two refusals in nine years and both went through on appeal. We will tell you at the first visit which of those two yours looks like.
Builders
Three names, no commission, and we will not manage them for you unless you ask for the monthly on-site service above.
How long
From first visit to on site is rarely under a year. Anyone promising less is skipping something you will pay for later.