March News!

What can we say about 2018 so far… despite the wind, rain and snow we’ve been hard at it!

It’s been a busy time, we are proud to say that we have gained our CHAS and Constructionline accreditations which we feel demonstrates our commitment to continually maintain a high standard of health and safety and we also hope this will be a huge asset to our commercial client base. We’ve also been spreading the word to the team about the new Investors in People standard and how we are planning to move from standard to a gold accreditation this time next year when we are assessed again. The new standard wholly reflects our core values and ethos so having been IIP accredited for nearly 20 years now the aim is nothing less than a gold pass for June 2019.

On our sites we have started an extension to a period farmhouse on Hayling Island. Thankfully as the weather has been so revolting it is under a scaffold roof in order to preserve a historic feature so Steve and his team have been progressing well and are ready to pitch the new roof this week and the outdoor kitchen is nearly ready for the new pizza oven! Elsewhere we began work on a small but complicated extension with a complete internal refurbishment of a beautiful country house in the Sussex Downs. With lots of complex details including a floating staircase it’s been challenging but Dave, Luke and Nick have risen to the task and are pushing through the obstacles in order to complete on time and have the clients in residence by this Summer. Closer to home we started a kitchen extension to a picturesque listed cottage overlooking the river Arun, Ron contributed to the design process with an innovative solution to the roof and has managed to stay on programme despite hold-ups with planning. We are looking forward to handing over to the client in the next month. Ongoing works include another listed building extension/refurbishment to a large farmhouse complex on Chichester harbour (including substantial external works, a games room, swimming pool and pool house). This has provided a lot of challenges for Ron, Rob and the team but the close co-operation and partnership with the client and architect has again meant that hurdles have been overcome and the project is on programme and nearing completion.

We are excited to report that two of our team are approaching the end of some very technical training which we believe will greatly enhance the service and specialist knowledge that we can offer our clients. Avgi has completed months of analysis and assessments and is just waiting on her interview with RICS to confirm her full RICS accreditation. Luke is currently on his seventh unit and is now just two final units and a dissertation away from gaining a Professional Development Diploma in Historic Building Conservation and Repair after 3 years of study. The end is in sight, for both of them and we look forward to being able to say that we have added to our CIOB professional management team with a RICS qualified Quantity Surveyor and a qualified specialist in historic building conservation on our site team.

From January Steve Shaw our Business Development Manager joined us and has been busy expanding our architect contact base and has already generated some tender opportunities including a beautiful, modern new build house in Goring by Sea.

And finally, we’ve had team curry night, one wedding and one baby!