Marais Street

A new home a few streets back from the beach in Strand. Nothing exotic about the site, and that is part of why it is on here. What makes this one worth showing is how it was contracted.

A properly registered new build like any other, but the client did not want a full turnkey job. He wanted the house taken to watertight and he wanted to do the finishes himself. So that is what we quoted and that is what we built: foundations, brickwork, the cast concrete slab and staircase, the roof, plaster inside and out, all the aluminium windows and doors, the paint and the waterproofing.

That last part is the point. Watertight is not a shell with the openings boarded up. The roof is on, the glazing is in, the paint and the waterproofing are done and the boundary walls are closed up. The house is sealed against the weather, which a few streets from the sea in Strand is not a small thing. From there the inside was his to fit out in his own time.

It is not how most of our jobs are set up, and it is not the right answer for everybody. But if you have the time, the contacts or the trade yourself, there is real money in the finishes, and there is no reason a builder has to hold that part of the job. We are happy to take a contract that stops where you want it to stop.