What happens in what order, roughly how long each part takes, and what to check before you let the next stage begin.
Building a house is a long sequence of decisions, and the expensive mistakes are almost always made by starting a stage before the previous one was finished. This is the order we work in and what each stage is for.
The plot is surveyed and the rules that apply to it established. The brief — rooms, uses, budget, timeline — is written down rather than assumed. Ends when both sides agree on what is being designed.
Plans, massing and the central idea. Expect to revise. Ends with a layout you can picture living in.
Structure, services and openings resolved; materials chosen; views produced for key spaces. Ends with a design that will not change without cost.
The drawing set is prepared in the authority's format and filed. Timelines here belong to the authority, not the architect.
Working drawings, details, schedules and specifications — the set the contractor prices and builds from.
Quotes taken on a common scope so they are comparable, then a contractor appointed. A cheap quote against a vague scope is not a saving.
Excavation, foundation, columns, slabs. The least visible money you will ever spend and the most important.
Walls, then electrical and plumbing routed before plastering. Once it is plastered, changes get expensive.
Flooring, joinery, painting, fixtures. The stage clients enjoy and the one where programme slips quietly.
A written list, chased to closure, before final payment. Warranties and as-built drawings collected.
For an independent house, design and approvals commonly take a few months and construction commonly takes a year or more, depending on size, site, weather and how promptly decisions are made. Anybody quoting a confident total before seeing the site and the brief is guessing. What can be committed to honestly is a stage plan with review points.
Three places, in our experience. Changing the design after construction has started. Appointing a contractor on a scope too vague to hold anyone to. And leaving selections — tiles, sanitaryware, joinery finishes — until the site is waiting, which converts a design decision into a panic purchase.
That the previous stage is genuinely closed, in writing. A signed-off plan before structure is detailed. A frozen selection list before joinery is ordered. A measured verification before the slab goes up. These checks are unglamorous and they are what separates a project that lands on budget from one that does not.
