The answer to this is a straight forward yes! Don’t wait until the works are complete, thinking insurance will only matter from a final re-build point of view. Starting major building works such as extensions or building refurbishment without informing your insurer may invalidate your existing cover. For example, leaving parts of the building exposed to the elements may cause other knock-on issues or may even allow easier access for intruders. (Yes – even in Cheshire and South Manchester!) It’s highly unlikely your current cover would allow for these scenarios, as the risks of a claim would increase. Most insurers are extremely flexible with short term enhanced cover, but less flexible if a claim is initiated, when they’ve been uninformed. They may even withdraw all cover as they could rightly claim you’ve been underpaying premiums.

You should also ensure that your builders or construction project manager also has adequate Public Liability and Employers Liability insurance cover. Our clients in Cheshire and South Manchester can be confident in Mode. We also carry Contractors All Risk insurance that would, in the event of damage to the site, building or equipment by Mode, cover our clients up to a sum of £750k.

This is the proverbial ‘how long is a piece of string’ question. Obviously, it will depend on the nature of your unique project. However, prior to commencement of on-site work, or even pre-appointment, we would have discussed your timeframe with both you and your Architect.

You will be presented with a Project Plan with a time allowance for each element. This would combine to create a total time allowance for your entire project and will also include some flexibility.

As construction project managers, what we can’t foresee are issues unknown to any party such as those below ground, discovering hazardous substances in existing construction, or indeed, the impact of a global pandemic, to name but a few.

As you’d expect however, given our reputation as the Cheshire and South Manchester house builder, we would keep you up to speed on progress and timings on a real-time basis. Therefore, we would advise you, well ahead if we felt there would be some variation due to unforeseen circumstances. There are always challenges on every construction project. Any firm or builder suggesting otherwise or who pitches a greatly reduced project length should be treated with caution. We will always be honest with you both during the planning and delivery phases and will make every effort to make up for any delays.

This really depends on what stage you are at with your project but the short answer is, you don’t have to already have an Architect in place to start a conversation with us. That said, it is more common for us to be appointed by an Architect to project manage your residential build, as by then we would have submitted a tender price based on the technical requirements of the project. However, we can also help shape your project at an earlier concept stage, working with your Architect, to at least provide an indicative idea of budget.

If you are in the very early stages of considering a project and don’t have an Architect, whilst we wouldn’t appoint one, we can recommend a range of them for you to approach, based on the experience required for your particular project type. With over 15 years’ experience being a Cheshire and South Manchester house builder, we are proud to have longstanding relationships with a great number of Architects in the area, who are adept at a wide range of project types.

Let’s face it, it would be unusual to answer ‘no’ to this question! Of course, the answer is ‘yes’, but the real question is ‘how will our consideration be displayed?’ Carrying out significant construction on a new build, extension, refurbishment or even a landscaping project is obviously going to generate noise and a fair bit of mess. There’s not much that can be done about the noise but we work hard to ensure that the messiness stays on site as much as possible.

Vehicles will have to come and go from the site but where possible, we’ll ensure that they are kept off the road and away from your neighbour’s house fronts. Also, on sites where there is a lot of excavated material to be moved, we ensure that the road is mechanically swept, to minimise the transfer onto neighbours’ driveways.

Our teams and subcontractors also understand the expectations of remaining courteous with clients and their neighbours at all times. We treat people as we expect to be treated and as such, most of our clients in the South Manchester and Cheshire area come from referrals. Existing clients wouldn’t be recommending us if we were leaving them with festering disputes with neighbours.

We always speak to neighbours when we arrive on-site and assess any concerns they may have. We also provide them with our contact details.

That said, we also advise that there are some simple steps that you can take yourself, to help smooth the process along and unsurprisingly, they are all linked to communication:

Share your intentions: regardless of whether your construction project requires planning permission (in which case your neighbours would be informed anyway), advise them in advance of your intentions. You’ll be surprised how much buy-in this could provide you with.

Share the start date: ideally two or three weeks in advance. That way it won’t be a shock when the wagons begin rolling up.

Keep in regular contact: every few weeks, contact your neighbours, ideally face to face to see if there are any issues. It’s highly unlikely there will be, but your efforts will be greatly appreciated and if there ever is an issue, the chances are you’ll find your neighbours far more forgiving! 

Give them notice when the project will be complete: with three or four weeks to go, let them know. If there is any minor frustration with your building project, at least they have a timeframe for its conclusion. However, most will be expecting an invite so be prepared to show off!

This is a very common scenario and you are absolutely at liberty to use whoever you wish to fit out your own property. However, selecting the firm for your dream kitchen, bathroom, cinema room or even swimming pool is one thing. You just need to be clear on the project management of that supplier and to decide whether you want to do that yourself or whether you would rather us do it and remove that level of administration from your life.

Naturally you would decide on the final spec from the supplier but they would then still have requirements from us in order to facilitate an orderly, timely and coordinated fitting process. Not all areas of a large construction project proceed at the same rate so it may be that a bathroom space isn’t ready for fit-out at the same time as a kitchen, for example.

Also, if you were to self-manage multiple suppliers across multiple spaces, you can quickly find yourself overwhelmed with requirements from them, if you’re not overly experienced in construction project management.

This is why most clients who have preferred suppliers for particular spaces, prefer for us to factor in managing them, as a part of the ongoing project.

Needless to say, with over 15 years’ experience of working with many high-end specialist fit out suppliers across South Manchester and Cheshire, we have excellent relationships with a considerable number of them.

This is very true. Whilst we try to minimise the number and range of snagging issues by addressing them as the project develops, there will always be snagging issues regardless of the scale or project type. Some become apparent immediately or very soon after completion and some don’t appear until we’ve been offsite for a few months. As such, we arrange a snagging review at completion of the project.

We then provide further support up to six months after the handover date, to resolve any outstanding matters with your new build, extension, refurbishment or landscaping project. Thereafter, any issues are regarded as maintenance matters.