Building exceptional spaces that last

For a well-detailed private house we are contracting between €2,600 and €3,600 per square metre of finished floor area, excluding site purchase, VAT-inclusive. The spread is driven by ground conditions, glazing specification and how bespoke the joinery is. A 250m² house therefore sits somewhere between €650,000 and €900,000 — and the honest answer at first meeting is a range, not a number.

Fixed. We price from a full bill of quantities against construction drawings, and that sum is what we invoice against. Prices only change if you change something or if the ground turns up a genuine surprise. Both are quoted, in writing, before the work is built — never presented afterwards as a fait accompli.

No. The first meeting, the walkover and the indicative cost range are free and carry no obligation. We would rather tell you at that meeting that your budget is €200,000 short than take a deposit and discover it together in month four.

Monthly valuations against work genuinely completed and materials on site, certified by your architect or engineer, with a 5% retention released at practical completion and the balance after the defects period. We never ask for a large payment up front.

For private clients, the RIAI Building Agreement or a plain-English fixed-price contract for smaller works. For commercial projects, the RIAI or GCCC forms as your quantity surveyor prefers. We are comfortable being held to a contract — it protects both of us.

Yes. All figures we quote to private clients include VAT at the 13.5% construction rate. On qualifying renovation work you may also be able to claim under the Home Renovation Incentive successor schemes; we issue the documentation you need either way.

Typically five to seven months for a new build and three to four for an extension. We deliberately run fewer projects at once than our headcount allows, because the alternative is a crew split across three sites and a programme nobody can defend.

For most extensions and attic conversions, yes. We build a sealed dust barrier, run a separate site entrance and keep a working kitchen and one bathroom live throughout. For a whole-house renovation the honest advice is usually to move out — it is faster, cheaper and considerably better for your marriage.

7.30am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 2pm on Saturday when the programme needs it. In residential streets we hold noisy work between 9am and 5pm. On commercial jobs we will run early or night shifts to protect your trading hours.

You get a Monday morning report with photographs, what was completed, what is next and anything we need a decision on. Larger contracts also get a private progress page. Your project manager's mobile number is on the first page of the contract.

You are told the week it happens, not the month before completion. Our contracts carry an agreed completion date with liquidated damages, so a slip costs us as well as inconveniencing you. That tends to concentrate the mind on realistic programming at tender stage.

Our carpenters, blocklayers, plasterers and finishers are directly employed. We subcontract mechanical, electrical and specialist stone to the same small group of firms we have used for over a decade — all of them insured, tax-compliant and on our approved list.

Both routes work. We have an in-house design team for extensions, renovations and straightforward new builds. For anything architecturally ambitious we would rather work alongside your architect — we build better when someone independent is holding the design line.

A rear extension up to 40m² is generally exempt for a house that has not been extended before, subject to remaining private open space and the height rules. Anything to the front, anything over 40m², or any work to a protected structure needs permission. We confirm the position in writing before you commit to a design.

Yes, and it is some of our favourite work. It requires a conservation architect, an early conversation with the local authority conservation officer and a tolerance for lime mortar drying at its own pace. We have completed nineteen protected-structure projects since 2015.

We do. Commencement notice, assigned certifier coordination, ancillary certificates and the completion certificate pack — all of it arrives with you in one folder at handover, not as a scramble when you go to sell the house in ten years.

Yes. Several of our team are Passive House trained, and every new build we complete is airtightness tested. Reaching certified Passive House typically adds 6–9% to the build cost and repays it in running costs and comfort — we will model both options for you.

New builds are delivered at A2 as standard and A1 where the client wants it. Deep retrofits of period houses realistically land between B2 and A3 depending on how much of the original fabric must be retained — we will not promise an A1 on a solid stone wall.

A twelve-year structural warranty on new builds and extensions, a two-year defects period on everything we touch, and manufacturers' warranties on all installed products, registered in your name and handed over in the certificate pack.

We snag the building ourselves first, then walk it with you and add whatever we missed. The list is closed before handover, not after. At eleven months we come back unprompted to close out anything the first full heating season has revealed.