One project per site manager
They are not running four jobs from a van. Yours is the one they think about.
How it works
Seven stages,
Seven stages,
one appointment
Every stage below sits with us, including the disciplines you would normally have to appoint separately. You are never asked to hire anyone else, chase anyone else, or work out whose responsibility something was.
-
We come to the property, walk it with you, and talk honestly about what is possible and what it is likely to cost. Around two hours, entirely at our expense. If we are not the right practice for the job we will say so, and roughly a third of the time we recommend somebody else.
No charge · No obligation -
A qualified architect in the building, not a consultant we sub-contract. Measured survey, concept design and a cost plan built from real subcontractor pricing rather than a rate per square metre, so the scheme is affordable before you fall in love with it. 3D visuals where they help. This is the stage the design fee covers, and the drawings are yours whether or not you build with us.
Architecture & design -
Householder applications, full applications, listed building consent, Class Q conversions and National Park submissions, including the pre-application conversation that often decides the outcome. We also handle building control and party wall notices. In the Lake District this is where most projects stall, and because we drew the scheme ourselves we can negotiate a change on the phone rather than through a fortnight of emails between three parties.
National Park experience -
Building regulations drawings, structural engineering and a fixed-price contract sum. Where something genuinely cannot be known until we open it up, we tell you, and we price the risk openly instead of burying it in a rate and hoping.
Engineering & fixed price -
Stone, slate, timber, glazing, sanitaryware and ironmongery, sourced and bought on trade terms and passed on transparently. We know which reclamation yards have Westmorland slate and how long a stone order actually takes, because we place them every month. Long-lead items are ordered at design stage, not when the trades are standing waiting.
Bought on trade terms -
One site manager on one project, a weekly report with photographs and spend against budget, and their mobile number. We appoint, coordinate, check and pay every engineer, joiner, stonemason, roofer and electrician, so you never hold a contract with any of them. Our own core trades where it matters, vetted specialists where it does not.
Trades & site management -
A named contact for twelve months, a full handover manual, and a return visit at month eleven to catch anything before the period closes. We come back for years after that too.
Twelve-month defects period
Fees, in plain English
Why we charge
for design
Design takes weeks of qualified time: a measured survey, drawings, a cost plan, and conversations with the planners. A practice that gives all that away is either not really doing it, or is recovering it somewhere you cannot see, usually inside the build price.
Paying for it properly buys you something specific. If the honest answer is that your idea does not work, we can tell you, because we are not relying on winning the build to get paid. It also means nobody who turns up to your free consultation is under pressure to convert you, which changes that conversation entirely.
The design fee
Credited in full
against your build
against your build
- ✓First consultation and site visit, free and with no obligation
- ✓Measured survey, design drawings and a real cost plan
- ✓The drawings are yours to keep, whoever builds them
- ✓Proceed with us and the full fee comes off the build cost
- ✓Fixed and agreed in writing before any work starts
The fee is set once we have seen the property, because a barn in Langdale and a terrace in Kendal are not the same piece of work.
What if I do not go ahead with the build?
You keep the drawings and the cost plan, and you are free to take them to another builder. You will have paid for the design, which is what you commissioned.
What does the build itself cost?
Honestly, nobody can tell you that from a website, and be wary of anyone who implies otherwise. Age, access, ground conditions, listed status and how much of the existing structure survives all move the number substantially. What we can give you, free, is an informed range after a site visit.
How do payments work during the build?
Staged against a fixed-price contract, with a schedule agreed before work starts. You see spend against budget in the weekly report, so there are no surprises at the point of invoice.
Do you charge for the first visit outside Cumbria?
Not usually. We cover the north of England and travel is on us. For anything further afield we will be straight with you about whether it makes sense.
The practice
Six things we
do differently
Working in a National Park teaches you patience. The standard is high and the shortcuts are visible for fifty years.
The architect visits the site
Regularly, during the build, not just at the start. Drawings meet reality better when the person who drew them is standing in it.
We price the risk out loud
Where something is genuinely unknowable until we open it up, we say so and cost it openly, rather than hiding a contingency in a rate.
Weekly reporting, good news or bad
Photographs, spend against budget and the next fortnight. It arrives on the same day every week whether or not there is anything you want to hear.
We turn work down
If a project is not right for us, or we cannot do it well at the budget available, we say so at the first visit. That is partly why the first visit is free.
Materials sourced properly
Even when it takes four months to find the right reclaimed slate. In a conservation area that patience is the difference between a repair and a replacement.
Clients
What it is like
to work with us
We will put you in touch with any client here, and several who are not.
Two previous applications had been refused. Stone & Fell redrew it, took it back to the National Park themselves, and it went through first time. That alone paid for the design fee twice over.
They found rot in two trusses in week five. No argument, no variation, no phone calls between three companies. They just redesigned the repair and got on with it, and I found out at the weekly report.
We lived upstairs for eleven months with two children. It was never silent, but it was never chaotic either, and it finished on the date they gave us at the very start.
What sold it was the weekly report. Photographs, spend against budget, and what was happening next. After a previous build where I had to ring to find anything out, that alone was worth the money.
They spent four months tracking down reclaimed slate rather than talking us into new. Nobody would ever know, which I think is the point.
Free first consultation
Ready to start?
Tell us about the building and we will arrange a visit. The first one costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
- Two hours at the property, entirely at our cost
- An honest view on feasibility, planning risk and likely cost
- In writing afterwards, with no obligation and no follow-up sales call
Prefer to talk? Call 015394 00000 or email studio@stoneandfell.co.uk.