About the company
Four tradespeople. One project at a time.
Smart Builder London is a small building company based on Seaton Road in Mitcham. We are four tradespeople who work together, and we take on one significant project at a time so that it gets the whole team rather than a share of one.
That is a commercial decision as much as a craft one. It limits how much work we can take, and it is the reason our clients get the same standard in the last room as in the first.
- Person team
- 4Person teamThe same four on every job
- Years building
- 10+Years buildingAcross South London
- Trades in house
- 8Trades in houseFrom groundworks to decoration
- Point of contact
- 1Point of contactYou call the person doing the work
Who does what
Eight trades between four people.
Groundworks & structure
Excavation, footings, drainage, brickwork, steel installation and structural openings.
The part of the job nobody sees again once the plaster is on, and the part that decides whether everything above it behaves.
Carpentry & joinery
Roof structure, floors, staircases, first and second fix, and all fitted furniture.
Everything from the loft floor structure to the alcove cabinetry is set out and cut by the same hands.
Wet trades & finishing
Plastering, tiling, tanking, screeding, and bathroom and kitchen installation.
Where most snagging lists come from. Getting the substrate right before anything is applied is the whole discipline.
Decoration & coordination
Preparation and decoration, building control liaison, materials, and the programme.
Also the person who answers the phone, books the inspections and keeps the schedule honest.
Why we stay small
Growing would make us worse at this.
The obvious way to grow a building company is to win more work and sub-contract it. It also reliably makes the work worse: the people on site have no relationship with the client, no stake in the finish, and no reason to come back if something needs attention.
We would rather turn work down and keep the reason people recommend us.
- One project at a time, so nobody is pulled onto another site mid-programme
- The person quoting the job is one of the people building it
- We are ten minutes away, so coming back is not a scheduling problem
- Referrals and repeat clients, rather than lead-generation sites
- A finish we are willing to put our own name on the van for
Our commitments
What you can hold us to.
A written quotation, broken into stages
You get a priced schedule of works before anything starts, split by stage so you can see what each phase of the job costs. No lump sums, no "allow for extras".
The same four people, start to finish
The team that digs the footings is the team that hangs the last door. Nothing is sub-let down a chain, so nothing gets lost between trades.
Variations priced before they happen
If we find something unexpected, work stops, we photograph it and price it in writing. Nothing is added to your bill without your agreement.
Building control booked and attended
We arrange the inspections and are on site for them. Nothing structural is covered up before it has been signed off.
The site cleared every evening
Dust screens up, a single access route, and materials stacked. You are living in the house while we work in it.
Payment by bank transfer, against work done
A deposit to secure the start date and order materials, then staged payments as each phase completes. Full details on every invoice.