About
A design studio with its own trades.
South East Design and South East Build are one company. The people who draw the scheme lead the team that builds it, so the proportions, light and details that make a room feel right survive all the way to the last coat of paint.
How it started
“You can't separate how a room looks from how it's built. So we stopped trying to.”
The studio was founded by Colin Wares, who started on the tools in South East London in 2006 and spent the next decade watching good designs lose something between the drawing and the site. So he closed the gap: a studio that draws every scheme, and a team of its own trades that builds it, down to the plumbing and electrics.
Twenty years on, that is still the whole idea. You talk about light, proportion and how you live before you talk about budget, and the people who design your home are the same ones standing in it on the last day.
The team
Our own trades, not a list of subcontractors.
Every job runs with one foreman and a crew who have worked together for years. The same faces on site from the first day to the snagging visit, and the same standard whether it's a rewire or a whole house.
Groundworks, brickwork, steels, roofs and the first-fix carpentry that everything else hangs off.
Boilers, underfloor heating, bathrooms and the pipework you never see.
Rewires, consumer units, lighting design and the second-fix nobody notices until it is wrong.
Skim, float and set, cornice repairs and the flat walls a good paint job needs.
Alcove units, wardrobes, stairs and kitchens made to drawings, not bought off a shelf.
The last ten per cent that people actually look at, done by people who only do that.
How a job runs
Five steps, no surprises.
The order never changes, and you know which step you're on. A fixed price is priced from a survey, not a guess, and the contingency is shown, not hidden.
Twenty minutes to talk through the house, what you want and a rough range. Written up the same day.
If it's a fit, we measure, photograph and check the structure and services before we price anything.
One number, one programme, with a 10% contingency held inside it and shown to you.
Our own trades on site, one foreman, a photo update every Friday and no surprise invoices.
Clean, paperwork handed over, keys back — and a snagging visit six weeks later.
Further reading
The rules a design-and-build job runs under
- Historic England: Practical advice for home improvements in older houses
What to check before altering a period house, including listed status and conservation areas.
- HSE: The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015
The duties on clients, designers and contractors on every construction project, and when to notify HSE.
- GOV.UK: Building regulations approval: when you need it
Building Regulations approval is separate from planning permission, and you may need both.