Block of Flats Construction

• Landowners: You have a site or an existing building to replace, and planning permission for flats, or are applying for it.
• Developers: You need a main contractor to build a scheme from your architect's drawings to an agreed programme.
• Investors and landlords: You are building flats to let and want the units finished, certified and ready for tenants.

We work with your architect, structural engineer, quantity surveyor and other consultants, and give you a single itemised quote and programme for the construction.

• Groundworks and foundations: Site clearance, drainage runs, service ducts and foundations. Heavier buildings on London clay often need piling contractors.
• Drainage: Foul and surface water drainage, laid by our drain installation and replacement team.
• Structure and envelope: Walls, floors between flats, the roof, windows and external doors, until the building is weathertight.
• Fire separation: Fire-resisting walls and floors between flats, fire-stopping around pipes and cables, and fire doors.
• Services to each flat: Separate supplies and meters, wiring through our domestic electrical installation service, and heating through our central heating system installation service.
• Fire detection: Smoke and heat alarms in each flat and any system the fire strategy requires, through our fire alarm installation and maintenance service.
• Fit-out: Kitchens, bathrooms, tiling, flooring and decoration in every unit.
• Common parts and external works: The entrance, stairs and landings, bin and cycle stores, parking, EV charger installation and landscaping.

Yes. A new block of flats always needs full planning permission. In London, the council and the London Plan set standards that shape how many flats you can build and how they are laid out:

• Space standards: Minimum internal floor areas and storage for each flat, based on the number of bedrooms and occupants.
• Outdoor space: Private outdoor space, such as a balcony or garden, for each flat.
• Accessibility: Most new homes must meet the accessible and adaptable standard, and some larger schemes must include wheelchair user homes.
• Design and neighbours: Height, massing, overlooking, daylight and the effect on the street.
• Parking, cycles and refuse: Many London sites are car-free or car-light, with secure cycle storage and bin stores.
• Charges and obligations: The Community Infrastructure Levy, the Mayoral CIL in London and, on larger schemes, a Section 106 agreement, which may include affordable housing.

Some other ways of creating flats, such as converting certain commercial buildings, can use permitted development with prior approval, but that is a different route from building a new block. Your architect or planning consultant will advise on the right route for your site.

Fire safety is where flats differ most from houses. Part B of the building regulations sets out the main requirements, and each scheme has its own fire strategy. Typical measures include:

• Compartmentation: Each flat is a fire-resisting box, separated from its neighbours and the common parts.
• Protected escape route: A protected common stair and corridors, with smoke ventilation where needed.
• Fire doors: Fire-resisting, self-closing flat entrance doors and doors to the stair.
• Fire-stopping: Every gap where pipes, cables and ducts pass through walls and floors is sealed.
• Sprinklers: New blocks of flats with a top storey 11 metres or more above ground level need sprinkler systems.
• Emergency lighting and signs in the common parts.

Fire-stopping and fire doors are often hidden once the building is finished, so we record them as the work goes on, for building control and for the building's owner.

Flats must meet the sound insulation requirements of Part E of the building regulations, for walls and floors between homes. This is checked by pre-completion sound testing of a sample of walls and floors, unless an approved Robust Details construction is used and registered. Good detailing matters: the floor build-up, the wall construction and the way services pass between flats all affect the result. We build to the specified details so the building passes first time.

Most residential developments in England are built under a standard form of building contract, most often from the JCT (Joint Contracts Tribunal) suite. The common choices are:

• JCT Design and Build Contract: The contractor takes on responsibility for completing the design, usually after planning, alongside building it.
• JCT Intermediate Building Contract: The client's architect completes the design, and the contractor builds it. This often suits smaller, straightforward schemes.
• JCT Standard Building Contract: For larger or more complex traditional projects, with detailed drawings and bills of quantities.

The contract sets out the price, the programme, how the work is valued and paid for in stages, how changes are handled, and what happens at completion and during the defects period. Your quantity surveyor or legal adviser will recommend the right form, and we price and programme to it.

Since October 2023, every building project in England has named dutyholders under the building regulations: the client, the principal designer and the principal contractor. Each must be competent for their role and make sure the work complies. On a block of flats, we act as the principal contractor for the construction, planning, managing and monitoring the building work and handing over the information the owner needs to run the building safely. The same roles apply for health and safety under the CDM Regulations 2015.

Taller buildings, of at least 18 metres or seven storeys with two or more homes, are higher-risk buildings. They need approval from the Building Safety Regulator before work starts and before they can be occupied.