The Fulham house from a coffee queue

Most builders will tell you that work comes from referrals. Some of it comes from standing in the right queue.

Up the road from our office in Fulham is a little cafe called Tinto’s. One morning we walked up for a coffee. We ended up standing behind a man who was about six foot four. We paid no attention. On the way out my business partner asked whether I knew who that was. I did not. He said, that is David Gandy, the model. I said, who?

He explained. The Dolce and Gabbana advert, the one shot on a boat in Capri. I had seen the advert. I had never given the man in it a moment’s thought.

The friend request

Back at the office I sent him a friend request on Facebook. He accepted it.

So I sent a message. He replied. He said, next time you are in Tinto’s mate, let’s have a coffee.

Two days later we were sitting in Tinto’s having breakfast with him. He got to the point quickly. He said, I know you boys are design and build in Fulham. I am looking to buy a house just up the road. Would you like to work with me on it?

We said yes before he finished the sentence.

The house

He found a property a couple of minutes from our office. It was unmodernised and it needed everything. It needed a basement under the footprint and a kitchen extension. It needed a full renovation throughout.

He bought it and handed us the keys. We started on the planning approvals. We got consent for the basement, the extension and the refurbishment. Then we built it.

That relationship ran for over three years. Somewhere in the middle of it we ended up in Milan for the weekend. We went to watch the derby. We were guests of Dolce and Gabbana, pitch side in the VIP box. It was not a normal week at work.

What we actually learned from it

Two things, and neither is about celebrity.

The first is that the job came from being local and being visible. We were in the same cafe as our future client. That was because our office was fifty yards away. He wanted a builder up the road. He wanted one who knew the street, the stock and the planning department. Proximity is an underrated qualification.

The second is this. A basement, an extension and a full renovation are three projects. On one unmodernised house they wear one address. Each has its own consents, its own structural logic and its own programme. The only way it runs smoothly is one team holding all three. Split them across separate contractors and the gaps between them become the client’s problem.

The nickname

At the same time we were working with Kylie Minogue. Between the two of them, our social accounts started to move. People wanted to know who the builders were.

Somewhere in there we picked up a nickname, the Gucci builders. For the record, that one came from Kylie.

What this kind of work costs

A basement under an existing London house is the expensive part. You are underpinning and waterproofing before you finish anything. A rear extension costs less per square foot. The renovation of the house above it costs less again. Our own rates for all three are published on the cost calculator. They are tier by tier, with no form in front of them.

A house may need all three. Then the sequence matters more than any single rate. Get the basement and the structure right and the rest follows. Get it wrong and everything above it waits.

One team. One contract. One standard.

Planning a basement, an extension or a full renovation in Fulham? Talk to us. Architecture, interior design, project management and construction under one contract. Call 020 7731 6841.