New build homes in North Devon, run from first dig to final snag by the man who built his own.

Foundations and ground conditions

Foundation design follows the ground, not habit. Trial holes and the structural engineer's assessment determine whether the plot takes traditional strip footings, wide strip, trench fill or piled foundations with a ring beam. Sloping sites often need stepped footings; plots near mature trees need deeper founding to allow for heave and shrinkage in clay.

Groundworks also set the drainage strategy: foul runs to mains where available, or a treatment plant and drainage field on rural plots, plus surface water attenuation, soakaways and land drains where the site holds water. Getting levels and invert depths right at this stage avoids pumped solutions later.

Superstructure options

Most homes we build are traditional masonry: blockwork inner leaf, full-fill or partial-fill insulated cavity, and an outer leaf of brick, block-and-render or local stone facing depending on the planning conditions. Beam and block or insulated raft ground floors are chosen against the levels and insulation strategy.

Timber frame and closed-panel systems can be erected and finished by our carpentry team where your design calls for them, with our first and second fix carpentry taking over once the frame is up. Steel beams and posts are used where the design opens up large spans, sized by the engineer, installed and fire-protected properly.

Thermal performance, airtightness and ventilation

Current building regulations push new dwellings hard on fabric performance. That means continuous insulation lines, insulated cavity closers at every opening, taped membranes, careful detailing at wall-to-roof and wall-to-floor junctions, and thermal bridging controlled at the details rather than patched afterwards.

Airtightness and ventilation work as a pair. A tight house needs a designed ventilation strategy: trickle ventilation, extract or a mechanical system, and that is decided before first fix, not after the airtightness test flags a problem.

Roofing, rainwater and exposure

Roof structure is either cut on site by our carpenters for complex shapes and vaulted ceilings, or trussed where the design suits. Coverings are matched to pitch and exposure: slate and interlocking tiles on standard pitches, mechanically fixed on exposed coastal plots where wind uplift is a genuine design load.

Exposed North Devon sites also drive the choice of render systems, pointing, cavity trays and rainwater goods. Detail that survives ten winters near the coast is not the same detail that survives inland.

Internal finishes and joinery

Once weathertight, the house is first fixed, insulated, boarded and skimmed to a clean, ready-to-decorate finish. Second fix carpentry, doors, architrave, skirting, stairs, fitted joinery, is led by our City & Guilds qualified carpenter, and kitchens and bathrooms are installed as part of the same package, including tiling.

Because the same firm handles carpentry, plastering and tiling, tolerances are consistent across trades: door linings sit plumb because the plasterer knows what the joiner needs, and tiling lands on flat, square substrates.

Replacement dwellings, barn plots and annexes

Not every new build starts on clean ground. Replacement dwellings involve demolition, disconnecting and capping services, and sometimes retaining part of an existing structure to satisfy planning. Barn plots and conversions carry their own structural surveys, tying new work into old fabric.

Annexes and self-contained garden dwellings follow the same regulations as a full house in miniature, foundations, insulation, drainage and building control sign-off, and are quoted with the same detail.

Private clients only

We do not build for developers. Volume work forces compromises on programme and finish that a private client always pays for. Keeping to a small number of private jobs at a time means Adam is genuinely on your site rather than dividing his week across six.