Custom homes
01 Overview
Custom homes
A custom home should answer your brief rather than a builder's standard range. We work with you from the first conversation about the land, through design and documentation, to the day you get the keys. One builder, who has usually seen the decisions ahead of you before you reach them.
We build a small number of homes at a high standard rather than many at speed. That means the extra minutes to do things properly the first time, and time spent exploring what is actually possible on your site before anything is committed to paper.
Daniel Whitehead has lived in seventeen homes and built many of them himself, so the pitfalls most clients would otherwise walk into are foreseen early. From the first conversation to the twelve-month maintenance visit you have one point of contact.
25
Years of building experience
1
Point of contact, concept to completion
6
Stages, set out before you commit
02 What is included
What the service covers
01
Discovery
The land, the brief and what matters most to you.
02
Concept design
A site meeting with the designer, a measure-up and measured drawings.
03
Council parameters
Checked before the drawings progress any further.
04
Consultants coordinated
Engineering, surveys and reports commissioned on your behalf.
05
Selection of finishes
Guided by what performs over time, not only by how it looks now.
06
A fixed-price quote
Detailed and itemised, produced at preliminary agreement stage.
07
One point of contact
Through construction, handover and the maintenance visits after it.
03 Who this is for
The kind of project this suits
You have a brief of your own
You know how you want to live, and you would rather the home answered that than a builder's existing range.
You are still looking for land
Land is one of the first things we discuss, and we can help you find the right block for the home you have in mind.
You value quality over speed
We build a small number of homes properly rather than many at pace, and the programme is set realistically.
04 How we work
From the block to the keys
One team accountable for all of it, so there is no gap between the people who design your home and the people who build it.
01
The land
If you have not bought yet, we will look at blocks with you and tell you what each one will allow, what it will cost to build on and what it will do to your design. If you already have the block, we survey it properly before anyone draws a line.
02
The design
Our designers work with you to clarify what you want and turn it into measured drawings that can actually be built from, checked against what the council will allow. The design is also built as a 3D model you can walk through, so you experience the rooms before they exist.
03
The consultants
Surveyors, geotechnical engineers, structural and hydraulic engineers, private certifiers and council. We engage them, coordinate them, and keep them all working to the same set of drawings.
04
The build
From site preparation through to plasterboard, paint, flooring, joinery and appliances, with one point of contact and regular updates so you always know what is happening on your site.
05
The finishing
Landscaping, decking and pools are part of the build rather than someone else's job afterwards, and our interior designers furnish and set up the home with you: the beds made, the televisions programmed, the automation working. You move in and start living in it.
06
Afterwards
A walkthrough, an independent inspection and a final clean before you get the keys, then maintenance visits at four weeks, at ninety days and at twelve months.
Nobody should have to project-manage their own home while holding down a career.
05 Also from us
The other ways we work
06 Questions
The questions worth asking a builder
This is the concern we hear most, and it is the reason the design stage takes as long as it does. We meet you on site with the designer, measure up, check what the council will allow, and then refine the concept plans until you are confident. Not until we are confident, until you are. Daniel has lived in seventeen homes, many of which he built himself, which tends to help in spotting a problem in a plan before it becomes a problem in a house.