Project type
CDM principal designer for a refurbishment
Whole house and major refurbishment, where the project is defined by what is already there and by how little of it anybody has written down.
Short answer
Refurbishment projects nearly always involve more than one contractor, so a CDM principal designer must be appointed in writing before work starts. They are also the project type where the pre-construction information earns its keep hardest, because almost every significant risk on a refurbishment comes from the existing building rather than from the new work.
Why refurbishment is the harder case
A new build has no history. A refurbishment has nothing but history, and most of it undocumented. The recurring pattern is not that somebody did something dangerous; it is that nobody knew what was behind the wall.
- Asbestos. The single most consequential unknown in any pre-2000 building, and the one where the answer has to exist before the fabric is disturbed.
- Structure of unknown vintage. Openings formed at some point by somebody, walls removed without record, beams bearing on something that was never designed to take them.
- Services. Dead runs that are not dead, buried runs nobody expected, and meter positions that make isolation awkward.
- Sequence. Refurbishment is largely about the order things come out in, which is a design decision that reaches the contractor as information or not at all.
- Occupation. A great deal of refurbishment happens around people who are still living or working in the building.
What we do about it
The structured forms are aimed at whoever actually holds each piece: you for the history and the paperwork, the designers for what their drawings leave behind, the site visit for the building itself. What is missing is named and owned rather than glossed. That is the difference between a pack that helps somebody price a refurbishment and a pack that describes a generic building.
What it costs
From £750 plus VAT for the pre-construction service, with the construction phase service from £450 plus VAT if you want the appointment to run to completion and the health and safety file handed over at the end. The published fee schedule, or price your own project.
Common questions
Is a refurbishment priced differently?
The fee follows the project type and the contract value from the published schedule. A large or complex refurbishment is priced as a large residential project rather than as a straightforward extension.
We are refurbishing a flat, not a house. Same thing?
Broadly, with one addition: the building around your flat is part of the project information. Shared structure, shared services, escape routes and the freeholder's or managing agent's requirements all belong in the pack.
Price it in about two minutes
Answer a few questions about the works and see the fixed fee. Nothing is contracted and no money is taken online.
Get an instant quote →Not sure yet? check whether the appointment is required at all.