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CDM principal designer in Bath
The statutory CDM 2015 principal designer appointment, taken as a standalone service on Bath projects. Fixed fees, priced online, with the whole appointment handled through short structured forms and one site visit.
Short answer
If your project in Bath will involve more than one contractor, including subcontracted trades that never overlap, regulation 5 of CDM 2015 requires you to appoint a CDM principal designer in writing before construction begins. ClearCDM takes that appointment on residential and smaller commercial projects, on a fixed fee from £750 plus VAT. If nobody is appointed on a domestic project, regulation 7(2) puts the role on the designer in control of the pre-construction phase, whether or not anyone has discussed it.
Projects we take on in Bath
- Refurbishment and alteration of period and listed buildings
- Extensions and rear additions in conservation areas
- Flat and maisonette refurbishment in subdivided townhouses
- Basement and vault works
- Shop, office and hospitality fit out
What tends to matter on Bath projects
Bath is not Bristol with better stone. The City of Bath is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the density of listed buildings and conservation area coverage in the centre changes what a project is before anybody thinks about health and safety.
The practical consequences for a CDM appointment run through the whole pre-construction phase.
- Listed fabric and consent conditions. Where a building is listed, what can be removed, altered or opened up is constrained, and the constraint often forces a more awkward construction sequence than an unlisted equivalent would need. That sequence is design information the contractor has to have.
- Ashlar and lime. Bath stone, lime mortar and lath and plaster do not behave like modern masonry when they are cut, loaded or propped. It changes the temporary works and it changes what a careless demolition does to the rest of the wall.
- Georgian terraces and vaults. Deep plan terraces with basements, light wells and vaulted areas under the pavement, which are structural, occupied by services, and frequently in unknown condition.
- Very tight access. Narrow streets, controlled parking, restricted delivery windows, and neighbours immediately either side. Where the scaffold goes and how it is reached is a question worth settling before anybody prices it.
- Conversion and subdivision. A large proportion of the work is inside buildings already divided into flats, which means occupied common parts, shared escape routes and other people's homes on the other side of the work.
None of that makes a Bath project harder to run. It makes the information gathering worth more, because the things that catch people out are almost all things somebody already knew.
How the appointment runs
Five steps, short forms, one site visit. The appointment in writing, structured forms to everybody involved, a visit to record the building as it is, the design risks coordinated, and the pre-construction information issued to whoever is pricing and building before work starts. The full process, and what the role covers.
Fees
Fixed fees from £750 plus VAT, read off a published schedule rather than taken as a percentage of your build. The same starting fees apply wherever the project is, and the figure on your confirmed quote is the figure you are invoiced: there is no expenses line and nothing is added afterwards. The fee schedule.
This is the CDM role, not the Building Regulations one
Since October 2023 England has had a second principal designer role, under Part 2A of the Building Regulations 2010. It is a separate appointment about designing to meet the Building Regulations, and ClearCDM does not provide it. Most projects that need one need both. The difference in full.
Questions we get asked in Bath
Is a listed building treated differently under CDM?
CDM 2015 does not have a separate regime for listed buildings. What changes in practice is the information: consent conditions, the constraints on removal and alteration, and the sequences those force are all pre-construction information a contractor needs before pricing.
Do you work on listed buildings often?
Regularly. What changes is not the CDM process but the information: consent conditions and the constraints on removal and alteration are exactly the sort of thing the pre-construction information has to carry.
Nearby
Sources
- CDM 2015, regulation 5 legislation.gov.uk
- CDM 2015, regulation 7 legislation.gov.uk
- HSE: principal designers, roles and responsibilities hse.gov.uk
- Bath and North East Somerset Council: conservation conservation areas and listed buildings
- UNESCO: City of Bath World Heritage Site inscribed 1987
Price your Bath project
A few questions about the works and you have a fixed fee in about two minutes, and the figure you see is the figure you are invoiced.
Get an instant quote →Not sure yet? check whether the appointment is required at all.