Where a survey answers "what is the condition of this building", consultancy answers "what should we do about it, in what order, over what horizon". This is the ongoing work of caring for historic building fabric: investigation, specification, repair and stewardship, for owners and custodians rather than buyers.
-
Heritage Consultancy
Condition, defect investigation, appropriate repair and the long-view stewardship of listed and historic fabric: Grade II to Grade I, Scheduled Monuments.
-
Listed Building Surveys
For owners of designated buildings: condition read against significance, and what consent means for the repair a defect actually needs.
-
Condition Surveys
Systematic condition and long-term maintenance planning for the buildings you already hold: the information you need before you need it urgently.
-
Project Management
Lead consultant services for works to historic buildings, from first feasibility to final account.
-
Estates & Institutional
For private estates, charitable trusts and institutions holding historic property at scale: the long view on a whole portfolio.
Who this is for
Owners of listed and traditionally built houses who intend to keep them. Trustees and estate managers with a portfolio of buildings and a limited budget to spread across it. Institutions holding buildings that came with the organisation. Architects and contractors who need the fabric read before they commit to a specification.
What these have in common is a building someone is responsible for over years, where the decision that matters is which repair to do first and which to leave alone.
How the work usually starts
Most engagements begin one of three ways. A condition survey establishes the baseline across a building or a portfolio, with the defects prioritised into a programme you can budget against. A single problem needs its cause established before anyone specifies a cure, which is defect diagnosis applied to a building you already own. Or the decision is made and the work needs someone to specify it, tender it and hold the contractor to it, which is project management.
Consent runs alongside all three. Heritage consultancy reads the building's significance, specifies repairs that suit it, and deals with the conservation officer. Estates and institutions with buildings at scale have a page of their own.
What it costs
I quote consultancy per engagement, because the building and what you need from it decide how much there is to do. Some of it is a fixed fee for a defined piece of work, a condition survey or a defect investigation. Some is time-based, where the scope is open at the start.
Either way you get a figure and a scope in writing before you commit to anything, and if what you are asking for is more than the situation needs, I will say so.
Where I work
I work from North Norfolk across East Anglia, and further afield for the right commission. Areas covered has the detail.
Getting started
Tell me about the building and what is worrying you, or what you are trying to decide. A conversation costs nothing and it usually settles whether there is work here worth doing. Get in touch.