About Swanbourne Construction

Before you let a builder take the back wall out of your house, you are entitled to know exactly what you are dealing with. This page is in the order that matters: the company first, then the man who runs it.

The company

Swanbourne Construction Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 16870716. VAT registered. Insured for £2m public liability, with employers' liability cover behind the people doing the work.

The unit sits on Middleton Business Park at Middleton-on-Sea, between Bognor Regis and Littlehampton. Jobs run out from there across Bognor Regis, Chichester, Arundel, Felpham, Littlehampton and the villages threaded between them — about twenty miles in any direction, and going to the far end of that does not put the price up.

The work itself is lofts, extensions, structural alterations, whole-house renovations, kitchens, bathrooms, roofing, joinery and the outside work that finishes a job off. Over 100 projects completed. Look at previous projects and what we are currently on site with and you can judge the standard without taking anybody's word for it.

Showroom and office interior with a branded reception desk, framed panels on the wall and a meeting table beyond — Inside the showroom.

Why the company was formed in 2025

Swanbourne Construction Ltd was formed in 2025. That is a matter of public record, it is easy to check, and it deserves an explanation rather than a bit of clever wording. The building work behind the company goes back a long way further. The limited company is the new part.

Incorporating was a deliberate decision and it costs money to keep up. Here is what a homeowner gets out of it:

You are contracting with a registered company. The written contract, the quotation and every invoice carry one legal entity and one number, rather than a trading name on the side of a van.
There is something to look up before you sign. Companies House holds the incorporation date, the registered office, the director and the accounts. Your solicitor can read all of it in ten minutes, and so can you.
The insurance sits in the company's name. £2m of public liability, and employers' liability alongside it. One insurance position, held by the entity you are paying, rather than a certificate somebody else took out.
The VAT registration is real and it is checkable. It also sets the standard we hold other people's numbers to — our price match terms apply only where the quotation you are comparing came from an insured builder who charges VAT as well, which is the same test in both directions.
The 24-month workmanship guarantee is given by the company, not by an individual, and the manufacturer warranties on everything installed are transferred into your name.

None of that makes the brickwork straighter. What it does is put the awkward information in public — the accounts, the registered office, the director, the number — where a customer can check it before parting with a deposit rather than afterwards. A builder who wants to be hard to check does not do this.

There is a workshop behind the company, and a room to sit down in

The unit at Middleton is two things. Most of it is a working joinery shop with machines in it: a fair amount of the timber that ends up in a customer's house is cut and assembled there and arrives on site finished, instead of being ordered from a catalogue and hoped for.

The rest is a showroom and office with a table in it, which is where a quotation gets talked through with the drawings actually open in front of you rather than read out over the phone.

Two days on any job explain why the workshop matters. The day an opening turns out to be 18mm out of square across its width, and the day a supplier admits the thing you were promised is five weeks away. Both of those become an afternoon at the bench rather than a fortnight of nothing happening.

Staircases, fitted wardrobes, alcove units, sash window repairs, linings for oak fire doors: built at Middleton, then fitted by the same hands. More of that on carpentry and joinery.

It is open by appointment rather than on the off chance, for the ordinary reason that everybody is usually on site. Ring first and there will be somebody there.

Meeting table with four chairs and a wall-mounted screen in the showroom — Where a quotation gets talked through, line by line, with the drawings on the table.

The man behind the company

James Reilly of Swanbourne Construction at the unit in Middleton-on-Sea — James, at the unit in Middleton-on-Sea. The number on this website is his, and he is the one who answers it.

A building firm this size is exactly as good as the person running it, and there is one person running this one. He walks the job before it is priced. He writes the quotation, over two hundred itemised lines of it. He books the trades, orders the materials, keeps the programme, and picks up the phone when you ring the mobile number.

His name is James, and he has been building in West Sussex since 2002. Over 100 projects have gone through his hands in that time, from houses stripped back to the brick down to a single bathroom, so very little that turns up in the middle of a build is new to him.

One name, from the first visit to the last invoice

You get his number and you are meant to use it.

Not a portal. Not a different foreman every fortnight. Not a builder who goes quiet the week the plasterer starts. When the plumber wants a decision on the height of the towel rail, that decision comes back through somebody who remembers what you said about the towel rail in March.

There is a formal side to it too. On our sites James takes the principal contractor duties under the CDM Regulations, which means one named person answers for how the work is sequenced, who is allowed on site on a given morning and what ends up in the health and safety file. How we run a job sets out each stage of that in order.

What he will tell you that other people won't

That your loft may not be worth converting. That the cheapest quotation in front of you has left the scaffolding out. That the drains run the wrong way across the garden and it is going to cost you. That a start date is six weeks off because the job in front of yours is not finished, rather than starting yours badly to keep you happy.

None of it is a technique. It is simply cheaper for everybody to hear the awkward thing in week zero than in week nine.

You will have seen the vans

Three vehicles, all sign written, all on the roads between Bognor, Chichester and Arundel most days of the week. If you have been stuck behind one on the A259, that was us.

There is a reason they are marked up rather than plain white. A builder who puts his company name, his trades and his compass on the side of a van outside your neighbour's house is a builder who expects to be recognised in the Co-op afterwards. It is the same thinking as the unit at Middleton Business Park and the showroom you can walk into: if something goes wrong, you know exactly where to find us.

Swanbourne Construction long wheelbase van, sign written in black and gold with the compass mark and the trades listed along the bottom — The van that carries the job. The trades listed along the bottom are the ones James actually does, not a wish list.

Swanbourne Construction tipper truck with a drop-side body, sign written on the cab door and the side board — The tipper. Muck away, materials in, and the reason a skip is not always the answer.

Swanbourne Construction company car, a white BMW coupe with the compass mark and company name on the door — The car that turns up for the site visit and the measure-up.

If you see one parked on a job and you are curious, knock on the door and ask for James. He would rather show you a job in progress than talk you through a brochure.

The kind of work he takes on

Lofts, extensions, whole-house jobs, kitchens, bathrooms, joinery. No lower limit, and no pretending otherwise — the under-stairs drawer unit and the twenty-week renovation get the same written quotation and the same guarantee behind them.

The one he still brings up is the Chichester loft where there was not enough head height and the only honest answer was to drop every ceiling in the house. It worked, and that client then handed over more of the property phase by phase until roughly £110,000 + VAT of work had run through it. Every figure we publish, that one included, is the contract value before VAT. Read the Whyke Close loft conversion in Chichester, then look at our price guide for what the rest of it costs.

Where you want to start: loft conversions, building works and renovations, or the areas we cover if you are wondering whether we reach you.

The guarantee behind the handshake

All workmanship guaranteed for 24 months from completion. Manufacturer warranties on all materials and installed products passed to you in full — many run to 10 years or more. Structural work is signed off by Building Control and covered by our £2m public liability insurance. We're working towards an insurance-backed guarantee scheme and will offer it as soon as we're eligible.

Come and meet him

The free site visit is your interview, not ours. Have the list ready, ask the hard questions, and ask to speak to somebody he has already built for.

Book a free site visit · Call 07470 078236 · WhatsApp · office 01243 256796

Rated 5 stars on Yell. Over 100 projects. Company number 16870716, insured to £2m, replies inside one working day.