Builders in Arundel

Arundel is a hillside town of old, attached, narrow-fronted houses, and both of those facts land on the price before anyone has drawn anything.

Completed single-storey rear extension in brick with a full-width set of white sliding doors opening onto the garden — Work of the kind we are asked for here most often.

The stock is medieval timber frames, Georgian stone and brick fronts, Victorian brick terraces and flint cottages along winding streets. There is very little modern estate housing in the core — most of that sits out towards Crossbush and off the A27. The Castle and the Cathedral dominate the skyline, and a whole-town conservation overlay plus a heavy concentration of Grade I and II listed buildings sits underneath the postcard.

The people who own them are affluent professionals, retirees, second-home owners and a few holiday-let investors. What they care about is historic accuracy and having their period detail handled properly, which is a reasonable ask and the reason this work goes to people who have done it before.

The hill, and the lanes

The town is built on chalk. That means retaining walls, stepped footings, split-level floor slabs and hard digging. Chalk carries load well once you are down into it, but water running off a slope during a wet build has to be taken somewhere, so land drainage is designed in rather than added after the first storm.

Then the streets. Maltravers Street and Tarrant Street are narrow, steep and parked solid, so getting ready-mix or a grab lorry anywhere near a house is a planned operation rather than a phone call. Small 3.5-tonne dumpers, micro-excavators and hand-carrying are normal, and that shows up in labour hours. We would rather show you that line in the quotation than surprise you with it in week three.

Which planning authority applies depends on exactly where the property sits, and it is worth establishing that first. The town itself is administered by Arun District Council — its own weekly list carries householder applications on Tarrant Street. Where the South Downs National Park Authority is the decision-maker, expect close attention to visual impact, dark night skies and glazing, slate matching and traditional materials. Building control is Arun District Council everywhere in the district, National Park or not, so at least that half stays constant.

What we have and have not done here

We cover Arundel and we want the work. We have not built in the town.

That is a strange thing to put on a page meant to win you over, and it beats the alternative. What we have done is price jobs in this town, which is why everything above reads as cost rather than as scenery — the stepped footings, the hand-carrying, the truck that has to wait, load and go. Knowing what those add is the useful half of local knowledge, and you get it from us whether or not you end up using us.

Everything finished is a few miles either side — Chichester, Bognor Regis and the villages between them. Live jobs are listed on what we are currently on site with. If yours turns out to be the first one in the town, it gets the same survey, the same itemised quotation and the same one person on the phone as any other.

Where to start

Building works and renovations in Arundel, house extensions in Arundel, loft conversions in Arundel, kitchen fitting in Arundel, bathroom fitting in Arundel and carpentry and joinery in Arundel. If yours is listed, say so when you ring: consent then covers the inside of the building as well as the elevations, and that changes what can be drawn.

Tell us the address first and we will confirm which authority decides it before anything else happens. Book a free site visit or call 07470 078236. James has been building in West Sussex since 2002. £2m public liability, employers' liability, quotations itemised throughout.