Double Height Family Living Room

The project

A double-height family living room with a frameless glazed balustrade to the gallery above and a marble floor running through to the terrace.

The effort behind it

The balustrade sits in a slotted channel cast into the slab, which had to be positioned before the concrete pour — one chance to get it right, so the setting out was independently checked by the engineer. Each glass panel was load-tested to 1.5kN/m after installation and the marble floor was templated with a laser scanner to follow a slab that was 12mm out over 9m.

Challenges faced

Working in London brought the classic London constraints: party walls on both sides, no lay-down area, and neighbours two metres from the scaffold line. The Double Height Family Living Room programme had to absorb structural discoveries made only after opening up, and every delay risked cascading into the finishing trades booked behind us. Weekly look-ahead planning and a just-in-time delivery schedule kept the site moving without ever blocking the road.

Team & involvement

Delivery was led by a working site manager with a core crew of our own trades, supported by structural engineers, building control and specialist subcontractors we have worked with for over a decade. Morning briefings, a live programme on the wall and photographic records of every concealed stage meant the client in London always knew exactly where their project stood.

A successful outcome

Double Height Family Living Room was handed over on programme and within the agreed budget, with building control sign-off at the first inspection of every notifiable stage. The client moved back in on the date we gave them at tender — and the aftercare visit twelve months later found nothing to put right. That is the standard every DBS project is measured against.