Kent
Weatherboarded Family House
New build house with brick chimney
The project
A completed new build with a weatherboarded upper floor over a brick base and a hand-built chimney stack, designed to sit quietly among older neighbours.
The effort behind it
The chimney was corbelled by one bricklayer over nine days, each course dry-laid first to get the oversail even. Boarding was primed on all six faces before fixing — including the hidden ends — because the site sits on an exposed ridge where wind-driven rain had rotted a neighbour's cladding in five years.
Challenges faced
The hardest part of Weatherboarded Family House was what nobody could see until the work began. Hidden defects in the existing structure forced redesigns mid-programme, and consents in Kent meant every method statement went through a third party before a tool was lifted. The team held the programme by resequencing whole phases rather than cutting corners on the phase in front of them.
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 Kent always knew exactly where their project stood.
A successful outcome
Weatherboarded Family House 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.
