COVID-19 Still open. Business as usual

As is mentioned elsewhere on this website, the Practice was started in 1993 by my Father when the recession at that time hit the construction industry hard. I joined him a year later and we worked in his basement. When he retired in 2003, I converted my garage into an office and when we refurbished this house in 2014 an office was constructed as the global headquarters of Rawlings Structural Design. In one way or another, I have been working from home for the last 26 years, so the current advice is situation normal as far as I am concerned. Business as usual.

Site visits are still possible, provided nobody involved is showing the relevant symptoms. They are often in the open air, so distancing is no problem. I have access to Skype, Whatsapp and other video conferencing facilities so if a site visit is not possible, builders and clients can use mobile phones to show the issues that are causing concern.

For new projects, most of the stuff that I am interested in is behind plasterboard or underground and won’t be revealed until the work starts on site, so assumptions are often made that are tested later. When we worked together my Dad would often point to his grey hair and say, “this is called experience, son”. Now that my hair is grey, I can say the same thing and that experience allows me to make fairly accurate assumptions just by looking at the property – either in person, on camera or Google maps.

Many people may be considering putting their project on hold. These are uncertain times in which a large expense may appear to be a bit risky. Perfectly understandable. But we will return to normal, perhaps with a few tweaks here and there. Small builders do not have the capacity for more than one project at a time and many of those that I speak to regularly are quoting nine months to a year before they are available for a household project, even now as many are continuing to work in one fashion or another. Before any work can start on site a design has to be executed so that Building Regulations Approval and, where necessary Planning Permission can be sought.

The approving authorities may be operating with a skeleton staff, many working from home, so the length of time for approval may go out a little bit –  planning permission currently takes six to eight weeks, but I suspect there will be a number of requests for an extension of time from the Local Planning Authorities. The cost of gaining that approval is relatively small compared to the construction costs and by the time everything is in place I remain optimistic that this crazy time in our lives will be less crazy, there will be much more certainty and we will be operating  as close to normal as possible.

So, if any of the services that I offer and are described on this website are of interest, do please get in touch and I will be happy to help.

In the meantime, don’t panic buy or stockpile. Look after your families; look out for and be kind to your friends and neighbours who will undoubtedly reciprocate. Try and stay healthy and optimistic. As they say, this too shall pass.

Keith