Extensions, lofts and refurbishments — the questions, answered properly.

Anything from a bespoke run of joinery to a ground-up house. Lignum Build's own description of the service is a complete professional service from ground-up design and build through to the refurbishment or renovation of an existing property — and in practice the jobs clients have written about range from a bathroom transformation to a loft conversion to an internal reconfiguration full of steel beams.

Often not — a great many single-storey rear extensions in England fall under permitted development rights, which set limits on depth, height, materials and how much of the garden you can build on. But permitted development is removed or restricted on flats, in conservation areas, on listed buildings and where a previous owner has already used the allowance up. The only safe answer is to check your specific property before you design anything, which is part of what the first visit is for.

Planning is about whether you're allowed to build that thing in that place — size, appearance, impact on neighbours. Building regulations are about whether what you build is safe and sound — structure, fire escape, insulation, ventilation, drainage, electrical safety. A project can need building regulations approval and no planning permission at all, and a loft conversion almost always needs the former.

If you're cutting into, building off or excavating near a shared wall, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 usually applies, and notice has to be served on the neighbour before work starts. It's a paperwork stage, not a fight, but it takes time — which is why it belongs at the start of a programme rather than the middle.

After a proper look at the property, not before. Existing houses hide things — old drainage runs, a wall that turns out to be load-bearing, plaster that has to come off rather than be patched — and a price given before any of that is known is a price that will change. Pat surveys the job, tells you what it actually involves, then puts the figure in writing.

The honest answer for any builder is: only if the job changes or something genuinely unforeseen appears once a wall is open. What matters is that you're told before it costs you anything, with the options explained. "On time and budget" is what a Harpenden client wrote about her bathroom, and it's the standard worth holding any builder to.

The design-and-build side is part of the service, so drawings, structural calculations and the building control route can be organised as part of the project rather than left for you to chase. For anything structural it's better that way — the person building it should have read the calculations.

For a rear extension or a loft, usually yes — those jobs can often be built largely from outside the living space until the connection is made. For a whole-house refurbishment or a reconfiguration with structural steels going in, it depends entirely on the sequence, and it's something to plan honestly at the survey rather than discover in week three.

Bricklaying, plastering, plumbing, tiling and electrical work are carried out by Lignum Build's own team, which is the firm's own published position. Practically, it means one programme and one standard of finish, and that when two trades need to agree on something they do it between themselves instead of through you.

In general terms: a structural engineer calculates the beam size and the bearing it needs, temporary support goes in, the wall comes out, the beam is set on padstones and bolted or welded as specified, then it's cased and fire-protected before anything is made good. It's methodical work with no shortcuts available — and a Harpenden reconfiguration Lignum Build completed involved, in the client's own words, a good number of steels plus relocating an electrical supply.

Amanda in Harpenden wrote that all her questions were answered with patience and expertise. Being told what happens next week is most of what makes a building project bearable, so ask.

Late, and deliberately. Joinery is measured against the finished opening, not the drawn one, so wardrobes, staircases, panelling and cabinetry are surveyed once the walls are true and the floors are down. That's why the pieces sit tight to walls that aren't straight.

A proper snagging walk-round with you — you list what you're not happy with, it gets put right before the scaffold and the team leave, and the site is cleaned rather than tidied. Then you get the paperwork worth keeping for the file: building control sign-off and electrical certification where the job required them, plus anything your solicitor will ask for the day you sell.

St Albans, Harpenden and the Hertfordshire villages around them — the projects clients have written about are in Harpenden and Markyate. Despite what an old page title on the current website suggests, Lignum Build isn't a London firm at all; it's a Hertfordshire one. If you're nearby, ring and ask.