What We Do
A Safe Pair of Hands
With over thirty years’ experience managing luxury residential projects from £1 million to in excess of £20 million — from apartment renovations in prime central London to country estate restorations — our clients often describe us as having their own private development company working for them. That is exactly how we see it. We sit on the same side of the table as the client — and Janine Stone is contractually responsible for the entire deliverable of the project, from start on site to a fully furnished, fully dressed handover. Where landscape architects, lighting designers or other specialist consultants are appointed, their works are coordinated and managed into the project by our team, ensuring a seamless result. We carry full professional indemnity insurance and site insurance throughout the works, giving our clients the assurance that their project is in the safest of hands.
Approved Budget
£6,940,000
Certified to date: 76.5%
| Element | Contract Sum | Variations | Revised Total | Variance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enabling Works & Demolition | £285,000 | £12,500 | £297,500 | +4.4% |
| Substructure & Basement | £1,450,000 | £85,000 | £1,535,000 | +5.9% |
| Superstructure | £980,000 | £42,000 | £1,022,000 | +4.3% |
| Building Envelope | £620,000 | £18,500 | £638,500 | +3.0% |
| Mechanical Services | £485,000 | £35,000 | £520,000 | +7.2% |
| Electrical Services | £340,000 | £22,000 | £362,000 | +6.5% |
| Bespoke Joinery | £890,000 | £65,000 | £955,000 | +7.3% |
| Stone & Hard Finishes | £410,000 | −£8,000 | £402,000 | −2.0% |
| Decorating & Soft Finishes | £280,000 | £0 | £280,000 | — |
| Landscaping & External | £195,000 | £12,000 | £207,000 | +6.2% |
| Total | £5,935,000 | £284,000 | £6,219,000 | +4.8% |
Open Book Transparency
We operate on a fully open book basis. All subcontractors work under the Janine Stone umbrella, and the client sees every cost, every invoice and every variation — complete transparency with no hidden margins. Our quantity surveyors manage all payments and provide monthly cost reports against the agreed budget, so there are never any surprises. The selection of every subcontractor is carried out in consultation with the client: we present the merits of each candidate — their suitability for the works, the capacity of their operation, their availability, the quality they can achieve and their cost — so the client is part of every decision.
Running the Site
Our site managers are based on site, running the works every day. They coordinate closely with our project managers and quantity surveyors to ensure that each phase is delivered to the highest standards, to the programme that has been agreed and within the budgets the client has signed off. Health and safety is paramount — the site is maintained to meet all statutory requirements at all times. Every appointed subcontractor is regularly supervised, and our role is to bring these specialist teams together seamlessly, like pieces of a jigsaw, so that the project moves forward as a single, coherent operation.
Programme & Cost Control
Every project is governed by a detailed programme and comprehensive cost plan, both agreed with the client before work begins. Our project managers and quantity surveyors monitor these continuously, and the client receives monthly reports on both programme progress and cost status. Meticulous planning before the build starts is critical to ensuring that timelines and budgets are met — but we also know that renovation and refurbishment work can reveal unforeseen conditions. Our project managers are encouraged never to hide a problem, but to address it head-on, working with our design team and the client to find solutions that are in the best interest of the project.
Exceptional without Exception
It is this complete control over every element of a project that ensures our work is exceptional without exception. From the earliest design stages, when the client works with our architects and interior designers, through the selection of every subcontractor, to the meticulous oversight of their work on site — and in their workshops, where items being manufactured for the project are scrutinised before they ever arrive — nothing falls through the gaps. Our teams snag continuously throughout the build, not just at the end. Our architects and interior designers visit site regularly, and we welcome client walkthroughs as the works progress — though we appreciate that some clients prefer to be deeply involved at every stage while others would rather leave it to us and walk in when everything is finished. Both approaches work well, and we accommodate both. It is this bringing together of all the disciplines, all the trades and all the oversight under one roof that makes Janine Stone fundamentally different from engaging a builder, an architect and a designer separately.
“I’m often asked, who builds the homes we design. And I usually need to repeat myself when I answer: we do. It’s what allows us to be bespoke. It’s what makes us different.”
Head of Construction, Janine Stone & Co.
Construction — Questions
We take full contractual responsibility for the build on every project we deliver. Our work covers new builds, whole-home remodellings, extensions (including basement additions), sensitive renovations of period and listed properties, and high-end apartment fit-outs to our designers' brief — projects of many shapes and sizes, from joinery and bathroom fit-outs in apartments through to whole-country-house restorations. Janine Stone is the main contractor on every project we deliver — we sign the contract with you, and we sign our own contracts with every trade on the project. On a smaller project that is around 15 subcontractors; on a significant scheme as many as 50, covering both the hard build (groundworks, structural, plumbing, electrics, roofing, plastering) and the higher-skill finishes that define a prime residential interior — bespoke cabinet-making, stone, fine joinery, decorative plasterwork, cornicing, internal doors, and specialist decoration. We cover the full programme: tender and trade procurement, contract administration, programme management, cost control, quality and site supervision, health and safety coordination, snagging, handover, and defects-period management. You have one point of accountability for the finished result.
Janine Stone is the main contractor. You sign one contract — with us. We then sign our own contracts with every trade on your project. You have no contractual exposure to the individual trades; your contract is with us alone. The analogy we often use is a jigsaw: each subcontractor is a piece of the picture, and our job is to assemble all the pieces into a single finished result. You see every piece — every contract, every price, every decision — because we work open-book, but the contractual responsibility for the completed project sits with us.
It means you see every cost. We contract each trade directly and show you the contract and the price for each one. Our own management fee is agreed separately with you at the outset and stated plainly. There are no hidden mark-ups on subcontractor costs and no opaque margins. You can make informed decisions at every stage, and there are no surprises at final account.
Every project starts with a detailed construction programme and cost programme that we agree with you before any work begins on site. From that point on we manage the project against those programmes, monitoring progress and costs closely and updating you regularly as the build proceeds. Variations do occur — most often from client-led changes during the build, or from unforeseen circumstances that can arise particularly on restoration and listed-building projects — and where they do, we bring the revised figures to you for sign-off before the change is implemented. Our intention throughout is to hold to the agreed programme and cost plan, and to make sure there are no nasty surprises at the end.
We work with a group of trusted trades and artisans built up over many years. The hard build — groundworks, structural, plumbing, electrics, roofing, plastering — calls for specialists reliable at the scale and technical demands of prime residential work. The finishes are where the greater skill and attention lie: bespoke cabinet-making, stone-masonry, fine joinery, decorative plasterwork, specialist decoration, period detailing. A significant part of our role is making sure the junctions between these trades align beautifully. For every project the work is competitively tendered or negotiated across that pool — we do not hand a project to the same firm each time. We bring you competitive prices to compare before any appointment is made, and every appointment is signed off by you. Where you have a subcontractor you have worked with before and would like considered, or want to introduce a new firm into the tender, we are equally happy to include them, provided they meet our screening: examples of their work, references, financial standing, and appropriate insurance.
No. Our construction team is only available when Janine Stone is also appointed for the design work — interior design, and usually architecture. The in-house construction company exists to ensure our designs are delivered to the standard and efficiency our studio sets; that integration is part of how we take responsibility for the finished result. If what you need is independent construction management on a project designed entirely by others, we would be honest with you at the outset that we are probably not the right fit.
Projects with building works typically start at around £1 million and run up to over £20 million, with many in the £5 to £10 million range. Our fit-out work in apartments and smaller-scale renovations can start lower. But size is not the main criterion. What matters more is whether the client is looking for something genuinely considered, creative, and made to last — the kind of project that deserves the care we invest in it. We do not turn down smaller projects on principle, provided the ambition is there; equally, we will decline larger projects where the brief is fundamentally about speed and minimum spec.
Every project has a named project manager who is an employee of Janine Stone — not an outsourced contractor — backed by a senior director and with site-based supervision scaled to the works. The same team stays with the project from start to finish. Gideon Stone and Janine Stone are personally involved on every project alongside our long-tenured senior staff, and clients always have Gideon's direct mobile number for the duration of the project.
