FAQ

We work out of Strand, across the Helderberg, Stellenbosch, Somerset West, Paarl, Durbanville, the Cape Town southern suburbs and the Atlantic Seaboard. We also travel further when the job justifies it — we renovated a farmhouse above the Piekenierskloof Pass at Citrusdal, and built four retail and fuel station projects for Kaap Agri at Wolseley and Van Rhynsdorp, which is roughly 300km north of us. If you are outside the Winelands, ask. The answer depends on the size of the job, not the distance.

Both. On most of our work we are the main contractor and we run the site. On some jobs we come in under another main contractor for a package — the basement layerworks and subsoil drainage at Cannon Brewery in Rondebosch were done for Base Projects, who held the main contract. We are happy either way, and we will tell you up front which one we are quoting.

The residential work we are on at the moment runs from about R5m to R25m. Commercial and institutional work has gone higher. We have also done small timber jobs — a deck, a pergola — because that is where the company started. If you are not sure whether your job is too small or too big, phone and ask.

One of our construction managers, and you get their number. They are on the site, not in an office. Jacques van Greunen, our managing director, walks the sites himself as well.

We carry a permanent team — construction managers, a workshop manager, a community liaison officer and site staff. Specialist trades are subcontracted the way they are on every building site in the country: electrical, plumbing, aluminium, waterproofing. The difference that matters is who manages them, and that is us.

Yes, and most of our alteration work is exactly that. We have done kitchens, bathrooms and living areas on occupied houses, added a first floor onto an existing house in Fresnaye, and put a deck and braai onto a Somerset West home without touching the rest of it. What decides the scope is usually the structure, not the budget — if a wall is holding the roof up, taking it out is a bigger conversation.

Honestly? Disruptive. Dust travels, water gets shut off, and there are people in your house from seven in the morning. What we can control is the sequence and the mess: hoarding off the work area, keeping one bathroom running, and telling you in advance which week the kitchen goes. What we will not do is tell you it will be painless.

For a new house or a structural alteration, yes — you will need drawings and council approval, and the architect is who produces them. For a deck, a pergola or a straightforward refit, often not. If you are not sure, phone first. We will tell you what you actually need before anyone spends money on it.

Earlier than most people do. Once you have a sketch and a rough budget is a good time — before the drawings are finalised. Builders see things on drawings that add cost for no benefit, and that is much cheaper to fix on paper than on site. We are also booked in advance, so a call three months out gets you a better slot than a call three weeks out.

On alteration work, you usually do — a farmhouse at Citrusdal did not match its drawings behind the finishes, and that is normal on an old building. When it happens we stop, price the variation, and get it agreed in writing before the work goes ahead. What we do not do is carry on and put it on the final account.

Yes. Bad ground is common here. On a Paradyskloof house the ground conditions were poor from the start, so engineered foundations were designed and the house went up on those. On an apartment block in Durbanville it was wet clay. Ground is the one thing on a residential job you cannot argue with — you either deal with it properly at the beginning or you pay for it twice.

Yes, as part of a build. Pools, decks, paving and landscaping have been included on most of the houses we have done recently. As a standalone job, ask — it depends what else is running.

Yes, and a good share of our commercial work has been exactly that. We built an additional cellar, first floor offices and a tasting area at Meinert Wines in Stellenbosch while the cellar was still producing that year wine — the programme was built around the crush rather than the other way round. The same question applies to a shop, a school or a clinic, and the answer is the same: it can be done, it changes the sequence, and it needs to be priced honestly at the start.

Regularly. The dining hall, study hall and two new bathrooms at Bloemhof Hostel in Stellenbosch were done in five weeks over the winter holidays, and the date could not move. That kind of programme is won before anyone gets to site — materials ordered, labour booked and the sequence agreed before the holidays start. There is no room to work it out as you go.

Schools and school facilities, hostels, wine cellars, a museum, a bakery and retail store on a wine estate, retail and fuel stations, an apartment block, and a shopping centre deck. The projects page has the detail on each one.

Yes. We have done a new high school building in Grassy Park from deep services and raft slab through to snagging, a hall renovation with a new foyer, mezzanine and gymnasium at Hoerskool Stellenbosch, a gymnasium and performance wing at Paul Roos Gimnasium, and Meranti cladding at Curro Sitari in Somerset West.

That is most of what we get called for. A high school in Grassy Park that had to open in April. A hostel dining hall that had to be ready before term. A cellar that still had to take the harvest. A realistic programme is always better than a fairy tale promise, and we would rather tell you at tender stage that a date is not achievable than agree to it and miss it.

We work with Struccon Solutions on reinforced concrete structures, structural alterations, refurbishment, drainage, road works and paving. Ask us about a specific building and we will tell you straight whether it is the kind of job we should be quoting.

Item by item, as a priced bill, so you can see what each part of the work costs and take something out if the total is too high. Provisional sums are marked as provisional sums rather than buried in a rate. On some jobs we measure our own bill; on others there is an independent quantity surveyor, and we are used to working with both.

Drawings if you have them, and a rough idea of the finishes you want. If there are no drawings we will come and look at the stand and tell you what you still need before anyone can put a number on it. Sending nothing and asking for a ballpark figure gets you a number that will be wrong.

It depends on the size of the job and whether there is a bill to price against. Ask when you send the drawings and we will give you a date, then meet it.

Confirm with PDK.

Written down and priced before the work happens. Every job has variations — somebody changes a finish, the ground is not what the drawings said, the client wants an extra plug point. What causes the arguments is not the variation, it is finding out about it on the final account.

You and your architect walk the building and write the snag list. We work through it, and we hand over the keys, the certificates and the as-built information together rather than in pieces over the following two months.

Confirm with PDK.

Confirm with PDK.

Confirm with PDK.

Usually yes, by arrangement, and it tells you more than any brochure will. Site safety rules apply, so it has to be arranged rather than dropped in on.