Design and Tender

We turn your improvement plan into construction-ready specifications and find the right contractors to deliver them. By the time work starts, everyone knows exactly what they're building and what it'll cost.

What design and tender covers

Once you know which improvements your home needs, the next question is how to get them built properly. That means detailed specifications, accurate drawings, and contractors who can price the work confidently and deliver it to a high standard.

This is where most homeowners get stuck. Specifications are vague, quotes vary wildly, and nobody is coordinating the details. One installer quotes £12,000 for external wall insulation; another quotes £20,000. Without a clear technical spec, you can't tell who's right - or who's cutting corners.

Our design and tender service closes that gap. We produce the detailed technical package your project needs, then take it to our vetted contractor network so you get quotes based on the same specification. No ambiguity, no guesswork.

How it works

1. We agree the specification. Your project manager reviews the recommendations from your home energy plan (or your own brief) and produces a detailed specification document. This sets out exactly what's being done, to what standard, with which materials, and how it all fits together. You sign off on this before any design work begins - so there are no surprises later.

2. We design your project. Depending on the scope, this could include concept layouts and 3D visuals for building work, or technical drawings showing exactly how insulation, heating, and ventilation systems connect across your home. For simpler retrofit projects, the design might be schematic floor plans showing insulation zones and equipment locations. For more complex work involving extensions or layout changes, we'll produce full architectural options for you to choose from.

3. We handle planning and regulatory approvals. If your project needs planning permission - extensions, external changes visible from the street, or alterations to a listed building or property in a conservation area - we prepare and submit the application, manage the case through the 8 to 13 week determination period, and liaise with planning officers on your behalf. We also handle building regulations submissions and coordinate with Building Control inspectors throughout the process. For heritage properties, we work with specialist consultants and use breathable, conservation-appropriate materials to make sure improvements respect the character of the building.

4. We tender the work. With a complete technical package in hand, we issue your project to our vetted contractor network. We manage the tendering process, review pricing line by line against our benchmarks, and help you compare quotes so you can make an informed decision. We'll flag anything that doesn't look right and clarify what's included in each price.

5. You appoint your contractor(s). Once you've chosen your preferred contractor(s), we confirm appointments and make sure the scope and pricing are clearly agreed. If you're continuing with us for project management, we start coordinating the work. If you're managing delivery yourself, you'll have a clear technical package and appointed contractors ready to start.

“I just didn't feel confident about contacting suppliers and selecting suppliers myself, feeling that I didn't really have the technical background knowledge to assess their estimates.”

Janet, Solihull

What you get

The scope of design work depends on your project. It could include some or all of the following:

A detailed specification document setting out what's being done, to what standard, and with which materials
Construction-ready technical drawings contractors can build from - junction details, insulation plans, equipment layouts
Concept layouts and 3D visuals for projects involving building work or layout changes
Planning applications, design statements, and case management (where planning permission is required)
Building regulations submissions and liaison with Building Control
Heritage impact assessments and conservation-appropriate design (for listed buildings and conservation areas)
A tendered set of contractor quotes benchmarked against our pricing data

For simpler projects with measures like loft insulation or cavity wall insulation, the design work might only take a few days. For a full extension with internal remodelling, it could take several weeks of coordination across structural engineers, services consultants, and our design team.

Who it's for

Design and tender is for homeowners who already know which improvements they want - or at least have a clear brief - and need someone to turn that into a properly specified, priced project.

You might have completed a home energy plan with us and be ready for the next step. Or you might have had an independent assessment elsewhere, done your own research, or be working with an architect who's already identified the measures you need.

It's particularly useful if you're planning building work alongside energy improvements. Getting the energy side designed into the project from the start avoids expensive rework later - the cost of adding insulation while walls are already open is a fraction of doing it after they've been sealed up again.

If you're not sure what your home needs yet, start with a home energy plan. It gives you the whole-house picture first, so any design work that follows is based on a solid foundation.

Get started with design and tender

Book a free consultation to discuss your project. We've designed home energy projects across some of the UK's most complex properties. We'll review your brief, confirm whether your project is ready for design, and explain what happens next.