Locations
CDM principal designer in Bristol
The statutory CDM 2015 principal designer appointment, taken as a standalone service on Bristol projects. Fixed fees, priced online, with the whole appointment handled through short structured forms and one site visit.
Short answer
If your project in Bristol will involve more than one contractor, including subcontracted trades that never overlap, regulation 5 of CDM 2015 requires you to appoint a CDM principal designer in writing before construction begins. ClearCDM takes that appointment on residential and smaller commercial projects, on a fixed fee from £750 plus VAT. If nobody is appointed on a domestic project, regulation 7(2) puts the role on the designer in control of the pre-construction phase, whether or not anyone has discussed it.
Projects we take on in Bristol
- House extensions and loft conversions
- Whole house refurbishment and structural alteration
- Basement and lower ground floor works
- New build houses and small residential schemes
- Shop, office and hospitality fit out
- Landlord and portfolio works, where the client duties stay with the owner
What tends to matter on Bristol projects
Bristol's housing stock is dominated by Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian terraces and villas, and the city has 34 conservation areas. Most of the domestic work we are asked about sits inside one of them, or next door to one.
What that means for a CDM appointment is fairly consistent from job to job, and none of it is exotic. It is the ordinary difficulty of building on top of something already there.
- Terraced and semi-detached fabric. Somebody is on the other side of most walls being opened up. Party wall interfaces, shared drainage and shared access are pre-construction questions, not site questions.
- Steep ground. A great deal of Bristol is built on a slope. Split levels, retaining structures, vaults and cellars behind and beneath houses change how excavation and temporary support have to be sequenced.
- Rubble stone and soft brick. The Clifton and Hotwells appraisal describes the terraces and villas that edge Clifton, and grand rubble stone Victorian villas at the edge of Sneyd Park. Historic fabric behaves differently under load and impact from anything a modern detail assumes.
- Constrained rear access. The classic Bristol terrace has no side return worth the name, so the plant, the materials and the spoil all go through the house or over a neighbour's land.
- Asbestos of the post war era. Not the Victorian shell, but the twentieth century alterations inside it: artex, insulating board around boilers and flues, cement sheet in outbuildings.
- City centre commercial fit out. Occupied buildings, shared cores, landlord services and out of hours working, all of which belong in the information a contractor prices on.
How the appointment runs
Five steps, short forms, one site visit. The appointment in writing, structured forms to everybody involved, a visit to record the building as it is, the design risks coordinated, and the pre-construction information issued to whoever is pricing and building before work starts. The full process, and what the role covers.
Fees
Fixed fees from £750 plus VAT, read off a published schedule rather than taken as a percentage of your build. The same starting fees apply wherever the project is, and the figure on your confirmed quote is the figure you are invoiced: there is no expenses line and nothing is added afterwards. The fee schedule.
This is the CDM role, not the Building Regulations one
Since October 2023 England has had a second principal designer role, under Part 2A of the Building Regulations 2010. It is a separate appointment about designing to meet the Building Regulations, and ClearCDM does not provide it. Most projects that need one need both. The difference in full.
Questions we get asked in Bristol
How quickly can a Bristol project be set up?
The appointment itself is a short signed online form, so the limiting factor is usually the site visit rather than the paperwork. Being here makes that the easiest part of the programme to arrange.
When should we appoint you?
While the design is still moving. The role is about the pre-construction phase, so an appointment made the week before the builder starts has already missed most of what it exists to do.
Do you work outside Bristol?
Yes. Bath and the wider South West are inside our normal working area, and we take London and South East projects on the same published fees.
Nearby
Sources
- CDM 2015, regulation 5 legislation.gov.uk
- CDM 2015, regulation 7 legislation.gov.uk
- HSE: principal designers, roles and responsibilities hse.gov.uk
- Bristol City Council: conservation areas 34 conservation areas in the city
- Bristol City Council: conservation area character appraisals including Clifton and Hotwells, adopted 2010
Price your Bristol project
A few questions about the works and you have a fixed fee in about two minutes, and the figure you see is the figure you are invoiced.
Get an instant quote →Not sure yet? check whether the appointment is required at all.