London
CDM principal designer in Battersea
The statutory CDM 2015 principal designer appointment, taken as a standalone service on Battersea projects. Fixed fees, priced online, with the whole appointment handled through short structured forms and one site visit.
Short answer
If your project in Battersea 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 Battersea
- Refurbishment and structural alteration of period houses
- Rear and side return extensions
- Loft conversions
- Flat and apartment refurbishment in converted or purpose built buildings
- Basement and lower ground floor works
- Small commercial and retail fit out
What tends to matter on Battersea projects
Wandsworth contains 46 conservation areas, ranging from historic village cores such as Battersea Square, first designated in 1972 and extended in 1989 and 1991, to the Battersea Park conservation area designated in 1988, to large twentieth century estates elsewhere in the borough. Battersea itself is mostly Victorian terraces with newer development towards the river.
- Victorian terraces, modern extensions. The standard project is a rear or side return extension and a loft, which means sequential trades, party walls on both sides and everything travelling through an occupied house.
- Very mixed ages within short distances. A conservation area terrace and a recent apartment building can be neighbours here, and they raise completely different pre-construction questions.
- Apartment refurbishment. New and converted blocks mean managing agents, shared cores, and building level fire strategies that a flat refurbishment can affect.
- Riverside and made ground. Ground conditions near the river are not assumable, which matters wherever the work goes below ground.
What we checked for this page is listed under sources at the foot. Where a statement could not be checked against the council or Historic England it is not on the page, and none of this says every project in Battersea involves all of it.
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.
Pre-construction information for a Battersea building
The pack for a project here tends to be short and specific. What earns its place is the handful of things nobody could work out from the drawings: the asbestos position for a building of this age, what is actually loadbearing and in what order it can come out, where the services run, who is on the other side of each wall, whether anyone is living in the building while it is opened up, and how the scaffold and the skip reach the work.
How we build the pack, or generate a checklist for your own project.
Questions we get asked in Battersea
Are your fees different for a Battersea project?
No. The published starting fees are the same wherever the project is, and the figure on your confirmed quote is the figure you are invoiced. We work from Bristol and do not have a London office, which we would rather say than pretend otherwise.
Who appoints the principal designer on a Battersea flat refurbishment?
The client, in writing, wherever more than one contractor is involved. If the flat is your own home you are a domestic client and regulation 7 moves most of your other duties to the principal contractor. If you are a landlord, the work is connected with a business and the full client duties in regulation 4 stay with you.
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
- Wandsworth Borough Council: conservation areas 46 conservation areas
- Wandsworth Borough Council: Battersea Square conservation area appraisal designated 1972, extended 1989 and 1991
- Wandsworth Borough Council: Battersea Park conservation area appraisal and management strategy designated 1988
Price your Battersea 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.