Contract Administration in East Sheen

Documented building context

Richmond’s Christchurch Road conservation-area statement describes Martindale and Spencer Gardens as two-storey Edwardian brick-and-tile terraces with gables or parapet features. It separately characterises The Mall as a Neo-Georgian group of detached and semi-detached houses, using red brick, pantile roofs and timber sash windows. These are identified subareas within one conservation setting, not a single specification for East Sheen.

East Sheen tender and contract decisions

A Martindale or Spencer Gardens terrace should have a tender schedule that distinguishes the gable or parapet at the frontage from the roof and rear junctions behind it. Richmond's account identifies those features in particular groups; the current survey must establish the materials and alterations at the instructed house. Ask the designer to define the repair and any required sample. Separate covering renewal, masonry work and window changes so contractors price the same scope and inspection stages.

A detached or semi-detached house in The Mall needs its own details for pantile roofs, sash windows and later side additions where those features are actually present. Do not transfer the terrace's access or quantities to that different arrangement. Record the interfaces between retained fabric and new work, together with investigation, temporary weather protection and making-good limits. If the exposed condition requires a revised detail, keep the finding with the JCT instruction and the evidence supporting its valuation or programme effect.

The site plan should identify the employer's plot, occupied rooms and authorised working routes. Confirm any private agreement needed for access beyond it through the appropriate adviser. At handover, use the same component references for approved details, tests, guarantees and outstanding work. A roof record should identify which slope or junction was treated, while a window record should identify the actual opening. The contract administrator cannot infer whole-house completion, planning permission or neighbouring repair responsibility from the area's architectural description.

Before inviting tenders, allocate design responsibility for each altered junction and confirm the information release programme. Selecting a JCT form should follow that allocation and the project's scope, rather than a general assumption that all East Sheen period houses require the same contract.

HCS cannot act as independent contract administrator where HCS is the contractor.

Contract scope

• Richmond: Christchurch Road Conservation Area 13 statement — PDF page 2, Character subsections Martindale and Spencer Gardens; The Mall. No edition date inferred from designation chronology.

• Major works
• Tendering
• Clerk of Works
• Employer's Agent
• Insurance reinstatement

• South West London area guide
• Barnes
• Richmond
• Putney
• Kew
• Petersham And Ham

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