Contract Administration in Pinner

Documented building context

Harrow’s December 2009 Pinner High Street appraisal records timber-framed sixteenth-century buildings in paragraph 3.49, including 29, 31, 34–36 and 58 High Street. It describes steep plain-tile roofs and the historical covering of timber walls in render or weatherboarding. Paragraphs 3.51–3.52 distinguish the older houses at 9–11 and 31 from twentieth-century timbering on their facades.

Existing-building records for the tender

For modernisation work, collect the drawings and available completion account by project. Keep decorative repairs separate from changes to openings, floors or stairs. If records describe a timber frame or other concealed construction, state the source and the component involved, leaving unverified areas as questions. The High Street examples should not be used to assign a similar history to a house solely because its exterior appears traditional.

Pinner tender and contract decisions

A Pinner High Street tender should distinguish known historic fabric from later decorative timbering at the actual address. The named sixteenth-century examples do not establish that every exposed-looking timber is structural or that every rendered wall conceals the same construction. Obtain the available investigation and repair design, then schedule the affected wall, roof and frontage components individually. Ask contractors to price the specified treatment rather than a general historic-building refurbishment.

Where render or weatherboarding is to be opened, define the trial area, protection and reinstatement before seeking a price. Record what the investigation is intended to establish and who will decide the repair afterwards. A tender allowance should distinguish that limited operation from replacement of a whole elevation. If concealed findings require a new detail, retain the photographs and designer's response against the correct work item before assessing the resulting contractual change.

For a steep plain-tile roof, identify the actual slopes, junctions and access positions from the project information. Include temporary weather protection and any precautions needed for rooms remaining occupied. A contractor's offer based on unrestricted use of adjoining space should be reconciled with the arrangement the employer can actually provide. Keep access permission separate from the commercial allowance for that method.

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

Contract scope

• Harrow: Pinner High Street Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy, adopted December 2009 — PDF page 20 / printed page 18, paragraphs 3.49 and 3.51–3.52: sixteenth-century timber-framed group, plain-tile roofs, historic render/weatherboarding and later facade timbering at 9–11 and 31 High Street. Cover gives adopted December 2009. No current listing, use or condition conclusion.

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

• Harrow area guide
• Mill Hill
• Colindale
• Golders Green
• Hatch End
• Harrow On The Hill

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