Contract Administration in Walton-on-Thames

Documented building context

Elmbridge's 2012 companion guide distinguishes the High Street and Church Street core from The Heart and Wellington Close. It describes older buildings commonly of two or two-and-a-half storeys, contrasting them with the larger scale of the later developments. The guide is a dated character account, not a current inspection or maintenance assessment of those buildings.

The companion guide describes the Manor Road environs as largely residential, with modest two-storey houses and some older properties with dormers. It records roof-space use and conversion, illustrating rooflights and dormers on Dale Road. These observations provide a specific local context, but do not establish the approvals, structure or condition of a roof room in the property being altered.

The guide illustrates Thames Street with a mix of houses from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. It also describes a long-established network of roads and paths around the riverside. That variety is a reason to identify the individual building’s history rather than assume that neighbouring properties share an age, plan or method of construction.

The Elmbridge companion guide is evidence for the sub-areas and building forms it describes in 2012. It should not be used as a current approval for changing a roof or filling a plot gap, or as a substitute for checking the exact property’s designation. Use current council information and the property’s existing permission records.

Walton-on-Thames tender and contract decisions

For a Walton-on-Thames project, make the address and building range the starting point of the tender pack. A modest Manor Road house, a Thames Street building and accommodation within a later centre development require their own drawings and access information. Ask bidders to identify the working entrance and the areas offered for storage, rather than importing assumptions from the character guide's wider description.

Where a dormer or rooflight is involved, separate the existing roof from the proposed opening, internal finishes and any change to occupied accommodation. Record the designer for each interface and the investigations needed before the detail can be completed. Tender returns should make unresolved quantities visible, including what has been allowed for temporary weather protection and reinstatement. The chosen JCT documents should carry these responsibilities through to the accepted scope.

For a building with several phases, label the work by room, elevation and phase where known. If investigation reveals a different arrangement, compare the revised instruction with that labelled baseline. Keep the supporting price and programme explanation beside it. This enables the employer to understand a change as a specific alteration to the commissioned work, rather than a general claim that an older building inevitably requires extra expenditure.

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

Contract scope

• Elmbridge Design and Character SPD Companion Guide: Walton on Thames — Elmbridge companion guide Walton on Thames 2012, WAL01 paragraphs 3.6–3.13 and WAL02 paragraphs 3.19–3.23, printed 8–9 (PDF 10–11)

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

• Walton-on-Thames area guide
• Egham
• Hampton
• Teddington
• Surbiton
• Kingston

Professional profiles · RICS regulation