30+ years of experience
Three decades of building, restoring and refining homes and workplaces across London and Hertfordshire.
A fair warning
Why you shouldn’t choose us
Skylon is not the right builder for every project. Read this honest filter before you call. It will save us both time.
Honestly,
Don’t choose us if…
- You’re hunting the lowest quote. We won’t win a race to the bottom: corners are where quality lives, and we don’t cut them.
- You want to start tomorrow. Proper preparation takes time. Programmes at Skylon are planned, not improvised. That is why they hold.
- Details don’t matter to you. We will lose sleep over a shadow gap you may never notice. If that sounds like wasted money to you. We’ll frustrate each other.
- You’d rather not hear about problems. Construction has surprises. We report them early, in writing, with options. Some clients prefer silence. We can’t offer it.
Still here?
Then this will matter to you
Five companies in-house
Joinery, spraying, building protection, sash windows and workshop software: the trades that define a finish, under one standard.
Our own workshop & spray shop
Bespoke joinery drawn, made and factory-finished by the same team: no translation loss between designer and maker.
One director-level contact
From tender to handover you deal with someone who can make decisions, not a call centre.
A written report every fortnight
Progress photos, programme against plan, decisions needed and cost status: every two weeks, in writing.
Costs in plain English
Itemised proposals with assumptions and exclusions stated up front, a number you can plan around.
Fair questions
Asked before you ask
So… are you expensive?
We are rarely the cheapest tender, and we are honest about why: in-house trades, senior supervision and finishes checked to the millimetre cost more to deliver. What you get in return is a number that holds, a programme that holds, and a building that holds. Our proposals are itemised, so you can see exactly where every pound goes.
How soon can you start?
It depends on the project and our current programme, and we’d rather tell you a real date than a flattering one. Preparation done properly before we start is precisely what keeps your project on time once we do.
Can we visit a live site or a finished project?
Yes, and we encourage it. A walk around a Skylon site with your own eyes will tell you more than any brochure. Ask us when you get in touch.
The part nobody quotes for
The lowest price is a decision you make once, and live with for twenty years.
Most people spend their savings on a home, then hand it to whoever came in cheapest. It is an understandable instinct, and it is the most expensive decision in the entire project.
A house is not walls. It is where your family will sleep, argue, cook and grow older. You will look at that one badly cut skirting board every day for twenty years.
Cheap, fast, good. You get two. Anyone promising all three has either not read the drawings or has not told you where the money is coming from. You find out which on site, and by then the money is spent.
We are not the cheapest. We put that on this page on purpose.
What it actually costs
- It ends in silence, not a phone call. The scaffold stays up. The site goes quiet. The messages stop being answered.
- No builder warranties another builder’s work. Ask them. The honest ones will tell you straight: they cannot certify what they did not see go in. So the second builder opens up what the first one covered, and you pay again for work you already paid for.
- The paperwork does not exist. No building control sign-off. No electrical certification. No structural calculations. Nothing that proves the house is safe, because nobody was managing the people who built it.
- Then it stops being a building problem. A house without completion certificates is a house you cannot sell, cannot remortgage, and may struggle to insure. Your savings are in the walls, and you cannot get them out.
A project we were called in to finish
What the cheaper builder actually cost
This is a real project. We have kept the address and the previous contractor anonymous, because the point is not to name anyone. The point is the arithmetic.
£000K
Original contract
What the first builder quoted, and why the client chose them.
£000K
Paid before he walked
Money already spent when the site went quiet.
£000K
Cost to put right
What it took to open up, redo and certify the work.
00 months
Lost
Time the client never got back.
What we found
PLACEHOLDER. Three or four sentences on what was actually wrong: what had been covered up, what had to be opened again, what certification was missing, and what the client could not do until it was fixed. Keep it factual. The numbers above do the shouting.
PLACEHOLDER. Close with what the client paid in total, set against what the honest quote would have been at the start.
Start a conversation
Let’s build something worth keeping.
Tell us about your site, your building or your idea. We’ll respond within one working day.