About Us
HISTORY
Waterstone Design started in 2002, and since that time the company has doubled in turnover each year, and seen a steady growth in the types and size of project works undertaken.
The company has steadily grown from 2 to 10 members of staff in five years, and looks set to follow this steady curve over the next five years.
The policy of the company is to be as proactive as possible, imparting our knowledge and expertise in a manner which clients and architects are usually quite surprised to see – given that the trend seems to be for services engineers to be more about the ‘science’ of the services than being an active and useful member of a busy design team.
When we begin work on a new project we are often told that we have taught the architect and client more about fundamental services requirements, such as riser layout and sizing, water tank sizes, and other practical items of knowledge which will fundamentally affect the general arrangement plans, than on any project before. Given that most of these architects and clients are very experienced it has surprised us, as services are a fundamental part of any project, and often amount to between 25% and 30% of the budget.
Our service is different because we concentrate our efforts initially at key early stages on the project to ensure that the services are well catered for within the building, value engineered to a reasonable extent during design, and are fit for the purpose they are being designed for.
On starting a new residential project for instance, we know the architect will require tank room, intake room, and riser sizes to be reviewed and fixed early on in the scheme, so we will concentrate on providing such information before it is asked of us. Concurrently we know that the manner in which renewable requirements are implemented may well affect the building and structure, and as such we make sure these are considered and reported as early as feasibly possible.
As a company, we are very much a “people” company – we are keen to get along with everybody and set up long term working relationships.
To provide a good, proactive, and sound technical service on every project we are involved should not require supreme effort – it should be the core principle on which a good services consultancy practice is run. We do not see ourselves providing anything more than what we feel is necessary to succeed, and build upon what we have achieved already.
CAPABILITY STATEMENT
Today’s construction projects require a full range of consulting skills to satisfy not only the needs of economics and planning but also to harmonise the development within the environment and meet social needs.
By recognising that every project is different and applying our commitment to engineering excellence, we provide practical, efficient and cost effective services to the construction industry.
As environmental issues acquire an ever-higher public profile and legislative controls multiply, it becomes increasingly critical to enlist experienced help in meeting environmental needs. Practical problem solving is at the core of our business and by deploying a wide range of skills we provide innovative and sensitive solutions to environmental issues.
We are committed to providing developers with design information and services consideration which enables them to meet cost targets whilst still complying with ever changing and more stringent legislation such as Building Regulations Part L. We provide the groundwork which allows decisions to be made on items such as the building envelope and fabric, heating systems, and solutions to compliance with planning regulations for renewable energy. We design with our clients’ costs foremost on our agenda, ensuring the development will pass all required standards without being over-engineered and therefore over-costed.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
All design calculations are carried out using Hevacomp V23, which is the industry standard design software for mechanical and electrical engineering.
All of our computer systems run the latest operating systems and are installed with the current versions of applications such as Microsoft Office, and all our employees are fully conversant with these systems.
Our in-house CAD department uses the latest version of the most widely used computer aided design package – AutoCAD.