Groundworks is everything between the plot and the damp proof course, where a building starts to be erected. Then everything around the finished building that ties it back to the road, public paths and neighbours. We focus on groundworks predominantly in Buckinghamshire: Gerrards Cross and Beaconsfield, out through to the Chalfonts, Seer Green, Penn, Stoke Poges, Fulmer, Farnham Common and Denham.
The patch shapes the work. Chalk, gravel, clay-with-flints and London Clay can all turn up within a few streets of each other, so the ground here is never assumed. It is investigated. Add Green and Grey Belt policy, conservation areas, protected trees and many unadopted private roads, and the accessibility of plant and lorries on and off site matters as much as the infrastructure does.