The questions homeowners actually ask.

Eight things, and we do all of them: new builds; extensions and loft extensions; whole-house renovations; barn conversions; garden rooms; groundworks and landscaping; interior finishing; and home design and planning. In practice most projects use several at once — a barn conversion is groundworks, structure, services and interior finishing in one contract.

Neither. Pinewood is deliberately small enough that Matt runs each project himself, and experienced enough to take on a full conversion or a new dwelling. We also take on single-element jobs — a terrace, a garden room, a staircase and interior finish — without treating them as filler.

Matt is the sole director and is on site running the job. He works with a skilled team and trusted specialists for electrics, plumbing, roofing and plastering — all certified in their own trades. Our groundworks and landscaping are done in house rather than subcontracted, which is one of the main reasons our programmes hold.

We can. Home design and planning is one of our services: feasibility, layouts, design drawings, planning applications and lawful development certificates, and the building regulations route. Where a project needs a chartered architect or a structural engineer, we work alongside yours or introduce one we trust.

Often not. A great many single-storey rear extensions and garden rooms fall under permitted development, subject to limits on height, footprint, position relative to boundaries, and whether your property is in a conservation area, is listed, or has had permitted development rights removed. We will tell you at the first visit which side of the line you are on, and we would rather you saved the application fee than spent it unnecessarily.

Most run either under Class Q prior approval for agricultural buildings or through a full planning application, and both come with conditions about what you can change and how much of the existing structure must be retained. The conditions matter enormously to the build, so we read them before pricing, and build to what was actually approved.

We do, and we work with your building control officer or approved inspector through the inspection stages. At completion you get the certificates from every specialist trade collected into one set, rather than a promise to send them on.

Honestly: it is disruptive, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling. What we control is how disruptive. Clients single this out — "the work area was always kept clean and tidy" — because a tidy site, sealed dust screens and a predictable start time are what make months of building bearable.

We give you a realistic programme rather than an optimistic one, and we tell you early when something moves. "Time keeping is excellent," as one Google review puts it. Weather, ground conditions and building control can all shift a date — hiding that from you helps nobody.

Matt prices the work after seeing the property, against a defined scope, so you are comparing like with like rather than a number on the back of an envelope. Variations are agreed before they are carried out, not discovered at the end. We do not publish prices because no two projects are the same.

We walk the finished project with you, list anything that is not right, and put it right before we call it finished. Then you get the paperwork and the certificates — and a builder who still answers the phone afterwards.

Sevenoaks District and the wider Kent area — Sevenoaks itself, Riverhead, Otford, Dunton Green, Seal, Kemsing, Shoreham and Chipstead, out to Westerham, Brasted and Edenbridge and down towards Hildenborough. Larger projects such as barn conversions and new builds take us further across Kent and the south east.

Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm. We are closed at weekends — leave a message and Matt will ring you back.

Yes. Pinewood Construction Ltd is registered at Companies House, company number 13244885, with Matthew Bonner as sole director. The link is at the bottom of every page on this site and takes about thirty seconds to check.