Costs, at cost
Every invoice from Cheshire merchants and sub-contractors is passed straight to you, exactly as we pay it. No mark-up buried in materials, no mystery line items, nothing to negotiate over.
Builders in Cheshire
A Cheshire builder
who shows you the numbers.
Extensions, renovations, barn conversions and new builds across Cheshire on an open book. Every merchant invoice visible, a fixed management fee agreed at the start, a fair 10% on top. Typically around 11% less than a padded fixed-price quote, with nothing hidden.
Clarity in Simplicity
Why we're different
Most Cheshire builders quote you a number. We show you the numbers.
If you're searching for a builder in Cheshire, you've probably already had a fixed-price quote or two land in your inbox. A single figure at the bottom of a spreadsheet, with a rough breakdown, and no real way to check whether it's fair. That's how most of the industry still works. We think it's the reason so many Cheshire homeowners come out of a build unhappy with what they paid.
Built Clear is different. We price your project openly, from the plans, then run it on an open book. Every invoice from every Cheshire merchant and every sub-contractor is passed to you at cost. On top of that, one fixed management fee for the whole project, agreed at the start, plus a flat 10% on real costs to cover our overheads and profit. That's the whole deal. Nothing hidden, nothing padded, no arguments over variations.
The result on a typical Cheshire project is a build that comes in around 11% below what a conventional fixed-price builder would have charged, delivered on a programme you agreed at the start, with weekly cost reports you can audit line by line.
The Open-Book Model
Three honest numbers. That's the whole deal.
A fixed management fee
One agreed, fixed fee to run the whole project. Programmed, coordinated, delivered. Set at the start, doesn't move as the job progresses.
A fair 10% on top
A simple ten percent on real costs covers overheads and profit. No 15% loading, no padded contingencies. Sustainable for us, fair for you.
The result: typically around 11% less than a conventional fixed-price Cheshire estimate, and a build where everyone stays on the same side.
Fixed-cost vs open-book
Looking for a fixed-cost house builder in Cheshire?
Most Cheshire homeowners searching for a fixed-cost house builder are really asking one thing. They don't want the number to run away from them once the work starts. That's completely fair. But a fixed-price contract isn't the only way to protect against that. On bigger projects, it's often the worst way.
Here's why. A fixed-price quote for a house build, an extension or a whole-house renovation has to include a risk premium. The builder is committing to a single number before the foundations are dug, so they pad it against everything that might go wrong. If nothing goes wrong, that padding stays with the builder. If something does, you'll usually get a variation anyway.
Open-book flips it. You get an honest guide price built from the plans, then real merchant and sub-contractor costs pass through at cost with a flat 10% on top, and a fixed management fee agreed at the start. If a job comes in under expectations, you keep the difference. On like-for-like Cheshire projects, we usually land around 11% below a padded fixed-price quote.
If you'd genuinely prefer a fixed price for a smaller job, a single bathroom or a garden wall or a driveway, we'll say so honestly and point you to a local trade who'll do it properly for a fixed number. The open-book model earns its keep from around £80,000 upwards. That's where the risk premium on a fixed-price quote gets big enough to hurt.
See our 2026 Cheshire build cost guide for real per-square-metre rates across extensions, renovations, barn conversions and new builds. Read what the government's new Approved Code and Trusted Payments schemes mean for homeowners, or learn more about the open-book model before you start a conversation with Ben.
What we build
Building services across Cheshire.
Home extensions
Rear extensions, side extensions, wraparounds and orangeries. From single-storey glass boxes to full two-storey additions, priced from your drawings and managed transparently.
Renovations
Whole-house refurbishments. Rewires, replumbs, replasters, new roofs, structural openings. Bringing period Cheshire houses up to a modern standard without losing their character.
Barn conversions
Traditional Cheshire brick and timber barns turned into homes. Structural, thermal, off-grid services, joinery, finishes. The technically hardest jobs benefit most from open-book pricing.
Self-build homes
One-off Cheshire new builds project-managed from planning through to handover, with a fully transparent cost report at every stage of the programme.
Loft & garage conversions
Adding usable space to Cheshire homes without adding footprint. Proper structural design, proper insulation, proper finishes.
Kitchen & bathroom refits
Full strip-out and refit, often part of a wider project. You see the true cost of every unit, every appliance, every tile, every fitting.
Where we work
Cheshire, corner to corner.
Built Clear is based in Rossett, on the Chester and North Wales border. Most of Cheshire is within an hour's drive, which means we can be on your site the same week for an initial visit and back for measurements as often as the project needs. We know the county's housing stock intimately, from Chester's Victorian terraces to the Georgian townhouses of Nantwich, and we work regularly in the villages, market towns and rural farms in between.
Chester
The city and its suburbs. Boughton, Handbridge, Hoole, Vicar's Cross, Curzon Park, Upton, Blacon and Newton. Chester housing is a mix of listed Georgian townhouses, Victorian and Edwardian villas, and post-war family homes. A lot of our extension and whole-house-renovation work is here. Period property with genuine structural quirks is where open-book pricing earns its keep. You don't want a fixed-price builder padding for the unknown when the unknown is precisely what these houses hide.
Tarporley & Cotebrook
Some of the most desirable postcodes in the county. Tarporley High Street is a well-preserved run of Georgian townhouses, and the surrounding countryside is dotted with substantial family homes and equestrian properties. Projects here tend to be higher-spec, longer-programme, and finish-driven. Clients want to see where every pound goes on a build of this size, and open-book gives them that.
Malpas & the Cheshire Peaks
South Cheshire has some genuinely beautiful rural building stock. Traditional brick farmhouses, timber barns, sandstone cottages. Barn conversions are common here and they are the technically hardest jobs on our books, which is exactly why the open-book model suits them. Structural repair, thermal upgrades, off-grid drainage and services, joinery. Every one of those numbers deserves to be visible.
Tattenhall, Tarvin & Kelsall
The villages east of Chester. Substantial detached homes, plenty of period property, plenty of extended-and-improved family houses. This is core Built Clear territory. Most of our enquiries from this corner of Cheshire are rear or wraparound extensions, kitchen-diner reworks and full ground-floor reconfigurations. We can usually be on site within 25 minutes from our base in Rossett.
Frodsham & Helsby
North Cheshire, tucked below the sandstone ridge. Frodsham's Main Street is Victorian and Georgian, with a lot of solid family houses on the slopes above. Frodsham and Helsby projects are typically mid-size renovations and extensions where owners have bought a well-located house that needs work to unlock its potential. Open-book pricing gives them the confidence to spend properly on the parts that matter and hold back on the parts that don't.
Neston & the Wirral edge
Neston, Parkgate, Willaston, Burton, Little Neston and Puddington sit on Cheshire's western edge and give some of the loveliest views in the county. Housing runs from Victorian terraces to substantial modern family homes. We take on renovation and extension projects across the Wirral border, and the open-book model appeals particularly to clients who've been quoted big fixed-price numbers for period-property work here.
Northwich, Winsford & Middlewich
Central Cheshire. A mix of family homes, waterside properties along the Weaver Navigation, and the substantial modern developments in and around Davenham, Hartford and Sandiway. Projects here tend to be extensions and full-house refurbishments on properties owners have bought with a plan. The value of transparent pricing on a £150,000-plus job is enormous. You should never have to guess what your builder is making.
Nantwich
One of the finest historic market towns in the North West, and one of the most demanding to build in. Nantwich has a heavy concentration of listed buildings, timber-framed medieval houses, and Georgian townhouses on Welsh Row and Hospital Street. Working here requires conservation-area awareness, sympathetic material choices, and patient site management. It also requires a builder happy for the client to see every specialist invoice, because listed-building work has a lot of them.
Knutsford & Wilmslow
The east Cheshire premium belt. Alderley Edge, Prestbury, Mobberley, and the villages around them. These are high-spec, high-expectation projects. Owners here have often had bad experiences with fixed-price main contractors on previous properties. Open-book is a natural fit. You keep control of specification, you keep control of budget, and you see exactly where the money goes on a build that is often the biggest expenditure of your life outside the house itself.
Sandbach, Congleton & Holmes Chapel
East and south-east Cheshire. Sandbach and Congleton have handsome market-town centres surrounded by mid-century and modern estates. Holmes Chapel and Goostrey add strong village housing stock. Enquiries here tend to be extensions, garage conversions, and the sort of whole-house renovation that transforms a solid 1970s family home into something worth another 30 years of living in.
The process
What a Built Clear project looks like.
-
01
Send us your drawings
Architect's plans, structural drawings, a rough spec if you have one. We take a look and let you know within a few days whether the project is a good fit for the open-book model.
-
02
Site visit and honest guide price
We come and see the property, walk through the brief with you, and build a proper guide price from the drawings. Labour, materials, sub-contractor packages, preliminaries, PC and provisional sums for the undesigned items. You get the whole breakdown, not just a headline number.
-
03
Programme and management fee
We agree a realistic programme from start to handover and set a fixed management fee for the whole project. That fee doesn't move as the job progresses, so you know exactly what you're paying us regardless of what the merchants and sub-contractors charge.
-
04
On site, on Buildertrend
Once you're happy with the numbers, we start. Every project runs on Buildertrend, our construction-management platform. Weekly progress photos, running cost reports, upcoming schedule, decisions log, snag list, the lot. You have full access from your phone or laptop.
-
05
Real invoices, real costs, plus 10%
Every merchant delivery note and every sub-contractor invoice is passed to you at cost. We add a flat 10% on top for overheads and profit. Nothing else. If a supplier gives us a better deal, you see the better deal. If a variation is needed, we price it the same way, transparently, before it happens.
-
06
Handover and 12-month snag support
When the project is finished, we walk it with you, agree the snags, and close them out. All appliance manuals, sub-contractor guarantees, building-control sign-off documents and specialist certificates come to you in a project handover pack. You have a full year of snag support from handover.
Real words from real projects
What clients say.
★★★★★
What stood out to us when we were looking to appoint a builder was Built Clear's business model — very transparent invoicing with a clear project management fee on top — and also the openness and professionalism of Ben and his team. I've never encountered a team of contractors who are as professional, efficient and as genuinely nice as they are. The end result is absolutely mind blowing.
Laura · Google Review · August 2026
★★★★★
Ben and his team were meticulous in planning and really clear in their communications throughout. From start to finish, the project ran seamlessly and was actually delivered earlier than anticipated. After this positive experience, we're booking for a further renovation and extension project with Built Clear in the next six months.
Jack Best · Google Review · June 2026
Common questions
Cheshire builder FAQs.
How do I choose a builder in Cheshire?
Look for three things: a builder who prices transparently rather than in a black box, one who can show you where every pound goes, and one who is genuinely local. Get proof of insurance, ask to see recent projects, and ask directly how they handle variations. Any answer other than "we pass on real costs and charge a fair margin" is a signal to keep looking.
Which Cheshire areas do you cover?
We cover the whole of Cheshire West and Cheshire East, including Chester, Tarporley, Malpas, Tarvin, Tattenhall, Kelsall, Frodsham, Helsby, Neston, Ellesmere Port, Northwich, Winsford, Nantwich, Middlewich, Knutsford, Wilmslow, Sandbach and Congleton. From our base in Rossett, most of Cheshire is within an hour's drive.
Do you handle listed buildings and conservation-area work?
Yes. A lot of the Cheshire building stock is period property — Victorian terraces in Chester, Georgian townhouses in Tarporley and Nantwich, brick barns and farmhouses across the countryside. Open-book pricing suits these projects particularly well because there is genuine uncertainty in the work, and clients deserve to see how that uncertainty resolves rather than pay a padded "safe" price.
Do you take on new build homes?
Yes. We project-manage one-off self-build homes across Cheshire, coordinating architect, structural engineer, groundworks and every trade from foundations to handover. The open-book model is a natural fit for a self-build. You get complete cost visibility for the biggest project of your life.
Are you a fixed-cost house builder in Cheshire?
Not in the traditional sense, and that usually saves clients money. A fixed-cost or fixed-price quote for a house build or renovation has to include a risk premium to protect the builder against the unknown. That padding is what makes fixed-price quotes look steep. Built Clear runs projects on an open-book model instead: a guide price from the plans, real costs at cost, a fixed management fee agreed at the start, and a flat 10% on top. On like-for-like Cheshire jobs it comes out around 11% below a padded fixed-price quote, with every pound visible.
How much does a house builder in Cheshire cost?
For 2026, Cheshire projects generally sit around £1,900 to £2,800 per square metre for extensions and renovations, and £2,200 to £3,200 per square metre for new builds, depending on spec and site conditions. See our full 2026 Cheshire build cost guide for a detailed per-project breakdown. On the open-book model you'll see the exact merchant and sub-contractor numbers as they land, rather than a single padded figure.
How long does a typical Cheshire renovation or extension take?
A single-storey rear extension typically takes 12 to 20 weeks on site. A two-storey side extension is closer to 20 to 28 weeks. A whole-house renovation runs from 6 to 12 months depending on scope. A barn conversion or self-build is usually 10 to 18 months from foundations to handover. On the open-book model, the programme is agreed at the start along with the management fee, so you know when you'll get your house back.
Do you work with our own architect and designer?
Yes. Most of our projects come to us with drawings already in hand. We work alongside your existing architect, interior designer and structural engineer, and if you don't have one yet, we can introduce you to good local Cheshire practices we've worked with before.
Are you fully insured?
Yes. Built Clear Ltd carries full public liability, employer's liability and contract works cover. Certificates are provided at contract stage and we'll happily share them earlier if you want to see them before you commit.
What's the minimum project size?
Built Clear focuses on residential projects from around £80,000 upwards, where the open-book model genuinely earns its keep. For smaller jobs, a fixed price from a local trade often suits the client better. We'll say so honestly.
Start your project
Ready for a Cheshire builder who shows their numbers?
Send us your plans and we'll build you an honest open-book guide price. No pressure, no sales patter, no padding.