Roughly one in twenty-seven firms we consider ends up on the directory. Here is what they go through — and what they keep going through, every quarter, to stay listed.
We don't accept cold applications. New firms come to us through three channels: architects and designers we already work with, referrals from clients whose renovation went well, and trade-body recommendations. This is slow. It's the point.
Before we ever meet, we verify insurance certificates (public liability + professional indemnity), licensing, tax standing, and the last three years of client references. About half of firms don't make it past this stage — usually because a reference doesn't come back positive.
We visit a live project and a completed one. We measure joinery to the millimetre. We open the cabinet under the sink. We ask the current client the question you would ask: 'if you had to do it again, would you choose them?' If the answer isn't an immediate yes, we walk.
We give the firm a real project brief and ask for an itemised, fixed-price quote. We then compare it against what they actually build. If the two match — labour, materials, timeline — they're in. If there are surprise line items or 'that wasn't included' moments, they aren't.
A firm falls below our standards on any project — we drop them from the directory. It's the only way this works.
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